Christway College Years 7 & 8 Camp Blog

As the buses rolled to a stop at the gates of The Summit, a wave of excitement developed among the year 7 / 8 students of Christway College. What a massive 5 days planned full of excitement and nervousness that would push you physically and mentally. Day 1 started by meeting the 5 coaches who guided you through your camp experience. Your coaches were Logan, Spinks, Calarnee, Matt, Mim and Rory. You also became familiar with our Five Keys and if we used them would make camp go from good to GREAT!

The Five 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

Next, the goal-setting strategy that would help us get the most out of our activities. When we got to an activity that made us nervous, would help us face those fears to the best of our ability.

The 3 goals are as follows:

TARGET: Something you know you can do. (Not nervous at all)

STRETCH: Something you think you can do but are not 100% sure. (Nerves setting in)

SUPER-STRETCH: Something you think would be impossible for you to do. (Really nervous)

Without further ado, we played a big game of ‘50 Up’, we then split up into our tribes and began our first activity followed by creating your tribe flags and practicing your tribe chants. Your activities throughout your time here at The Summit included:

Giant Swing, testing what it will take to let go of our fear and trust the process, letting go of “what if…”.

Laser Tag, dodging and weaving through our laser war zone striving to eliminate the opposition.

Snowy River challenge, the ultimate test of teamwork and support involving a race through 5 obstacles as fast as possible to beat the opposing team's time.

Scavenger Hunt, unleashing your competitiveness between the teams to see who could complete varied challenges as a whole unit in the given time.

Summit Window, climbing up an 18-meter tower and scaling a ladder, sometimes when you push through your fear you will experience an incredible sense of freedom! Letting go was the key.

The Cave, moving through an epic small underground tunnel with no light to give hope and no sounds to comfort, challenging our fear of the unknown, and realizing the difference between perception and reality.

Rock Wall, the ultimate challenge of physical and mental strength, testing your will to keep climbing up through fear.

Trust Games, challenging our level of trust within ourselves and our team through engaging in a variety of epic physical trust exercises.

Abseil, feeling like the main character of Mission Impossible, challenging our ability to trust in ourselves.

Orienteering, navigating throughout the entire park to try and unlock riddles to gain as many points as possible. Great work everyone on playing all in!

Flying Fox, a fast and furious journey across the entire park flying through the air and enjoying the spotlight.

Inflatables, breaking up some of the action with more action focusing on just having fun!

Initiative Challenges, how does a team know how and when to complete a challenge? Someone needs to step up and take initiative!

Leap of Faith, challenging our ability to trust not only ourselves but the entire process, and to take a leap into the unknown regardless of what was holding us back.

Tash’s Ladder, scaling up our big tower to then lean over nothing but a ladder at the very top!

Day 2 was already here! Started the morning off with breakfast followed by Mim talking to us all about how you want our day to go, and making a deliberate choice before we got down into the park. “You don’t attract what you want, you attract what you are”.

Next, we continued with 4 more activities for the morning. What an action packed morning we had planned for you. However, it wasn’t over yet! After a delicious lunch to fuel us for the afternoon, we finished the day playing a huge game of Octopus and Costume Tag! Then it was time to present our Chants. What an effort by every tribe! Really focusing on participation, enthusiasm and creativity.

Day 3! Starting off with a bang. We firstly spoke about the best way to face the challenges ahead of us! Firstly getting into the right STATE, then changing the STORY we tell ourselves to ultimately have the best STRATEGY to face the activities. We then all got down into the park to commence 5 huge activities for the day. We’ll done everyone on absolutely smashing the challenges that were presented to you!

Day 4! Starting the morning off with breakfast followed by Logan talking to us all about the best ways to get into the right STATE for the epic day we had ahead. Firstly changing our PHYSIOLOGY (the way we use our body) then changing our LANGUAGE (the way we speak to ourselves) then changing our FOCUS (the good or the bad). “People don't remember what you say or do, they remember the way you made them feel”. Next, we continued with 3 more activities for the morning. What an action packed morning it was! However, it wasn’t over yet! After a delicious lunch to fuel us for the afternoon, we finished the day with one last activity. You all got to compete in your tribes to see who could win the most mini games. Finally, we were about to begin the epic journey that would push you physically and mentally. The moment we had only heard rumors about, it was time for the Monster Course! Running in our teams through a mud run obstacle course linked together by hands to achieve not only the best time but also a closer connection to your fellow peers and teammates. After the first lap we followed it up with a surprise, we told you we were going to do it twice! What a sight to see. Pushing ourselves to limits we hadn’t reached before. Congratulations to all those that truly pushed through and demonstrated to themselves a new level of resilience. To reward you from your incredible efforts you all got to have a go on our water slide!

Day 5 was already on the horizon! We began with some breakfast followed by a gratitude session with Spinks. Spinks encouraged us to use gratitude as a tool to instantly FEEL joy and happiness when reflecting on the often unappreciated things we have in life. “Gratitude affects your attitude and in turn, affects your altitude”. We then commence our last 2 activities. What an epic way to finish off an incredible camp. Last but not least each team voted for 2 people in your group, someone who best demonstrated our five keys and someone who best demonstrated the most courage and heart throughout camp. Congrats to your team's Values winners, your all epic individuals. Lastly we all got the chance to witness our WW2 army tank go for a lap around our mud track. However, your well deserving values winners got to have a first class seat inside the tank as it went to work!

Thank you Christway College for playing all in and rocking it throughout camp.

Keep Unleashing Your Greatness!