Spirit week

preparation

With school now open to all grade levels, Chloe and I decided this would be the ideal time to host a spirit week. We pitched the idea to Mrs Clover who was happy for us to proceed, and we then started to plan. In our first face to face SGA meeting back, the first thing we discussed was including a national clothing day. UN Day is typically one of the highlight days of the OSC calendar, and was unfortunately not able to go forward this year. We also added Pajama day on Friday, which is a tradition for OSC Spirit Weeks. We got approval from both the Primary and Secondary Principal to go ahead with it. We hung the poster shown below in certain locations around the school, and had it put in the bulletin, so people would know about it.

LO3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Spirit week

Spirit Week can be considered a success for this year. There was a good amount of participation throughout the school, which was good to see. It was noticeable that the secondary participation was much higher than usual, which was our goal and impressive to see. Below are some pictures from twin day and mismatch day.

I had initially signed up for the spirit coordinator role thinking that I would be working on my own. Working with Chloe has been extremely beneficial for me. There is quite a large workload for this particular role, so working together and splitting the work has ensured that the role did not become a burden on either of us.

LO5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Gecko Factor

Initial Planning

Gecko Factor is an informal concert for the secondary school which is held annually, and organized by the SGA. Due to being in Online Learning due to the COVID situation here in Sri Lanka, we have had to postpone it multiple times, as it is usually set for February. With us now back in school, we decided to start planning for a Gecko Factor in the first week of May.

The first step that we had to make was to make a proposal and present it to the Secondary Principal. The usual venue of the Auditorium is off limits due to the lack of ventilation, so we were forced to look elsewhere. We decided on the field, and to make up for the lack of seating capacity with ‘nosebleed seats,’ which will be lined up along the I&S and French balconies, and be cheaper than the seats on the field itself. We also proposed a new competition format, as in the past we have been quite confused on why a certain person was winning. The criteria we proposed will see the performers being graded on skill, creativity, and effort.

We presented all of our ideas to Mrs. Mc Quillan on the 31st of March, and the general feedback was good. The next step we need to take is to advertise the auditions, which will be the week after the April Break. We also need to brief both judges (who we need to pick soon), and performers on the criteria that they are being critiqued on, so they can prepare accordingly. Below is a slide from our proposal presentation, showing the judging criteria.

Auditions & Final prep

The next step was to host auditions. We put a sign up sheet outside Mr. Grady’s classroom, and held the auditions directly after the April Break. As it is a more informal concert, auditions are just to check if the acts are appropriate for the event.

We had 13 people audition, including one by video because he could not attend the actual audition. These all went well, and after their conclusion we were able to move on to the important preparation. I created an order for the concert, making sure the acts are well spread out (not more than 2 of the same act in a row). I then passed this order along to a rep who using this created a brochure for the event. Using the poster made by another rep, I also sent an email to Mrs. Clover asking for the poster to be put in the bulletin.

Due to the fact that the auditorium is off limits for any event with a crowd, we had to find a stage to use on the field. President Vu got in touch with the usual outdoor stage provider for OSC, who visited school and we struck a deal with him.

Unfortunately, the concert is temporarily on hold due to an increase in COVID cases in Sri Lanka. We still have everything prepared and ready, and might still be able to host it later in the year.