Harkaway PS Blog

It has been an honour to have the grade 5/6 students and their teachers/parent helpers back at The Summit for their camp over the past 3 days. From the moment the buses arrived, there was amazing energy and excitement coming from everyone. So without too much delay, it was time to get into the camp life and activities for our first day, not before coming up with some sensational tribe/activity group names:

Thunder Warriors, Half Burnt Sausages, and Harkaway Mud Hero were born.

Cave was a great challenge in the dark, trusting the instructions given to make your way through to the bunk room. There was so much bravery shown by everyone to go into the darkness. Tash’s Ladder saw tribes go up the small tower to then climb more to a ladder towards the sky. Owen showed and really demonstrated the “Play All In” aspect of the Five Keys when he was originally climbing to the first set of ladders but did a brilliant job getting to the top of the 15-meter high Tash's Ladder. Bush Challenge was the first of the tribe challenges. Everyone did show great teamwork making their way up mud walls, through foam pits, across wire walks, brilliantly thru the memory games, and finally solving the puzzle.

The results were:

Half Burnt Sausages = 36.40

Harkaway Heroes = 34.09

Thunder Warriors = 26.01 taking in the first place.

Rock Wall had so many of you making the choice of which of the four options you were going to choose, Tyre Wall, Block wall, Tyre/Block wall, or the over-hang wall. So many of you made the top of your desired wall and with the help of your tribe on Belay, and then got to Abseil down. Flying Fox had students souring through the trees and over the lake like the majestic birds you looked like. There were so many smiling and happy faces after each flight and screams of joy echoing throughout the camp. The Photo Scavenger Hunt was the next of the tribe challenges and once again everyone really played all in, embracing some challenges that were outside their comfort zone, like singing Disney songs (Timmay loved it), handstands, dunking faces in the lake, human pyramids, etc.

The results from the Photo Scavenger Hunt were as follows: Thunder Warriors scored 410 points, Harkaway heroes, 600 points, and winning with a great score of 710 points was Half Burnt Sausages!

Laser Skirmish was a lot of fun, channelling the army soldier in each other, using tactics to flush out the other team, or just spraying and praying to shoot someone, like Sarah (coach) does. So many laughs and friendly banter were heard and had at Laser Skirmish. Snake and Nails or (snails) really showed some bravery and excitement of holding Mitch the Coastal Carpet Python and walking across the bed of nails. Leap of Faith saw so many display of values of “Not leaving camp wondering what if” as they took the Leap of Faith off the 8-meter platform towards the monkey bar. Will was the first student from Harkaway to grab the bar but remember it was not about grabbing the bar it was about you taking the leap of faith, which you all did so well.

The Monster Course was outstanding and arguably the favorite activity of camp for most people. Getting comfortable being uncomfortable was definitely shown in the Monster Course. Here are the results and improvement times (which you all smashed out): Harkaway Mud Heroes improved by 10.42, Half Burnt Sausages by 13.21, and winning with a great effort and never give up attitude was Thunder Warriors who improved by 18.06. So amazing to see you all embrace the course as they did!

At the end of camp, each of you voted for the person in your tribe who lived out the 5 Keys (Have Fun, Play All In, Make Lots of Mistakes, Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable and Not Going Home Wondering What If). These people were gifted with a Summit Cap that you can wear with pride as a Values winner. Congratulation to Asher, Jack.M, and Daisy for your brilliance throughout camp and being voted values winners.

Thank you once again to all that came out to The Summit, students, teachers, parent helpers and principals. We cannot wait to see you at The Summit in two years or hopefully sooner.