Senior School News 

Year 12 report

We are closing in on the end of Term 1 in what has been a busy start of the year for the Year 12 cohort of 2020. Highlights of the first 6 weeks include the swimming sports where we had some great costumes on display, the Year 12 Friday lunchtime BBQ in week 2 and the arrival of the 2020 Year 12 jackets which the students look great in. Valentine’s Day was also a hit with students of the leadership team going classroom to classroom serenading unsuspecting students whose friends had donated money to the Koonung Bushfire Appeal.

The Year 12 students are currently undergoing “SAC season” where they will have a quite a few SACs in the same week if not the same day. It’s been great to see students showing self-discipline and using their study periods and time before and after school working hard in the Senior Centre. What’s even better is seeing small study groups popping up where students discuss and work through problems from specific subjects. This is a great strategy and a habit we recommend for all students to get into as soon as possible.

Some advice for parents on how to help their child through this heavy period is to keep them well fed and hydrated and to be there if they want some chill out time to chat, eat, gripe or check their phone. We recommend that students have a 5-10 minute break for every 50-55 minutes of solid study to get the best out of their time.

Parent/teacher/student conferences are also coming up in week 9. These are a great opportunity for students (and parents) to check in with their teacher to review what they’ve achieved so far and to make plans as to how they will achieve their next goals.

A couple of reminders to our Year 12 students:

• If you are driving a car to and from school you must pick up a permission form from the Senior School office, get it signed by your parents and returned to us.
• Once at school you are not permitted to leave unless you are not returning i.e. you cannot go down to the shops for lunch and then come back for class or private study
• If you are unwell and planning to go home, you MUST go to the sickbay/office and get signed out.

Finally, I have had some really pleasing feedback from the staff and teachers so far this year about the maturity, respectfulness and friendliness of this year’s Year 12s – let’s keep it up!

Michael Harte

Year 12 Coordinator 

Year 11 Geography Fieldwork 

Last Tuesday our Year 11 Geography students did fieldwork to investigate how flooding hazards are managed in Whitehorse as part of VCE Unit 1 “Hazards and Disasters”.

We explored 2 local creeks, Bushy Creek and Koonung Creek, and Blackburn Lake to identify both natural features and processes, as well as management responses to potential hazard events. Students worked in collaborative groups to measure and record a range of data which they will use in their fieldwork report.

Gail Munro

Geography Teacher