Scotch College Year 5 - Hawthorn Camp Blog

On Tuesday 14th June 2022, The Summit welcomed campers to the beginning of their epic 4-day adventure. To begin camp, Team Leader Steph (Spag) and coach Logan 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.

After doing a big game of “Jokeys” the kids were ready to embark on The Summit's famous MONSTER Course, there was lots of loud music and amazing dance moves demonstrated while all teams were waiting for their team names to be called up to the start line. AWAY they all went heat after heat the tribes took off and had ALL the fun.

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 focused 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!

Day two and the morning started off with an intentions session with Spag, helping them understand the importance of setting up your day for success and not leaving the day to chance and at the mercy of the three main factors that are out of their control (weather, people, activities). The morning games played were; Jockeys, Pirates, Egg, Crane, Tiger and Rock Paper Scissors CHANT, the value of playing games and changing states when moving from the space of Intentions and listening to the Epic Summit activities were really important in setting the groups up for success, as well as being a TON of FUN!

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 not only grow out of our comfort zones but heroically conquer challenges.

Over the next two days, every camper had the opportunity to put the keys to use and learn what they are capable of on eight 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! Sitting down, discussing team names and what their team values were. All groups made some epic Tribe flags in Tribe Identity. At Orienteering tribes had to find markers that were placed all over the summit camp and solve word puzzles to gain extra points. Some had the opportunity to use their imaginations and creativity in the Scavenger Hunt. 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. At Initiative Challenge, tribes were faced with three epic initiatives; Half Pipe, Tiles and Keypunch and had to problem solve and work together to get through each task as a unit. Campers were flying over the lake on our Flying Fox, getting a real insight into what our local friendly ducks feel like when they flap and fly across the sky.

Before we knew it, Thursday had rolled around, the last full day of activities. To start off the day we had Coach Spag give us a speech on Intentions and Gratitude, getting the kids to write their intentions, quotes, and a person they're grateful for on a piece of paper they carried with them throughout the day. And about how wonderful it is to appreciate all the amazing opportunities and people around us.

The Last day of camp came along, the group got to listen to Spag speak about gratitude and then let the kids list off the; people/ things in their own lives that they are grateful for. As the excitement to go home started to build, the determination to complete the last tribe challenge of the camp was about to begin; but despite exhaustion, every group completed their last two challenges with high energy and big smiles!

At the end of the last activity, all the teams had a vote where they decided on one person from their team that had really shown all the five keys all throughout camp.

A huge thank you from all of us coaches at The Summit, we all had fun with you guys over the last four days. We wish you all the best for the rest of the year and hope that this blog brings back some fond memories of your time spent in camp.

From: Steph/Spinks/Spag, Ash, Ella, Sarah, Logan, Mim, Sophie, Shane, Mesh and Sam :D