Waratah Bud Year 6

The high school students can participate in the ‘Waratah’ program, and the Year 6 students do a pre-Waratah program called ‘Waratah Bud’. This Year 6 program gives the Year 6 students a taste of some of the Waratah challenges.

Our Year 6 Waratah Bud students will take part in physical challenges such as:

The Waratah Bud program is benefiting students to build life skills and allows students to set personal goals and volunteer to help the school and community.

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Year 6 teachers see positive changes in the Year 6 students. We want students to experience personal growth in a wide range of areas. Students doing Waratah Bud are challenged and put out of their comfort zone. They work as a team in many activities, e.g. Elevation Challenge teams, team challenges at the Tallebudgera camp, fundraising team work etc. The pre and post goal setting and discussions were very informative and proved the worth of the activities.

The Waratah Bud activities help develop discipline, resilience and communication skills as well as activate their creative, critical and problem-solving skills. This is demonstrated in post survey analysis and through oral reflections at the conclusion of activities. Students strengthen their rapport with one another and teachers. The Year 6 cohort becomes more unified during these activities.

The students also set personal goals related to being away from home, being brave, displaying resilience and being a cooperative team member, e.g. no phone calls home to parents in that period, living in a shared room with others, room tidy etc.

A group of students wearing life jackets standing with canoes along a sandy beach near calm water.

Stage 3 Tallebudgera Excursion

Year 6 students set personal goals before going on the four-day camp. They considered areas such as challenging themselves/ getting out of their comfort zone on activities such as the ‘giant swing’, ‘high ropes’ and various team challenges.

A large group of primary school students wearing work gloves posing together outdoors with white rubbish bags for Clean Up Australia Day.

Clean Up Australia Day

Our Waratah Bud students participated and ran the Clean Up Australia Day event at the beginning of the year. They were a part of a rubbish audit and visited all K-6 classrooms to discuss the impact of recycling. Rubbish information was also relayed back to the students, staff and canteen, e.g. the ‘snap’ style ice block plastic wrappers and small chip packets were a common rubbish left in the playground

Students standing and leaning around a token and face painting table at a school event.

Year 6 Fundraiser Events

Waratah Bud also promotes volunteer activities such as the Year 6 fundraiser events, where students run a cake stall, face painting and temporary tattoo stations. Year 6 were given the opportunity to handle money - cash and using the EFTPOS machine. They also decided pricing and adjustment of prices during the day, e.g. half price cakes to clear stock. Year 6 students also organised and ran the BBQ at the CAPA night. Again, taking part in customer service, handling money etc.

A line of students walking single file along a concrete path through a grassy hill outdoors.

Elevation Challenge

We ran the ‘Elevation Challenge’, where the Stage 3 and 4 cohort was given a group goal and the opportunity to challenge themselves and their own goal by climbing the height of Mt Everest here in Evans Head, adding up everyone’s effort and contribution towards this group goal. Here, students were also given before and after goal setting reflection worksheets.

Learning

Find out about our approach to learning and supporting students to progress.

K - 6 Program

At Evans River K-12 School, our K–6 faculty provides a supportive, inclusive, and engaging learning environment for students from Kindergarten through to Year 6.