Cobden Technical School Year 8 Blog

On an extremely hot Wednesday afternoon, Cobden Technical School came through The Summit gates. Eager to get going they were shown their accommodation and told to meet their Summit Leader Steph in the Stadium. There they were introduced to the ‘Five Keys’ and ‘Target, Stretch, Super Stretch’. The first two initiatives the group completed were Half Pipe and Keypunch. Half Pipe was completed in just eight attempts and Keypunch in an astounding time of 12 seconds and 35 milliseconds with no mistakes.

The first activity the group did was called Giant Swing, where Darcy had the first swing. Bodhi was the rope captain and Maddi was a huge supporter of Immy as they went together to the top of the swing.

The second activity was called Summit Window where the honourable mentions go to Retta, Zach, Teysha, Immy, Chambo, Jen (teacher) and Riley for really stretching themselves out of their comfort zones.

As the day ended the group had dinner and wrote some GMICs, afterwards they completed an evening activity called ’Minute to Win It’ that was run by one of the Summit coaches. Phoebe was the standout in this activity as she had all the fun and played all in.

Day 2 and the group looks ready to go after breakfast. We start our days with morning intentions and was told about the theory of a coin flip and how we do not want to let our day be defined by chance, as we can choose who we want to be and how we show up for the day. We started the day strong with the Skybridge and there were so many mentions; Retta for showing great resilience on the bridge, Michael (teacher) for facing his fears asking for help when falling at the end, Jamie for falling over but getting right back up, Zach for smashing the bridge even though he wasn’t a fan of heights, Lexi for facing her fears and smashing it, Taysha for also showing resilience in getting back up. Brad and Tabatha for smashing the bridge in the fastest times.

Next up we had Tash's Ladder, where Shenney and Jaime for stretching themselves. Taking on the challenge of a quick rock wall session, Brad took on the challenge, almost making it to the top and playing all in.

The last activity to run before lunch was Laser tag where all the tribe had two quick rounds of fun. After lunch, we played a quick game of ‘Ga Ga Ball’ where Bodie was the winner of the first round.

As the tribe got ready to run the Monster Course the group were reserved at the start, but as the course went on the group got better and better. Smashing their first lap, the group were unaware they were going to run the same course twice, we do this to show resilience and teach the kids that when they think they’ve got nothing left they can dig deep and keep going. And kept going the tribe did, managing to improve their time by a whopping 13 minutes which is an amazing effort. Honourable mentions go to leader Bodhi, Tabatha for keeping the group together at the back, Phoebe for playing all in and pushing herself and Kayden for keeping the tribe's spirits high and supporting the team when needed. As a bit of a surprise for the tribe, the water slide was offered to finish off a big day.

Day three, the final day of camp the tribe had two more activities. In the morning, when the tribe made their intentions clear, we also did Gratitude, and they were told to not go ‘checking out’ early and to be present during the last two activities. To start off, the tribe got their bodies moving doing the Bush Challenge where their first lap they completed in 13 minutes and 27 milliseconds and their second lap with no puzzle included they smashed their super stretch by completing the course in 3 minutes and 57 seconds.

Just before the last activity, Leap of Faith, we completed a camp bowling competition where the girls won 5-4. The tribe began Leap of Faith, and everyone had a go, due to the efficiency of the tribe, they were offered a second attempt each. In the second attempt, Chambo reached the bar with one arm, Tabatha did it blindfolded, Brad did it backwards blindfolded and so many more. Targets being set, stretches being completed, and super stretches being smashed, what an all-around perfect way to end camp.

In the last debrief, the tribe completed a debriefing strategy called ‘rock, stick and leaf’ where the students were told to reflect upon the camp and the growth that has been shown. The team also voted for two tribe winners, someone who represented the Five Keys throughout camp, these two people were Chambo add Bodhi well done both of you!

Thank you for coming to The Summit, I hope you guys had as much fun as I did!

All the best

Steph (Spag)