Year 9

What’s Growing On in the Year 9 Sustainability Team?

Article by Talia Abbas, Founder and Leader of the Year 9 Sustainability Team

The Year 9 Sustainability Team, made up of 5 dedicated Year 9 students, including myself, Rajvi Saria, Xavier Sherson, Dale Clark, and Ethan Fletcher, are currently working on a new initiative for the Year 9 Space…

Our very own ‘Class Pet Trees’ Garden!

The idea of this initiative is that each class was to receive a ‘Pet Tree’ or a shrub. Then, they would work together as a team to plant their tree, nurture their tree as it grows, and even give their tree a name! Through collaborative decision making, the team decided that the ‘Silver Banksia’ shrub would be the best choice for the trees. Thanks to our leading staff member of the Sustainability Team, Mr Sheldrick, we managed to get our hands on 20 ‘Silver Banksia’ seeds!

However, little did we know how much our ‘Class Pet Trees’ idea would fly off!

A few weeks after the idea was born, we found out that one of our Year 9 staff, Ms Newton, had applied for a grant from Brimbank City Council for 50 native tree saplings on behalf of Overnewton…and we got it! 

The best part? All 50 saplings were given to our team to use them for our ‘Class Pet Trees’ project! These additional saplings also allowed us to not only give each class a ‘Pet Tree’, but also plant an entire Year 9 garden, with 70 different saplings to nurture!

Two weeks ago, we got our hands dirty by planting the 20 ‘Silver Banksia’ seeds in small pots and then moving the pots to the greenhouse to be nurtured. 

Then, last week, we planted the first 8 of our 50 Native Tree saplings at the front of the Year 9 Building. Although we came out of the experience with dirty hands (and dirty aprons - lucky we didn’t get any dirt on our uniforms!), planting the saplings was a fun, interactive, and valuable experience for the Sustainability Team, guided by Ms Bowditch and Mr Sheldrick. We were even lucky enough to get some extra helping hands from Ms Newton and Ms Jackson. With a combination of shrubs and trees, we hope that once the rest of the trees have been planted and been nurtured by us, alongside future generations of Year 9 students, they will help to reflect the true beauty of Year 9.

Maths Games Day

Article by Talana Bonello, Teacher of Mathematics

Last Thursday, eight eager Year 9 mathematicians travelled to St Albans Secondary College to take part in the annual Maths Games Day, going head-to-head with 40 teams from schools across the region. The day was packed with problem-solving activities, skill challenges and relays, pushing our students to think on their feet and tackle some genuinely tricky problems. Despite the tough competition, our students held their own against some of the best and brightest young maths minds around. Our Overnewton representatives displayed a fantastic effort and attitude all round.

A special congratulations to Ethan Fletcher, Ethan Coles, Matthew Matesic and Aidan Librero, whose team placed in the top 10 overall - a brilliant achievement! It's wonderful to see our young minds enriched by opportunities like this, where curiosity and quick thinking are put to the test outside the classroom. A big thank you to St Albans Secondary College and the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) for organising and hosting such a successful and well-run event.

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