William Ruthven Secondary

William Ruthven Secondary College made the journey to visit the Summit Camp - and what a pleasure it was having you! Your arrival on Wednesday brought lots of energy and enthusiasm.

All the coaches were excited to get in and meet everyone! Though it was one school, we had two groups, the Year 10’s and Year 11’s.

After introductions and getting through the boring stuff, it was a time to hit the park! Armed with our Five Keys - Play All In, Have Fun, Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable, Make Lots of Mistakes, and Don’t Go Home Wondering What IF, it was game on.

Our Year 10’s split into two groups and named them Lemon Front and R.D.

The Year 11’s also split into two groups - H.P.P. and Mashallah.

We started with an initiative activity each, with teams taking on Treasure, Tiles, Half Pipe, and Pot Stack. After our initiative we moved into our first rotations! The Year 10’s started with Inflatables and High Wire. Inflatables gave everyone a chance to let their hair down and have some fun. Safe to say , most people game out beaming!

High Wire was the first taste of heights! We saw people start to push their comfort zones! Dean from Lemon Front, really pushed himself, going further than he thought he could.

The Year 11’s started with Bush Challenge and Tash’s Ladder. Bush challenge saw tribes working together to get through a series of obstacles in the quickest time they could. Tash’s Ladder was the Year 11’s first taste of heights, with a few people sharing how uncomfortable with heights they are. James, Jordan, Jason, Joel and Tomarni, all showing the just because your nervous, it doesn’t mean you can’t give it a go!

Day two started with the introduction of setting an Intention for the day.

Liv taught us that an intention was like a flash light when you need to go to the toilet in the dark.

The Year 10’s had Orienteering and Sky Bridge.

Orienteering had our tribes running around the park! Sky Bridge gave everyone a chance to use strategies to achieve a goal - crossing the bridge. Harris from Lemon Front had a stellar attitude and kept persevering, despite having a few falls. Dervis gave the Sky Bridge a go, even though he said he didn’t want to. The support from the tribe really helped encourage those who were a bit nervous. Timor showed us his confidence when he practically flew across the bridge he did it that quickly.

The Year 11’s had Rockwall and Scavenger Hunt. While multiple people from both tribes rang the bell on the Tyre Wall, Chris from H.P.P, was the only one to ring the bell on the Over Hang Wall! Scavenger Hunt saw the tribes working together to get as many points as possible. Many laughs were had with a special mention to Zac from Mashallah for carrying around a giant cone for the whole session, earring an extra 100 points for his team.

We them moved onto Laser Skirmish and Snowy River Challenge for the Year 10’s. Laser skirmish was all about playing all in and having fun. Snowy River, similar to Bush Challenge, meant teams had to work together, conquering obstacles in the quickest time they could. At the end of Snowy, we had the Wombat Hole. Lemon Front loved the Wombat Hole so much, some went through three times helping others through!

The Year 11’s had Abseil and High Wire. At abseil, the tribes met Matt. Matt helped those who were nervous get out of their comfort zone and have a go. Jordan smashed a Super Stretch on high wire, going further than she thought possible!

After lunch, it was time for the much anticipated Monster Course!! What a challenge!! The Monster Course had everyone linking together between obstacles, carrying tyres, getting wet, completing tasks, and of course, getting head-to-toe covered in mud! The monster course is not only a race, but a test of character and resilience, with tribe members digging deep and supporting each other, especially when they were told that had to do a second lap!

Tomarni showed his strength when he removed a tyre from the large tyre pole by himself, James overcame his fear of water, smashing the cargo net across the lake twice! Mashalloah never left a man behind and stayed linked the entire course. It was an amazing effort from everyone and the coaches were super proud.

Before we knew it Friday came around, and today’s focus to be grateful with what we have in our lives. With our hearts full gratitude, we smashed out our last two rotations. The year ten’s scaled to knew heights at the Summit Window and to new depths at the Cave. The year 11’s were swinging into Friday at the Giant Swing and finding the best way to cross the Sky Bridge.

With the idea of Not Going Home Wondering What If, we saw students continuing to push themselves, but also finding even more ways to make the activities more challenging.

Before we said our goodbyes we shared the results of the camp with you all and acknowledged a few tribe members who have really given their best throughout camp. These tribe members were rewarded with a hot lap in our very known WWII Army Tank. From there is was time to say our goodbyes and head to the buses for the journey back home.

Thank you again to William Ruthven for coming to visit us at The Summit, we had an amazing time with you all and hope to see you again in the future.

- Jackie, Liv, Paula, Mia and Jamie