Junior School Highlights
In the Junior School
Although every newsletter is special, both allowing us to touch base with our valued parent-community, and of course, brag about our students! This one in particular seems especially, special. Keira McLean has moved literally up to lead the Senior School. I’m sure it will undoubtedly prove to be an exciting time for her and the college. She has always approached her role as Junior School Leader with boundless energy and infectious positivity. On behalf of everyone I’d like to say, thank you Keira.
Now back to business, we have an extremely busy transition planned for our students this year with a range of differing experiences. Students will learn about important eSmart skills through Chromebook Transition and an incursion on Cyberbullying. There will be an in depth look at the challenges of researching in the 21st Century and we’ll be helping students develop important interpersonal leadership qualities as well as empathy working with a charity. Many will be going to the Zoo and into the city to broaden their horizons. And finally, as a special treat, we’ve even got the Victorian Electoral Commission coming in to run mock elections with the students! I fully expect other opportunities to also be booked in the weeks ahead. Any concerns please give us a ring.
Please keep an eye on your emails in early November for information about Activities Week.
Mathieu Givogue
Junior School Leader
Year 7 Celebration
We’d like to thank every student who participated in athletics and sport last term. Ultimately, it is about going out, giving it a go, and having fun! However, we have had one students move on to state, Haddi El Shorbagy in 7E. Haddi will be competing in Javelin, Discus and Shot Put. We’ll all be barracking for you. These events are invaluable in encouraging students to stay fit and active.
As part of our high challenge and expectations, we’ve strongly encouraged junior students to participate in debating this year and have had quite a bit of success. We’d like to congratulate Lauren Raftopoulos 7E, Sam Sehee 8C and Marcus Georgiou 8E for winning their first debate against Caulfield Grammar. If you are interested in getting your child involved make sure they check the Hub or Bulletin for the next opportunity!
We are currently pushing an initiative with junior boys to connect and share with each other at a newly founded boys club called Man-Up. It is about informally sharing experiences and difficulties boys face in order to increase their resilience and make some mates. We hope it will help them connect with each other and the college. It happens every Tuesday at lunchtime in the Wellbeing Centre.
Daniel Mulligan and Bernie Coghlan
Year 7 Coordinators
Year 8 Coastal Landscapes Excursion
The building works going on at school meant that locker changes on the first day of term 4 were going to be organised chaos. So the Humanities Department, led by Ms Mattsson, took the opportunity to arrange for Year 8 and 7B students to do some Geography fieldwork to reinforce the concepts of their recent study of coastal landscapes and human impacts.
We travelled to Mordialloc and looked at wave frequency and height, litter in the intertidal zone, the use of the pier, wind direction, tides and council facilities on the foreshore. We then hopped on the train and studied a very different beach at Frankston and compared human impact and use, conservation schemes and local council policies and facilities.
Although many students would have regarded the option of a Macca’s lunch in Frankston a highlight, the best thing that came out of the day was the compliments we received from the general public about the behaviour of our students and their interest in learning skills as geographers: “experts in the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these”.
Shaun Reynolds
Year 8 Coordinator
Year 9 Camp
The second group of Year 9 campers were off in early September. Students developed their teamwork and decision making skills through canoeing and rafting, cross country skiing and bushwalking up in the mountains. Thanks to Mr Kelty, Mr Chamontin and Ms Cornelia for attending along with Miss Finnegan.
This term for the Year 9 Program students will be visiting the city as a part of the City Experience - Making Connections topic. Over a series of weeks, students will collect information about and photos of different attractions in the city and then turn these into a promotional video about Melbourne.
Congratulations to Ebony Franzi-Jones and Alexandra Vasilakopoulos from 9F who were finalists in the Write4Fun 2017 Schools Writing Competition. Both girls will have their short stories published in an anthology with all the other winning stories from across the country.
Fiona Finnegan
Year 9 Coordinator
From the Junior School Captains
We had some great success with the GEC futsal cup this year. It attracted a great crowd every week and was a great way to enjoy lunchtime. With the final game being extremely close, The Cougars have made history at GEC by winning the competition for the third time in a row! Thank you to everybody who participated and watched the futsal cup, it was a great success!
As part of Health and PE week, there were a range of activities throughout the week but the highlight was definitely the girls' AFL match. This year there were two games and both gathered a great crowd. It was great to see such a large group of girls from all year levels getting involved in the match. Mr Mulligan’s black team, despite being down three players in the second game, came out victorious winning both games while Mr Dalton’s reds experienced another disappointment for the third year in a row.
It is great to see the participation and enthusiasm climbing throughout the year. As the end of the year is coming fast, we hope it can only continue and improve going into next year.
John Fassoulis and Zoe Markopoulos
Junior School Captains