We’re reaching the end of week 3, and the program has continued with the students enjoying fantastic spring weather and looking forward to the first of the Visiting Weekends.

The course that focuses on Self started this week, where students explored the Six Dimensions of Self and how they are interrelated and make us who we are. During the course students demonstrated 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.

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.

On October the 26th I did my first Place and Time lesson, which was Pre-history. We started the lesson by listening to our teacher talk about life and how it was formed. After this we talked about dinosaurs then followed this up by watching Walking With Dinosaurs. We then had a rest then when we returned to class we learnt some information on what our project was going to be. It was a group project and we were researching information on dinosaurs and also drawing pictures of them. We also drew the geological timeline, which was interesting. We finished the day by doing more work on our projects.

Sign out time happens everyday at lunchtime, then at 4.15 except when we have running or fitness. When we sign out we have to go with another person, our hats and your student key card. When we sign out we are allowed to go down to the main street (Fraser Street) and up to the Top Shop. If we pass the creek that is out of bounds and we get an immediate Village Payback. Once we’re at the main street people often go to the bakery, Widow Twankeys, the supermarket and the post office. Since it’s the summer time people often go to Widow Twankeys to get a nice refreshing icecream or beverage. At the bakery the savory rolls are one of the most popular due to their low price of $1.20 and they fill us up. People often go to the supermarket to get more milk and bread for their house. Otherwise some people just sign out to have a nice walk.

Every Tuesday we do a Place and Time class. One of the classes is called Golden Era. In this class we learn about the more ‘interesting’ side of gold. The first thing we did was go to a lookout to compare Clunes then and now. After that we went to the sight of the Chinese Riot. Then we visited the sight of the Australasian Mining disaster. It is the spot where 22 men died when their mine flooded. After that we went to the Creswick Cemetery. After lunch we visited Amherst, which was once a bustling town of over 40,000 but is now just a pile of bricks with a few prospectors. Then we found the Aboriginal drinking holes. What fascinating history. Then we journeyed to the Chinese Baths, which is where people used to bathe. Amazing! Then we went to a mountain that was covered with quartz and we found an old mine. Unfortunately we had an injury when a member of the class cut his knee. Learning is Fun!

The running program is one of the best things at Clunes. The running program incorporates all of the best things in life. It promotes teamwork, encouragement, fitness, mental strength and mostly having fun. Everyone is improving out of sight and there is always someone to help through the run. The running team showed their solidarity on Wednesday when everyone got behind one member of the group and helped finish his run. But the group will be tested today with an extra 10 minutes of hills!!!!! How will they fare? If the group sticks together and encourages everyone there is no way we can fail.

On Saturday night everyone went up to the Clunes Showgrounds for a bonfire. Some people started a game of soccer on the oval whilst other people sat around and talked with friends. When it started getting dark the soccer game stopped and everyone started roasting marshmallows on the fire. Later on there was music playing and a whole heap of people broke out into ‘Wesley Now and Always.’ It was a really fun night and lots of people enjoyed just sitting around the fire watching the flames flicker.

On Sunday night everyone went to the Jube to watch a movie together. The movie we watched was ‘School of Rock.’ Although nearly everyone had seen it before everyone enjoyed the movie. There were some really funny moments and although the movie was stopped with about 5 minutes to go I think everyone had a really good night. It was a good time just to chill out and relax and even some people fell asleep. Movie night was really good and I enjoyed it.

On Monday night Yellow Cluster and Blue Cluster faced off against each other at the Clunes Community Center. The first part of the night was the silent walk down to the Community Center. After that each Cluster had to put on a short show to convince the judges that that team was on the moon by using chants and dancing. The first game of the night was Jedi Ball. The two clusters were evenly matched at first but Blue broke away to win the first event 3-1. Next up was a game of tag ball. Each Cluster took turns as the taggers and the ones being tagged. After some initial controversy Yellow took home the points. With only one game left the ledger was all square at one game a piece. The deciding game was continuous cricket. Blue batted first and posted a nice total. Yellow batted valiantly but couldn’t chase down Blue’s total. After the silent walk back up to the Wesley Clunes Campus the points were tallied and it was Blue who came out victorious 365 points to 360.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we have study time. Study time goes from 7:15 to 8:45. It is an allocated time slot for us to work on our Clunes Projects. During this time we can do our logbook questions for the week, our essay plans or drafts and anything else relating to our Clunes Projects. Study time is also a nice occasion to relax or have some quiet time. It means that we don’t get bogged down with work and can fully enjoy the rest of our Clunes Experience.

Self is a course all about why we are, who we are. We split into 4 groups, 2 boy classes and 2 girl classes. The Self-course is done to help students learn and understand about the dimensions of being an individual. The dimensions of Self are, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Spiritual, Social and Intellectual. Some of the activities the girls group 1 undertook was we got into pairs and told stories about our life. We did this activity to learn more about each other and work on sharing. We also made a timeline of our lives so far. We didn’t write anything on the timeline, it was just a line with ups and downs. As we told the group our lives so far, the line would go up and down as we went through hard times in our lives and then overcame these tough stages. Our last activity for the day was to create a collage of things that remind us of our childhood or trigger events that occurred. We stuck these images on a picture of Mt Beckworth. Self was a worthwhile course that looked on sharing with a group that we may not usually share with. Self is now one of my favourite courses.

In week 2 we learnt about 4 new courses we could choose from that we would be learning about over the next 5 weeks. The course that I chose was Indigenous History. The main idea for this topic is that “Places Change Over Time.” In Indigenous History we learn about the local Indigenous tribe of the Dja Dja Wurrung. On our first day of this course we spent the morning talking about what we already knew about Indigenous people and what we still want to learn. We drew a timeline of the history of Indigenous Australians beginning over 40,000 years ago where Aboriginal culture began. Our last significant date was 2008 when the apology to the stolen generation took place. In the afternoon we went on an excursion visiting significant Aboriginal local places. We went to Mt Greenoch where we learnt about Major Mitchell and Aboriginal people, we went to the Maternity tree where Dja Dja Wurrung people use to give birth and we went to a water hole where Dja Dja Wurrung people use to collect their water from. Learning about the Indigenous Culture was very interesting and I can’t wait for the other classes we have on it.

Every Saturday morning there is a big morning inspection where every house do a big clean up. There shouldn’t be any dust anywhere around the house, including the windows, outside and inside, must be all cleaned. All the belongings of other people must be returned to the owners. Dishes must be all washed, all dust must be swept and the towels must be washed in the washing machine. There is a lot more cleaning to do around the house. It is a busy day.

On Saturday, House 6 and 10 went with their leaders for an activity; they went to a park where they just hang around, get an ice cream and play a soccer game. The soccer game was really tight; at the end it was a 6-6 draw. There were many fantastic shots on goals and many superb goals. After the game everyone was exhausted and hot due to the weather that was over 20°C. Soon after we went back to our houses and chilled around.

On Thursday this week we had some sessions called Self. Self is something where boys and girls are split up and then put into two groups. It is a place where we can get stuff off our chests if we really want to. We talk about the problems that a normal teenaged boy would have to face in their normal day-to-day life. Our teacher takes our group and I think the way he took it was really good because not only did we share stuff about ourselves but he also shared things that he wouldn’t normally share, so I think it was a really good session and I can’t wait until the next one.

On Monday I went to community cooking and we made Chicken Cacciatore. I cooked with people from different houses. It wasn’t exactly the most productive lesson and we messed around a lot but we got the job done. Without the teachers help we probably wouldn’t have cooked as well as we did but it was a bit of fun and we learnt how to make something new that we had never heard of before.