It is the end of Week 4 and it is hard to believe that we are half way through the Clunes Journey for Group 39.

The students are busy with their Clunes Projects. Their essay drafts are due in today and many students are also well on the way with their practical pieces. There are a diverse range of topics and the students are really engaging in and taking responsibility for their own learning. Presentation Day will be upon us in no time.

This week, students have had focus days on Place and Time and Self. Tonight we have the Boys to Men Campout and the Girls Gathering as part of the Self course. The campus is very much looking forward to these events.

Next week all students are involved in the Collective Potential program. The aim of this program is for students to see what they can achieve for others when they work together. Students are placed in one of four groups: the Earth Team Workers, working in the Hepburn Spa area undertaking revegetation work; River Rescue, working on the Ullina Landcare site planting trees and fencing; Make and Create, who are creating art pieces from recycled materials which will be entered into Creswick art exhibitions; and What Happens on Tour, which is working together to produce a music CD for Group 39 and will hold a number of performances for the community.

The circus performers have chosen their apparatus and are seen all over the campus practicing with hoops, poi, contact juggling, diablo, unicycles and spinning plates. This adds a lovely feel to the campus. The musicians are a particularly talented group this term and last Performance Night we were given a taste of what they have to offer. Both Circus and Music are great avenues for students to express themselves and develop new talents and skills as part of their Clunes journey.

Students have really enjoyed the Visiting Weekends and the campus is always buzzing on Sunday nights with the sharing of stories. Thank you so much for your support.

It was a Thursday night, and two clusters, Red and Yellow, were getting ready for it.
Yellow got points for arriving first. Both clusters got points for the silent walk there, then we had 4 minutes to think and practice our chant. We had to impress our guest judge Ms Kerr, and yellow got the points for the chant. The next game was sort of like tag, one team had 2 balls and had to hold the ball and touch someone to get them out. And they couldn’t move while holding the ball. Yellow did very well in the game and won again. The next game was a basket ball one, where each team stood in a line and one person stood at a cone while throwing it to each person then the last person had to run around a cone at the other end of the court. Yellow once again won. The next game was devil sticks. There was a player from each team on each base line with a stick, and they couldn’t leave the plank (the base line), and no one could go inside the blue semi circle. The red team did very well in this game, leading for the beginning. But when the time was up it was equal 6 – 6. Two extra minutes were added to the time and when it was up again, it was 7 – 7. More time was added but once again, it ended 8 – 8. Two more minutes were added and this time, red came out 11 while yellow had 9. It was a great finish. Red then offered to clean the floor, while yellow started their silent walk. Red then left but didn’t do well on the walk due to some people having water fights with their drink bottles. But all in all, it was a fantastic night, and well done to both teams.

Instead of community cooking with Ivana, each house had a member from the community had cook with them. It was a very fun thing to do, and the community members were really nice. All of them had great stories to share. It was fun to just have some lay-back time cooking and listening to stories, and meeting a new person. It was a really good thing to do, because we were able to see what its like to have grown up in a different environment.

On Monday night we had cluster sports. The teams that were playing were Blue and Green. First we had the meeting in the Jubilee Hall to see which cluster got there first and got the bonus points. Green were first and got those extra valuable bonus points. We then had the silent walk down to the community center. Green got the full 50 points for that as Blue got none. We then had our chants, which were based on the words Blast, Fast and Last. Both Blue and Green came up with great chants although Green also won that aspect of the night. We then got into the games. The three games were Over Ball, Hoop Catch and Tag Ball. We played Over Ball first, a great game were we had the team lined up in a straight line. The person at the front then had to pass it to everyone in the team. Once the ball reached the last person that person then ran to a cone at the other end of the court and dribbled back and then passed to everyone. This continued until the last person had done it. Blue then had finally won something for the first time that night. We then moved onto tag ball. The aim of the game was to tag everyone on the other team with a squishy ball while in a rectangle marked out by cones. Once someone was tagged or they stepped outside that line they were out. They were also out if they were tagged by the ball. Our final game of the night was Hoop Catch. In Hoop Catch we had one person in the basketball key and they had a plastic stick. The rest of the players were trying to get a rope hoop on the end of the plastic stick. The whole catch was that the person with the stick had to have one foot on the baseline all the time. Green then won and we walked back. Green got full points on the silent walk back, while blue lost 25 points.

On Tuesday one quarter of us had a class called Golden Era. Golden Era class is a class that is all about the gold rush. In our previous class we split up to do a project on an aspect of the gold rush. The group that I was in chose to do a project on Peter Lalor. Peter Lalor was an Irish miner in the gold rush and he stood up for the miner’s rights so that they had fair rights and pay. Peter Lalor then started a riot that is famous called the Eureka Stockade. In the afternoon of our class we got into a bus and went to a place called Amherst. In Amherst we went up a mountain called Quartz Mountain. Once we got there with our guide Atrel we walked up to the top of the mountain. We had a look at the view and then walked down one side of the mountain to have a look at a mine that had been caved in because a couple young brothers went exploring and died in the mine. We then moved on to the Chinese Baths. After a full day of mining the miners would go into two different baths, one of the baths was to wash all the dirt off and the other mine was to relax all their muscles after a hard days work. We then moved onto someone’s property to have a look at two eagles nests. On this property there were six eagles nests. We had a look at one small one and one large one. They were fascinating to see and talk about. We then went back on to the bus to drop Atrel back off then we headed backed to campus.

For Saturday Night Fever we had Performance Night. There were some great acts coming from some of the students and even a couple of the extremely talented teachers. Some of the acts included singing, beat-boxing, card tricks, juggling and people playing musical instruments. One of the highlights was the two teachers who sang. We were amazed at how good they were. Also somebody beat-boxed and raised the roof of the Bluestone. It was a good night that we all enjoyed it a lot.

On Monday some students were driven to Ballarat to buy materials for their project. My project was to make a cricket bat and two others were doing the same thing as me so we went to Bunnings and got some pieces of pine wood. It didn’t cost as much as we expected it to be. Some of the others went to Spotlight and got some fabrics and other little bits and pieces. At the end we went to the shopping centre and I saw Laurie from the Clunes Football Club and had a short chat to him. All of us are now ready and excited to start our projects.

Since the start of our time in Clunes there has been a compulsory run or fitness program. The running program do a sequence of training runs in order to work their way towards the Beckworth run, which is where the whole group runs 10 kms out to the base of Mt Beckworth and then run two kilometers to the top. For the first two weeks of the program the group ran three kilometers and just this week began to run five. The running group is working amazingly well together and are extremely encouraging. Every person is to thank for the progress and assistance of others that is happening.

In Modern Era, the class got photos of the buildings on Fraser Street and we all sketched and drew them. The group did exceptionally well with the drawings and after the drawings were finished we had to research the building that we drew. The aim is to get the drawings of the buildings and their history in order to make it look like Fraser Street.

Netball runs every Tuesday night. It gives the Wesley girls a chance to play netball whilst at Clunes. The Wesley girls are driven down to the community centre where each week we face a different opponent. The teams we play are people from the community of Clunes. There is a wide range of ages mixing from 12 years to 55 years. On Tuesday night we went down to the community centre, Wesley played a good game with some fantastic efforts by a lot of players, but unfortunately could not get our first win on the board going down by 11. The final score was 9 to 20.

On Tuesday, the Pre-History group went to Mt Franklin. We met at the bus car park at 10:30 in warm clothes and with a drink bottle. The bus trip was quite long and we had a stop along the way to point out some interesting geographical features. We drove up the steep driveway to the top of Mt Franklin, and into the crater. The majority of the mountain was covered in Pine Trees, and there were a group of California Redwoods in the crater. We stopped and got out of the Ford Transit and had a snack. Nin then talked to us about prehistoric life in Australia, in particular about Animal fossils, and the trees that were living back then. We had lunch, and then we talked about volcanoes in the area. Finally, we walked up the mountain and walked along the top, which was challenging for some people. We had a look at the geology of the area on the way. We arrived back at the buses and drove back to campus.

For some students at Clunes, visiting weekend was last weekend. Everyone had to be back by 6pm on the Sunday night. Coming back onto campus after spending time with our families, a movie was a relaxing and perfect idea. For those who didn’t go on visiting weekend it was the best way to finish off a fun but tiring week. The movie was a smash hit with everyone. The movie was Yes Man. It was about a man who has to say yes to everything he is asked. Everyone really enjoyed watching the movie and there were heaps of laughs throughout the whole night.

On Thursday, we had Making Connections. This is a time for the clusters that are not doing cluster sports, to complete some of their work and/or socialise. With logbook questions and our second essay draft due in on Friday, many used the time to do work. The people that don’t do work play table tennis, or talk. This is an important time in the week because it gives you a chance to finish work.

Today is the day were all waiting for. Today we find out what older men think of their lives and how they can help us. The weather is going to be a crisp 15 degrees today, although the temperature will drop during the night, so remember to bring very warm clothes and your sleeping bag. Also remember, tonight we speak of one item that is of great importance to us. Plenty of older men and dads are coming up tonight. Twenty-five men are all going to be sleeping under the one roof. It will be interesting.

Thursday was the day of self-class. Self-class involves learning about ourselves, the dimensions of self and how we evolve as we get older. Of course Thursdays class was in accordance with Friday’s campout with the older men. We studied our pearls of wisdom and what they are. Pearls of wisdom are quotes that inspire thinking or quotes that cause one to realize something. Some of these quotes include:

“With our thoughts we make the world” Buddha

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
Henry David Thoreau

After that inspiring period, and of course our lunch break, we decided it would be appropriate to study stereotypes. We managed to divide Wesley College into a group of about 12 stereotypes some of which include “Nerds, Jocks and Gamers”. Soon after we were exposed to the bad side of stereotypes and how it can be considered racism, although racism is mentioned only in the most extreme cases of stereotypes, such as whole countries.

Afterwards we learnt how to handle bad times and ways to get through them, for example, one way to get through a stressful period in your life is to do yoga according to a student, or another way is to visit the beach or in tremendously stressful cases - break something.

Each Thursday a group of five or six Wesley @ Clunes students volunteer to help run the AUSKICK program at the Clunes Primary School. The head of the program is the primary school principal Andrew Parry. There are around eighty students from prep to year 6. Last Thursday, the Wesley @ Clunes students took 10 students and ran some prepared drills for the kids, while Andrew ran a game with all the other kids. These drills involved handballing, kicking into a target, circle work, kick to kick and a game at the end.

Each Monday we have mentor day from 9.30am – 4pm with short breaks and lunch, it is a very long and tiring day. We have been spending time on our essays, interviewing and a little bit of work on our practicals. We are split up into four different mentor groups that will be presenting on Presentation Day. We also have study time on Tuesday and Wednesday for an hour. In study time, we have to be in our own bedrooms working on our projects.