WINTON DAY 1

We have successfully set up camp at Barty's Place, the students had a walk in the town and a visit from the Mayor of Winton and have received their much treasured Winton beanies. This afternoon they have been working together, preparing for their community service learning activities over the next two days.

In keeping with the tradition for all groups who visit Winton, this evening we walked up to the sign to take our sunset jumps. The group with the best jump gets desert first this evening. It was unanimously agreed by the staff that the staff won!

Peter Brookes | Head of Dennis House

WINTON DAY 2 - SERVICE LEARNING IN THE COMMUNITY

One of the key focusses for the Year 10 Winton Tour is giving back to the community of Winton. This town has been welcoming the Year 6 students of A.B. Paterson College every year for over 30 years. Now that we have our wonderful facility of Barty's Place it gives our students the chance to return to Winton in Year 10 and give back to the town through service learning opportunities. This is our first year of running this program. We have established a link with Winton State School that allowed a number of our students to spend the day engaging with local children from Pre-school to Year 12. Our students led art, music and drama activities and also joined in with some lunchtime Oz-tag games.

Another group of our students worked with Winton Shire Council and helped to clear weeds from around the famous Arlo's Wall and the town cemetery. The remaining students stayed at Barty's Place and cleared the weeds that have grown and built tables in preparation for hosting our Year 10 semi-formal on Saturday.

The feedback we have had from the school and local council has been extremely positive and grateful for the impact our students have had on the town and in particular the students of Winton State School.

We have a second day of service learning tomorrow, in which we will finish our two murals and join in with a NAIDOC Day celebration at the school.

A huge thanks to Olivia Wilkins and Rebeckah Brodie for their planning and leadership of the two murals, and to all the other staff who have led the engagement of our students in our partner community.

Peter Brookes | Head of Dennis House