Middle Years

Year 8 Core – Sacred Garden Excursion 

On Monday 22 March, the Year 8s went on an excursion to the Sacred Garden at The Monastery. The Garden is an area dedicated to peace and tranquility for reflection and prayer. 

The excursion had two aims.  Firstly, the students were able to imitate the final journey of Christ, as reflected through the Stations of the Cross. This provided great preparation liturgically for the start of ‘Holy Week’.  Secondly, it was an opportunity to enrich classroom based learning.  This term, students have been investigating the life of Jesus, culminating in a creative response to the driving question, ‘How is Jesus a role model in today’s society?’.

Each station in the garden provided students with a visual representation of Jesus’ last journey. A natural link to the Term 1 History curriculum was also made as students made observations and inferences at each station, which facilitated a deeper reflection on what they were seeing. 

A short prayer was also said to help students make a personal connection with each experience. Students stopped for a prolonged period at the 12th Station (Jesus dying on the cross). Here, students could reflect on the sacrifice of Christ. 

The experience of being away from the regular school environment and learning about the life of Jesus in a more visual way, has provided students with a deeper understanding of our inquiry in Jesus’ life and teachings this term.

Kirsty Hansen

Year 8 Core Coordinator

Year 7 Oliver Phommavanh Incursion

On a sunny and fine day in March, Endeavour College was visited by a cheerful and pleasant author/comedian/teacher from Melbourne. Oliver Phommavanh was a breath of fresh air to our Year 7 students as he discussed his experiences growing up and his life ambition to be a dinosaur. Fortunately, he chose the pathway of an author as his ten novels are popular with our students. His books are packed with laughs, as are his presentations, many of his stories being the inspiration for his books. Oliver is known for his authentic characters living in a multicultural Australia, and the students could see themselves in his words.

In the afternoon Oliver conducted a ‘Writer’s Workshop’ with a smaller group of keen students. During this time, the students learnt not just the art of writing, but the art of engaging your reader. Oliver refers to his career as ‘living his dream’ and this was demonstrated in his passion for the art of writing which he has passed onto the students. 

Catherine Barnes

Teacher Librarian