It has been a busy second week with the first of our “focus” days starting and students busy researching their Clunes Project Essay. It's great to see such a diverse range of topics. Over the next eight weeks, students will spend Tuesdays and Thursdays participating in sessions on one of the following themes: Environmental Sustainability, Place and Time and Self. On Tuesday students participated in the first focus day on Environmental Sustainability. The day involved some class work and discussion topics and also each student was given a native tree to re-pot and look after. On Thursday, students spent the day looking at “Place and Time” and spent the day out and about in the Clunes District. Students participated in Community Service again this morning, which included walking with the Senior Citizens, helping out at the local Primary Schools, the Clunes book shop, lolly shop, hairdresser and newsagent, cleaning up the creek, the Music Program, and helping the campus park ranger. It's great to see the students embracing this important part of our program. As I look out my window I can see students practicing their circus activities, a group going out to explore the local area, another to participate in the drama class and a group who are going down to the Town Hall for cooking lessons and to prepare this evening’s meal. We have seen a few students getting tired this week in the humidity and heat, but overall the students are doing well and today’s cool change has been a welcome relief. We are encouraging early nights, lots of fruit and vegetables and lots of fluids. As we were unable to hold the Film Night last night due to adverse road and weather conditions, a copy of the DVD will be available for you to borrow at each campus reception. We thank all parents for their understanding at having to cancel the film night at such short notice.

A reminder that if you anticipate any changes to your chosen visiting weekend please contact the Clunes Office to ensure we have correct records (clunes@clunes.wesleycollege.net).

On Saturday the 6th of February 2010 we walked up Mount Beckworth. We first went in buses around 10 km away and then we went single file up the hill. We stopped a couple of times while we were walking. It was combined with lots of uphill and downhill steep paths. When we reached the top of Mount Beckworth we were all so happy that we could actually believe in ourselves and reach the top. There is a lolly-pop tree at the top of the mountain. At the top we learnt a bit more about Clunes which was very fascinating. Then we had some free time to take lots of pictures of the beautiful views from the top with our friends. Then we went back down about 100 metres and we took some group photos. Then we went down the steep path. We finally made it down to the bottom of Mount Beckworth.

Every Saturday morning we have massive cleanups in our houses. Each week there is one person who goes and does the shopping for the week. While that person is shopping the other people are in their houses cleaning. On Saturdays we do a lot of chores such as washing towels, floors, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning bathrooms and bedrooms. It all has to be to the teacher’s satisfaction. After our house has passed Saturday morning inspection we can sign out until 1 o’clock. In the afternoon our buddy teachers in our house spend time with us either doing something relaxing on campus or going out for the afternoon. Every Saturday night there is some kind of event on, whether it be a dance competition or a night walk. The best thing about Saturday night is that we can go to sleep whenever we get to sleep and can sleep in on Sunday up until 12:45pm.

On our second week of Clunes we have had three birthdays; people from Houses One, Three and Eleven. Yesterday we had a little birthday party in House Three and after that the House Leader of One and Three made a cake for two of the birthday boys. For all the boys that had their birthday this week I hope they finish off the week with a good one and again HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU ALL!

On Monday we had our first game of cluster sports against Red. We were all ready to go, then we got a call saying it was cancelled because of the weather warning! On Thursday, it was game on, it was green cluster VS blue cluster down in the local basketball stadium. Over all it was a really enjoyable night, although the points were a tie with 365 each. We would also like to congratulate Blue Cluster for being the M.V.P of the night.

For one of the entertaining nights Clunes held a Saturday night dance off. Everyone had around a week to make up a dance and then perform in front of all the houses. The dance had to be longer than a minute and all houses could choose their own personal music. All dances were judged by the costumes, performances, length of dance, music, audience participation etc. Everybody had so much fun, singing and dancing along to most of the dances and all the performances were quite creative… specially the costumes for some! All up every house got involved and as the winner House 13 rocked the night with top marks and managed to get everyone up and dancing along!

For the second week we had our first movie night for group 41! Every Sunday night all students gathered in the Jube hall for a movie night. For our first ever movie we watched an inspiring movie called ‘Goal’! We all sat together either on the chairs and the floor or as an exception if we were the first house in the Jube hall or for meetings and our house has done well we get the advantage of having bean bags to sit on in the front row. Everybody now looks forward to movie night, just because we get to be with everyone and considering we have no television here, we all love and look forward to every Sunday night!

For Community Service a group of us walked to the Health Care centre. When we walked into the centre a lady came and talked to us about what we were doing for the day. When we walked in I saw all these happy faces smiling. We all went and sat next to one of the clients and had a conversation with them for about 45 minutes. We all found out what their names are and when they came to Australia. We then started playing bingo. We got half way through and the clients were winning. They had about 10 wins and we only had 3. When we won we had to get up and do a dance. It was very funny. At the end we just kept on going until everyone won a prize. It was a load of fun. We all had a great time hanging out and talking to the clients for 2 hours. When we had to leave, we all really wanted to come back as soon as possible.

On Monday the running program was cancelled because of the heat, so they said that that the run was on Tuesday at 6:45am. We all got up in the morning like zombies, all very tired. When we started 10 people or so ran very fast at the start .I think it was too fast. We all ran to the post which felt like it went for ever and then we had to run back, then up the hill which killed our quads. When I got back to the starting point I saw people sitting down. We thought we were finished but then our teacher ran around the corner saying come on, we had to run back to the last person then turn around and run back. When we got back to the starting line we all started stretching and then walked back to campus and talked about who ran really well.

On Thursday everyone at Wesley at Clunes went to Mount Hollowback where we learnt about each of our Place and Time subjects. The four subjects were pre-history, aboriginal history, the impact of gold on Clunes and the modern state of Clunes. While we were there we also learnt about the landscape of the surrounding area and how each of the four subjects is all linked. While visiting we ‘hiked’ up a dormant volcano and found out that local cattle usually occupied the nearby area.

After lunch we went to Birches Creek where everyone was told about the history of the area. We were taught that foreign trees were killing off the native ones so we must conserve the local environment and restore it which people doing River Rescue will eventually do. We were also told that the plants we were given to take care of would eventually be planted there to improve the quality of the area. Almost just as we arrived it started raining heavily so everyone fled back to the buses and drove back to campus.

Recently, the cooking community of Clunes has been thriving. Excellent meals have been prepared and the proper safety precautions have been taken. A specific incident occurred yesterday which made us all open our eyes. A pot was left on a hot flame un-intentionally, as the cook was talking to a large group of people; she poured oil into the pot, thus the pot bursting into flames. Panic arouse in the kitchen as people were un-sure what to do. The cook was in distress and many other people were un-sure of what to do. One of the staff at Wesley College Clunes, saved the night. He calmly and quickly grabbed the fire blanket and put it over the flaming pot. Please remember to pay attention when cooking in the kitchen, so this sort of thing won’t happen again.

We have new additions to our Wesley Clunes community! As of this week there are now chooks to take care of. Everyday two people will be taking care of the four chickens, Snoop Dog, Top Deck, Michael Jackson and Thunder. They have been lent to us by the local farmers of Clunes. The chickens are situated in the pen next to the compost. If you have time please say hello to them and make them feel welcome. For the next seven weeks these chooks will be part of the community, providing eggs and company for us all to enjoy.