Brighton SC Year 9 Camp Blog

On the stunning afternoon of Wednesday 7th August 2024, The Summit welcomed the year 9 students and teachers of Brighton Secondary Collage.

Students were promptly shown their accommodation, where they would stay for the next couple of days! After settling, they were welcomed into the Lodge, where coach SPINKs introduced the camp and the coaches; Logan, Sam, Adam, Timmy, Mim, Zoe, and Anthony! We then discussed with the students the Summit’s very own recipe for the best camp ever, the Five Keys of camp. These keys are:

1. Have Fun

2. Play All In

3. Make Lots of Mistakes

4. Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

5. Don't Go Home Wondering, ‘What if.’

   
   

Before leaving the Lodge, we played a game of 50 UP. Without further ado, we all sat down on the Stage. Spinks and Sam taught everyone how to put on a helmet and harness, followed by Timmy introducing everyone to an epic goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch that would help us to grow our comfort zones and conquer challenging activities.

Campers started their first activity with an initiative challenge that involved working together to solve a puzzle. This tested teamwork and leadership, but teams rose to the challenge! Then, we moved on to our first activity rotation. The activities that campers got to do at the camp were Laser Skirmish, Summit Window, Flying Fox, Giant Swing, Leap of Faith, Inflatables and Snowy River Challenge. This range of activities challenged people’s bravery, team spirit, support, trust, creativity and problem-solving (to name a few!)

Day one ended with introducing the students to a camp tradition called GMICs, which stands for “Great Moments in Camp” - this is all about writing down and acknowledging some of the incredible moments we’ve seen.

Day two started with an epic talk about setting a morning intention with Logan, learning how important it is to focus on the things we can not control, mainly weather and people.  Asking the students to think about who they wanted to be and how they wanted to show up for themselves, others and, of course, the activities. We then played a quick game of Jockeys before getting into the park and beginning the three activity rotations.

After lunch, students had a Tribe Challenge to complete; Tug of War, volleyball, shoe bowling and Gaga Ball, teams went head to head. The winning team overall were; Group 4 (WADEKMRS). It was time to do the famous Monster Course; this was a feat of teamwork, strength and resilience. As students completed the course, the groups were unaware they were running two laps of the course, so they got themselves together and then got the second lap done! The winner of the run was the team that had the biggest improvement time from their first lap. All teams improved by 2 minutes or more, and stretches and super stretches were achieved, well done! To end the day, the groups got to go have some well-deserved showers.

As the last day rolled around heaps of GMICs were read out, and then Logan took the kids through a gratitude session, where the students were asked to think about who and what they are grateful for, to not go home wondering ‘what if’ and to ‘check back in’ for the last two rotations of activities to go. Heading down to the volleyball court for a game of Huckle Buckle run by Adam, to warm the students up and as the final two rotations. As they came to a close, the students were asked to vote for someone in their tribe who represented/embodied the Five Keys the most throughout camp (listed below along with the results.) After being announced, they got to ride in The Summit's WW2 army tank while the rest of the year 9s watched on.

On behalf of myself, The Summit staff and the coaches we would like to thank you for a great three days, all the best with the rest of the year :)

Spinks