Junior Secondary 

Year 9 Industry Week

Last week, all our regular Year 9 classes paused whilst our Open Village program launched an immersive learning experience of the working life – modelled though the various departments of our ‘Woodland’ company.

Thank you to everyone in the MECS Community that came to our Night Market on Thursday August 31. It was a spectacular display of the teamwork, creativity, and exceptional efforts of our Year 9 students. Here are some of their thoughts...

Tim Eddy

Year 9 Coordinator & Secondary Teacher

At the start of Year 9 I knew there were two main things I was excited for, City Camp and Industry Week, and now that I’ve experienced both I can say they do live up to expectations. 

Leading up to Industry Week I was really looking forward to immersing myself into a role I applied for in our business and having no normal classes for the week. I really enjoyed the application and interview process before Industry Week actually commenced. We made resumes, wrote cover letters and had group/one-on-one interviews with our teachers for whichever role we applied for. Most people really got into it and dressed up. 

The interview was one of my favourite parts of this whole experience because I got a sense of what a real job interview would be like and got to speak one-on-one with two of my teachers and pretend I had never met them before and was applying for a job opening. 

Then the actual week came upon us and everyone was eager to jump into their roles and start up our business. My role was Human Resources/Chaplaincy and also an apprentice in the Art Department. I loved getting to make products and do artsy things and also get around and talk to people and see how other people were going during the week and making sure everything’s going well and I also enjoyed doing things outside of my comfort zone. 

Overall I definitely learnt a lot about myself and had fun getting to talk to people I wouldn't normally talk to in a classroom setting. I feel as though our year level is an even stronger community and have all learnt a lot through this experience.

Jorja MacDonald 

Year 9, Woodland HR

Industry week was a great success after all the stress us students had gone through. It was a relief to see how well all our hard work had paid off. 

My personal experience as an accountant throughout the week consisted of learning new skills, communicating with the teachers and departments, solving many problems, and calculating the expenses and profits. Something that was difficult for me was learning the ways of accounting as most of the skills were new to me. I feel that, as the week went on, I developed a more patient and hardworking mindset. During the week I walked around a lot and saw all the hard work and determination of my peers. 

Industry week was not just a job and school experience, but it also encouraged us to connect with peers we normally wouldn’t. It was not only about us students and teachers but also about our MECS community. The market night created an opportunity for our MECS families to join together and experience the night as one. 

I am very grateful to have an opportunity as memorable as this and hope it will be just as fun for the future years to come.

Sui Lung Bawm

Year 9, Woodland Accountant

Year 9 CERES Excursion

On Tuesday 22 August, our Year 9s had the opportunity to visit CERES (Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies) in Brunswick East. This is in conjunction with our learning in Science about Ecology and Ecosystems. It was forecast to be quite wet, but thankfully the rain held off for parts of the day at least. 

The students were able to participate in 3 activities for the day, led by the wonderful people at CERES. The first activity was about monitoring local habitats. Here, the students learnt about food chains and food webs and also had the chance to make a survey about the organisms in the local area. The second activity was a tour of the facility where lots of different land management techniques were outlined. The last activity was an assessment of the local wetland biodiversity and evaluating the health of the wetlands.

Overall, it was great for the students to have a chance to get out into a different environment and see how it differs from the ecosystems closer to school.

Katrina Ford 

Secondary Teacher

Year 7 and 8 Robotics Club

On the last day of winter, the Year 7 and 8 Robotics Club members travelled down to Hampton Park Secondary College to compete in their first Robotics Club Skirmish.

It was a frantic start with both the Year 7 and 8 teams attempting to make last minute changes to their robots. As the matches started our teams realised how difficult and fast-paced the matches were. 

They quickly adapted however and were able to start posting some competitive scores. Out of 20 teams the Year 7s finished in 12th position and the Year 8s finished in 8th after just qualifying for finals.

After an intense day of competition, the MECS teams were fairly pleased with how they performed although they were keen to rebuild their robots in preparation for the next competition.

Ashley Ellis

Secondary Teacher