Our Lady Of Sion Year 7 School Blog

It was another wonderful program with the beautiful year 7 cohorts from Our Lady of Sion.

On Monday the 27th of March The Summit welcomed campers to the beginning of their epic 3-day adventure. To begin camp, Team Leader Steph (Spag) and coach Ash told everybody all about our recipe for success, to have the best camp possible!

The Five Keys to camp we learnt all about 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?'

Shortly after we learnt how to incorporate these keys into our camp experience to help us have an awesome time, we jumped into our teams and got started with an initiative activity. After finding out our strengths as a team in that initiative challenge, we had to come up with some unique team names that would represent and inspire us throughout camp.

One of the Five Keys of camp is “Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable” however, this is easier said than done, so to tackle what seems overwhelming and uncomfortable we learnt a strategy called Target, Stretch and Super Stretch.

This strategy is a way of setting three manageable goals that help us to not only grow our comfort zone but heroically conquer challenges.

Over the next three days, every camper had the opportunity to put the Five Keys to use and learn what they are capable of on six of our epic camp activities.

The activities are as follows:

Groups got to fly high on one of Victoria’s highest Giant Swings, feeling the adrenaline rush of soaring 26 meters in the air!

Some had the opportunity to use their imaginations and creativity in the Scavenger Hunt.

Teams put their heads together and used their best strategies in the Laser Skirmish activity, ducking and diving to try to beat each other!

Students were climbing trees and balancing on a wire suspended 15m in the air for the Highwire whilst the rest of the team was working hard on the belay system. Some were put to the test by navigating their way through a pitch-black cave in the Cave activity. On the Abseil, students leaned back and enjoyed a vertical walk through as they bounced down a wall of our big tower. Campers were bouncing off the walls in inflatables, which was a whole heap of fun! Teams really learnt what it means to work together, communicate, and support one another when competing for the quickest time on the Snowy River Challenge. Campers were flying over the lake on our Flying Fox, getting a real insight into what our local friendly ducks feel like when they flip and fly across the sky. The Summit Window was an amazing opportunity to lean back and let go of fears that hold us back while also getting to admire the best view of Gippsland! Leap of Faith took a massive spoonful of courage as campers took the chance to dive off a 15m platform and grab onto a bar suspended in the air. From this, we learnt what it means to believe in ourselves.

In the Snakes and Nails activity, everyone showed phenomenal support for one another as individuals walked across an actual bed of nails once, twice or for some - more than three whole times! Then students had the opportunity to hold The Summit’s very own gentle giant: Mitch the Carpet Python. Here, everyone learnt the power of setting goals and the value of a positive mindset. After activities were done and dinner was eaten, to finish day one of camp everyone participated in an energetic, ballistic game of Minute to Win It. Congratulations to the team …

To start off day two of camp we had Team Leader Steph give us a talk on why it is important to set an intention for the day. She told us all about how we get to decide what sort of day we have when we choose how we want to look at any challenges we face.

After four big rotations, it was finally time to compete in The Summit’s famous mud run. Some teams got warmed up on the stage by doing some TikTok dances whilst others were focused on getting in the zone.

After the teams, all did an epic first lap a surprise was revealed to them when they learnt that here at The Summit, we are not here to focus on who is the most athletic, but we care about which team works together and supports each other the most even when exhausted from the first lap. The winner of course is the team that improves the timing on their first lap by the most! And what an incredible job every single team did. All the coaches recognized how encouraging, resilient, and strong every single team was!

Before we knew it Wednesday had rolled around and it was time to go home. To start off the day we had Coach Centauri give us a speech on gratitude and about how wonderful it is to appreciate all the amazing opportunities and people around us.

It was the excitement to go home, or it was the determination to complete every challenge of camp; but despite exhaustion, every group completed their last two activities with high energy and big smiles!

At the end of the last activity, all the teams had a vote on who they thought was the one person from their team that had really shown all the Five keys all throughout camp.

A big thank you to all the fantastic students and teachers from Our Lady of Sion. All the coaches had such a fantastic time running the camp and we hope you all did too. It was so heart-warming to see all the support and respect all of you have for each other. We absolutely have no doubt you legends have the brightest futures ahead, so keep up the awesome work and best of luck for the rest of 2022.