On Tuesday 21 June, Year 7 went to Cuffley Camp OutdoorCentre. The camp is described by the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning as having “twelve individual camping areas, known as villages, scattered
throughout the spacious woodland”. In their camps, groups are led in various activities including shelter building and assault courses.

Year 7 were set outdoor activities, and in
addition to lots of fun being had, the girls learned valuable lessons about
leadership and teamwork. At the start of
the day one group had a lot of trouble working together building a shelter,
feeling the frustration as their ideas weren’t being listened to by their
friends. Though the group initially broke apart, with two members stalking off
and refusing to work with the others, the trip leader Hillary Mackay managed to
bring them all together for a brief talk about teamwork.

The girls agreed about the necessity
of listening to others, bringing out each other’s strength and supporting
weaknesses.
Responding incredibly well, they decided to have a
team leader for each of the tasks. Leadership was rotated during the day, depending on each other’s ability. For instance, one girl may have had great
trouble balancing but was fantastic at problem solving, and so would have led
problem solving tasks and delegated another to take care of activities that
required good balance!

At the end of the
exciting day, Queenswood girls managed to complete more tasks than anyone else and won the
competition. More importantly, they
learned some key life lessons about teamwork and leadership.