Neerim District Secondary College Year 8 Camp Blog

On the wet Wednesday afternoon of the 3rd of May, the year 8s of Neerim District Secondary College rolled into The Summit Camp gates. Up in Tent Village Blue Room, they were introduced to their two coaches Spinks and Emily (EMMA) who explained to them The Summit's Five Keys to an epic camp experience.

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…?

As well as a goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch. A Target is something you confidently know you can do. A stretch is something you think you can do, and a Super Stretch is something that you think to be impossible but on your best day, you can achieve.

Due to the rain pouring down, we played a game of Beaver Tails which Mel won. After splitting the group into two and the rain started easing off, we went down into the park to complete an initiative called “Where is Dylan?”. The aim of the game was to rescue a squeaky toy pig they named Dylan from the coach, but they were only allowed to move while the coach was turned away from them. Trying to get Dylan back to the start line they came from, they had to work together and strategize. After Making Lots of Mistakes, Playing All In, and Having all the Fun, Dylan was retrieved safely. The first activities that were completed were the Summit Window, honorable mentions to Alexis, Drew, Dylan, and Abby, and the “fantabulous” (quote by Mel) Laser Skirmish.

The two teams choose their group names:

LIGHTNING BLOBS

BEST BEASTS

The second day started off with a morning intentions session about the three things that are out of our control on a daily basis (people, weather, activities) and how we get to choose how we let them affect us and the people around us. To demonstrate the power of choice and not leaving your day to chance we played a game of Heads and Tails. Down in the park before the activities commenced, we played a game called Pirates to the soundtrack of Pirates of the Caribbean. The four activities that were completed throughout the day were the Sky Bridge, Scavenger Hunt, Flying Fox, and Abseil. On the Sky Bridge, honorable mentions go to Bonnie, Hudson, and Ash for stretching themselves. During the Scavenger Hunt, both teams collected points by completing group challenges and games. Even though their scores were awfully close the Best Beasts won with 200 points against the Lightning Blobs with 180 points. Annabelle, Alexis, and Drew stretched themselves to the best of their abilities on the Flying Fox. On Abseil Zack, Tom, and Ash stood out by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.

To finish the day the Moster Course was up next. Both teams smashed their first lap with the Lightning Blobs ahead by 5 minutes. As the second lap was announced the focus was shifted from a head-to-head competition against one another to combining forces as one big team, one year level. They set their Target time to 25 minutes to complete the whole course. When they crossed the finishing line for the second time, now as one collective, the timer was stopped at 20.19 minutes exceeding their own expectations by a total of 4.41 minutes. To rinse off the group had one final surprise presented to them: the waterslide was opened, and everybody got to have a go before heading up to their tents and finishing off for the day. Shoutouts for the Monster Course go to Stella, Mel, Alana, and Jethro for showing leadership and encouragement.

Day three is the final day. Before talking about gratitude, we started by reading some GMICs (Great Moments in Camp) which is a form of written affirmation teaching the students how to give and get a compliment. Going around the circle they got the chance to read out those GMICs to acknowledge each other. Leading into a session on gratitude, we watched a video in which people on the street write down quotes that they are grateful for onto a wall of posted notes. Inspired by this we talked about the trivial things and moments to be grateful for by asking what and who they feel thankful for. They then got given their own posted notes and created their own wall of words that they got to take back to school.

The morning game was called Huckle Buckle where the students had to pair up to complete a series of actions. Going into the last two rotations of camp the Rockwall and the Bush Challenge were planned. Climbing the Rockwall Blake and Tom made it all the way to the top in just one minute. During the Bush Challenge Brody and Jethro were supporting their teammates in each team by boosting them out of the foam pit while Deakin stood out by being reassuring and supportive. The Lightning Blobs completed the challenge within 33.53 minutes, but the Best Beasts beat them in a time of 26.41 minutes.

After the last rotation was finished, the groups were asked to vote for two people in their group, the value winners, who embodied the Five Keys consistently throughout camp. One person is the heart of the group, holding it together and the other one is the hero lifting the group up.

HEART – Stella and Deakin

HERO – Dylan and Jethro

To reflect on camp everyone got the chance to share their experience with the help of a rock, stick, and a leaf that represented various aspects of camp. The rock is what or who rocked their world on camp, the stick is something that will stick with them as a memory and the leaf is something they will leave behind and are proud of having achieved during camp.

As a reward and to finish camp everybody got to witness The Summit's army tank in action, driving a lap around the tank track while the value winners got to be a passenger inside. We would like to thank every one of you for an incredible time and great memories. We wish you all the best for the next year and are looking forward to seeing your school again!

Spinks / Sonic and Emily / EMMMA