After a busy weekend at the Clunes show, last week was a change in pace for the campus. After an extra sleep in, Monday was a Mentor Meeting Day as normal with lots of work going into project Practicals. Tuesday was the “Big Day Out”. After another sleep in students competed against Highview College Maryborough in a number of sports. It was a relaxed day with BBQ lunch provided. This week all students are involved in the Collective Program. The aim of this program is for students to see what they can achieve for others when they work together. There is a group working at a local Landcare site, assisting with regeneration of the creek. A group is working on student house letterboxes and a walking track on the campus, including seats. There is a group building bird-nesting boxes for the landcare site and the last group is the music group, which is working together to produce a music CD for Group 36. This group are also touring local primary schools and giving a music performance. There has been some hard work happening on campus today. Students are also busy finishing off their Clunes Project Practicals and writing their speeches for Presentation Day. There are some nerves building, but also great excitement. I hope you all received my email regarding Presentation Day. The student presentations begin at 10am and the day will conclude approximately 4pm. Please bring a picnic lunch to share with your child. I will also advise the students to pack some of their belongings ready for you take home on Sunday. Room on the bus will be limited and any belongings taken on Sunday would be appreciated. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Every Wednesday we have house time. Your day is divided between house day, house logistics and community days. This is a really great opportunity to get everything set up for the week. During house time we spend time with our house leader, we get a chance to sort out any problems we have and talk about how we are travelling. In house logistics it’s a chance for our house to sit together and plan meals and groceries we need. We get given ideas for tasty, healthy snacks. Community living is a chance for us all to be together and reflect on our time at Clunes. Sometimes its time to relax and have some time out, other times its about us reflecting and exploring our thoughts. Overall, house day is a time that is much enjoyed.

21 Days down, 9 to go! The mo brothers are looking good with some stylish designs being selected for their mo’s. We’ve got trucker, major, connoisseur, regent and undercover brother mo’s. The fro sisters are doing their bit to raise money and during the last week of Movember they will be wearing afro wigs to support their mo bro’s. There aren’t many days to go so anyone who can help by donating money to the Wesley at Clunes team, we would greatly appreciate it.

Over the last few weeks all students have been busily preparing the project for presentation day. Students have been working on their practicals, while trying to finish their essays and juggling their website and speech all at the same time. It has been a hectic time and all students are looking forward to showing off their work. Practical components have ranged from amazing photos to creative models and all look incredible. As time ticks down to presentation day all kids are just finishing off the last bits of their project, making sure their website is looking all cool and groovy, their practical has got the finishing touches on it and their speeches are neat and efficient. To all the parents out there expect to be blown away on the 30th of November and remember to invite any other relatives that want to see the Wesley students at their best.

Every Friday, the books are dropped and then instruments pulled out for music!! We have singers, pianists, violinists, cellists and guitarists. It’s a great chance to be creative. You can pick any song and learn it with the help of our two fantastic music teachers! Next week is collective potential, for music we get the great opportunity to record all our music in a recording studio, and go on tour. Music at Clunes is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to share their talent and at the end show off all our hard work.

Eat green is a course about food, and its 3 main affects. Personal, environmental and community. We learnt about how eating healthy can not only affect your personal health but many other things, we learnt that eating with a lot of people can make it more memorable and enjoyable for everyone and we also learnt about thinking about the food you buy and how much energy it takes to get onto your table.
We did many activities and excursions to learn about the right choices when it comes to picking food, yet the most memorable activity was when Tim took us all to a little church homestead where we all got into groups of 3 to make our own healthy foods, the foods included apple hamburgers, stuffed mushrooms, salmon and lots of salads, a lot using the ingredients from Clunes own veggie garden. Then after a small torture session from Tim, letting only 3 people eat the food while we all watched, we all went in and ate some great food together which really was a great experience.

On Sunday afternoons, from 1 to 4, the Clunes campus offers a variety of choices for everyone. It’s usually a choice between swimming, soccer and basketball plus circus for anyone who signed up for it at the beginning of term. This term 23 people signed up for circus, compared to last term, where around 60 people signed up. Circus provides a whole variety of areas of expertise which people can focus on; it allows people to learn how to do many things, such as juggling, doing poi, using a staff, being a DJ, a magician, a clown, using a Diablo and doing other stuff. This term has been really good because we have a small class and the teachers can focus on everyone individually. For the first 4 weeks everyone focused on finding out what would they like to do and they learned and practised new tricks, mostly from a CD with videos which we were given. These last 2 weeks we’ve been focusing more on our routines for presentation day and the tricks we are going to do. Circus is a great course, it’s very fun and you learn a lot of stuff.

The small town of Clunes was a big hit as last Saturday on the 17th of November the 148th Clunes Show took place on the showgrounds of the town. It was the ultimate day for gathering families and friends in the area, and offered many fantastic rides and stalls. Some of the attractions included a rock climbing wall, dodgem cars, the awesome Super Trooper ride, sheep shearing shows, reptiles and cattle. There were also stalls for the many different showbags and fantastic food such as pizza, donuts, ice cream and the classic hot potato chips. Musical performances were on throughout the day in the music pavilion. It was also a great opportunity for the men in the area to show off their big engines with a part of the showgrounds dedicated to the big and powerful Utes and other vehicles. Wesley College at Clunes also joined in the action with several school bands having musical performances attracting a lot of attention and the big event. The school’s students also volunteered to help out with doing things such as selling raffle tickets for the pre-school, taking photos at the event and helping out at the rock-climbing wall. Also later in the afternoon the school had all their students go to the show and join the party. The committee who was in charge of organizing the show did a fantastic job; they are greatly thanked for putting on such a great day to the community. There was something for every one of all ages at the Clunes show and was a day that will never be forgotten.

The Big Day Out was a large sporting event on Tuesday 18th of October 2008 between Wesley College @ Clunes and Highview Year Nines from Maryborough. This was one of the biggest sporting events held at Clunes in recent times and drew a massive crowd of local support for the Wesleys. Another crowd almost as big gathered in support for the Maryborough locals. It was all there, everything building up for a classic battle for the pride of being the best Year Nines in town. The day began with a cricket match on the oval and a fierce clash on the basketball court. The game started brilliantly with the scores tied at quarter time between the two historical rivals. It was in the 2nd quarter that the Wesleys started to build a lead and they found themselves up by a small margin at half time. But the 3rd quarter proved to be the game breaker when Wesley broke out to more than a 15-point lead over the tiring Highview year nines. The game seemed to be over at 3-quarter time as Wesley continued its dominance. The final quarter started in a similair fashion to the first with nothing splitting the two rivals. With ten minutes left Wesley still maintained a large lead and the supporters were alreay celebrating. It was at this time however, that Highview began a thrilling comeback. With their two star centremen in top form they came back to within four points of the shocked Wesley team. With 20 seconds left the highview centremen again had the ball and dribbled up to the right wing. At the 15 second mark the ball was flying through the air and went through the ring for a massive three pointer. With 15 seconds left and Highview behind by one point Wesley knew exactly what they had to do. Wesley managed to run down the clock for the last fifteen seconds despite incredible pressure from the Highview players, and took the win. After 48 minutes of basketball it had come down to a one point margin and Wesley took home the victory they diserved. The one point victory proved to be the deciding factor as Wesley were dominated by an excellent Highview cricket team (lead by their classy state representative opening batsmen.) Wesley had a strong victory in the girls’ netball and hung on for a two nil win in the soccer bringing the series to a three-one finish. It was a great effort from both schools and a classic that will go down in the history books as one of the great battles since this tradition began between the two rivals, Wesley College and Highview.

Last Tuesday was our last day of courses. Being in solutions for a small planet we continued our studies on the problems in the world and working on how we could fix them. Five days before we were given an assignment working on one problem and how we could fix it. We had to make a PowerPoint and then present it. I chose to do global warming and how I could do my part. Other problems were, over usage of non-renewable energy, poverty, homelessness, rising sea levels, and drugs in sport. Half the people worked in groups even though the teacher said that they shouldn’t. in our PowerPoint we had to find a quote relating to the problem, 10 pictures, 10 words, 10 songs and 10 puzzles/questions all relating. We also had to have a plan, which some one could follow to fix the problem on a small scale. The course was good but the assignment was a little too much.

The Clunes Show is the most community inclusive event of the year for the town of Clunes. The entries for the cooking contests are still coming in during the morning, ranging from cakes to slices and freshly baked bread. Other contests are beer, eggs, flowers plus a widespread range of arts and crafts. We saw the judging process of the cakes, slices, bread and pizzas plus healthy lunchboxes made by the primary school kids. The judging of the cooking was based on categories such as texture and weight. The cakes and slices were tasted in very small quantities but the pizzas and biscuits weren’t. The eggs were based on their freshness, look and smell. There were also jams judged and the flowers were sorted into many different categories. Every year, Wesley @ Clunes gets each house to submit a few items of cooking, a chocolate cake, 5 muffins or cupcakes and some scones, biscuits or a pizza.

It is a great chance to get out early in the morning to take photos of the town coming alive, with volunteers appearing and stands and rides starting to open up. The horses were awesome to take pictures of as they rode around before competition started. The early morning meant that the sun was barely up and made for some nice photos as there were not many people around. The lack of people combined with the slowly rising sun and setting up stalls created quite an atmosphere that we tried to capture as we took pictures. As it got later, the judging happened and more people arrived. The show was soon filled with people and became a very different environment for taking pictures. There was music and rides and kids running around through the busy areas surrounding stalls and reptile shows. The sheep and 4WD ATV’s were looked at by a lot of people. As we left we got a few more shots as it started to become slower, people just enjoying being there, listening to music and becoming tired of the shopping and rides. We left and there were still many cars lined up and down a few streets surrounding the show.