One of the main focuses of the SGA is the celebration of our fellow students in their achievements and expeditions. We are able to celebrate this through Pep Rallies which we usually host just before students go off for the next SAISA season. And this one, might’ve been my last. As a senior, grade 12, DP2 *insert whatever label their is for me* I will be having my final exams very soon, so I will need to prepare accordingly. This means I will no longer be roaming the halls, coming to school a whole hour in advance, doing classes etc. from the last week of April.
In this Pep Rally we had a lot more primary school engagement. Instead of starting the rally off with secondary we handed it over to 2 representatives from primary, who swayed the crowd and got them excited for some primary performances. Recently, primary school had a talent show and we thought it would be amazing to share this talent with secondary. Although I was a bit nervous to how the older kids might react I was pleasantly surprised when they were some of the hypest people in the crowd. Throughout the performances they clapped to the beat and hyped up the kids dancing on stage. I found this to be a creative way of getting primary involved as people love seeing their friends on stage.
After they handed back over to me and Olau, we went through the agenda of the rally:
- Badminton team welcome + video
- Quick badminton rally game (first to 5)
- Welcome boys football + video
- Shoot into the goal
- Welcome girls basketball + video
- Tic tac toe game between boys and girls
- Introduce interhouse competition day
The tic tac toe game is one we play in PE. Two teams have different colour bibs and stand behind a line. They race to a place where hoops are set up to mimic the classic tic tac toe layout. They run between the playing field and their team to be the first to get 3 in a row, which happened almost instantly for the boys. Although the game lasted no longer than a minute the crowd was hyping up their friends so loudly.
The introduction to the interhouse competition is one to reflect upon as it didn’t go so smoothly. We hadn’t confirmed any of the activities so it felt more like a proposal than an actual announcement. Even though there were loads of creative activities I could see how the crowds energy had died down so decided to quickly wrap it up with a “more information to come soon”. I think announcing something during a pep rally when it is not ready yet doesn’t work out well, because it can be done it a better way like through the daily bulletin, or an email. But that’s something we can grow from and reflect upon for next year.
Featured Image Credit: Eloise Golding