It seems like only yesterday that we were welcoming Group 40 to Clunes. They are an amazing group of young people who can be proud of their achievements this term. Thank you for your support in attending Presentation Day on Sunday. I’m sure you will all agree that it was a wonderful day. I spoke with the students Monday night and congratulated them on their performances.

This final week at Clunes is a very busy one. On Monday students worked with Wesley Melbourne staff on transition back to the city, participated in the Mount Beckworth Day yesterday and a full day Solo today. Students will be working on their Self Assessments through the week, enabling them to reflect upon their challenges and achievements in both the Clunes Project and their time in the Houses, and will be competing in the Cluster Sports Final and starting the big clean up.

After the All Night Movie Night on Friday night we have an official closing ceremony and final House Meeting on Saturday morning.

Students will be available for pick up at 10am on Saturday. Please try to be on time as it is difficult for students who are waiting around. If you are running more than 20 minutes late please call us. Thank you all for your support over the term and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Circus class was very hectic with everyone going over their routines. Everyone was practicing their different apparatus, whether it was the girls doing hula hoops or poi, the comical juggling acts or the diablo kids getting their routine down. The individual acts were practicing just as hard, with the Yoyo boy, staff and scarves. Then the acrobats came out and did their routine with different lifts, throws, holds and flips. The acrobats have to work as a team for the show to run smoothly. They have to have trust in their spotters and bases. Everyone is practicing hard now for the final performance.

Everyone got up on Saturday morning and woke up to drizzling rain but that did not dampen everyone spirits because today was Show Day. Every student volunteered to help out at the show, maybe at the petting zoo, lunchroom, photography or delivering refreshments to judges. But not only did Wesley help at the show but also won plenty of awards. Wesley won eleven first prize awards ranging from cakes, photography to garden produce sculptures. We also won eight second prize awards. We all had free time at the show and walked around going on rides and buying food. Then everyone sat down for the great music concert.

On Thursday Evening it was the last official Cluster Sports night before the finals. Yellow squared off against Red for the battle for second place behind Green. Red would need a big night to catch up to Yellow and they got it underway by being the first Cluster to arrive. Both sides did well in the silent walk down, but it was Red who won the Doctor Who themed chant. The first event of the night was Rebound Ball. After a long epic battle Red came out on top. The next event was Around the World. Although Yellow scored well but they were outmatched once again by a dominant Red. The final game to close off the Cluster Season was Ultimate Frisbee. Yellow got their first win of the night in a come from behind victory. After the silent walk back up to campus the scores were tallied and it was Red who were victorious, scoring the highest score of the term with 585. Unfortunately for Red it wasn’t enough to knock Yellow out of second and now the focus turns to the Finals next week.

Every Wednesday we have a house meeting with our house leaders. House meetings are a time for us to chat to our house leaders and discuss any issues we might have in our houses or at Clunes. We fill out a couple of surveys about our time in Clunes. It’s also a nice time to reflect on the previous week and see if we have changed anything in our house or implemented new ideas and see how they worked out. Sometimes in house meetings we go out for lunch or do an activity with our house leaders but mostly it’s a chance to for them to catch up with us and see how things are going

On Monday morning we started our preparation for Presentation Day on Sunday. We started off talking about how best to write a speech and the different ways we could present it. Then we got a sheet of guidelines to follow, which helped us come up with ideas about what we could put in our speeches to make them sound interesting. Having the time to do the speech preparation has been very helpful. We got to all learn the techniques and different ways we could present to try and make our speeches stand out from everyone else’s.

On Wednesday we had our last Community Living class for the rest of our lives. We talked about our goals from the start of the term until now and whether or not we had completed them yet. If we hadn’t completed them then our main aim for the last 10 days left of Clunes was to try and succeed in completing all of them. After we talked about goals and how our Clunes experience has been we did a relaxation technique. We were told to close our eyes and imagine putting away all our troubles and thoughts in a box and only pulling them out when you knew you could work on them more and over come them. Community Living was good; it was a very helpful session to keep us going for the next week and a bit.

We had our last logistics session this week; it was really good because we got to have a “free shop”. Everyone bought the food from their pantries that they weren’t going to use for the rest of Clunes and anyone who wanted the food could take it back to their houses with them. We talked about the shopping from each person’s house and the best or worst meal we’d had all week. Then we sat down and made our shopping lists for this week and decided who and what we were cooking.

Running Program
On Monday this week we had a compulsory 7km pack run. We ran along a dirt track through a bush kind of area. I found it really easy but a fun run. Everyone ran really well and made it the whole way. On Wednesday we had a 5km hill circuit run and boot camp as well. We were made to do some challenging things and although some people were really out of energy at the end nobody stopped running the whole way. The running program this week has been really good and I have enjoyed it and look forward to Mt Beckworth on Tuesday.

COOKING
Every night each house gets together and cooks a variety of meals. This involves everyone in their house coming together to work as a team. One person cooks while everyone else helps clean up and set the table. It’s a fun experience and we always enjoy ourselves. It’s very challenging as well, but in the end we always overcome the challenge. I, personally, find cooking very relaxing and stress relieving. It really brings the house together. It’s a very rewarding experience. Cooking is very hard at first, but once you become used to it, it becomes easier and easier. Sometimes the food isn’t the best but that’s the joy of cooking. You keep working at it and it gets better and better and better! Everyone gets a turn at cooking at least once a week. So that means that everyone cooks a lot at Clunes. I recommend everyone trying a different meal because you will learn more about cooking and your food knowledge will grow.

SIGNING OUT
At Clunes you can choose to sign out at lunch time (12:30) or after class (4:15). Signing out is when you leave campus and go to the main street in Clunes. You can do many things there such as go to the lolly shop (Widow Twanky’s) or the bakery or make a phone call at the pay phone. The key things you have to remember when you sign out are; you have to wear a hat, you have to wear enclosed shoes, you have to bring your key tag and you have to sign out with a friend. On weekends you are allowed to go to the top shop and eat fish and chips, which is a lot of fun. The fish and chips are some of the best I’ve had. You are also allowed to go to the skate park as well, where you can (obviously) skate. If you ever sign out, you will never be out of options for something to do.

Everyone in the campus had a ‘Harvest Feast’. It is where we all prepare great meals with mainly fruit and vegetables that are grown here on campus or somewhere nearby so that they have low food miles. The aim of the day was to have an eco-friendly feast and a place where we could all enjoy each other’s company and watch some great acts. For the day we had a student playing piano, two others doing a musical piece called ‘Where’s the Lid’ and a piece from the musical Chicago. Overall the day was a big success and I think everyone enjoyed it.

The acrobatics program has been great fun so far as part of the circus elective.
Towards the beginning of acrobatics everyone gave it a go having fun and a trying to experiment with some tricks but as we got closer to the presentation day we started to realise that it was serious business with not all of the circus students getting into the acrobatics. The acrobatics group has worked hard the whole term with not only the normal training days but some extra nights as well. It’s going to be full of lifts, flips and daring tricks and sure to be one of the highlights of the circus performance.