As we approach the end of week 3, the students are demonstrating a genuine openness and a willingness to continue to build positive relationships with the staff and their fellow students. The development of the individual and an appreciation of the importance to live and work alongside one another are the keystones to this amazing experience.

The course that focuses on Self started this week and students explored the Six Dimensions of Self and how they are interrelated and make us who we are. Different periods of time have been investigated in the Place and Time course and students are starting to make connections with all the experiences that Clunes provides. This interconnectedness is so powerful for the students and the ability to transfer understandings, knowledge and skills from one learning domain to another is extremely important.

Tomorrow is the first of three parent visiting weekends. May I remind all parents that students may be collected from 4.00pm Saturday and must be returned by 6.00pm Sunday. We ask that parents do not make requests to change these times as it does have a negative impact on Saturday’s program.

On Saturdays we run House Meetings and the students are also involved in a more rigorous cleaning of the house – a real team approach. This is a time for House Leaders to have meetings with individual students about their progress and address any issues that may have arisen.

We look forward to seeing you over the next few weekends and hope that you enjoy the hospitality of Clunes and the region. Please get your child take you to the places they have been and to let them demonstrate how much they have learnt about Clunes and the surrounding area.

Suzanne Camm - Head of Wesley @ Clunes
Colin Dobson – Director of Primary and Middle Years Programs

On Sunday, the Beckworth by Bike team got together ready for a fun trip to the base of Mount Beckworth. Unfortunately for us though, Mother Nature had a different idea. There were severe wind warnings, which meant that we weren’t allowed to leave the township of Clunes. As disappointed as we were, we didn’t dwell on it for long. Soon enough, we had gotten the bikes out and were riding around Clunes. It was a fairly relaxed and laid back ride, apart from a ‘slight’ hill that Steve thought would be fun to ride up. Before long though, we decided to head back home as the freezing wind was really starting to get to us. Once we got back, we decided to give bike maintenance a go. We washed the bikes, oiled the chains, changed the flat tires and made sure that they were all working properly. It was a fun hands-on activity that most of us had never done before. Beckworth by Bike was a course that all of us enjoyed and hopefully we’ll get the chance to ride to Beckworth later on in the term.

On Tuesday, we had our first Self session at Clunes. We started off together in the Jube where we were given an introduction to the course by the leaders. They showed us a Powerpoint about the elements of self and then we had a bit of fun finding out some unknown facts about the leaders. After that, we split off into two groups of boys and two groups of girls. In the girl groups, we started off by talking about interesting scars we have and about our most embarrassing moments, to help us get to know each other more. There were some very interesting and funny stories shared! After lunch, we did a Timeline activity where each of us drew a line that showed all the ups and downs of our lives. It helped us connect as a group as many of us realised that we had overcome the same problems. All the girls then came together again and we did a window activity. Using random bits and pieces we were given, we made a collage with items that were symbolic of our life up to year six. It was a lot of fun and was almost like a trip down memory lane. Self was completely different to anything that we would normally do at school but still a whole heap of fun.

On Thursday, our ‘Place & Time’ subjects commenced. This consists of 4 classes; Aboriginal History, Golden Era, Modern Era and Pre-History. Pre-History is a class where we learn about the times before Aboriginal history, such as prehistoric times. In our first session, we had an overview of the history of the world. We started at the big bang theory, and worked our way towards the time of the dinosaurs. We then watched an episode of the ABC series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’, titled ‘Spirits of the Ice Forest’. In the second session of the day, we started working on our assignments. We have to research some of the animals that lived in the times when all the continents of the Earth were connected (Pangea). We then had to draw a rough sketch of the animal that we are researching. Throughout the remainder of Clunes, we will have 2 more sessions on this subject.

Last Friday, our first essay drafts were due in. We had to write an essay, answering a question about our project topic. The essay draft has to be at least 800 words long, but the final copy has to be between 900 and 1100 words. For some students, this is the largest essay that they have had to write before, but many have found it easier than they thought. This term, we have had a wide range of project topics chosen, anything from sport, to the environment.

It was a perfect night for what was about to happen. It was of course, Thursday night, so that mean two teams would be pitted against each other in a bid to win the most points and bring pride to their house. The night opened up with the silent walk from the Clunes campus to the community center; the silent walk involves great self-discipline as we must be extremely quiet or our team quickly loses the much-needed 50 points. When the two teams arrive at the Community Center both teams have about 4 minutes to prepare a chant. Both teams made an exemplary effort to create the best chant, but of course Green team prevailed with a witty and rhyming chant. Then the first game was played, it was called “Jedi-Ball” where two teams are given a Jedi. The Jedi must stand in his designated area. A team of six then tries to hit the opposing teams Jedi with a ball. For every hit you get you score one point. The game ended in a nail-biting 4-3 with red team winning, although there were a few mix ups with the scoring and a few shots that should’ve been counted that weren’t. The second game was a basketball game where players all stand around certain areas of the three point line. Green won 15 – 7. The last game was a game of continuous cricket, Red team decided to bat first, and they scored 31 runs in 8 minutes of Continuous Cricket, Green team came on, and one player scored 17 runs for the team in 2 minutes, Green teams efforts slowed down after that because most of the batsmen couldn’t get a hit off, then at 2:30 a player got bowled out, and another player was desperate to get a hit off, he ran so fast, that he “fell” and knocked over the bin, which was acting as a wicket. For that the player was sent off and 1 minute was deducted from their time. The game ended with a close score of 30-31, although plenty of runs weren’t counted for Green, and Red seemed to be wasting time.

For movie night we watched the movie ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. The movie is about a boy named Ferris Bueller, who was the kid in High School who never got caught, had fun doing whatever he wanted and was popular with everybody. On this particular day in the movie, Ferris decides he is taking the day off. Because "How can anyone be expected to handle school on a day like this". Ferris calls his best friend, Cameron, who is always sick, and tells him to pick him up, because Ferris does not have a car, and he wants to show Cameron a good time before High School is all over and wants him to have something good to remember about it.

During the ‘Time and Place’ studies one of the classes is Golden Era. In Golden Era we learn about the more interesting things about the Gold rush, which includes visiting old mines and learning about the corruption in the Gold rush in Clunes and Ballarat. For assessment we have to create a piece of work that will help teach others about the Gold Rush. It is a very interesting topic that is unlike any other Gold studies that we have done in the past.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is a compulsory fitness or run program. In the fitness program on Mondays, the group goes through a strength circuit that focuses on leg, back, arm and stomach muscles. We go through the circuit twice. On Wednesday the group focuses on ball skills and team skills so we usually play a game of soccer, basketball or netball. On Friday the group has a relaxation session with some Yoga, which is taken by one of our teachers. This is a great way to finish the week.

Each Saturday night at Clunes there is a Saturday Night Fever. Saturday 1st August was 80s night. This was an opportunity for the students at Clunes to dress up and take a step back in time to the unforgettable era of the 1980s. There was big hair, bold make-up, statement outfits and hit songs such as Thriller by Michael Jackson, and Tainted Love by Soft Cell. Prizes were also given out for the best air guitar solo, best model walk, best moonwalk, best dressed, biggest hair and limbo champion. Overall 80s night was a great night for people to dance, have fun and forget about some of the stresses that comes with Clunes.

Green Fingers is a course that takes place on Sunday afternoons. It is a 3-hour session that teaches students about weeding, planting, and maintaining plants and veggie patches. Green Fingers is different from learning in a classroom seated at a desk because the classroom is outdoors in the dirt with the worms and the bugs and it is a lot of fun. Apart from it being a great way to learn more about gardening, it is a way for students to socialise and meet people from the other campuses.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday community cooking occurs. Six students from all of our campus are allocated to cook for two houses each. On Wednesday the meal they were to cook was Pumpkin Soup and Sticky Date Pudding. They began cooking the Sticky Date Pudding first as it would take the longest. They mixed all the ingredients together to make the mixture, which was then put in the oven to cook. The pumpkin soup didn’t take long to cook, but it still tasted great!

Last Friday in Creative Art students began drawing a portrait that Picasso drew of himself. We tried drawing it the right way up, and upside down to see, which was easier. After that we drew a sculpture that Kerry had set up in the middle of the class. The class finished off by drawing eyes, focusing on depth and perception. We look forward to seeing what we do in Art this week.

Last Tuesday the students split up into groups where they went to different places to talk about themselves and who they are as a person. This was a great opportunity for the students to share and learn about each other. As the day went on some students became less interested in the subject but they went on. The student learnt and discovered new things about each other. The day was a success even if the student didn’t enjoy all of it. These lessons will be going for the next 5 weeks.

The running program has been a great success so far; it has been a big running group and is looking to being a successful one as well. The runners’ confidence is steadily rising and the runners’ speed improving. The running group might be able to get the biggest group ever to the top of Mount Beckworth. The runners will be tested today with ten minutes added to the 3km with hills to get better prepared for Mount Beckworth. Good luck to all runners.