Eltham College Year 5 & 6 Camp Blog

On a sunny and hot Monday afternoon, the group from Eltham College came through The Summit gates eager to check into their Bungalow accommodation; they made their way into the Stadium for an introduction to their coaches for the next five days: team leader Spinks/Sonic, Sam/Big Fish, Sarah, and Jakob. After being introduced to the team of coaches, they got introduced to the Five Keys of camp:

Have Fun

Play all in

Make lots of mistakes

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

Don’t go home wondering ‘what if’

Groups went down to the BBQ shelter, and a game of 50 up was played; the groups did it on their first go. Congrats, team; from there, Jacob and Sarah did a helmet and harness brief demonstrating how to keep safe, and Sonic/ Spinks took them through a goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch. From there, we had begun with the following activities: Giant Swing, Initiatives, Abseil, and the Snowy River Challenge; once activities were done, they were told about dinner, breakfast, and free time activities. We also talked about GMICs (great moments in camp) that they could write to each other throughout the week.

On Day 2, was an early start to the first full day of activities. At 9:00, I looked around the room and saw many tired faces. After asking them how many hours of sleep they got, I realized that few got enough sleep. I asked them how they planned to show up for their day and how they wanted to be as a teammate, even when they were tired. We went through a morning prayer or standing intention, reading a few GMCs to start the day. After discussing what we wanted and realizing that we could choose how we approached our tasks and how we were as teammates, we played a quick game of choice. In the game called Crane Tiger and Egg, teams had to strike a pose. If they matched one of the three poses with one that Sphinx was doing, then they were out until we got one winner, which was George. We had a big day ahead of us, with six rotations to complete. We completed the last set of rotations from the previous day and headed into two new rotations of Snake and Nails. The second set of initiatives included the Summit Window and Cave, with lunch between morning and afternoon tea. Teams were exhausted but still stretched themselves out of their comfort zones. From chats about elephants on the Giant Swing to music off the top of the big tower with Sonic doing the Abseil and Summit Window, going underground doing The Cave, and meeting up with Hercules and Monty, The Summit's resident snakes, the kids did it all on the second day.

On day three, the room filled with many rested faces as we prepared for another morning intention session at 9:00. However, the students knew they still had six rotations left for the day after completing 26 so far. To prepare ourselves even further, we watched a video by the Kid President called '20 Things', where we focused on the words we use. We then asked the students what words or phrases they wanted to say more often to themselves and their teammates, realizing the power of words when doing things that scare us and push us out of our comfort zones. Before lunch, we had three rotations where we did Leap of Faith, Orienteering, High Wire, and Laser Skirmish. After lunch, we completed our last rotation of the same activities before moving on to our new rotations, which consisted of Rock Wall, Bush Challenge, Sky Bridge, and Trust Games. Although it was a big day, the students pushed through and showed up to their activities. Well, they were done!

On the 3rd day of camp, we started with an Intentions session involving many GMCIs. We focused not only on our words but also on our actions, such as high fives, fist bumps, and hugs, to treat our teammates better and encourage them more effectively. After playing a game of Pirates, we went on to our three rotations - Rock Wall, Bush Challenge, Sky Bridge, and Trust Games - to finish off the day before. Then we moved on to our new activities, which were Flying Fox, Inflatables, Tash's Ladder, and the Scavenger Hunt. After lunch and some afternoon tea, we prepared ourselves for the epic Monster course. The course was set, and all groups lined up by the start-finish line. The winner of this course wasn't the fastest time, but the time most improved, which made the second lap even more exciting. All groups improved by more than 4 minutes and 59 seconds, and some even completed Tiger Truck super stretches to maximize their time. After completing the Monster Course, we took all groups up to the mud crawl and ended with a turn each on the water slide before having showers.

It was the final day of the camp, and all the teams checked out of their accommodation before breakfast. They waited anxiously for their intentions and gratitude session. During this session, we discussed the things in our lives and expressed gratitude for them. We then set a clear intention for the day and reminded everyone not to go home wondering what could have been. We played our last game, Jockeys, before starting our final two rotations, which included Flying Fox, Inflatables, Tash's Ladder, and Scavenger Hunt. We had morning tea in between and lunch at the end. During the end-of-camp debrief, we revealed the scores and announced the Values winner from each team who embodied the Five Keys consistently. They also rode a World War 2 army tank at The Summit while everyone cheered them on and watched. The scores and values of winners are in the table below, along with a commemorative photo.

On behalf of The Summit and the coaching team we would like to say thank you again for coming and having all the fun! From: Spinks/Soinc, Sam/Big Fish, Sara, Jakob, and Aron

Shoutout to Charlotte and Ava for completing the overhang challenge on the Rock Wall!