Robinvale College Year 7 & 8 Camp Blog

After a long eight-hour drive the students from Robinvale College rolled through The Summit gates. Eager to get going and check into their accommodation up at Tent Village they put all their stuff down and got to meet their coaches Emily and Spinks/Sonic. From where they were quickly explained the rules of the camp where they can go and what they can do. They were shown down to the hub where they were shown the volleyball court the Gaga Pit and the basketball area as well as the ping pong table, which they could use.

As day two began after breakfast we run them through our welcome for the group where they got show the welcome video or promo video to the summit, they also got talked about the five keys; have fun, play all in, make lots of mistakes and get comfortable being uncomfortable and don’t go home wondering ‘what if’. Keen to get out into the park they played their first game of Where is ‘Boppa’ where they had to work together to save the toy pig they named ‘Boppa’. Once the game was played the group was split into two and became the Arizona’s and the Alpha Monkeys...

The two activities run that day were Snake and Nails and Bush Challenge. Honorable mentions to Klara for her efforts in the Foam Pit, Leini for standing on the nail board for 5 mins, and Sze Qing for holding Mitch the snake. The next 3 activities were all high activities also grounded in harnesses, so we had Summit Window high up in the tower, Sky Bridge going across the lake, and riding the Giant Swing high into the sky as a duo. Shoutouts to Indi for the Summit Window, Latu, Riley, Hamish for Sky Bridge, and A-Jay for facing his fears on the Giant Swing.

Day three rolled on, and we started our day with a morning intention session talking about the things that are out of our control such as the activities we’re about to run, the weather, and the people around us. In talking about this we gave them a few strategies to help break an activity down into more manageable chunks called; target stretch and super stretch. We told them about the things they could say more often by watching a video by the Kid President to shine a light on talking to each other positively and affecting each other in a good way rather than a negative. With that in mind they said a morning intention, about what they wanted to do or who they wanted to be for that day, after that was done, we headed straight down to the hub to begin our first game called Finger Fencing where the kids challenge each other a whole lot of fun and a lot of competitiveness were shown. The activities run that day were Scavenger Hunt, Orienteering, Abseiling, and Leap of Faith. Before breaking off for the day we played a group game of volleyball and we then told the students about great moments in camp GMICs. Shoutouts for the day; Callum on Scavenger Hunt, Sasha, Leila, and Amy for their efforts on Abseil, and A-Jay and Malek for Leap of Faith.

On day four, the final day of activities, we started with a gratitude session run by Emily she talked about who they were grateful for the day as they got to write these things down on the poster notes given to them in blue and orange, they started to realize and think about how those people and those things make them feel. They also wrote down a GMICs to someone in the room which we will get to read about on the last day on Friday before they left. We then headed down to the park, we completed our last lot of activities before the epic Monster Course, these activities are as follows: High Wire, Cave, Snowy River Challenge, and Inflatable City. It was time for the Monster Course and to warm up; we did a whole lot of dancing (Nut-bush, Macarena, Whip, Nae Nae, Savage Love, and Jiggle Jiggle) to name a few... Oh, and singing the anthem (I want it that way) The two combined groups then completed the Monster Course not only once but twice. In their second lap, they were challenged to beat the time of the first lap by setting a target, stretch, and super stretch. Their target was to get 30 minutes or less, their stretch to get 25 minutes or less and their super stretch was to get 20 minutes or less of their original time, which was 38 minutes and 40 seconds.

The final day rolled around and the students had to get out early as they had an 8-hour bus drive ahead of them so Emily and myself came up to the Blue Room to read out a whole lot of GMICs, to share a bit of love and to also say a big thank you and to ultimately just say goodbye, for now.

We would like to say thank you for coming and playing hard, living by our Five Keys, and adopting them as your own value. Hopefully, you had as much fun as we did, all the best in your future endeavors and for the rest of the year at school.

Sonic/ Spinks & Emily