College News
Year 9 Melbourne Adventure
By Ruby - Year 9
At the end of Term 2, the Year 9s set off to Melbourne for our city adventure. We were all very excited for this opportunity to explore the city with our friends and classmates and to grow our independence together.
Before we left for Melbourne, we had a lot of planning to do with our groups to make sure the three days ran smoothly. We also had to come up with an inquiry question to explore that would later help us to develop our projects. My inquiry question was 'how do venues and event spaces in Melbourne demonstrate felicity, joy, or a state of wellbeing through the events held there'. We explored this by looking around the event spaces such as the MCG, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Central and Fed Square, seeing it firsthand how they accommodate for events and all the people attending.
The activity that helped us best come up with an answer to our question was definitely the MCG sustainability tour. This was not only one of my personal favourite activities, but also it helped us to develop a greater understanding of what happens backstage for things like the footy and cricket, as well as teaching us how they manage sustainably. My favourite thing about Melbourne Adventure was spending time with my friends and working together to problem-solve if we missed a train or tram and still trying to get to our appointments on time.
Melbourne Adventure definitely helped us all learn how to use public transport effectively and how to use maps on our phones to help us get places. Although there were some challenges, like missing a train, getting lost in the city or reading the map wrong, I think that these challenges only helped everyone grow their independence and learn how to problem solve.
On the Thursday and Friday after Melbourne Adventure, we split into our groups to make a project answering our inquiry question and presenting it to the rest of the year level, Year 8s and teachers. For our project, we mixed a photo board, a map, and a 3D representation of the city and put it all on a big piece of pink cardboard. This made our project eye-catching and helped it stand out from all the other amazing projects. Overall, I think this was a great experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Melbourne.
2026 College Snow Trip
By Andrew Blackwood - Director of Sport
The 2026 Loreto College Snow Trip kicked off with a 4:30am departure from our school on Friday 24 July. After a solid 6-7 hour road trip, we arrived full of gusto to Falls Creek and checked in to our accommodation at Ripparoo Lodge. Once unpacked, it was straight up the mountain for a 90 min lesson with trained instructors to start to learn the basics of skiing or snowboarding. Fair to say some picked it up easier than others, but nonetheless our group of 70 went out all together for some Friday night pizza and social bonding before an early turn in for the night.
Saturday morning we were up and surprised by an amazing hot breakfast from the Ripparoo staff, including bacon and eggs, porridge, fresh fruit and cereal. It was the perfect start to a busy day on the slopes. Groups were split up by ability level for another lesson before tackling some of the Falls Creek runs, including Wombats Ramble, Drovers Dream, Main Street and Broadway.
The weather was amazing until the early afternoon when the cloud drifted through and we lost visibility. Most groups came back to the lodge for a rest and dinner before we all head out at 7pm for night skiing which was an amazing experience! Wombats Ramble was fully lit up with music pumping and colourful artwork lit up along the way down.
Sunday morning saw us back up the mountain for one last session and it was amazing to see everyone's skill and confidence had really improved since starting on Friday. It was a pretty long drive home with a quick stop in at Euroa for some dinner before getting back to Ballarat at 10pm.
Thanks to Mr Gill and all staff and students for making this a fantastic trip.
