With only 8 days to go before Group 38 leave Clunes there is still much to do. The campus has been a hive of activity throughout this week with final touches being done to complete the students’ Clunes Projects. As Presentation Day is now less than 48 hours away the students are keenly aware of time management. Tomorrow will be an important time to set up venues and rehearse speeches. The expectation that all students will present and the fact that there can be no extensions create an appropriate level of pressure for the students. It is good practice to be able to meet deadlines and the students invariably rise to the occasion. The sense of relief come Sunday evening will be quite palpable!! Please make sure you know which venue your child is presenting at and ensure you arrive on time.

The final week at Clunes will be a very busy one with lots of activities still to be completed. Self-assessments will be written by students, enabling them to reflect upon their challenges and achievements in both the Clunes Project and their time in the Houses. The Beckworth Day with students running or walking from Clunes to the top of Mount Beckworth, the Full Day Solo, Cluster Sports Final and the All Night Movie Night will also be completed prior to Group 38 departing at 10am on 20 June! No doubt many will sleep, in the car, all the way home to Melbourne!!

As part of the Self course at Clunes, on Tuesday we had Challenge by Choice. There were four challenges we could pick from, and we were asked to pick the challenge that would stretch us out of our comfort zone the most. The options were: Physical, Leadership, Performance and Quiet. I was in the Physical group and our activity was rock climbing and abseiling in Bendigo.
We had to leave campus early because Bendigo is an hour and a half away from Clunes. Once we got there we split into pairs and began climbing. I didn’t find the rock climbing very challenging because I’ve done it before but what I did find stretched me out of my comfort zone was abseiling. I volunteered to go first so I was a bit nervous. It was a 30m high wall and we had to lower ourselves off the top of it so we were horizontal to the wall. That was the tricky part because the rest was easy, we just had to walk down the wall!
After 2 hours we packed up and started the journey back to Clunes. I found the physical challenge exciting and would definitely do it again.

On Wednesday we had House Day. On this day we have three classes, logistics, community living and house meeting. I had logistics first and because we’re coming to the end of the term, we had to bring all our leftover food and trade it with other houses. It was fun bartering with other houses and great getting some new food for something we don’t need anymore. We also did our last shopping lists for the term and worked out our meat orders and meals for the week. Our logistics leaders, Rick and Steve, showed us week 8 and what type of meals we had to plan for it. Because we’re running up Mt. Beckworth on Tuesday, they said we have to have a ‘carbo’ dinner on Monday night, which could be rice or pasta to give us the energy we need for the run. We were also encouraged to plan a special meal for Thursday night because it’s our last dinner in our house. After logistics, we had our house meeting. We decided to go down to Widow Twankeys for a milkshake while we had our weekly discussions. Our last class was after lunch and was Community Living. In Community Living we were talking about the last 10 days of Clunes. We discussed the positives and negatives of leaving Clunes and what we wanted to make of these last days.

Boot camp on Wednesday was a tough run. We ran down a usual running track and up the first hill, we turned around and ran back to the last person but because it was boot camp we had to run about 500 meters with our arms straight up in the air. To keep them there we would have to sing or talk to forget about the pain. Doing this was making us mentally stronger for the Mount Beckworth run. Once we had got to the end of the street we were able to put our arms down. We jogged as a pack down a steep hill to run up another. This time we ran up the hill and ran back to last person and then sprinted off again to the post and turned around to the last person. When we had finished that we had to run ‘Indian file’, this is making the last person sprint to the front of the group while everyone is in a straight line. We did this up another hill but this was great because it pushed everyone and no one walked. Up the last hill everyone sprinted as hard as they could to the top and then jogged back to the last person. When we had everone at the top we were jogging back until we were told that we had to partner up with someone our own size and piggyback them about 100m and then swap, this was a great challenge for most people but almost everyone did it. As we jogged back we had the final sprint to the pole at the back of the Wesley Clunes campus. Boot camp was great being only about a week out from Mount Beckworth as this made us mentally stronger.

Last Friday was our last Stories Explored' lesson. Stories Explored is a lesson that goes out on Fridays for about 3 hours and explores old ruins and structures. Last Friday we went to a graveyard in Amherst and looked at the tombstones from the 1800s and 1900s. We found some bird nests that were made of mud but they were abandoned. We then drove a bit further into Amherst and found an old structure of a building and the only bit still standing was a room that had massive windows, the class thinks may have been a shop or a school room. Our teacher gave us a little bit of history about Amherst and how it had been a mining town but turned into a ghost town because of various incidents including some bushfires. We were able to find a swing that we could play with for about 10 minutes before having to leave. On the way out we were able to stop at Talbot milk bar for some snacks.

Mornings are quite cold here in Clunes, but this week we have experienced a very frosty awakening. At 7:40, when most of us are half asleep and walking out of our houses, we are woken up by the surprise of Jack Frost. The impact that the cold wind gives us is almost like going into a cold shower when we are asleep. The square patch of grass outside Houses Twelve and Thirteen is covered with an icy glaze that makes us wonder if we touch the grass, would it snap between our hands. All the windows are frosted up that much that it hurts when we write our names on the window. Although it sounds all doom and gloom, it is actually really pretty to watch, especially when we get to see the little water droplets melt off the leaves of a tree.

For Performance in Challenge by Choice we set off to Sovereign Hill to dress-up and be one of the cast for half a day. The day started off cold and wet and the expectation for a huge amount of visitors at Sovereign Hill was very low. It was fun as they had no actual program for the guys, they quickly made up some short jobs we could do around the town and also say hello to some of the visitors. We gave it our best to really put ourselves out there and go past our limits. The boys group, which consisted of only four boys, did some gardening while the girls walked around town, made butter and cleaned. The working day ended at eleven forty-five, and after that we all had lunch and went home. I believe the day was a success as we were all pushed out of our comfort zone for a little while.

On Wednesday night a group of approximately twenty kids sacrificed their study time to be in the stunning acrobatics performance, which is part of Circus. The group started off by learning a few skills and then going into the performance itself. Tumbles start off first, then jumping over people and then balance. With the help of our teachers the group finished off at nine-thirty. I was amazed at how quick and well put together the whole thing was. It gave a chance for every kid to shine and have their moment in the whole performance. The night finished superbly when everyone did the human pyramid.

On Thursday, as part of the Environmental Sustainability class, the whole campus gathered together for a feast in the Jubilee Hall. The feast was made up of food that was assigned to and prepared by each house. The aim of the harvest festival was to create meals that used ingredients that had a low impact on the environment. The food that was prepared was pumpkin soup, potato jackets, pumpkin pizza, bread, scones and roast vegetables. There was also a stone soup prepared, and each house added any ingredients that they wanted into the soup that started off as a stone and water. The stone soup ended up being delicious. There were also a great variety of desserts such as dessert pizza, apple crumble, poached pears and custard. The food was amazing and the gathering was great. Each house had a table that they decorated and sat at together. At the start of the feast there were some prayers read out by few people in different languages. Toby, Joe and Isaak performed a prayer in Hebrew, Simone P and Emmanuelle performed a prayer in Greek and Anastasia performed a prayer in Russian. The whole feast was great and enjoyed by all.

On Saturday the 6th of June Saturday Night Fever was held as a Disco. The Disco was organized by the TIC group, with help from two staff members. The TIC group arranged with approval of the teachers to have an extra hour later at the disco. The night was really fun and enjoyable. The girls dressed and looked their best and the guys enjoyed goofing around and dancing. The decorations, flashing lights and smoke machine really added to the fun and excitement. Half way through the night there was also glitter falling from the ceiling. The dancing and singing along was really powerful and most really enjoyed the whole night.

Every Saturday, houses spend the day with their sister or brother house. Normally, they go off campus and have a great time with their house leader and house buddy. Last Saturday, we went to Ballarat. When we got there we went to the closest shopping center. The teachers let everyone go their separate ways and buy whatever clothes they needed. There was a food court where most people started off and had some lunch. In the shopping center there were many clothes shops which included Target and Myers; after so long of not being able to buy clothes everyone was at Myers looking for warm clothes. After shopping for an hour we had to meet back at the food court. The majority of people had bought something in the end. While we were coming back every one talked about how much fun they had.

With only two days until Presentation Day everyone is stressing about their five assessment tasks. Most of all I think people are stressing over how they have to perform in front of parents. Now I will interview someone about their project:

Interviewing Tom

1.How are you going on your project?

Very good because I have finished my practical, my speech my essay and my web page. I am just about ready to present.

2. Are you nervous about Presentation Day?

Yes, because not only do I have to do my presentation I’m in circus as well so this means I have to prepare for more things.

3. How is being nervous about Presentation Day affecting your everyday life at Clunes?

It's making me a lot more stressed and grumpy and I get angry a lot more than I usually do.

4. Does it make you more nervous that you parents will be there?

No, because I know that they will support me even if I make mistakes.

On Tuesday everyone had his or her Challenge by Choice day. I was in Leadership and problem solving. In Leadership we split into teams and then were given our first clue, this clue took us to Nin’s farm where we had to either fill one full bag with horse manure using our hands or two full bags with a tool. My team decided on the hands, after we had finished and our hands were sanitized we got our next clue and drove to our next destination. So it continued, with teams getting clues and then doing their challenge and then getting their next clue and so on. There were fourteen clues. Our last challenge was to shoot balls through a hoop, or pick up things from a circle without touching the ground. Unfortunately my team lost this challenge, and then the teams raced up to the church step to see who would be the winners. Alas my team didn’t win, but we all had an awesome time being leaders and problem solvers.

This Monday was the final Mentor session before Presentation Day. This meant that everyone had to hurry to finish their projects, but first we had to write a speech. We also had a discussion about how to do a speech well, and then we got on to writing them. After lunch we had to stop speech writing and move onto practicals. Some people who were building things were at Hannah Street House, and the others were in the Jube. So we spent the day working, well trying to work extremely hard to finish these. Hopefully everyone is finished by Presentation Day!

Last Tuesday everyone had their Challenge by Choice day. One of the choices was Quiet. For Quiet we went to the Ashram, which was near Creswick. When we first arrived we went and took our shoes off and went into a warm room. We all spread out and started our relaxation yoga. We all had some laughs and some found it hard to be quiet. We then had a break and had some tea and fruit. We then went into our second yoga sessions, which was where we all had blankets and were lying there. A lady then spoke us through the session. A couple of people fell asleep during the session. After the session had finished we went and had lunch. After lunch we went for a walk through the forest while it was raining. When we got back from the walk we asked one of the people about the Ashram and what it is about. When we were finished asking questions we got back on the bus and headed back to campus.

Last Saturday the running group had their 7km compulsory run. It was raining so we knew there were going to be lots of puddles to splash around in. We all headed off in our pack. Before we had turned the first corner people were already splashing and having heaps of fun. It rained the whole time we were running and there were some massive puddles for us to run through and splash around in. When we got back everyone was wet. It was a really fun run.