Jan
22
This week was orientation/initiation week for the grade 8’s at Hudson Park High School. During this week they had to carry their school stuff in a garbage bag, the boys had to tuck the legs of their pants into their socks and wear their hair in a defined middle path. The girls had to start the week with 5 pony-tails in their hair and each day they were allowed to remove just 1. All the grade 8’s had to carry with them, a pet potato. They had to name it, give it an identity and it had to have a life story. If the matrics stopped them in the passages they had to tell the life story of the potato. By Thursday afternoon Mitchell’s potato had developed “gangrene” turned squishy and leaked all over his school bag. 
They started off on Monday afternoon meeting class teachers, finding their classrooms and getting all those administrative things out of the way, like being assigned to houses, getting books and lockers, etc. On Tuesday they were able to sign up for the various summer sports codes. The school offers almost every sport you can imagine – including mountain-biking, golf, surfing, and all the other usual sports like hockey, rugby, cricket, etc…. The number of activities is just too long to list. There is something for everyone. On Wednesday afternoon they had an inter-class cultural competition, including singing, drama, debating, etc. On Thursday afternoon they had an inter-class gala and sports day where they didn’t earn points of winning, but they got points for every person who participated. Friday was the culmination of the week’s activities. They had to return to school at 18:00 on Friday night for an all-night stay-awake and team building time. They started off the evening with a candle-lighting ceremony. This was undoubtedly one of the most amazing, most moving ceremonies I have ever attended. The grade 8’s filed into a pitch dark hall and stood in long rows facing the stage, where a huge flame flickered in a brass cauldron. The prefects walked onto the stage and lit candles and passed the light from one to another down the line. 
Once all the prefect’s candles were lit they walked down to the grade 8’s and started lighting their candles. One by one, as the candles were lit, the dark hall became more and more illuminated. The symbolism of this was as follows: If you stand alone your one little candle will only produce enough light for you alone, but stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellow pupils and together your combined efforts and your talents can make the school shine. The hall glowed with the light of 230 candles. At this point the parents left and the all-night stay-awake continued. They learnt the school war-cry, sang songs, played games, got to know each other and the teachers. There was a completely different sense in the hall this morning when we collected Mitchell. You could see a team at work. Congratulations to Hudson Park High School on building a wonderful tradition and a clearly successful team-building time!
