House Captions Report

On Thursday the 27th of July, we had our annual SOC House Athletics Carnival at Duncan McKinnon Reserve. This event aimed to promote physical activity and connection within our houses. The House Athletics Carnival is also an opportunity for students to represent South Oakleigh at the Monash Division Athletics Carnival. Fortunately, the sun was out, fueling the momentum throughout the day. Our Carnival consisted of track events - those being 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and a relay. Field events - long jump, triple jump, discus, shotput, javelin and high jump. Well done to everyone who took part in these events throughout the day!

A highlight from the day was the intense battle at the end, with some of our teachers and students competing in one last race! The competition was tough between houses! Acacia came first with 986 points, Grevillea with 888 points, Banksia with 800 points, and Waratah with 724 points. A tradition we do at events such as the athletics carnival, we have our house chants! After some thought, Waratah was first for the house chant, followed by Banksia, Acacia and Grevillea. A huge well done to everyone for putting effort into supporting their houses throughout the day! This does bring up the house spirit very much! I also want to thank our Staff and Student Leadership team for supporting our athletics Carnival! A huge congratulations to the students who have qualified for the Monash Division Athletics Carnival! I always look forward to coming together with the school community in these events as it really grows our connection in the college. I look forward to our next house event!

Greg Acciarito

Your Banksia House Captain

On Wednesday 9th of August, some students and staff members represented their houses and participated in the first SOC Trivia as part of our Wellfest Week Program. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and had a fantastic time playing several rounds of trivia and answering fun questions.

It started with the junior and middle-year levels playing a few rounds of trivia. We then played a few rounds of ‘are you smarter than a Year 7’ where our Year 11 and 12 students representing each house had to answer Year 7 math, geography and science questions. We ended the SOC Trivia by playing a Staff round where four staff members competed for the correct answers.

Trivia was live-streamed to the rest of the school for them to play along and have fun! All students and staff participating in SOCs trivia had a unique and fun time!!

Maddie Pallas

Your Grevillea House Captain

SRC Presidents' Report

This term, the S.R.C. has been very busy planning and hosting events and beginning planning for 2024 and future years.

In Week 3, the House Athletics Carnival was held at Duncan McKinnon Reserve, and the S.R.C.'s Campaigns Portfolio helped to keep everyone fed by hosting a Canteen on the day. We raised over $700 for the day, and all proceeds went towards the Cathy Freeman Foundation. Thank you to everyone for your support.

In Week 5, the S.R.C. hosted our annual Wellfest Week. From activities including Tag a Friend, guest speakers and Active Friday promoting holistic health to the Krispy Kreme and out-of-uniform day supporting charities to the live-streamed competitions on Wednesday displaying fun and positive energy school-wide, the week was a resounding success, and we can't wait to bring more events to the school.

This term, the S.R.C. executive team has also gotten a head start on planning for 2024 and future years. Beginning handover plans and structures for future years, we have enjoyed reflecting and learning, hoping to continue building on our successes and improve our reach to the school as an SRC. Thank you again for your unwavering support, and we hope you enjoy our future initiatives.

Genna Windsor

Your Student Representative Council President

Shyli Barak

Your Student Representative Council Vice-President

Campaigns Portfolio Update

On Thursday the 27th of July, we held our annual House Athletics Carnival at Dunkin McKinnon Reserve! Apart from the House Athletics Carnival is our S.R.C ran canteen, organised by our Campaigns portfolio.

We sold sausage in bread, veggie burgers, soft drinks, chips, hot chocolate, and more on the day. This was also our first time trying out an online payment option, using TryBooking as a way for people to pay with a card. Overall, the day was a huge success! Reaching over $700 of profit, this was our most significant amount of revenue ever made from House Athletics! A big thank you to everyone who helped in the canteen on the day, whether it was serving, prepping sausages or cleaning the area, it was greatly appreciated.

To end Wellfest Week, we finished off on a school-wide Active Day. The day involved year levels, each taking a period off to perform 1 of 4 available physical actives: dodgeball, 4-way capture the flag, walking or a fitness centre session. The point of Active Day is to promote the importance of physical activity and to better people’s overall health. Thank you to everyone who helped set up and pack down, organise year levels, and help people with any questions or queries. Everyone had a great time, and it was definitely a well-deserved break after the Semester 1 exams!

The second day of Wellfest Week, Fundraising Tuesday included an out-of-uniform event and a sale of Krispy Kreme doughnuts at recess and lunch. The theme of this out-of-uniform was ‘Cozy’, meaning people came to school in Ugg boots, oodies, pyjamas, etc. During our sale for Krispy Kreme, we had a variety of doughnuts, including Original Glazed, Chocolate Iced, Strawberry Sprinkles, Jam Donuts and Custard Donuts. People could also pre-order dozens such us an Original Glazed box, Fundraising Assortment box, Chocolate box and Strawberry box. The day ended with all doughnuts sold out and students happy with a morning tea treat!

Mackenzie Dickson

Your Leading Campaigns Representative

Student Representative Council

Connections & Wellbeing Portfolio Update

To start our Wellfest Week activities, we hit off with decorative chalk art that covered our school's inspirational messages. From motivational messages to drawings of Charizard, our senior students worked hard to empower all dimensions of health – the aim of well fest week. Thank you to everyone who helped!

Our second activity was Tag a Friend, a motivational, school-wide activity. Students wrote nice messages which are then sorted by our Wellbeing and Campaigns portfolios – almost 700 hundred messages! – and given out to inspire community-wide kindness, expressed in our school values. Thank you to everyone who wrote a kind message to a friend, classmate, or teacher.

Ana Donnellon

Your Leading Connections & Wellbeing Representative

Student Representative Council

Breakfast Club Update

On Friday the 11th of August, our school's Student Leadership Team hosted our Welfest Week Celebratory Breakfast Club, which turned out to be a fantastic event for everyone involved. Breakfast Club is a well-enjoyed event with SOC's students, teachers and staff. Our celebratory menu included a wide range of delicious items, including our regular breakfast offerings such as cereals, toast, juice, and fruit, as well as bacon, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, milkshakes and pastries. We were amazed to see over 100 students and staff attend the Breakfast Club. It was rewarding to see our efforts in planning and organising the event pay off and positively impact our school community. Overall, the Celebratory Breakfast Club was a huge success, and we are grateful to everyone who contributed to making it such a memorable event. We hope to continue this tradition for many years to come, and we look forward to seeing more students join us for our next Breakfast Club, on Thursday the 17th of August, from 8:00 am in the Canteen.

If any students would like to help with the program, please get in touch with Genna Windsor (gmwin1@schools.vic.edu.au) – S.R.C. President or Soham Dhital (SDHI15@schools.vic.edu.au) – S.R.C. Breakfast Club Liaison.

Soham Dhital

Your Campaigns Representative and Breakfast Club Liaison

Student Representative Council

Monash Tech School SUPERSPACE

7 Accelerated Science Student Comments:

Zara

I felt that my time at Monash University was a great and new experience. Overall I thought the process of learning new things about space was very interesting where we got to do experiments to find out how much of something we needed to buy. One of my personal favourite experiments was when we got to use the HoloLens and talk with our partner through that. Our team worked really well together and when we all had different opinions we voted and the winning one was the final decision.

Tamsyn

Monash Tech School let us come to their school, and they taught us about space. I found it really fun to work in a group, attempting to make a spacesuit. It was interesting to participate on Tuesday, and I learnt a lot from them. We did different experiments to create the ideal spacesuit and bought things for it. I feel that it was a good thing for us to experience. THE LEAVES WERE REALLY FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucia

Monash hosted us and welcomed us politely. I enjoyed participating in the activities and found it interesting to pick up despite missing a day. It was also fun presenting and working in a team.

Maddy

I liked going to Monash and using the expensive machines, I learnt about different materials, and I also liked working as a team. Everything was good but the canteen wasn't open

Deeva

The day I spent at Monash Tech School was an interesting experience. When I went there we were directed to a space and we were told that we were going to work there for the rest of the day. I could only go on the second day, but it was still really good. My favourite thing I saw that day was definitely the materials, and I took a personal liking to the one that was called 7717-03. I also really enjoyed working with the machines. Overall, it was a really amazing and impressive program, I really enjoyed it.

Maxwell

I loved SuperSpace it challenged my thinking to do something harder that I wouldn't do in the real world Thank you SuperSpace

Maxim

I enjoyed the SuperSpace experience very much. I found it very hands-on as well as being able to learn new things about tech and space. It was a really creative approach and made it interesting to learn. I would have liked it to be more realistic and scientific but other than that I liked it.

Troy

Monash Tech School was a great learning program, the teams at first were not that fun but after half an hour they changed the teams to suit everybody. The activities were extremely fun with nearly everybody collaborating. The staff were including everyone and kept it interesting as well keeping the space program in mind. Overall an extremely enjoyable learning experience. My favourite part was building the astronauts.

Edward

I enjoyed the AR section when we had to communicate and use new technology. I also enjoyed how interactive and hands-on it was, and how we got to choose everything ourselves and work as a team. I liked making the badge and finishing the model. The tour at the end was also very interesting as we got to see technology for 3d printing and laser cutting that I hadn't seen before.

Andrew

I liked the AR headset and the gyroscopes it was fun to learn about all the aspects that go into making a spacesuit.

Owen

I really enjoyed the communication station when we used the AR headsets. Another fun thing was the workshop tour at the end when we looked at different 3D printers and resin printers and other stuff that they use to make parts for their programs. For the construction portion of the program when we put our spacesuits together, I designed the mission patch for our mission. My team was Critical Repairs. I really enjoyed both days.

Caelan

The experience was nice going to the Tech school the best part was the HoloLens activities as we got to open an escape box.

Aarsh

I found SuperSpace extremely interesting and helpful. SuperSpace has unlocked a whole new branch of possibilities and opportunities for when I become older.

Oliver

Monash Tech School had some fun activities and very cool technology and equipment, and we worked in a pretty cool space too.

Jamie

4 out of 4…

Max

I enjoyed going to Monash University cause we got to buy parts of an astronaut then we were able to make it afterwards.

Aiden

I quite enjoyed it for someone who isn’t a science nuffy it would've been better if we could choose our teams but I think one of the main things was for us to not be with our friends

Wellfest Week: MasterChef Contestant

To say that the MasterChef Competition was fun would be an understatement. The excitement of being able to cook with our friends and compete against other teams was amazing, and throughout the whole time we were cooking, we made great memories with our friends. One thing that I found quite interesting was how even though every one was competing against each other, we were able to bring each other up and complement each team.

Although it was very chaotic, overall, the experience was amazing and will never be forgotten. My favourite part was when Aimee was stressing out about not being able to finish in time when we had over 40 minutes to go, and I’m sure other groups had that in person as well, which would’ve made it even more fun for them as well. Such a beautiful memory, and I’m so proud of all the teams who participated and loved their desserts!

Angelina Manolis

Wellfest Week MasterChef Contestant

Wellfest Week: Chalk Art

On the 7th of August, a group of senior students enthusiastically participated in a unique chalk activity as part of the Wellfest Week. This event aims to promote and emphasise the importance of all dimensions of well-being among the student and staff community. With a burst of creativity, these students utilised vibrant and captivating colours to transform the concrete into an inspiring masterpiece specifically created by the students.   

The event showcased the senior students' creative minds and radiated positivity throughout our school grounds. Each chalk creation was created with uplifting messages that encouraged wellness and happiness. These messages acted as a beacon of positivity, reminding everyone who walked by of the significance of maintaining their mental and emotional well-being.  

The chalk activity during Wellfest Week fostered creativity and collaboration. It was a powerful reminder of the essential role that positivity and well-being play in academic and personal success.  

Ava-Lily Bakas

Year 12 Student

Wellfest Week: Community Expo

On Wednesday the 9th of August, we had the Community Expo at our school. We had many amazing stalls, including Monash Youth Services, Headspace, Mission Australia, The Salvation Army, and South East Community Links. It was wonderfully organized, and many students came! Thank you to all students who attended, teachers, and representatives from the various community organizations who gave up their time to attend our expo!

Sophie Volpert

Your Campaigns Representative

Student Representative Council

Wellfest Week: Lunchtime Performance

To close Wellfest Week, the Performing Arts Prefects and Mr Prewett hosted a lunchtime concert on Friday. Held in the outdoor technology courtyard, lots of students came to enjoy the music. The concert had many musical performances, including the VCE music band playing many well-loved hits. Make sure to stop by next time we have a lunchtime concert to enjoy the music and atmosphere!

Genna Windsor

Your Student Representative Council President

Wellfest Week: Guest Speaker

As part of Wellfest Week 2023, on Monday the 7th of August, the Year 7’s got to listen to a presentation delivered by Australian Sports Shooter Laetisha Scanlan. She came to speak to us on behalf of the Black Dog Institute, which runs a program called the Mental Fitness Program, in which Athletes across Australia go to deliver a presentation to High School students.

She spoke to us about how to keep mentally and physically fit, with things like mindful activities, being grateful in the hard times, and thinking about good thoughts rather than something that will bring you down. I got a lot out of the presentation and am now doing or planning to put her tips into my daily routine. We were told how certain things could affect our mood and behaviour, and we watched videos about everything in more detail.

In the end, we were informed of different programs and websites that could help us learn more, along with mindfulness challenges and more ways to conquer the hard times. Laetisha’s presentation was great, and I hope all the year 7’s got as much out of it as I did.

Inara Linehan

Your Communications & Student Experience Representative and Year 7 Leader

Student Representative Council

Wellfest Week: Guest Speaker

On Monday the 7th of August, a guest speaker came to our school to talk to the Year 9 cohort. Juan Sanchez told us his story of losing his mother at ten from suicide and how it impacted his life. He also shared his mental health issues as he grew older and about almost losing his marriage. He talked about how anyone can be going through something, even if they are not showing it, and that you should seek help if you are battling mental health problems. Juan showed a lot of bravery and courage when telling us his touching story, as he had never talked to a school before. I am confident that his story reminded everyone that no one is alone and help is always available.

Yohan Soju

Your Communications & Student Experience Secretary and Enrichment Liaison

Student Representative Council

Important Dates

Dates to Remember