DAWG

This is Charlotte's last elective as leader of this CAS group. Her and i will be leaving and handing over to new leaders next semester. I will stay on for a short while until the sterilization has finished however as i want to be able to see the project through to a complete conclusion. Our progress this semester has been good, and we have constantly faced new challenges when it comes to finding ways of raising money. These challenges without a doubt have developed us as leaders. it was important for me to see this project right through to the end as it will enable me to see its full impact in terms of its outreach. In total this semester we have raised 10,000 rs a sum that can be put forward to the next group.

SAISA REFLECTION 3RD PLACE :)

This SAISA tournament taught me a lot. It taught me the importance of taking one step at a time as opposed to approaching something with too broader perspective. By concentrating on simply one game at a time and no thinking about where that fit in the bigger picture until the end when we had the final result was a strategy that led us to 3rd place. This is the best a girls team has done on SAISA in football for over 10 years and so really was a great achievement. In terms of the skills that i learnt as a member on this team at this particular tournament, they are skills which i will be able to reapply in the future to whatever it is that i am doing. I was awarded the MVP award, proof of these skills.

I think that the most important thing i learnt or rather had concreted by this experience was the importance of team work. Our coach emphasized the importance of our Collaborative skills and also continually spoke about the importance of personal perseverance and motivation. These were the skills i feel i built on during this tournament, it is quite interesting the different facets of these things that are revealed when taking the role of leader (captain). You realise their importance and significance something our coach has obviously learnt after years of experience.

GUEST SPEAKER - DAWG

As part of our work in conjunction with the blue paw trust we had their coordinator come and speak to the group today. She gave a general overview of their program to the students and discussed the similarities and differences between our program and theirs. The main difference that i could pick out was that ours is far more oriented towards domesticated dogs whereas theres deals with complete strays.
She talked to the students about safety around streetdogs and how best to care for their own pets. I think that it perhaps gave us a more global perspective on amimal care as she talked about the basic psychology of dogs and how they are treated in different parts of the world.

DAWG

Today during elective we worked as a unit towards our new fundraising initiative, our first job was over in the primary school for a grade 3 teacher. Our task was to clean and reorganise her shelving system. The students of the elective were very motivated and this motivation allowed us to finish the job with time to spare. I think that this way of raising money is not only benficial for our bank account but also for us as a team, its teaching us collaboration.

SAISA

The SAISA football season is progressing very well. I have been given the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the team and to my CAS experience with the position of Team Captain. Im quite proud of this achievement and it will definately give me and opportunity to develop new skills as it is not a challenge i have had to rise to before. It will also give me a chance to consider the ethical implications of my actions. I will be in a position where people are looking to me for guidance and motivation, therefore the part i play when on the field is going be far more significant. The way i act will affect the way the team functions to a small extent.

We have been playing games against the middle school boys and also against CIS. We are coming together as a team and our collaborative skills are coming on two fold. I feel far more confident than I did last year about our team as there is a definate sense of understanding concerning the roles we have to play. I think that this is something positive im learning from this season that hasnt been encouraged as much in previous years. The idea of deligation, that we each have a specific role and only if we focus wholly on achieving this and working towards our goal will we be able to do well as a team.

DO A JOB SAVE A DOG

Our next goal was to raise money, and an opportunity has presented itself for us to do this. The primary school is holding a talent show which the group has decided they would like to hold a bakesale for. We began to Plan and Innitiate the idea of selling baked goods to the audience of the primary school talent show. We discussed it briefly at the end of our last session however i was not entirely enthusiastic and certain that the group would remember and be fully commited to the idea. However today proved me wrong. Everyone showed their full commitment to the elective by bringing in their good and giving up their break to deliver and sell the goods to the primary student. The innitiative raised 5,000 rupees which we were able to put towards the final sterilisation. Our next initiative is again aims to raise the same amount of money and will be announced at the assembly next week.
The Crux of the idea is that we will offer our services as an elective to do any odd job required for a small amount of money. the campaign is titled "GIVE A JOB SAVE A DOG" we hope that the community will respond positively to this.

SAISA FOOTBALL

The SAISA football season began this month and so far it has been going particularly well. I am trying to take a leadership role among the group along with May and Charlotte as we are the most senior members of the group. Training has been quite light, and we expect it to get much harder after the ocotber break. I think that being the oldest gives it an entirely new dimension and i think it is something that May and I are enjoying. As a team we will be travelling to Chennai in November and this should provide a good opportunity to showcase our skills as a team and our individual leadership abilities.
In terms of relating to the learning outcomes I think that this season of football will increase areas of my own strenght (particularly as i am now a senior member of the team) it will require that i work collaboratively with others and show perseverance and commitment with this activity. This element will be displayed by the fact that i will be attending all the practices despite our heavy workload.

SUNFLOWER VILLAGE

Sunflower Village has been cancelled this year as a result of the students not being able to attend due to study commitments. While this is quite sad as the sessions had quite a lot of social and physical benefits for the children, we have had to show innitiative and reform the group to continue our work in the pool but in another direction.

Shamith our group leader was made aware of a hospital/school in Colombo 5 called Chithra lane. They expressed a need for help and so on the second week of CAS we visited the intstitution to find out what they needed. As they had a pool themselves and quite advanced facilities it became obvious that it was not weekly interaction that they required but instead help with their technology facilities. They need our help to set up a website by which they can gain publicity and hopefully increase their funding which has dropped considerably in the last year.

As not all memebers of the group can work on this we again explanded our reach and those of us who are not website technitians can get back to the pool. A local government school in the area now sends a group of 15 boys to learn to swim once a week. We had our frist meeting with them last week and it was particularly interesting. We are used to dealing with the Sunflower Children and most of us attempted to treat them in the same way, however this was not relavent. Language is even more of an issue this time as we are trying to tech the technicalities of swimming as opposed to simply being social and playing.

DAWG

As it was world animal day on the fourth of october DAWG set up its yearly innitiative to collect food for the local pound. This is done by means of a competition, each grade level competes for a pizza party by bringing in the most amount of food. Last year organising this took quite some time and effort, however this year with the motivation of the sixth grade participants in the activity it ran extremely smoothly. Their energy is really contrinuting a large amount to the programme. We managed to do what took last years group of grade 11s and 12s 3 weeks in one session. After collecting the food last wednesday not suprisingly GRADE 6 won the competition. We collected a huge amount of food, and medicine and hope to organise a trip for the elective to go and see the pound so they can better understand where their money is going.

WORKING WITH THE BLUE PAW TRUST

We have also been doing some work with the Blue Paw Trust. They came to give the elective a talk about correct care and awareness of street dogs. Unfortunately they arrived late and were unable to talk to the students, but Charlotte and I held a meeting with them in which they provided us with a lot of helpful material, in the form of leaflets and posters, about care etc, that we can use to raise awareness within the school. They also invited us to help out at one of their annual events, the BAUWAUW Street Dog Show. The event was held on Sunday 4th of October in conjuction with world Rabies day. The day showcased the talents of street dogs and promoted the idea of adopting from the street as so many need homes. It was held in a local park in colombo and was a successful day. 2 of our students joined Charlotte Miss Heijnen and I at the fair. Our job was to promote the face painting stall and generally get a feel for their organisation so we will be able to help out next year.

NEXT PLAN

Our next goal is to begin the serious fund raising activities. Miss Shamilla has agreed that if we can raise 25,000 Rs. she will double it, a sum which will enable us to hold the sterilisation. There are also plans to join with HFH in the organisation of a fun run as no one is undertaking the responsibility of holding that this year. The 5k run will without a doubt raise the 20,000 rs. needed to continue.

GRADE 12

List of activities:

Community

DAWG - CAS LEADER
SUNFLOWER
Swimming
SAISA
Football and Basketball
FRIDAY FOOTBAL
leader

GOALS FOR THIS YEAR:

This year my goals range from being quite ambitious to a continuation of the goals that i set last year. There is quite a strong sense of continuation in terms of my chosen activities as they are for the majority the same as last year. However, I have moved up in rank in a few of my activities. With time comes experience and i think that this is a vital component of CAS this year. We are all experienced in terms of our activities and therefore the nature of the role we take is going to be much different from the roles we took last year.

DAWG
After being involved in DAWG for 3 years i am now the joint leader of the program with charlotte. As i been a memeber of DAWG for a significant amount of time, for the first time i feel like i have the required tools born of experience to take on the role of leader. Our goals for DAWG this year are obviously to hold a sterilisation, a goal that remains continuous for DAWG.
However Charlotte and i are also instigating some new innitiatives within the program.

1. To set up a firm relationship with other programmes around Colombo who share the same goal as DAWG. (Embark, Blue Paw Trust).
2. To hold more than one sterilisation this year. Perhaps one in conjunction with the other groups.

SAISA Basketball Kathmandu

This SAISA was by far one of the most important I have played in at OSC. It was the strongest our team has ever been, certainly since I have been at the school. After 6 long weeks of practice we went to the competition with higher expectations than I have ever had for a result at SAISA. We knew it was our year. Our chance to place in the top four, THE TOP TWO!
Going to Nepal also played on our minds, it is without a doubt the most amazing venue for SAISA. We had persevered as a team for 2 years, and we felt it was our time. We would be gone for a week in total.

When we arrived, adrenaline was high not only were we excited to be in Nepal, but excited to show off our newly learned skills and development as a team. It helped that this year was our second year as a team, and much the same for many other teams. It meant we had friends in other teams from 2 or 3 years of playing together, which made the experience much more social. The games began and we played our first match against the Delhi Falcons and held them up until half time with a strong lead. After half time the story was a little different they faught back hard and went on to win by two baskets, at this point the delhi coach announced he would see us in the finals :)

Our second game was against Lincoln, we played again a hard game and held them the entire first half but the story was the same as in our first match. We lost by 3 baskets, in the last 3 minutes. Lincoln would go on to win the championships.

We knew in order to have the opportunity of making the top four we would have to win the next game against Chennai, and we succeeded in doing so. Next up was Lahore, with an incredibly worrying and shaky start we went on to win the match but not by nearly enough.

Our semi- final game was against Dhaka late in the evening. It's one of those things that isn't very easy to write about. One of those times when you would really rather not remember anything. We were winning, our dreams of coming in the top four were there. There were 3 minutes to go, we were three baskets ahead. Then it all went wrong. No matter what we did, we could not get the baskets in. At all. They ended up winning by one basket in the last 20 seconds. Without a doubt that was the saddest moment from all the 6 SAISA's i have taken part in. No doubt about it. For our team the competition ended there. WE lost our next match against Chennai, to finish 6th overall.

In need of some serious therapy for the most part(!) we spent the next three days out of Kathmandu and up in the mountains. It was an amazing experience. Especially for my photography, we watched both the sun rise and sun set over the himalayas. We stayed in a very small farmhouse clinging onto the side of a mountain. We woke up for a sunrise hike, and then hiked down the mountain to a bus and then to the airport. The three days were surreal.

I think the main thing I learnt from this experience, is how to persevere. Its a skill our team lacked, we were capable of gaining a lead but not of persevering and maintaining it until the very end. It wasnt our lack of skill but our lack of mental strenght as a whole. Next year there are only 2 definate returning members of the team. Me and May. Hosted at OSC we wont have the same chance, with such a new team, but we will have the mental strenght the memories of the worst loss to drive us. Something i think next years team can feed off.

REFLECTION ON SGA

REFLECTION ON CRITERIA

1. Undertaken New Challenges

This criteria has probably been most dealt with through my work with the SGA. Everything I have undertaken this year to do with the SGA has been new. I have never before had to involve my self with the organisation of things on such a large scale, for example the OSCars. Week Without Walls also challenged me in ways which i had not been challenged before, using undeveloped skills i was required to learn fast and then work hard for three consecutive days.

2. Planned and Initiated Activities

Again, I have dealt with this criteria mostly through the ongoing school activity of being part of the SGA. Every event we have held this year has been planned and initiated by Remor, Charlotte Lenard and I.

3. Worked Collaboratively with Others

I think that this has been most relavant with my participation in SAISA sports and also throughout WWW. I can relate SAISA to this simply through the nature of the sports I have participated in and the fact that they are "team sports". 12 weeks of this year i have spent training with either my football team or the basketball team. Both require four training sessions a week where collaboration is completely necessary for improvement. For week without walls, i t was the same importance of working together as a team yet for a shorter tiime which meant we had to cooporate on a greater level to get work done quickly.

4. Shown Perseverance and Commitment in their Activities

Sunflower Swimming

The children have not come for two weeks now and during this time we planned and innitiated the process of putting on a lockin to raise money for the village. Its going to be some time in march and involve fund raising activities.

WWW Reflection

Hambantota Trip

this week we spent 5 days down in Hambantota and completed three days of service in local schools. our goal was to improve the aesthetics of the school by painting.

At the begninning of the week we set our goals:

1. To complete the painting of the grills



2. To complete the painting of the walls.
   
   
3. To interact with children on a daily basis by doing fun activities every morning before we start work.


4. To improve the playgrounds.
   

DAY 1

Today was spent mostly travelling but we breaked on the way for lunch and finally in Uduwalawe National Park for an elephant safari. For me this was an extremely new and valuable experience. As expected we mainly saw elephants but we saw other wildlife such as peacocks, monkeys, eagles, turtles and tourists. Our surroundings was like stepping into a completely different counrtry. We arrived at the Peacock Beach Hotel late in the evening where we reflected on our experience and planned for the following day our first day of service.

DAY 2

We began the day with the kids welcoming us to the school with a small parade. They were much much smaller than i expected. We then went into the school house and played with children, today the activity we planned and initiated was oil pastel drawings. Again as with all community service projects here for me, language was an issue but as always with a few strange noises intended to make them laugh and the sticking out of tongues once your laughing together communication doesnt seem to matter as much. Once we had played with them for and hour or so it was time to begin with the painting..

This was a valubale experience in terms of learning that if you set yourself a goal and you know that it has to be done you WILL achieve it no matter how many hours or skipped lunches it takes. We worked predominantly on the walls on the first day painting them a light yellow, i was not really too happ initially as they seemed to be worse than before, boring and plain. But that is where Grade 11s innitiative came in we continued to paint and planned to leave time for a mural inside as well as outside. i think we finished most of the walls on the first day but we still had A LOT to do.

DAY 3

After the previous night's reflection i think

we all realised exactly how much work we were going to have to accomplish. I dont think anyone took much of a break the whole time we were there, we did become "painting machines". But before we became robots we enjoyed another hour interacting with the children. Today we made collages of glitter and old magazines, most of the children's mothers joined in and helped which showed the spirit and their appreciation of our project.

Today i painted a second coat on the walls and helped the group who were still painting the never ending wire mesh. I also painted the blackboard, and the skirting board. today was the day we basically painted and painted and painted and painted untill every wall seemed to have been coated. We spent time in the afternoon painting flowers on the wall after talking with the teachers of the school about how they wanted to keep a bit of life in the class rooms. today our Collaboration was put to the test, we worked as a team to finish everything as best we could, i think i painted floors, skirting, wire mesh, and desks most of the day. We accomplished A LOT that day, and left with paint speckeld faces and very sore backs.

Our reflection that evening was one of immense pride and realisation that we could spend tomoro touching up and adding things like balloons and posters to their classrooms before the final concert.

DAY 4

Today we did the final touches and then enjoyed a concert with the children. we sang nursery rhymes to them, did the hokie kokie and were then blown away by their acts. They performed songs and dances and were all extremely proud of themselves. After presenting them with our gifts the teacher and parents thanked us for our hard work and invited us for one last session of playtime in the playground.

DAY 5

As we travelled back we all refelcted on the trip, what we felt most was a sense of acheivement the task at first seemed enourmous but with hard work and effort we ahcieved our goals.

SGA The Oscars....

This was the biggest challenge that SGA has faced. It was through the process of creating this event that more than one learning outcomes were achieved:

1. I increased my awareness of my areas of strength and began to appreciate areas about myself which need growth and improvment.
2. I undertook a new challenge.
3. I worked collaboratively with others.

The process began a week before the winter holiday, the SGA meeting brainstormed ideas about themes, catering, decorations, the awards and venue. At first our dreams were maybe a little too large.. and we had to downsize some of our ideas to make them a little more managable. For example we had ideas of hosting it on the field under a canopy but we realised we had neither the funds nor the manpower to pull of such ideas. After some careful thought and concideration we decided to follow last years example yet decided on three things we wanted to drastically improve. These were firstly the quality of the food, secondly the quality of the entertainment and lastly the publicising of the event.

In order to create an evening where all of these things are noticably improved we first had to select a theme through which we could guide the key elements. Food Entertainment (awards) and the night itself. Collectively the SGA decided on the idea of CASINO ROYALE, a night of Casino Glamour. We then had to try and unite all the different aspects though this theme, of cards, black, red and silver. We also planned for a magician to add to the theme. It was this section that involved the undertaking of new challenges.

I was incharge of ordering the table chairs and food. I had to meet with the manager of the bayleaf regularly and it was through this that i discovered an area about myself that i need to improve. My ability to keep organised and updated when i have to meet regularly and discuss things like money. Communicating it back exactly was difficult. I had to remember to keep things like post-it-notes during the meeting so i could remember.

As the OSCARS got closer our stress levels went UP up and away. But working together we managed to stay in school saturday and get everything ready, it all seemed to fall into place. We succesfully planned and initiated an activity of our own.