Bendigo South East College is leading the way as the first Australian school to partner with the world’s leading academic camp program for teenagers.

SuperCamp has a 32-year history across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, and will run its first Australian camp at Cave Hill Creek, near Beaufort, in April.

SuperCamp is designed to provide participants with the skills to ease school stress, build study skills, improve grades and test scores as well as build life skills.

SuperCamp Australia director Heather Yelland visited Bendigo yesterday and spoke at a Bendigo South East College assembly. Ms Yelland is the director of Project Kids Connect which is based in Wangaratta.

“We run a whole heap of programs for young people in schools,” she said.

“SuperCamp Australia largely came about after we were contacted by a school in the Gold Coast.

“They have 1100 people in the school, 490 in year 8, and the welfare officer rang me and said, ‘Please help’.Our team started researching the best camps in the world and we found SuperCamp.

“It gets phenomenal results compared to any other camp or personal development program.

“SuperCamp is the world leader.

“It is considered to be the number one summer camp... it’s never actually come to Australia, but it’s certainly time it did.”

Ms Yelland was contacted by Bendigo South East College principal Ernie Fleming during the school holidays.

“He came to us and said, ‘We know we need to do better’,” she said.

“They get reasonably good results but he said they know they need to do better in terms of academic acceleration.

“And the school’s culture is built around personal responsibility and leadership.

“So there’s a really good natural fit there.”

Ms Yelland said there were limited places available in the school partnership program but Bendigo South East College was the first in the door.

“I very much want the majority of those places to go to regional schools rather than city cousins because I think they get a lot more opportunities,” she said.

“So I was just terribly excited when (the principal) Ernie was the first school to make contact to join school partnership program and said, ‘Tell us how’.”

Independent research on SuperCamp shows that 73 per cent of participants improve their grades and 68 per cent increase their motivation.

Mr Fleming said it was wonderful to

be part of the school partnership program.

“Our students are in pole position to take advantage of all that SuperCamp offers,” he said.

“It’s a great opportunity for Bendigo.”