The Halcyonite

By Elias ‘31

Starting over from being the oldest or smartest at your Primary School to then being the youngest group at Secondary can be hard. This article is about my experience of beginning Grade 6 at Halcyon.

Residentials

At the beginning of the school year, when I met my grade group on the orientation day, it felt like I had known them for years even though it had only been a couple of seconds. They gave off an energy like students at my old school, where they all seemed very kind.

In the residential trip to Outward Bound in the Lake District, that feeling only strengthened. There were many challenges, including the unfamiliar dorms, and the fact that people can be different in a residential environment and a school environment. Some of the activities were a large step out of my comfort zone, but others were quite basic. I’ve been on several residentials with similar challenges before. 

Hyde Park 

At lunchtime once a week, we go to Hyde Park and eat packed lunches. In the first few weeks there were problems with the app that then led to in person ordering for the first two weeks, and then after that we were able to find the online order form and order our food, but there was once when we all forgot on Monday as the rota changed.

Hyde Park has a few activities from playing with a football to just pointlessly running around. In Hyde Park it is nice to walk around back and forth without anyone asking annoying questions like “what are you doing” or “can I play your game” like at my old school. At Halcyon, it’s nice because no one bothers me with questions or disrupt one’s train of thought. Everyone can do what they want.

Field Trip to Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens was a fun little science trip to learn about rain forest and urban areas. Although it was my second visit, having gone with a previous school, the experience still felt new and exciting as I explored the area. I even found a link between I&S and what we were studying there. Overall, it was a very good experience. 

The School’s Run for Money (The Marathon)

The marathon was hard, but there were good parts like the scenic view from the bridge and the nice downhill section with the statue and the fields. It would have been nice if there had been a break between laps or a water bench—something to take a break at. Maybe if it had been one and a half laps, it would have been more manageable. However, I understand that these changes would have been hard to pull off, especially with everything happening on the same day. For now, I would say the marathon wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was certainly better than the residential, but that’s just my opinion. 

PHE Fitness Testing Day 1

The first day of fitness testing was great. We started with a 15 metre bleep test where the longest people got was level 9 and the shortest people got was level 3 seconds, it was then followed by sit ups where I overheard that some people got 30 and on average I assume that everyone got at least 15 average or less. It was fun for me. The hardest part was the last 30 or so seconds. Then it  was followed by the ruler test for reaction time. There we all did pretty well; there were people who got 20cm and there were others that got 1 or 3 cm. Just so everyone knows, lower numbers are better than higher numbers.

The best time for each person was written down in a chart and the final activity was a balance activity where we stood on one leg for as long as we could. The  least people got was 1 minute and the highest was 6 minutes. I scored closer to 6 with 5 minutes and that was the end of the activities but afterwards we still had time so Mr Callender, Grade 6s PHE Teacher, took us all out to Hyde Park where some people including me arranged a game of bulldog which then became dodgeball and that was the end of the first PHE Fitness testing lesson.

 PHE Fitness Testing Day 2 

On this second day we did balance again and we also then did the wall toss test where we had to be very careful with the surroundings. Then there was the standing board jump test where we all scored very nicely we also did a sit and reach test and also the Illinois agility test where everyone did very well. Afterward, we created SMART goals – we said what we wanted to improve on and why and how we could do so by the end of the year. Then Mr. Callender took us to Hyde Park. 

PHE Fitness Testing Day 3 

This testing day was where we created plans to help enhance our performance followed by a short tryout of these exercises and then a Bleep Test. My performance improved then it was a trip straight to Hyde Park where Mr Callender organised a dodgeball match. It was fun. After that we all went to do our own thing. I then was called to pack up the cones for when we went back, then when we went back to Halcyon we took a scenic route and arrived early back to school.

PHE Fitness Testing Day 4

This was a simple day we simply added changed and did our exercises to help with our goals it was really that simple after we went to Hyde Park for structured and unstructured time but first we did a small lap of an area that was shown and outlined to us.

 I kind of enjoyed structured time but it was unstructured time that I disliked compared to structured time because I didn’t like the game my peers chose.  

PHE Fitness Testing Day 5 

Today PHE started with the reversing of everything tasks meant to be performed next week were today and next day, next week. We were then told to do chaos tag then after that the tasks we did the Illinois agility test, the ruler drop test, the standing board jump test, speed bounce test, and the sit and reach test. 

Where we all did slightly different than before some better some worse it was all very up and down at the halfway point we played a round of freeze tag and then the testing resumed, Once reflection was finished we got ready to go to the park where there was chaos tag and a game that was called four squares or something it was like that till it ended and unstructured time started and I chose to walk around.

PHE Fitness Testing Day 6

Today was the final wrap up of everything where we did activities like the 1 minute sit up test, the standing stork test, the wall toss test, and the max push up test. After those we did the bleep test where some people got to level 8 and the others started dropping of at level 4. Once all of that was finished we moved on to free time in the Stern Hall there was ping pong, meditation, and badminton. Then we played another game. By the end some people were so busy playing that they didn’t even go to lunch on time, when there was pizza.

Wrap up 

This is the end of my opinion piece, and the end of January. Happy New Year, Halcyon. Future Grade 6 students, the best advice I could give you is to make friends in each grade and know the teachers that will help with everything to come.