Banyule/Nillumbik Week 1 2017

Welcome to the Banyule & Nillumbik blog, our final term for the year! We love coming back to work in the area as there are so many wonderful people and services to work with. The blog will be updated each week with an insight into the activities we've been doing as well as photos.

Wednesday we started off with our fantastic new group of students at Healthability in Eltham for our intro session. The morning was spent running through a number of games and activities that helped the students get to know each other (and us staff!). After this we headed to Eltham Leisure Centre where we met Jordan who will be taking us through a number of sessions over the term. Jordan is a fantastic trainer at the gym and after taking us on a tour of the leisure centre we did some fitness testing in preparation for all our physical activity for the term ahead.

Thursday was a big day on the program, where we headed out to the beautiful Dandenong Ranges. First up we did the 1000 Steps as a practice hike in the lead up to our You Yangs camp. Students took turns in being leader and learning to travel together as a group, as well as learning some facts about the Kokoda Trail. After this walk through the rainforest we headed to Belgrave for Trees Adventure. Trees Adventure is a series of obstacle courses high up in the trees. Students move themselves around the course and are faced with flying foxes, huge cargo nets, free falls and a wide range of other obstacles. All of the students took on the challenges well and worked hard to overcome their fears.

Friday was a quieter day where we had the chance to focus on setting goals for the term. Students formulated both school and personal goals that we will continue to refer to throughout the term to encourage positive change at school. We also met the gang from Reach and did a camp pack. In the afternoon we headed out to Melbourne Polytechnic at Fairfield for a Landscaping taster. The students worked with Chris to lay their own brick wall, learning a range of new skills with every student producing a great end product which really demonstrated how well they listened to all instructions.