Week 4 was a busy week with lots going on.

NAPLAN testing occurred on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All students had participated in practice sessions using test conditions and this helped the smooth running on the day.

Thanks to all the significant adult males who attended the Boys to Men Campout on Friday night. It was one of the coldest nights we have had here in Clunes this year. From all reports the conversations and pearls of wisdom that were shared made it a very worthwhile event.

This week students will take part in our Collective Potential program on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. In Collective Potential students choose one of three projects. The guidelines for the three projects are that they in some way give to others, are a challenge to finish within the allotted time and most importantly can only be completed by working as a team, rather than as a group of individuals.

Students are placed in one of three groups: River Rescue, working on the Ullina Landcare site planting trees and fencing; Make and Create, who are making bird boxes this term; and What Happens on Tour, a music group working together to produce a CD for Group 42 and holding a number of performances for the community.

Group 42 have really settled into life in Clunes. 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 and with the talented musicians this term are adding a lovely feel to the campus. 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 was buzzing last night with the sharing of stories. Thank you so much for your support.

Every week a group of Wesley at Clunes students does a program called Beckworth by Bike. They must ride 20km from the Wesley Clunes campus to the base of Mount Beckworth. Every one comes early in the day and is fitted with a bike to suit their size. We then do bike education to make sure our bikes are working well and suit us.
After a short break, everyone meets again with a packed lunch two water bottles and a rain coat. We then set off. You go down some very steep hills which are good fun but the down side is you have to come up them on the way back. The ride takes you through lots of different kinds of scenery so it’s quite enjoyable. On the way back there is an option to go through a track that has lots of puddles; you get extremely muddy and dirty. When you got back to campus everyone is very tired but its worth it.

Every Thursday Place and Time lessons are on. Students are put into either pre-history, indigenous, gold rush era or modern era. You learn about different things in each lesson, for pre history you learn about the mega fauna and flora that once lived in Australia. For indigenous you learn about the indigenous people of Australia. For the gold rush you learn about the gold rush that took place in the 1850s and some of the stories behind it and for modern era you learn about Clunes today. Each group is split into other groups that all focus on one topic in that area. They must make a presentation and present it to all the other groups at the end of term.

Cluster Sports is the main event that all students can shed off that excess energy and also have a great time. Cluster Sports is when students are put in Groups and play a series of games to score points. On Monday Green and Blue Clusters were doing cluster sports in the community centre. They managed to fit four games into the session which was an opportunity to gain extra points for your cluster. At the end of Monday’s cluster program Green were victorious. On Thursday Green and Red cluster were playing, Green had a massive advantage saying that they have already played these games and won on Monday. Again it was a great night with a lot of fun and exciting games. But yet again Green was Victorious over Red by just 20 points. This weeks cluster program was a fun and enjoyable experience and all students are waiting for next weeks new games.

Fitness is an essential part of Clunes in the sense of keeping the fitness up and not going home very unfit and tired all the time. On Monday the Fitness session was like all the other sessions in being quite challenging, but after you’re done you feel the difference. On Mondays the usual plan is to do three rounds of push – ups, Plank, Holds, etc. On Wednesdays the plan is basically the same but next week we are going to start doing the more advanced holds and exercises which students are looking forward to. On Fridays we do something a little less challenging but refreshing and soothing. We have a session of Yoga which seems odd but it really works after a week of hard work. Overall fitness is a good way to keep in shape for another 5 ½ weeks.

This week from Tuesday through Thursday we had Naplan testing on all of the main school subjects. It was a completely different routine and we had to get used to it. On Tuesday we had comprehension and writing. On Wednesday we had the reading test which was about reading a text and answering questions about it. And on Thursday we had maths a non calculator one and one with a calculator. Most people were surprised that it was the last Naplan but I think that all of us were happy that they were over.

On Tuesday we had Self Classes, these are classes where we learn about ourselves and this week, for the boys, it was on respect and becoming a man. We talked about our role models and why you should respect people. Then we read parts from a book called ‘From Boys to Men’ by John Marsden, after we had read it we had to write about two things we thought that you had to do to become a man and one thing we disagreed with in the book. Like beating your father in something that he is good at, this is like a stepping stone on the way to becoming a man and demonstrates that you are mature enough to make your own decisions.

On Saturday the 8th of May we took a trip to the chocolate factory. Every Saturday is house day and normally either a brother and sister house or in this case two brother and sister houses join up and do an activity. After a short meeting we decided what we were going to do, we had two choices, one was to go to Daylesford and the chocolate factory and the other was to go to Ballarat. Of course the chocolate factory won the vote. We left for the chocolate factory at around one and began the rather scenic bus ride towards Daylesford. The Daylesford chocolate mill is around ten minutes away from the town of Daylesford which is about 45 minutes away from Clunes. When we arrived we were just in time for a chocolate making demonstration, which was very interesting and made everyone very hungry. We all brought lots of delicious chocolate and some of us even had the hot chocolates which looked awesome! Over all we had a great day.

On Tuesday the 11th of May the girls had all day Self Class. Both the girls classes were combined because we had a special session with some of the mothers that live on campus. We were very fortunate to have the mothers come with their babies and talk to us about motherhood and what it is like to be a woman. At the start of the session we all submitted questions into an anonymous box. Questions could be anything related to health or growing up. At the end of the session the questions were answered in a big group discussion. It was a very enjoyable session and we all learnt a lot.

As part of our house activity day on Saturday the 8th of May, houses 1,8,9 and 10 chose to go to Daylesford in the afternoon. Once we got there it was up to us whether we went for a walk around the lake, went paddle boating in pairs, or sat in one of the cafes on the lake and had lunch. The lake was really beautiful and it was a very relaxing afternoon. We got back to campus before 4pm, just in time for the first visiting weekend. The weather was lovely all day and it was great to get off campus and out in the sun!

On Friday the 7th of May we had the Friday running challenge. Every term a student has the choice of either choosing the running or the fitness program, I choose the running program. In the running program we run 3 times a week to build up to our goal of running ten kilometres to Mount Beckworth and then another two kilometres up Mount Beckworth. As part of our training we have Friday challenge days where we do our usual run and then an extra 10 minutes of hills running. Believe me its harder than it sounds! After running 3 kilometres all we wanted to do was have a nice cold shower but instead we ran up a hill for 10 minutes. By the time we got to the top of the hill our legs were killing us and it was a nice break to run down the hill, but the break was short lived because as soon as we got to the bottom we had to run back to the top. Everyone supported each other and with lots of encouragement we all completed it. At the end of the run we all felt very happy to have finished the run, and I’m sure everyone was already looking forward to the next Friday challenge day!