Nillumbik Term 4 Week 3 2025

Hello and welcome back to this week’s blog!

We’re already halfway through the program, and it’s been a great ride so far.

Last Wednesday, we kicked things off with a gym session where Brad showed us some stretches/exercises and introduced the group to squash and we had a great crack at it! Afterwards, we paid a visit to Bunnings to collect wood slabs for our community project. We’re collaborating with the Eltham Men’s Shed to create a table, so we dropped the materials off there and got a sneak peek of what our project will look like.

Next, we made our way to Headspace Greensborough, where we met Joel, who works there. Joel made us feel welcome and explained what Headspace does, the services they offer, and opportunities available. We also learned more about mental health through a fun game of Family Feud! But this wasn’t your ordinary Family Feud, it was all about understanding the challenges young people face with mental health and what support is available. It was a close match, but Team 2 came out on top and took home a small prize!

On Thursday, we started our day at the Nillumbik Youth hub, after a quick shop at Coles, the group split into 2 teams for a cook off! Making sausage rolls for lunch and our upcoming graduation, students had to follow instructions and work as a team to make the best looking and tasting batch, we had lots of fun with the help of the youth hubs kitchen facilities. After some journal work we enjoyed our homemade sausage rolls and they tasted delicious! In the afternoon, we made our way to Melbourne Polytechnic in Heidelberg, here we met Frank and Alice who took us on a small tour of the Tafe and introduced the group to the heads of department in 3 different Tafe courses. Students took part in a ‘taster’ in carpentry, brick laying and painting and design. This was an awesome way to introduce students to a Tafe, ask questions and learn what courses are available to them. Students made some wooden stools to take home, built a brick pyramid and used stencils to make some cool designs. Thank you to the team at Melbourne Polytechnic for organising a great experience for the group!

On Friday, we had the exciting opportunity to visit the South Melbourne Life Saving Club. As we get ready for our upcoming surf camp. Volunteer lifesaver Seb took the group for a behind the scenes look at how the club operates and the students learned some important surf lifesaving skills, including CPR and beach safety hand signals. Everyone had the chance to practice CPR using the ‘DRSABCD’ method on training dummies and even learned how to use a defibrillator properly.

We then headed into the water to put our surf lifesaving skills into action. Suited up in wetsuits, everyone grabbed a board and practiced catching waves into the shore and rescuing their peers in a fake drowning scenario. It was awesome to see everyone getting involved and showing off what they’d learned we’re so excited for surf camp next week!

Interview:

What was the highlight of the week during

Zeph: Today in the ocean I enjoyed swimming

What is something surprising you learnt about yourself during this week and one characteristic?

Zeph: I enjoyed the Brick layering at Tafe and I used persistence today