In week three, often the initial excitement of the Clunes Program wears off and the reality of living and sharing the responsibilities of a house with others becomes apparent. House Leaders and other staff will continue to work with each house to support them through this.

Group 42 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 experience.

This week all students were involved in focus days on “Self” and also “Place and Time”. The Self day involved all students participating in a Challenge By Choice Program. Earlier in the term students were able to choose either a “Physical”, “Performance”, “Leadership” or “Quiet” challenge. Students were asked to rank in order which area they felt they would be most challenged. On Tuesday, four groups of students headed off for the Challenge By Choice activity. The Physical Challenge involved indoor rock climbing, The Leadership Challenge group participated in a Clunes Amazing Race, The Quiet Challenge group spent the day at a Yoga Ashram and the Performance Challenge spent the day performing in central Ballarat. The students really embraced the challenges and there were lots of success stories.

Also this week, the Place and Time classes focused on different periods in Clunes’ history where students made a choice of studying: Modern Era, Indigenous History, Golden Era or Prehistory.

Tomorrow is the first of two Parent Visiting Weekends, may I remind all parents that students may be collected from 4pm Saturday and must be returned by 6pm Sunday. Saturday is a House Meeting and Cleaning Day. It is a time for House Leaders to have meetings with individual students about their progress and any issues they may be facing and also a chance for the House Leader to work with the House as a whole. It is therefore important that all students are present. I ask that parents do not make requests to change these times as it does make things more difficult. Our procedure for any additional requests is through a specific form and must be approved before students attend Clunes. I understand there are last minute serious issues that may require a change and of course these will be accommodated.

I look forward to seeing you over the next two weekends.

On Wednesday every house at Clunes had a community member come to their house and cook a meal with them. Every community member chose a meal that was quick, easy and inexpensive. Cooking a meal with a community member will help the house develop a meal to cook for the house. Every house’s meal was different. The meal that House 11 cooked was roast chicken, bread and a chocolate cake. Our whole house helped in making this meal. We all did our part and the meal tasted exceptional. I think that we may cook the meal again sometime. Not only did we have fun cooking with a community member, we also met new people who were in the community. This also helps the friendship between Wesley and Clunes. I think that this idea benefits everyone. It benefits the Clunes people by making a relationship with a house. It benefits the people living in the house by having a meal that they can cook anytime of the week. It also benefits Wesley in general by making Wesley popular around Clunes. Overall cooking with a community member was fun and interesting. The community member taught me a lot of things and I think everyone had fun.

'Booktown' is an annual celebration of books with many authors, writers and book connoisseurs come to gather in Clunes to buy sell and read books. It was on Saturday 1st of May till Sunday 2nd of May. On Friday the 30th of April a team of four people from Wesley College Clunes volunteered to help with the set up of Book town and I was one of the four who volunteered. First on the setup we had to carry tables that book sellers had hired to their designated spots. My friend and I were carrying five tables at once and that was quite tiring for my arms because we would have to carry them to the other side of the street. Then the next day it was Booktown and at 1:30pm all students had a choice of either going to watch the footy or go around booktown, I went booktown because I was doing volunteer work at 2:00 so it was my preferred option. Overall though it was a good experience to do something like this and be a part of it.

On Tuesday the 4th of May, the Clunes campus took part in a Challenge by Choice experience. We had to put preferences on a piece of paper of what we would find the most challenging out of four activities. The four activities consisted of leadership, physical, quiet and still and performance. The leadership activity was a remake of the amazing race. Participants had to race around Clunes finding clues and completing obstacles to win the race. The physical challenge was rock climbing. The people doing rock climbing travelled to the YMCA in Bendigo. They had fun although the bus broke down on the way back to campus so they took a while to get back. Quiet and still people did yoga. They went to Ashram in Rocklyn and apparently had a very relaxing session in the afternoon. People in performance went to a shopping centre in Ballarat and had to read poems in the middle of the shopping centre. Overall everyone had fun and enjoyed all of the activities.

Cluster sports run every Monday and Thursday night. All the Wesley students at Clunes are split into three clusters: Red, Blue and Green. Monday night Red and Green clusters took each other on. The first game played was Jedi ball. The rules were similar to netball except to score a goal we had to throw it at the other team’s Jedi and hit them with the ball. The Jedi had a stick and could either dodge the ball or hit it away. The second game was four way cricket. It was a game of continuous cricket but with four bowlers. It was very fast paced and exciting. The final game was ball tiggy. A square was marked out with cones on the floor and everyone had to be inside it. One team would try to eliminate the other by hitting them with the ball except they had to hold it and touch them because we couldn’t throw it. Monday night Green beat Red and on Thursday the same games were played but Red and Blue were playing each other and Blue won.

This week, the running program was entering its second week. The previous week had shown a very promising level of both fitness and enthusiasm. This week was to show that it wasn’t just a one-off. On Monday the 3rd at 4:15 the students involved formed their usual stretching circle, and after stretching and receiving a few instructions they took off on the run. The run started at a good pace, with everyone pushing themselves to their limits. At the half-way point the group was spread out over a few hundred meters, with the leaders going at a high but steady pace, and those at the rear pushing themselves while staying at a steady pace. When those at the front came around for their second lap to meet with those at the back they were still running at a high and steady pace. In the end when everyone came together, there was heaps of encouragement for those coming to the group. The Wednesday run was much the same, with even more encouragement and some students running at an even higher pace than they had done on any other run.