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Group 33: Week 4

From the Deputy Heads of the Clunes Program

It has been a great week at the Clunes Campus. Things are running smoothly and the students are really starting to embrace all that the program has to offer. This week has seen Block 2 Courses begin. Block 2 courses focus on "Self" and students have been working in the courses, 'I Am Woman, 'Boys to Men', 'Taking a Risk' and 'Am I a Leader'. There has been some really positive feedback from students and staff about what has been achieved in these classes. On Monday we had 'Community Cooking'. This is where members from the local Clunes Community come to the campus and work with a house to prepare a meal. The students then share afternoon tea with their guest. It is a great way for students to learn some traditional country recipes as well as connecting with the Clunes community. Next Wednesday the locals have been invited back to have dinner with the house that they worked with this week. This Sunday the campus will be involved in 'Clean Up Australia Day' and also helping with the 'Red Cross Door Knock', our help is much appreciated by the community. The second Parent Visiting Weekend is this weekend. Students are very much looking forward to your visits. Please feel free to catch up with your child’s House Leader on Saturday afternoon if you have any concerns or questions.

It is hard to believe we are halfway through the Group 33 Journey. They are a fantastic group and all the staff are enjoying working with them.

Regards

Suzanne Camm and Elissa Jones

Deputy Heads of Program

Boys to Men

On Thursday this week the Boys to Men course were in for a treat. Glen Stanfield from the Ballarat Martial Arts School came down to Clunes to give the boys a self defence lesson. All the boys were eager to get into it and everyone had a great time. We learnt how to punch effectively and kick rapidly. Glen also taught us how to protect our head from enemy punches. During the entire session Glen repeatedly said that these skills that we were learning were to be used in a last resort. He said that to avoid fights we should be polite to everyone. The boys did a few drills focusing on kicking and punching which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. It is not everyday which one gets to hit a friend. All these drills and exercises were supervised so there was an extremely low chance of someone getting hurt. Next we had a few supervised wrestling sessions. A few rules were laid down before the boys started wrestling. During a match there was to be no biting, kicking punching and pulling of hair. The boys got into in straightaway and it was extremely exiting to watch. No one lasted for more than two or three bouts, as it was extremely tiring. We ended the session with a bit of meditation that relaxed everyone. Overall the session was a success, the boys had a great time and are looking forward to their next session with Glen.

Timothy T.

I Am Woman

I Am Woman is a course for the girls. On our first day of this course we learnt about remarkable women and what they did in society to change or send out a message. After learning that, we have an assessment, which is “ SEARCH OF A REMARKABLE WOMEN” where we have to research remarkable women and present it to the class. On our second day of the course, we were taken to an ashram, and we spent the whole day learning about Yoga. We also did some yoga and the women that instructed the practice were called Yoginis. We went for a ten-minute walk and we were not allowed to speak for the whole time, as it was some sort of meditation, which was hard for a lot of people. Another type of meditation was Yoga Nidra, where we just lay down and relax as the yoginis talk to us. it was the time for us to go home, back to Clunes, and a lot of us were so relaxed that we slept on the bus. I’m sure the bus driver was happy..

Toni N.

Excursion to Castlemaine

On Friday the 22nd some Wesley students went to Forest Creek to search for some gold and look at some mining holes. At first my group who were with Michael went panning for gold in a big puddle. Of course we did not find anything but because Michael was so enthusiastic we had to keep looking. Some of us got right into it and took off our shoes, socks and rolled up our pants, but others didn’t really want to get wet and dirty, so they just walked around the big puddle watching. Then we switched over to looking at mining holes with Libby. We first went to a Chinese and a European mining hole, it was quite interesting because the Chinese and the Europeans had different methods of mining. The Chinese holes were circular because they worked in pairs in the hole, but in the European holes there was usually just one man making a rectangular shaped hole and a dog guarding it at the top of the hole. After that we went to the Pennyweight graveyard, which was the first graveyard in Castlemaine, some of the graves were very old and some were quite recent. This was a whole new learning experience, which was very interesting.

Nathan T.

Making Connections

This Thursday night Green and Blue Clusters had Making Connections as their evening activity. The topic for Making Connections that night was a newspaper fashion show. Each cluster had four topics that they had to complete during the set time. The four topics were – a Royal Ball, a Day at the Races, Clunes Next Top Model and ER medical staff. Each cluster had to dress a model representing all four of the topics above. The atmosphere in the Jube was extremely hyped up and everyone was enjoying themselves. Both the clusters were designing awesome costumes for their models and the competition was getting stronger. Time was soon running out and both clusters were frantic to finish their costumes in the set time. By the end of the set time both clusters had finished designing their costumes and were left with a few stunning models. The costumes were both stunning and outrageous at the same time. It was obvious that not many designers had the similar ideas to any other designers, as there were quite a variety of costumes by the end of the night. Blue ended up winning all categories except the Clunes Next Top model, which Green Cluster took out easily. Everyone enjoyed the competition and the fun and the night was a great success.

Timothy T.

The Amazing Race

My new course is ‘Am I a Leader.’ The main activity in this course is the ‘Amazing Race,’ which I’m sure most of you recognise from the TV series. Our activity was a smaller and less complicated version of this. First off, we split into two teams and were told who our driver to each mini bus would be. We received our first clue and headed off to our destination. Each team had two people at a time to lead the group around Clunes and nearby towns. To get clues to the next destination we had to find an item or complete an activity/task. The day consisted of excitement, anticipation, competition, getting lost and adventure. Some of the tasks were lots of fun and we did a lot of running and playing games. On the other hand some activities were just plain disgusting, such as picking up horse manure to fill a huge bag, with our hands. But we still had lots of fun completing them and put in a huge effort and lots of enthusiasm. We only got lost once or twice when we went to the wrong town. There were two races and Team 1 won the morning race and Team 2 won the afternoon run. All in all everyone had a lot of fun with both journeys.

Phoebe C.

Cluster Sports

Red vs.Yellow…. The chant was unannounced. Red Cluster won in tunnel ball: we tied in the game where you hit the people with the ball. We also tied in throwing a twine ring on to a stick three all then we went into over time. Red lost 6 to 5 in over time.

Joshua G.