When we reached Amity College we were introduced to many of the Year 10 students and given the opportunity to talk to them and get to know them. We learnt what the day consisted of and found out that four other schools were attending the day’s celebrations as well. We learnt a lot about their school and lifestyle through our conversations, especially about how their opposite all boys school was right next door, with only a canteen connecting them.

After morning tea, we began with a group discussion session where all the attendants from every school split into different groups in order to give us a chance to meet girls from other schools. In our session, we discussed what many of our personal values are and which values we shared as a group that makes us who we are. Each group was then given a quote from a famous person or politician that was presented recently. These quotes were quite shocking and distressing to read as they were very negative and offensive to many. We, as a group, had to share our thoughts on the comment, how we would respond to the comment and what we can do as teenage girls to change these negative ways of thinking within our community. 

We then played a few games to get to know each other better. This was very exciting and enjoyable, it was one of my favourite parts of the day. It gave us a chance to be silly and interact with others in a simple environment.

After this was the most anticipated lunch! Each class of Amity College was assigned a country to investigate and learn about. They then had to set up stalls in their playground which included many items from the country they studied. This also included many of the traditional foods of each country. Many girls had dressed up in traditional costumes and it was amazing! It felt like walking into a festival! We all filled ourselves with different delicious foods and enjoyed our lunch very well. It was wonderful to see so many students push themselves to try things that they had never eaten or tried before; it was a great experience.

After lunch was an assembly, where many of the girls and school teachers shared their experience of different cultures and many of the students performed as well. This was the conclusion of our day at Amity College.

Overall the experience was very amazing and interesting. I personally loved trying many traditional foods and having the chance to talk to many other girls who were my same age and going through much of the same experiences as me, such as subject selections for Years 11 and 12. We are also very grateful to Mrs Reader for taking us to the excursion, which was a very inspiring day. It would be amazing if we could also hold something like this in our own College!

Elina B – Year 10 Student