Araluen Primary School Year 5/6 Camp Blog

From the moment we met all the wonderful students and teachers from Araluen Primary School, I knew this week was going to be epic. The energy from Archie and Levi alone was enough to sustain the vibe the room had. After Zoe and I introduced ourselves, we played our intro video and explained our 5 Keys of Have Fun, Play All In, Make Mistakes, Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable, and Don’t Go Home Wondering What If, we got stuck straight into it.

In what was the best way to start a camp, spending the first-day playing games, doing initiatives, and getting to know each other on what was a surprisingly cool but sunny day.

Monday night was the perfect night for a bush walk and for everyone to stay up way too late on the first night of camp. The bleary eyes were everywhere on Tuesday and Jacob could barely keep his eyes open when we started the day off with a chat about setting a morning intention and watching a video from Kid President about how easy it is to set our day up. Both the Fireflies and the Wilderness Warriors also had to battle through what was a very cold night in our new Bungalows but made it in style.

For our first rotation, we stayed indoors where it was at least a bit warmer than outside, and made flags to signify the two teams we were going to divide into if necessary. We then ventured down to the Bush Challenge where we pushed through a variety of obstacles working together to complete the course as quickly as possible, where Sarah’s leadership skills started to take shape. We also ran around on a scavenger hunt before going back to the stadium for lunch.

We then went on the High Wire, a tightrope between two trees where everyone, especially Tamzin, Felishia, and Amanda-Lee really pushed themselves out of their comfort zone in an amazing fashion. Tuesday afternoon was also the Monster Course, where everyone was pushed through some epic challenges involving tires, mud, cargo nets, mud, charades, mud, buckets, and a whole lot more mud, which everyone loved until they found out they were doing it twice. I hope all students who battled being very cold are incredibly proud of their efforts.

After another movie night on Tuesday, we started Wednesday with another chat about gratitude from Kid President before our final two activities. We first ventured over to Tash’s Ladder and gave the group a bird's eye view of The Summit. We then all went on the Flying Fox before wrapping up the week with a chat about who in the group everyone felt pushed themselves the hardest and best embodied our Five Keys. Juliette and Archie were both voted for but it was so very evident how much impact Faith had on the campers that almost every second person voted for her!

Liam, Zoe, and I would like to thank all the students and Haylee, Emily, Terrianne, and Gavin for an amazing few days. You were incredible and we hope to see many more students from Araluen Primary School visit us again in the future.

Adam