It has been a busy week for Clunes Group 39. They are settling in well and are starting to adjust to the rhythms and routines of the Wesley @ Clunes program. It has been cold and this morning was exceptionally so, with a big frost. The beanies and scarves are being put to good use. The first week of the Clunes Journey focuses on orientating students to the program, campus and the town of Clunes. It has been a week of trying new things such as house cleaning, cooking, rosters, the Running and Fitness programs and making decisions about the Clunes Project. All students have visited Sovereign Hill and have had an introduction to Clunes and its history. This week students have had a set menu and each day the cook from each house attends a cooking lesson. We have been very impressed with the standard of cooking. Students will do their first major food shopping tomorrow at the local IGA. Tomorrow is House Day and students will spend the morning doing their first major house clean and in the afternoon, staff and students will walk up Mount Beckworth. The students are currently in Friday afternoon activities including art, music, circus skills and cooking. Staff are very impressed with Group 39 and believe that they can keep up the good work. I am looking forward to seeing you all at the Group 39 Film night next week. If you are unable to attend there will be a copy of the DVD available at each campus reception.

Last Thursday all Cluster houses participated in a mass recreational activity called “Cluster Sports”. The event is held once a week from now on until Clunes finishes. Last nights event consisted of all Clusters doing really fun activities in the Clunes community center near the football oval. The event normally requires students to wear their Cluster colors. These are red, blue, green or yellow. Almost everyone attended the event in his or her Cluster colors. Last nights event was a success. The main activities were a basketball shooting activity, the making of a Cluster chant and getting different Clusters in a line in order by day of the month in which they were born and others. There was also an event, which required the Clusters to hold hands and get in a circle and try to get a hoop through everyone. The next Cluster sports event will consist of different activities. This first event was really fun.

Departing from Glen Waverley at 10.30 on Sunday morning, we waved sad goodbyes to our families, but happily begun our eight week long journey. A few hours later, we had finally arrived at the small picturesque town called Clunes, where we are to live for the next two months. Upon arrival, we were welcomed and taken on a tour of the campus. It was interesting to meet and converse with Clunes residents in the Town Hall for afternoon tea. Following that was a fire drill and a talk about kitchen safety. It’s quite an overwhelming experience living in a house with five, six or seven other teenagers, and no adults. Clunes so far has been exciting, and I’m sure its only going to get better from here.

It would be hard to say that the students from Wesley would not miss going and signing out and going down the street. For a lot of the students the bakery is the best place to go and get a good cake or a pie. Widow Twankey’s is the place to get all the lollies, the Top Shop is the place to get fish and chips and other deep fried food, the post office is where the students get there letters and packages. But it isn’t good for some, there isn’t enough time to get there to get what they want and get back to he campus. Strikes are being handed out for students that are late by 30 seconds. The students reckon that the sign out should be extended and that staff should be more reasonable when it come to signing in.

Clunes Group 39 is only beginning the Clunes program, and establishing an understanding of its components. Throughout the first week of the program, the students have been introduced to the Mentor Program. In this program, the students are to choose a subject for their project that has a connection with Rural Australia, Clunes, or Communities. The project consists of a number of components, including a 1000 word essay, practical element, and a speech to their parents on presentation day. Group 39 is divided up into mentor groups, which assist you with your project. Each group has a leader, and specific staff has been allocated to be leaders of the mentor groups. Students are soon to be starting their projects, once the Mentor Program has commenced.

Each Clunes group during the first week go to Sovereign Hill. Clunes Group 39 went on Wednesday 22nd of July and Thursday 23rd of July. The tour consists of going down into a mining tunnel, learning about the history of gold and learning about the different types of aboriginal weapons. There was also plenty of free time to explore the place, most people went shopping and had some lunch from the bakery. The main aim of Sovereign Hill is to try to give ideas to the students for their Clunes Project. Overall the day was fun and exciting and it certainly helped a lot of students with ideas and information for their project.

One student is everyone’s personal alarm in the mornings, she comes in knocking on the door and turning on the lights at 7am to get us ready to walk as a house to the Jube for morning meetings at 7:45am. After the morning meeting we have breakfast at the dining table together with the music turned up loud. We talk about what’s happening for the rest of the day. Next we clean up our house for morning inspections at 8:45am. After 9am we have our normal classes then come back for lunch at around 12-12:30pm. We have lunch together, again at the dining table with music. 1-1:30pm is when we have another session, afterwards at 4:15pm we either sign out or do the fitness/running programme depending what day it is. 6pm is when we have dinner together and clean up the dishes. At 9pm we are all together down stairs or upstairs in one of the bedrooms talking and listening to music, then 9:30pm we head off to our bedrooms, lights out at 10pm.

In our house we cook in pairs. One’s the head chef and the other person is the assistant. The assistant helps the chef and does the dishes and sets the table. You can choose to have dessert if you want to. At about 4:15pm the cooks have to go to the Jubilee Hall (Jube) kitchen and miss out on sign out time to have a cooking class with Ivana. Ivana tells us what we are cooking that night and shows us how to cook it. At about 5:00 pm the cooks would go back into their houses and start cooking. While the cooks are cooking, the assistant would start setting the table and slowly cleaning up. When dinner is ready we would all sit on the table and eat together and talk about everything. After dinner the assistant chef starts doing the dishes and the other housemates would help clean. That’s what basically happens every night in our house.