VHAP

VSC High-Ability Masterclass & Celebration Day

At the end of last term, 60 Year 7 & 8 VSC students, who had been selected to participate in the Victorian High-Ability Program (VHAP) throughout 2024, celebrated their achievement by taking part in a special end of year program.

VHAP Math students had an opportunity to take part in ‘The Invisible Universe’ program through the VSSEC (Victorian Space Science Education Centre) and were able to remotely access a radio telescope located in the Tallarook State Forest and learned how to use this telescope to scan objects in deep space.

Our VHAP English students attended a writing masterclass and then developed their own 100-word creative responses to enter the ‘Little Stories, Big Ideas’ Writing Competition. This term’s theme was ‘War’ and all of our students developed impressive responses. Some of the entries are published in this section.

Congratulations to Ruby D of Year 9 who was awarded an ‘honourable mention’ for her piece entitled ‘What would you do if this was you?’ 

2024 was a great year for VSC high-ability students and we congratulate all of them on their success!

This term, we have another 21 of our Year 8 students have been offered a place in the VHAP. VHAP classes are run online through Virtual Schools Victoria and students are selected for this program by the Student Excellence Unit in the Department of Education based on NAPLAN results. More students from both years 7 & 8 will be offered further places throughout the year.

Fiona Cowan

High-Ability Practice Leader

We all know 

By Thomas B

Silence. Momentary peace away from the conflict. 

I laid back against a tree, ready to get some rest  

for the night 

Mortar shells fell. We tried to catch the Viet Cong 

But they had made their flight 

Into the trees. 

Protestors tell us that this is wrong 

We all revolt 

“What are the politicians doing” 

We all scream 

“Sitting back, Watching the world burn down.” 

We all know 

White flag 

A white flag raised high 

Sitting on top of a hill 

An omen of peace 

Ruined

By Anonymous

A field. A beautiful field.

Sun shining down,

on lush green grass.

Flowers nodding,

in the clean cool breeze.

But.

The sun beats down on tortured soldiers.

The green of the grass splattered with red.

Flowers trampled under leaden boots.

Toxic air courses through dying lungs.

A battlefield. A devastated battlefield. 

No Title 

By Annika L

I craved the ability to heal,

With wounds and blood coating my body.

A sickening blur of gore and violence;

The frantic rush to flee, interrupted by-

An ear-bleeding gunshot.

My ally has fallen.

His last moments were a mixture of panic and pain.

The agony portrayed in his heartbreaking expression,

The vivid, gruesome image encased in my mind, forever cemented.

Blood bolted from his chest,

While repugnance sat in my throat.

A gruesome sight that will haunt me forever.

No time to grieve, rush rush rush.

Grieve and die

Or rush and live.

I crave the ability to heal.

The 5 Senses of War 

by Lucie F

I hear the roar of bullets steal children’s lives, along with their traumatising last words, last cries, last screams.

I smell the thick smoke from the fires that ruined the burning, collapsed structures that used to be homes.

I taste blood, my gums raw and bloody, my lips cracked, my throat dry from thirst.

I see a room with no walls and no roof; just rocks, debris and wreckage that looks as lost as I am.

I feel the rubble under my bare, bruised feet, piercing through my skin as my heart beats

faster

and louder

and angrier.

I scream.