On a warm Wednesday afternoon, the students from Woodlands Primary School arrived at The Summit, eager to begin their adventure. After checking into their accommodations, they met with the coaches and teachers at the Lodge. Team Leader Spinks introduced them to the space and the camp, then introduced the rest of The Summit coaches. Mim introduced the group to the Five Keys of The Summit.
These keys are:
- Have Fun
- Play All In
- Make Lots of Mistakes
- Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Don’t Go Home Wondering “What If”
Before starting their two activity rotations, Matt and Fran showed them how to put on a harness and helmet; Matt then introduced them to a goal-setting strategy called Target, Stretch, and Super Stretch to help break activities down into more manageable steps, and then they moved to their numbered spots. Their first lot of activities were Bush Challenge, Snake and Nails, High Wire and Laser Skirmish, Scavenger Hunt, Giant Swing, Sky Bridge and Leap of Faith. To wrap up the day, Spinks explained the Summit way of giving written affirmations and compliments; they are called GMIC (Great Moments In Camp); the students were informed of times for dinner and breakfasts and provided a list of free-time activities.
On day two, the students started with breakfast in the Lodge. Adam led an intention session where they discussed things out of their control, such as the people around you, and activities at camp. The students then set their intentions and decided who they wanted to be for the day. They played a game to get their bodies moving before starting the activities; the game played was Huckle Buckle. After 3 rotations of activities, they had some lunch and got ready for their last rotation before the Monster Course. After some morning tea, it was time for the briefing on the Monster Course. The coach led them through not just one, but two laps of the course to emphasise resilience and the importance of self-improvement. The winner had the most improved time from their first lap. Finally, they rinsed off, had a shower, then had some dinner, and ended the day with a movie.
Last day and there were a lot of tired faces in the room, we all read out at bunch of GMICs, Spinks ran the group through a recap of the previous intention sessions and talked to them about gratitude. To cement that it was their last day at The Summit, asking the students to check back in where they were asked what, and whom they were grateful for. We also set a quick intention as they only had one more rotation to go, and a final tribe game , they didn’t want to go home wondering ‘what if’, The students then reported to the stage to do the final game, students got their body moving with a game of Pirates by the stage..
In the last rotation of camp, the tribes got to reflect on their camp experience with each other, and given a debriefing strategy called; Rock, Stick and Leaf (something that rocked about camp, something that will stick with you and something that you would leave behind). After having some lunch, they assembled back at the stage for the last time for a camp wrap up camp with the results of camp and announced the teams’ Values winners, we then took a big group photo and said our goodbyes.
All students then made their way to the buses and made their way back to school.
On behalf of The Summit and coaches, we would once again like to thank you all for playing all in and joining us in having all the fun. All the best for the rest of the year!
