Another busy week in Clunes. There has been wide spread relief that the weather cooled down a bit towards the end of this week. The houses can get very warm and getting to sleep is much more difficult. The first block of courses finished on Thursday. There has been some wonderful work completed and students have been speaking positively about these courses which focused on the theme "Where am I". Next week we have lots of visitors coming to the campus. Dr Helen Drennen will be visiting us on Tuesday as well as Stuart Davis and Colin Dobson on Tuesday and Wednesday. We always look forward to their visits. As I write this, I look out my window and see a group of students walking home from their "Cooking" session. Each week one student from each house spends the afternoon with a local cook who teaches them how to prepare an easy healthy meal for their house. Tonight your children will be enjoying a Beef Casserole. They are very proud of their efforts and can't wait to share their meal with their other house members. Our first Parent Visiting Weekend is this weekend. Students are very much looking forward to your visits. A reminder that students can be picked up from 4pm on Saturday and need to return by 6pm Sunday. We thank you in advance for your co-operation with this. Last Friday night was the community dinner "Feast on Fraser", 6 students volunteered to wait the tables and this was very much appreciated by the Clunes Community. We are happy to continue to report that Group 33 is travelling well and has received many positive comments from the locals.

House leaders have appreciated the open lines of communication with parents as this helps us greatly to give your child the best care and support we can.

We look forward to seeing you all over the next few weekends.

Regards

People, Places, Soulful Spaces is a course that searches into your souls and finds out how we relax and what we think about souls and beliefs. This interesting topic stretches into religions and we studied different cultures. We participated in Solo Time, at the base of Mt Beckworth and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We reflected many times on our beliefs and it helped us understand who we are. The end product was a speech about where we relax and the life we want to lead. This course was run excellently by Mary and inspired us all to look into ourselves and find our soul.

Throughout this course students strived to answer questions about their surrounding environment. This course focused around the general area around Clunes. During this course students explored the issues surrounding the Aboriginal community from both a local and a national perspective. The students investigated the question of reconciliation and social justice. Particular attention was given to the Djadja Wurrung people, the customary owners of the land surrounding the Clunes area. Students drew a sketch drawn that depicted the lives of the Djadja Wurrung people before contact with modern civilisation and their experiences following settlement. Aboriginal artists and speakers were invited to share their experiences in sessions with the students. The group of students also visited sites that have special significance for the Aboriginal people. Students were given the opportunity to research topics relative to the Aboriginal people that they were interested in to more depth.

This week in Community Living we learnt about how the brain functions, parts of the brain and how to get the most out of ourselves and in what situations we study best in.
We had some special tests to find out how us as individuals learn, one of our test we had to find numbers from one to 99 when we were in complete silence, when we were listening to music and when we were screaming to everyone around us. Then we had a computer test to find out if we had left or right brains and visual or audio minds.

This three-day course focused on the learning of different elements of design and encouraged students to step out of their comfort zone through their portfolio of art pieces. Using various artistic techniques, students were asked to create an art piece which interpreted the key question “Where am I? …In Clunes”, using iconic imagery as their template. Inspired by Pop Art that was popularised in America, the course explored its history and most famous artists who revolutionised the world of fine art at that particular time. Throughout the course students learnt about the Clunes community and gained a greater knowledge of the artistic world and the impact it has on society. Students had so much fun sketching the natural landscapes on and off-campus and doing some observational drawing of the historical architecture out on Fraser Street. Overall this course motivates students who are interested in drawing and being creative and introduces a new perspective of the world of art.

It was another great week at the local Community Netball Competition on Tuesday night. The student team put in a great effort and there were some great moments, however, they went down to a very good team. The important thing being that the girls enjoyed the game and were very good sports. The staff team had a great win! Thanks to a couple of students who helped them make a team. It was a great effort by all. While the girls were playing netball house 1 was having a very serious talk when we decided that if the girls can play basketball boys should be able to play netball so were making an external co-ed league.

Cluster Sports this week kicked off to a start with Blue and Yellow facing off. It turned epic with Blue collecting wins for partner soccer (hold hands with another person) and round the world-a basketball shooting game where people shoot from all round the hoop. Everybody was positive and had a great time. Red and Green faced off on Thursday and red lead from the start. They owned green in all activities such as Jedi ball, where we throw a ball around and try to hit the goalie. Other activities included our chants which rocked the hall with passion and our dress, where colours rule. It was great!!!

On Saturday four students participated in the local cricket league for Clunes. The previous week five people from the Clunes team turned up so the ‘Wesleys’ were a welcome addition. The team were in high spirits and we went onto the ground to bowl. But the heat repelled these good spirits and soon we were loosing balls into the creek by the ground. Two of the opposition’s players made centuries with other contributors from all through the order. We ended up conceding 312 runs from 50 overs. This was a dismal effort but the four ‘Welseys’ had heaps of fun!!!!!!!!

During our Mentor Meetings we spent time writing our essay, which our first draft is due on Sunday the 24th most people have almost finished that now but there’s a few that are struggling with the information they need for the topics. The topics we have chosen stretch from architecture to Indigenous Culture to the Chelsea soccer club. From what I have heard everyone’s research is coming along very well not any major problems and we are all looking good to hand in the first draft of our essay’s.

More Than Meets The Eye is a course about the time before humans and how the earth was created. This course was absolutely awesome although it was a lot of notes and time on the project it was loads of fun. Even though not every one agreed with what Nin had to say she did have some very fun teaching techniques by taking us in to a volcano and an old dinosaur field where there would have been hot springs with abundant life. I would defiantly recommend this course to any one that’s up for a good time and to learn about.

This week during “Making Connections” our task was to create a video that explained how our Cluster Colour came to be. Each coloured Cluster had to creatively brainstorm a story outline that accurately explained the history of their colour, which was easy for some but difficult for others. All of the Clusters went crazy with their costumes and had a blast creating their movies; there was a vast variation of stories being filmed during the short period of time that was allocated for each cluster.

Our Saturday Night Fever this week was an 80’s disco night. All students dressed up fabulously and many of the costumes were very amusing. The music was great and the dancing needed improvement. The night was one of enjoyment and fun and everyone had a great time. It was held in the blue stone church on campus and during the entire night the atmosphere was lively. Overall the night was a success and we look forward to this Saturday, which is performance night.

Week 3 has been a busy week, it has gone really quickly and it is hard to believe there is only one week until the half way mark. Everyone is pretty tired at the moment but we are all getting into the general routine of Clunes. The running in the mornings is going really well. The Rec group enjoyed water aerobics and “Hiddeous Torture” with Nin (this is circuit that pushes us to the limit). We are all looking forward to our parents visiting over the next few weeks and look forward to the treats they will bring us! Food has been a bit of an issue on campus this week, particularly with others coming into houses and taking food. This has been sorted out by certain houses making a stand and making a rule that people from other houses are not allowed in their kitchens. It seems to be working. Saturday Night Fever this week is “Performance Night” and we are looking forward to seeing lots of great acts.