Student wellbeing underpins everything we do at Clunes and is essential to ensuring a safe, secure and supportive environment. The Clunes experience empowers students to effectively care for themselves, each other and their environment.
Health and welfare
While all Clunes staff are responsible for student welfare and work daily with students to support them on their eight-week journey, there is also a dedicated student welfare team.
Led by the Heads of Welfare, the team comprises House Leaders, House buddies, registered nurses and a Clunes counsellor. All staff are trained in first aid, CPR and asthma and anaphylaxis management.
The Clunes Medical Centre is located just three blocks from Wesley at Clunes. It provides a comprehensive service including on-call doctors and allied health professionals. Additional support is also available in nearby Ballarat at St John of God Hospital.
Student housing
The ability to work and live together is an important part of the Clunes experience. Students reside without a live-in staff member and are placed in a house with a mix of students from across Wesley’s three Melbourne campuses. Students are taught the skills to develop a cooperative, peer-based approach to house management.
Behaviour management and support
Being away from home and in a non-traditional school context can sometimes lead to students experiencing emotional, social and physical vulnerability. The pastoral care model at Clunes is firm, fair, friendly and forgiving. It is built on developing and maintaining positive relationships and students taking responsibility for their own behaviour.
Restorative justice underpins behaviour management and support at Clunes. Restorative justice focuses on repairing relationships in the wake of harmful behaviour.
Students are also required to adhere to clearly defined standards of behaviour, language, dress and respect for self and others.
A school-home partnership
The Clunes experience is supported by a close partnership between staff, students and parents/guardians.
Clunes is mobile-free and students can only access wi-fi on their school laptops within the Wesley grounds.
House Leaders are the primary point of contact for parents and guardians. Over the eight weeks, parents receive regular Progress Reports. Students can email families or use the phones on campus.
There are several opportunities for parents to visit or catch up on student progress during the term, including the parent film night, a visiting weekend, presentation day, and via newsletters and the online Wesley College Portal.
Fitness at Clunes
Clunes students are encouraged to participate in a range of physical activities to foster a healthy lifestyle, teamwork, community engagement, endurance and goal setting.
During their Clunes term students choose either the Running or Wellbeing Program to support their physical fitness. Students participate in three sessions per week in preparation for Challenge Day in Week 8.
There is also the opportunity to participate in community team sports such as AFL, netball, basketball and soccer with local students. Wesley at Clunes enjoys a strong relationship with the Clunes Football Netball Club. Wesley students represent the Club in U/15 teams in Terms 2 and 3.
Each term a variety of electives are offered in the MYP discipline of Physical and Health Education.
