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Learning to 'serve' is a very important characteristic of the Shore community. It is neither a new feature nor a peripheral aim of the school. Rather it is foundational to the schools ethos. At Shore we seek to 'Build Good Men'. Good men are called to love and serve those around them. In this way a service attitude is the opposite of a selfish mentality. We also believe that happiness in life is not a result of simply gaining more and more possessions for ourselves. As a school community we seek to teach, to model and to encourage service. Like many things in life, service is as much 'caught' as 'taught' . That means whilst we will talk about service, we will also give examples of service and we will also give the students opportunity to learn to serve at many levels. Below are the Service Learning Camps currently available.
Shore offers the opportunity to Year 11s to travel to the remote homelands of the Cape York Peninsula. Students work on a needed project alongside the Traditional Owners of the Buru homeland. The group also get a chance to go fishing on the beaches of Cape York, spendtime with local children at the Bona homeland and be initiated at sacred site in the Daintree Rainforest. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students to be welcomed by traditional clans and families on private lands that are not accessible outside of this setting.
At the end of each year we will again be organising a trip to the Philippines for Year 1 1 students to work alongside International Care Ministries (ICM), a Christ centred mission - led mainly by Filipinos and financially supported by global partners. This will be the sixth year that a group from Shore will travel to the Philippines. The aim of the camp is for the boys to grow in their understanding of poverty in the developing world and to come to a fresh understanding of the privileges that we enjoy at home in Australia. The boys have the opportunity to experience another culture and to think of new ways in which they may be able to support those in need as they move beyond high school. Many boys identify this to be a transformative experience and one that has significantly challenged their worldviews.
Each year Shore sends of group of boys to the Yarrabah aboriginal community, approximately one hour out of Cairns in Far North Queensland. Yarrabah is the largest Aboriginal community in Australia. Each year it is a great privilege for our boys to be invited in to see first-hand the beauty, richness and complexity of this community. Our hosts at Yarrabah are the local Anglican Church.Boys may be asked to serve within the community within a variety of ways, including providing company and conversation to lonely folk in the aged care facility; mowing lawns or gardening; contributing to the Carols by Candlelight event; and by playing games with the children and youth. However, much of the 'service' component of this camp is done in the changes of attitudes and values that our boys undergo as they get to know the locals and hear the stories of hardship and resilience.
Shore and Pymble Ladies College have been in partnership hosting the Sony Camp since 2012. Shore and PLC alternate hosting the camp every two years. PLC has hosted the Sony Camp since 2017 as the Shore RAI Grant Centre has been under construction. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions the 2020 Shore and Pymble Ladies’ College Sony Camp is cancelled. For further information please contact sonycamp@shore.nsw.edu.au.