On a warm Monday afternoon, the students from Peninsula Grammar arrived at The Summit gates, eager to begin their adventure. After checking into their accommodations, they met with the Summit coaches and teachers at the Lodge. There, Team Leader Spinks introduced them to the space and the camp, then introduced the rest of the Summit coaches. Calarnee introduced the group to the Five Keys of The Summit.
These keys are:
- Have Fun
- Play All In
- Make Lots of Mistakes
- Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Don’t Go Home Wondering “What If”
Since there were Five Keys and five days, they focused on one key per day, building on the previous day’s key and practising it in the park.
Before starting their two initiative challenges, they were shown the Stage and their numbered spots and played a game called 50 Up. After the two initiatives were done, tribes made their way up to the Stadium. There they created their tribe flags cementing their tribe’s name and values. they had to carry their flags throughout camp and vote for a flag bearer every rotation based on performance and the tribes’ own values. Once completed, Spinks wrapped up the day by sharing The Summit’s way of giving written affirmations and compliments; they are called GMICs (Great Moments in Camp), the students were then informed of meal times and given a list of free time activities. The evening activity run was Trivia.
On day two, the students started with breakfast in the Lodge. Spinks led an intention session where they discussed the importance of ‘focus’ and pointing out of their control, such as the weather, people, and activities at camp. The students then set their intentions and decided what they wanted to focus on for the day. They played a game to get their bodies moving before starting the activities; the game was called Pirates. Mim and Sam showed them how to put on a harness and helmet; then Spinks introduced them all to a goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch to help break activities down in more manageable steps to demonstrate they the groups then completed a game called T.S. SS tennis ball challenge. After two rotations of activities, they had lunch. We had two rotations after lunch and finished the day with some free time. The evening activity run was Minute-to-win-it.
On day three, the students began their morning with breakfast; after a meeting with Mim, The focus of today’s intention session was on language use, emphasising the importance of using an inside and outside voice to benefit not only oneself but also the team. The goal was to set their attention on who they wanted to be for the day and how they wanted to show up for their team. After the intention session, they went down to the Stage where we did an repeat after me game called, ‘Get Loose’, Then, they participated in two activity rotations before lunch, they had two more activities with an epic sponge/water fight on the airfield to beat the heat, ending the day with icy poles and free time. The evening activity was the night wall and strategy games.
On day four, the group had breakfast and returned to the Lodge for another session on intention with Calarnee, discussing the importance of movement and physiology. They talked about how they can create a great day by using their focus, words, and body to move. Afterwards, they played a game called Jockeys and had three rotations of activities before lunch. Next, they had some free time and some dancing before being introduced to the Monster Course. The coach led them through not just one, but two laps of the course to emphasize resilience and the importance of self-improvement. The winner had the most improved time from their first lap. Finally, they rinsed off, had a shower, then had some dinner, and ended the day with a movie.
Last day and there were a lot of checked out faces in the room, with the help of the year 7 leaders we read out a whole bunch of GMICs and Spinks ran the group through a recap of the previous intention sessions; asking student for examples of when they used: focus, language or physiology during their experience and talked to them about gratitude, given them a few examples. To cement that it was their last day at camp, asking the students to check back in where they were asked what, and whom they were grateful for. We also set a quick intention as they only had one more rotation to go, and a final tribe game, they didn’t want to go home wondering ‘what if’, The students then reported to the stage to do the final game, students got their body moving with a game called evolution.
After the last rotation had been completed, they did their final tribe challenge by Adam called ‘Phobia’, where they had to work together to collect all the mystical creatures that had escaped from their home. After having some lunch, they assembled back at the Stage for the last time for a camp wrap up. In the last rotation of camp, the tribes got to reflect on their camp experience with each other, and given a debriefing strategy called; Rock, Stick and Leaf (something that rocked about camp, something that will stick with you and something that you would leave behind). Groups than chose a Values winner for their tribe, someone who embodied the Five Keys consistently throughout camp (names stated in table below). Those students received The Summit’s very own Summit Survivor medals, All students than made their way to the buses and exited the camp being waved off by the coaches.
On behalf of The Summit and coaches, we would once again like to thank you all for playing all in and joining us in having all the fun, all the best for the rest of the year!
Spinks, Adam, Mim, Cal, Sam, Matt, Ant, Fran, Taylor, Elena, Milena, and Enis
