Lakeside College Year 8 Camp Blog

On a sunny Monday afternoon, the students of Lakeside College came through The Summit gates. Eager to get going they were shown to their Cabin accommodation. All the students got together and were introduced to the coaching staff and team leader SPINKs/Sonic. The students were taught a quick game of Gotcha with Coach Adam. They were shown to the stage and were shown how to put on a harness and a helmet and were introduced to the goal-setting strategy called ‘target, stretch, super stretch' as well as the ‘Five Keys’ to a successful camp.

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’

The groups did an icebreaker initiative, followed by two rotations of activities to get warmed up to camp and their new tribe. The first lot of activities were: High Wire, Flying Fox, Laser Skirmish, and Snowy River Challenge.

Day two and both teams were eager to get started after breakfast, where the students learned the value of choosing their day, regardless of the three main factors out of their control (weather, people, and the activities they were doing). After watching The Summit's promotional video, giving the students more of an idea about what the next 4 days are about, the students were asked to share who they wanted to be for that day. Before activities could begin, we played a game of Pirates. The teams had five rotations to complete. After Lunch, with three activity rotations to go, students hustled hard, setting themselves goals, and stretching themselves more. Safe to say it was a BIG day, mentally and physically. The new set of activities were: Giant Swing, Scavenger Hunt, Tash’s Ladder, and Orienteering.

Day three and the students' day started with breakfast and another intention session where they were asked to focus on ACTION, and how they as a person can influence the people around them, and with the help of a ‘New York High-five’ video demonstrating the power of using their actions as well as their words. The first game we played was a game of Heads and Tails. We had two rotations before lunch and three after lunch before ending the day with free time before dinner. The activities for the third day were a bit more relaxed as the previous day was a big one off the ground; Leap of Faith, Bush Challenge, Rock-wall, and Inflatables.

Day four and the teams had a BIG day ahead of them. In morning intentions, a bunch of GMICs were read out, students were again asked, who they wanted to be for the day and how that was going to look, with the help of the video called ‘Give and get a compliment’ showing them the difference between written and verbal forms of communication and compliments to make people feel good.. Eager to begin their day, groups made their way down into the BBQ shelter yet again where the students completed a game of Pirates with Coach Adam. The groups had three rotations before lunch after they got changed into their oldest clothes and shoes to embark on The Summit's very own MONSTER Course, tribes were then briefed on the rules of the course and shown to the start/finish line. After completing their first lap the groups were huddled up on the stage where Adam gave them a halftime speech and informed them that they were running the course again, as the winner of the Monster Course is the tribe with the biggest improvement time using their first laps time as their time to beat.

Day five and it’s the last day, the students checked out of their accommodation and had breakfast. The morning started with gratitude; staff and coaches read out a bunch of GMICs (Great Moments in Camp), and then Coach Adam showed them the video ‘The Time You Have Left Jellybeans', followed by asking the students in the room to share who and what they’re grateful for. Students were challenged to not check out mentally as they still had one more activity rotation to go, before leaving The Summit. To not go home wondering ‘what if’. The final group game played was a game called Jockeys. The tribe games played after were called Shoe Bowling and GaGa Ball and the winners were Group 3 for Shoe Bowling and Group 4 for GaGa Ball. Activities ran the previous day and today were Abseil, Summit Window, Snake and Nails and Cave.

Once the teams had done their last activity, all groups completed a camp debrief using a Rock, Stick, and Leaf (what rocks their world about the base, what would stick with them, and what would they leave behind). students were asked to choose a values winner, someone who embodied the Five Keys the most consistently throughout camp and has had or found the fun in every day. To reward the winners from all four tribes for their efforts, they got a photo under the unleashing greatness sign and then the Values winners and teacher got a hot lap in The Summit's WW2 army tank.

All tribe names, results, and values winners are listed in the table below.

All up, we have completed 15 activity rotations, two laps of the Monster Course, and group games every morning and evening, thank you for playing all in and finding the fun in it all, we had a blast, and all the best with the rest of the year!

Spinks, Adam, Odile, Aron, Jakob, Zoe, Calarnee, and Mim