Middle Years Team

Year 7 Camp

On Wednesday 16 February, 20 staff members and almost 200 students departed Mont Albert North for three days of fun, adventure and bonding. The Year 7 class of 2022 spent their time at Alexandra Adventure Resort challenging themselves and building strong friendships with their peers. As per our school motto “Excellence through Endeavour”, this camp is designed to push students outside their comfort zones and help them extend their friendships beyond those in their classes.

The Year 7 cohort challenged themselves on the high ropes course, rock climbing and crate stacking, flew through the air on the giant swing and the flying fox, splashed about in the pool, or while raftbuilding (and some even took a dip while canoeing!), and some even honed their survival skills while playing laser tag and doing archery. A surprise hit activity amongst the student was gaga ball; and the students spent much of their free time playing this fast-paced game.

The Year 7 cohort were exceptional, with many students embodying our core school values and the School Wide Positive Behaviours Support values through their kindness, compassion and willingness to “give it a go” and push themselves outside their comfort zones.

I have included some reflections from Koonung students on their camp experiences below. Please take a moment to read these.

Events such as these don’t just happen and I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the work of the staff that attended this camp and supported our Year 7 cohort – Sophie Brugliera, Megan Carnie, Amelia Daw, Jordan Dunn, Sharon Duong, Regan Garner, Michael Harte, David Kennedy, Helen Lamers, Penelope Latham, Owen Lovelace-Tozer, Luke Marinelli, Sharyn Paspa, Miriam Saward, Peter Scott, Eryn Tyler and Luke Willcockson. I’d also like to thank the Year 7 coordinators – Lauren Hughes and Stuart Kofoed, for the incredible work they did, both in the lead up to, and during the camp itself, to create the best experiences for the students.

Year 7 Reflections of Camp

My experience on camp was memorable. There were loads of fun and engaging activities for everyone to do every day. Some of the activities consisted of: high ropes, the giant swing, canoeing and orienteering. Breakfast was at 7 o’clock and we were woken up at 6:30, the food was very tasty. There was a wide range of food across mealtimes, and we were served cordial with every meal. There was a swimming pool and part of the pool was 2.4 metres deep, the pool was freezing cold. Unfortunately, not all the groups got to do every activity. My group sadly didn’t get to do Leap of Faith (Crate Stacking), Archery, Rock Climbing and Raft Building. The beds were quite comfortable and the cabin groups were good.

Immy Howells 7C

In camp I experienced having people in my cabins, making new friends in my activity group, and learning new cultural games. I didn’t want to do some activities as I was too scared, but I realised I was brave enough to do high ropes and giant swing. I would admit it was really scary but I enjoyed the most of it given I wouldn’t be able to have this experience again. I may have another chance of doing it again but since covid is in the way we might not have a chance. Overall camp was really fun but one of the things I did dislike is how early we had to wake up to eat breakfast and how early we had to sleep. People would say 10’o clock is late, but I prefer sleeping a bit later, depending on how tired I am though. Lunch was okay, I didn’t enjoy most of it. We had chicken gravy with beans and broccoli which I personally did not enjoy at all but I felt bad if I had wasted it especially as the staff members are here for us to enjoy the camp and they probably wanted to be with their families, so I ate some of it anyway. Even though there are some parts which were a bit scary and bad, the whole camp was pretty good honestly. We went swimming, gaga ball, high ropes, archery, laser tag, flying fox, and giant swing. I enjoyed all of them except high ropes, High ropes was really scary, it was very high up and we had to walk across the tight ropes. But I really enjoyed it.

Hitaishika Valiveti 7C

Camp was undoubtedly the most exciting time and fun I’ve had all year. We went to Alexandra Adventure Resort and we participated in magnificently fun activities like the giant swing, canoeing, swimming, laser sports, gaga ball… the list goes on! My favourite activity of them all was gaga ball, it was intense, exciting and fun all packed into one small circle! Moving on from that, the food… it was immaculate! The food was some of the best food I’ve ever has in a long, long time and shocked my expectations. Overall this camp was spectacular and probably the best camp I’ve ever had and wish it was longer!

Ryan Cao 7C

Year 9 Live Life Reflections

Live Life is an integral part of the Year 9 academic program. As the Year 9 students complete their first Live Life module, Clio Vassiliades has taken a moment to reflect on her learning and achievements this term.

Hello, my name is Clio Vassiliades and I am in Year 9 participating in the Live Life program. This program helps to teach students life skills such as budgeting, taxes and teamwork. There are 4 different modules that students are split into for each term. Life, Self, Community and Group. Each term the students rotate in order to learn a different variety of skills. I was put into the Group module for this term. This term in Group, we explored the importance of teamwork and how important it is to express ideas and work together to execute a project. We were put in groups of 3-4 people, and we had the freedom to make/create whatever we desired. My group consisted of 3 other girls. We worked together and decided to attempt to learn a new skill. We wanted to learn to knit little handmade bunnies, and donate them to the Royal Children's Hospital for children in need. However, if they didn’t take donations because of Covid, we decided to sell them and use the money we made to donate to Women's Abuse. Overall, learning about teamwork, planning, communication and creating a project using new skills this term has been heaps of fun. I cannot wait to try a brand new module next term and learn more life skills that I could use in the future.

MCG tour

On the 9 March 2022 we went to the MCG for a tour. We travelled by bus to Box Hill station to catch the city loop train to Richmond. We arrived at Richmond and started to walk to gate 3 where we were guided to put our bags away and meet our designated tour guide that gave us the once in a life time tour of the MCG. In the tour we were all guided by a professional tour guide that took us around the MCG showing us all amazing people who accomplished sporting achievements. We were lucky enough to walk around the grounds, seeing things and places that are commonly hard to get into, but lucky for us we were able go in there for a once in a life time experience. We saw some huge paintings, medals and trophies, lots of amazing accomplishments, training rooms and one of the oldest and famous libraries in Australia.

Lavila, Chanel and Coralie

South Melbourne Market

For our Live Life excursion we went to the South Melbourne Market and we a great time. The goal of this excursion was to go catch a lot of public transport and explore the Market. Each group were given a piece of paper that had a lot of activities like looking for shops. We took the 293 bus to the box hill central train station and we caught the city loop to southern cross station and we walked to the nearest tram station and we took the 14 tram to the market. When we were there I bought some sushi and some snacks/lollies from a very nice woman. Sadly, we were only there for about 1 hour so next time we will need to think about a better route to get there.

Mitchell, Tim, Will G, Alistar

Middle School reminders

Year 7 Sport Education Day is Thursdays, students are to wear their PE uniform all day
Year 8 Sport Education Day is Wednesdays, students are to wear their PE uniform all day
Live Life casual dress days, students are to wear neat casual clothing
School starts at 8.50am
Students and parents must check Compass every day for room and class changes
Students are encouraged to bring drink bottles in the warmer weather
If your child has Physical Education during the day they can wear their PE uniform all day
Sports equipment can be borrowed at recess and lunchtime at the Middle Years Centre
Students should be using ‘My Tasks’ on compass to record day to day homework

Mat Delaney

Director of Learning: Middle School

Mathew.delaney@education.vic.gov.au

Lunchtime Activities