New School Year

First Day Back

BBQ to Start the Year

All students and staff were given a BBQ on the first day of school. The College thought that it would be a great way to start the year and celebrate our school and its values; respect, resilience, community and learning, make up the broad base of the Colleges values. The BBQ was a way of showcasing those values. In particular it demonstrated the strong sense of community across the College.

Smoking Ceremony 

Maffra Secondary College was proud to start off a new school year with an Indigenous smoking Ceremony for our new Year 7 students and our Year 11 and 12s.

To create the smoking ceremony the College was fortunate enough to have Indigenous Australians Aunty Bonnie O’Shanassy, Lynette Bishop, Clarissa Cook and Dylan O’Shanassy at the College.

Students learnt how a smoking ceremony is an aboriginal custom that involves burning native plants to produce smoke. Students heard from Indigenous elder, Aunty Bonnie O’Shanassy, that the smoke created by the ceremony has cleansing properties. In addition to this the smoke also wards off bad spirits from both the people and the land. It is also able to make a pathway for a brighter future.

Students also had the opportunity to not just watch the smoking ceremony, but to take part in it.

The smoking ceremony proved to be a good start to the school year and supports the College’s values, especially the value of community. We are looking forward to having another smoking ceremony for all of our students and staff in NAIDOC week.