Student Leaders Report

Leadership Assembly

While all our student leaders have been fulfilling their roles for some time, they were formally recognised and presented with their badges at a recent assembly presided over by our College Captains.

Uniform Review

Students with leadership positions were lucky enough to be invited to partake in a focus group to review our school uniform. With students ranging from year seven to eleven there was a vast range of ideas and options, however the entire focus group came to some strong conclusions.

We believe it is in the best interest of the college image along with our personal values that the polo is replaced by a shirt as it is outdated and tacky. As students we also felt that the school shorts and pants could get a makeover. Changes could include adjustable waists to accommodate growing students and the option of belt loops.

A few improvements to the summer dress have also been suggested. These are that we add a white collar and cuffs(the sleeves) to the dress with a navy blue piping (stripe at the bottom of the sleeves) to give the dresses a more professional and modern look. Along with looking professional many of us thought it was time to bring in a blazer and a tie, this will allow us to feel better presented that hopefully will in turn make us want to learn more. We thought that our current jackets look good over a shirt and tie, so that students would not have to wear a blazer. In the coming weeks, we will consult with students to get a wider range of views. 

-Brent Chalmers

Year 9 Community Leadership Program - Gilwell Park Camp

On the 17th of May our CLP class left school on our journey to Gilwell Park, near Gembrook. The class and our two teachers (Mr. Andriessen and Miss Riddle) arrived at Gilwell and started to inspect the area before setting up the tents. Once we had finished setting up the group then sat down and enjoyed our lunch in the outdoors.

 After lunch we all went for a walk to collect firewood for the fire we planned to have. Once all the firewood was broken up we moved on to our first activity which was the low ropes course. Just before the sun went down we set up our cooking circle and started to cook our dinners on the trangia stoves. After dinner we cleaned up and sat around the fire.

The camp fire we had after dinner was nice and warm and also relaxing. We played games like title and artist with the guitar that Laing and Andrew brought along. We roasted marshmallows and talked about fun things, we all enjoyed talking and listening to each other.

Early on day 2 we commenced the first of our challenging initiative activities, the high ropes course; it was exhilarating. For safety, we wore a helmet and a harness and had two people act as a “belay” to ensure we didn’t fall. Each part was different and consisted of difficult challenges that were 7 minutes off the ground. After overcoming our fears, we then attempted the Giant’s Ladder. The Giant’s Ladder is an activity that needs the whole group to participate, even if you didn’t climb you still had to hold the ropes to support the climbers. Laing, Cameron, Chance and Kiara did well on this challenge.

After lunch we did Crate Stacking, which involves one person attached to a full body harness to stack milk crates above one another and get as high as possible. One team managed to stack fifteen crates on top of each other! Both team's crate stacks eventually fell. The final activity for the day, was the Gauntlet. This was muddy obstacle course consisting of Tunnel Crawls, Muddy Water swims, rope walls and the Monkey Bars. The Gauntlet tested our physical and mental strength.

After the Gauntlet, we returned back to the campsite to have a BBQ dinner prepared by Mr Andriessen! The majority of us ended up full and struggled to eat what was left. For dessert we learnt how to make damper and toasted it on the fire. We then added Nutella.

The next day we were up early again and had to pack up everything. Once we put all the gear in the trailer and we took off for our last activity, hut building. In hut building we all were split up into 3 teams to make a hut out of sticks, bark and leaves. The aim was to make the most stable and liveable hut. This was a challenge given the materials and time we had to work with.

We returned safely to school at about 2pm and unpacked the bus and trailer in the rain, however we can count ourselves lucky that this was the first rain we had had for the camp! Camp was fun and eye-opener for a lot of us, we also saw the development of leadership skills and friendships.

CLP Students

IDAHOBIT Day

IDAHOBIT stands for the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia.  Our school celebrated this day to show support to the LGBTIQT community.

The celebrations started pretty early when before the school day commenced, we made our school crossing rainbow by colouring over the brick with chalk. Then at the start of the school day we raised the rainbow flag on the flagpole for the whole school to see.

We had so many staff, students and visitors at our morning tea which concluded with students speakers who were given our best attention.

Prior to the day we had made badges which were worn by many in the school community to help celebrate and we continued in the same way with our final activity for the day making stars at lunchtime.

From my point of view this was a great day to lift the spirits of many students and I hope we can do it again next year.

Ktimberley Crombie 8B