Yarra Week 1 2017
We started off our Yarra program undertaking a heap of introductory activities at Yarra Youth Services (YYS). We played a few different games to help the students get to know each other, as well as forming the group code of conduct. The students voted on what values were most important to them to form our group agreement for the term. The chosen values were honesty, respect, communication, trust and organisation. YYS will be our base for most of this term, with us undertaking activities here nearly every week, as well as holding the graduation ceremony at the end of the term. We headed off after lunch to the Collingwood Leisure Centre for a swim as it was a really hot day. After a tour of the gym we jumped in the pool and went over some water safety tips in preparation for our upcoming water activities like surfing.
As our program started on a Thursday this term, the week went very fast! Friday morning was spent at Hard Rock rock climbing in Nunawading. Despite quite a lot of nerves in the group about the activity, everyone gave it a great go and had a few different climbs, with everyone increasing their distance up the walls each time.
The afternoon was spent doing a landscaping 'taster' with Tim at Melbourne Polytechnic in Fairfield. We learnt how to lay pavers and was a great hands on way for our students to gain an insight into what it is like to be educated in a TAFE education setting. We had the opportunity to ask Tim a lot of questions and find out more about the course and campus. Some of students are already interested in trades as a future career so this was a great opportunity.
Despite being a short week, we crammed in a lot of activities and everyone was pretty tired by the time we got to Friday afternoon! We have a smaller group of students than usual this term, but everyone had a great attitude over the two days and I can't wait for the rest of the program.