School Highlights
Library Lovers Day 2022
Allison Bivard, Junior School Library Teacher
Last week in the Library, we celebrated Library Lovers Day. The Prep to Year 3 students engaged in a range of activities exploring their love of books, both old and new.
Many students took the opportunity to take a ‘shelfie’, selecting one of their favourite books and staging a photo. This promoted discussion around the best parts of the text and why they would recommend it to others.
Some students created Book Review bookmarks and most excitedly, students worked in collaboration to spot a number of books titles by interpreting an image with character clues from 23 books. Year 3HC and Year 2R managed to find 15 titles within the image.
We look forward to continuing to foster a love for reading this year as we champion our students to select from a range of genres within our physical space and our online platform, Wheelers.
Random Acts of Kindness Week
On 16 Feb, to start off our celebrations for the Random Acts of Kindness Week, Kilvington School leaders ran a Valentine’s Day stall where students could buy themed goods for their friends or significant others!
Students were encouraged to buy a treat and give it to a friend or someone who could do with a kind gesture, with all proceeds going to charity.
Year 9 Lift Off Week
Martine Walls, Dean of Character and Wellbeing Program Development
The Year 9 Lift Off Week took place in early February, and saw Year 9 students and staff travel into the CBD each day to complete a wide variety of activities and workshops.
To enhance safety and independence while in the city, students began the week with a presentation from Victoria Police, and later completed a first aid course with Hero HQ. They improved navigation skills as they worked in groups to solve clues and find famous landmarks, before stepping out of their comfort zone through rock climbing.
The cohort set the foundations for their year ahead by completing a Collective Vision Task in small groups. They were also exposed to social issues facing Melbourne through incredibly powerful and moving workshops and guest speakers.
The final part of the Program was dedicated to 'It’s everyone’s business' with Monash University where students were supported and guided in the process of unearthing who they are and what it is they are passionate about. They were introduced to the concepts of social enterprise and entrepreneurship, and were motivated and inspired by the stories of two social enterprise developers.
Overall, students had invaluable opportunities to build and enhance connections with each other and the Year 9 staff.
It was such a positive start to the Impact Program and the year ahead, and we couldn’t have been more impressed with, and proud of, the whole cohort of Year 9s.
Below are some student reflections about the week.
STUDENT REFLECTIONS
Alycia Liew, Year 9
Lift Off Week was an eye-opening experience; starting from the navigation of the city with friends and peers to ending with ‘It’s everyone’s business’.
‘It’s everyone’s business’ was a highly insightful educational program with many fun activities. For example, the staff from Monash challenged us with the question, 'Who am I?'. "Wow, that’s an easy question," I thought to myself.
The first thing that came to my mind was my name, Alycia. Then I thought harder - what were my passions, my dreams, my hobbies? What did I want to do in the future? Some answers came to my mind easier than others. I had never before given more than a cursory thought to what I wanted to do in the future.
In the past, whenever I had been asked what job I would consider doing, my answers were vague like, ‘oh, something in the medical field’. But, after a session with the Monash staff on ‘It’s everyone’s business’, I felt I had more clarity.
‘It’s everyone’s business’ also allowed us to identify and discuss world issues. A topic of particular interest to me was 'women's inequality in sport and in the workforce'. Women's rights is a strong issue that my classmates and I can relate to or talk about.
During our session with Monash staff, we heard a talk on sexism in sport, and another speaker addressed how she felt afraid walking down the street alone at night. I was able to relate with it and, for once, it didn’t seem like it was me against me.
Owen Moy, Year 9
With the first days of the 'It’s everybody’s business' program, I expected to learn about business and 'finding your passion', but on a superficial level. Instead, I felt like I learnt more about my values and identity. It’s weird how you can grow more as a person in a couple of days than in an entire year!
By leaving my comfort zone, I realised how fulfilling and exciting my life could be. Usually before speaking in front of such a large group of people, I would 'calculate' reasons to speak up or not, and I would overthink.
But this time, I barely noticed the anxiety and did speak up (although my body was quite shaky when I spoke). I must admit that I could not have volunteered to speak up and be braver than my past self without the constant encouragement from the people who ran the program (especially Al), as well as from Ms Walls' and Mr Moloney’s interest in my development.
After speaking for the first time in front of the grade, Mr Moloney and Al congratulated me, which gave me the external motivation to continue doing what I was doing.
However, through speaking about 'who I am' and recognising my values, I was also able to find internal motivation, which feels much more important in the long run. I am also glad that I was able to see some others who were passionate about a topic that I had no idea that they took any interest in.
I feel extremely surprised by the growth that actually occurred during those days ... sounds cheesy, but it’s true!