Year 9 News

As we move into the final weeks of Term 3, I would like to congratulate each student on achieving the 4 Pillars of Kurnai College over the term. When the holidays arrive, I hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved break and refreshes for the final term of the year. 

I would also like to extend a welcome to Josephine Ninsiima who joins the year 9 team in teaching English and Humanities. 

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS)

As previous years we will be continuing the use of Kurnai Positive Acknowledgements (KPA’s), it has been fantastic to see students settling back into the Kurnai Learning Community and being acknowledged for their efforts within the classroom. 

KPA Data Term 3 Week 1-8

9A-  756

9B- 434

9C- 343

9D- 449

Top Ten KPA Receivers Term 3 Weeks 1-8 

Attendance

This year our aim is to improve student attendance rates to an above 95% average. If your student is absent please call Kurnai College's absence hotline on 5132 3711 or contact Ross Johnson via Compass. 

Parent Teacher Conferences      

Bookings for Parent Teacher Conferences will soon be available via Compass. I encourage you all to book in with your child’s teachers to discuss their progress over the Semester and set learning goals for Term 4. 

Year 9 Focus

At the beginning of every fortnight, the Year 9 Team implements foci for all year 9  students. For the final weeks of the term, the foci are:

Focus 1 - Resilience: Staying in class when things get tough, with a major focus on Berry Street techniques such as individual brain breaks and getting ready to learn.

Focus 2 - Engagement: Giving all your CAT’s a go to the best of your ability. 

Year 9 Camp

In Week 4 of this term, Year 9 Students from the Morwell Campus had the opportunity to spend five days at the Melbourne Discovery Camp. Unfortunately, the trains weren’t running Monday morning, so the students had to catch a coach down to the city. 

During the day, the kids went and experienced many Melbourne attractions, including the Eureka Sky Deck on Monday, Shrine Of Remembrance, MCG tour and Ice-skating on Tuesday, the Melbourne Zoo, River Cruise, Imax, Bowling and the Lume on Wednesday and Thursday. For dinner, the students enjoyed a variety of foods such as burgers and chips, Greek, Chinese and Italian. Overall, the Camp was an amazing experience for all the students, they got to explore lots of new and exciting things and gain some more independence and knowledge whilst in the city.

Written by Chelsea Parr

Tech School Excursion

On the 22nd and 23rd of August, the Year 9s went on a two-day excursion to the Tech School to complete the flat pack furniture program. We were taught how to draw a basic design of a unique set of furniture that followed the design brief we were given. We then pulled our drawings apart onto an A3 sheet of paper, where we drew the components needed for the construction of our small model of furniture. The tech school staff taught us how to use their CAD software, Onshape, to move our paper sketches into the program in preparation for laser cutting. In our first trial, most models were incomplete and didn’t fit together correctly. For our second attempt the tech school staff helped us better our design. When they were cut out, a lot of our models worked out successfully. After we had a completed model we worked on exploding our designs on Onshape and creating instructions that were easy to understand and didn’t use many tools to put together. With these we designed a campaign to market our designs!

Written by Isabella Laming

Around the Classrooms

Game Maker

Students are currently creating a classic arcade game using a tutorial. Students are programming a ship to move and blast it's way through an asteroid field.

Outdoor Education

In outdoor education, students have been working on developing their leave-no-trace knowledge. This is essential knowledge to be able to camp and engage with nature while minimising any impacts on the environment. Students have begun further developing their understanding of water safety and beach awareness in response to the upcoming Surf camp in Term 4. 

HPV

Kurnai Racing Team are currently in the build phase of their class, designing, assembling and reflecting on their vehicle builds in preparation for the 2024 Energy Breakthrough.

Contact Details 

If you have any concerns regarding Year 9 students, please don’t hesitate to email me of phone me on 5165 0600 or Ross.Johnson@kurnaicollege.vic.edu.au 

Ross Johnson

Year 9 Team Leader