Middle School

End of Term 2

As we near the end of Term 2, the Middle School Team would like to wish all students a successful end to the term and a safe and enjoyable break over the holidays.  Good luck to the students and staff who have embarked on the Central Australia Trip, we know you have an unbelievable experience!  For the Year 10 students not attending this trip, we hope you continue to learn many new skills and enjoy your work experience placements in the final week of term.

Matthew Tucker

Middle School Leader

Year 10 Exams

Year 10 students have recently completed their first experience of undertaking subject exams at the College. The behaviour students displayed throughout all of their exams was great and we hope students will receive some excellent results.

We hope students should now have a better understanding of how to best prepare for exams and an Elevate Education session in Term 3 will further assist students in their future exam preparations. We hope students have been able to identify their own effective study and revision strategies, along with and the amount of study required to achieve pleasing results.

Peter Vlahos

Jackman House Coordinator

(Middle School)

InterGREAT Community Engagement

During InterGREAT this term we have focused on ‘Self in the Community’. Students have gained an appreciation of Community and its importance to a healthy society. In their major assignment students made a documentary about someone who makes a difference in their community. In recent weeks, there has also been a focus on Volunteering. A visit from Marcello and Jesse from Interchange Outer East sparked the enthusiasm of many students to sign up as volunteers during the school holidays. I was astounded by the number of our students already performing volunteer roles with many more enthusiastic about joining in.

Over the past two weeks all of our Year 9s have participated in the InterGREAT Community Engagement Program, striving to make a difference and contribute to their local community.

InterGREAT staff established partnerships with organisations in the Maroondah area to develop ten community projects. Students elected to participate in a community project that interested them. Students, staff and community members all agree that each project was successful and had enormous benefits for all involved.

I have been overwhelmed by the empathy and sense of community responsibility shown by so many of our students.

Virginia Watson

InterGREAT Coordinator

Student Reflections on Some of the Community Engagement Projects

Bedford Park Community Garden

On Tuesday 11th and 18th of June we headed down the road to Bedford Park Community Garden. We were greeted by Jess who explained a little to us about the garden and how the idea of it is to promote and educate people on how to live sustainably as well as feed the local community. It is an open garden so anyone who visits can take food if they need.

Our first job was to create a butterfly bath and insect hotel. We learnt that a lot of our insect species are becoming extinct and the role they play in pollenating our food to eat. So, creating a place where they can live and breed is really important.

In the second week we met Raff, he brought along some mushrooms for us to look at and explained the role of fungi in the environment and how it was probably one of the first things to live on earth. We also planted some snow peas, staked them out, built a rockery for the lizards, did some composting and learnt how we can reduce our impact on the environment, by reducing waste and living a more sustainable lifestyle by having veggie patches, creating a safe environment for the insects and animals and reducing the amount of waste we create.

Written by the Bedford Park Community Garden Volunteers – Year 9 InterGREAT

YourDNA

For InterGREAT this term, us Year 9s has been working on ourselves and others in the community. We had an amazing opportunity to be part of the Community Engagement Program where we got a chance to choose from different organisations to help the community around Ringwood. I was lucky enough to be a part of the sessions with Your DNA Creative Arts. We had an amazing time getting to know each other and participating in some awesome drama, dance, and art activities together. We had a ball doing fun games which we will all remember and enjoy looking back on including “DISCO”, “What are you doing?”, “Stayin Alive” and many more! We all learnt different skills being around disabled people which we hopefully use in the future. We created some great memories together and wish we could have more sessions, but we are all looking forward to seeing their performance later this year!

Brooke Humphreys

For 2 weeks the Tuesday group from Your DNA, came to Ringwood Secondary College to have fun with some Year 9s. In the first week, we met Toby, James, Zoey, Nicholas, Heather, Rhi, Ness or ‘cheeky’ (as some of us called her) and Daniel (Palmer). We played games such as “What are you doing?” and “DISCO”. We also learnt about their pets as well as their favourite food. In the second week, we watched Rhi and Palmer perform a dance they created and we were able to learn a bit of the dance to the song “Staying Alive”. It was so much fun! Overall the experience was AMAZING. I learnt so much about Your DNA and the students that came along. Even if they were shy at the beginning, everyone warmed up to each other and we ended up having a lot of fun. Everyone that came along, was so nice and lovely, and had a huge sense of humour. At the start of the 2 weeks, I was honestly really scared of working with the people from DNA but once I met all of them and worked with them, I felt so comfortable and like I’ve known them for ages because of their warm personalities and charm. I’m going to miss seeing all of their smiling faces and happy energy each week, I really wish we could do this every week! Thank you, Your DNA! Hope you had an amazing time and made some awesome memories I’ll hold onto forever, because I know we did!

Lacy Shattock

Lionsbrae

Lionsbrae was a great experience as we got to see what it’s like being involved in the community and making a difference. We visited the elderly over 2 weeks for an hour and we had a great time learning about them and their interests. We got to meet all different people with different stories to tell and got to see what they were like.

We learnt lots of new things about every person we spoke to and spent time with. One man had a real passion for building models out of icy pole sticks and we thought that was really cool. We didn’t know how great It would feel to spend such little time with someone and make such a huge difference to them.

At the start we were a little nervous but as we got to know them it was really fun, we didn’t see the people every week so we got to meet lots of individuals with different personalities. Lionsbrae was a great experience and we truly enjoyed it. We would love to have the opportunity to do something similar in the future.

Cassidy & Jessica

The Freedom Initiative

On Tuesday the 11th and 18th of June, our class made up of multiple InterGREAT classes embarked on a journey within our community to a local organisation called The Freedom Initiative.

The Freedom Initiative is a collection of people who believe in the value of caring for the less fortunate in the local Maroondah community. They work by bringing in food, hygiene and clothing donations to create a mini shop where people struggling can come in and receive any of these items they may need to support them or their family.

As a group, we helped to organise and arrange the pantry of food donations, create some recipes people could use to create a meal from the limited options they have access to, as well as organise, sort and fold clothes that would be made available for young children.

This opportunity really opened our eyes to the struggles that some members of our community face, and we’re really grateful to have this chance to lend a hand, even if it was a small difference that we made to help others.

Ebony Kelly, Tom Jackson and Noah Rabbi

Knit and Crochet for a Cause

Through InterGREAT, we were given the opportunity to help the community and people in need. For 2 weeks during InterGREAT, 25 students learnt how to knit or crochet a 25cm x 25cm square. The aim was to have enough squares to be able to be turned into a blanket for St Kilda mums. St Kilda mums is a charity which donate things to families and parents in need. Students also developed an understanding of helping others in need and the community.

Through this task, students developed an understanding of learning how to overcome challenges. For some it was easy to pick up a new skill, for others it required more help and skill from peers and teachers.

Through our experience we both learnt new skills in different ways. For Amelie, I found it difficult to grasp the skill. I had never crocheted before and it took of patience. For Isabel, it was still harder to pick up the skill, but once I went home and practiced, I soon became a lot better at it.

Isabel and Amelie