L05: “Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively. Students are able to identify, demonstrate and critically discuss the benefits and challenges of collaboration gained through CAS experiences.”

On the 22nd of October, from 11am-2pm, Student Voice organised a second orientation – this time for the students who had just gotten off SHN and who are going to be joining us after the mid-term break! Alongside my vice-chair Lavanya, we were able to collaborate and plan an itenerary for a fun half-day of activities that we believed would be a good way to get to know the new students and ease them into social circles here at East. In the past, we have worked incredibly well together so planning the orientation was not much of a hassle in that sense. However, it was slightly challenging because we did not know the full details till around 2 days before (logistics, equipment available etc), so it really meant that we had to be efficient and think on our feet. Since Lavanya and I had planned a similar orientation during summer, this time we had a bit more experience and knew how to involve the Student Voice members. We almost got too carried away again by doing all the work ourselves, but I remembered that everyone in Student Voice signed up to be there, and have valuable inputs to offer. Therefore, I asked for inputs on a collaborative document for ideas about potential games, ice-breakers, as well as asking them to find out the instructions and write them down. Not only did this help alleviate some of our workload, but I believe through this collaboration we achieved a more inclusive planning process.

In terms of the actual day itself, collaboration was KEY as we had requested all SV members to help us set up the tracks (even though we hadn’t fully come up with what we wanted the tracks to look like!) People came together, took initiative and helped set up the equipment which made the orientation successful. In addition, a few people were asked to run the stations (the games) themselves. This required prior engagement with how the game worked, but also required leadership and effective communication skills. Without our SV members, our orientation would have crumbled, so effective collaboration was HIGHLY necessary!

Overall, a very successful orientation, and carried out with ease due to my amazing vice chair, head of grade and SV members + volunteers 🙂