Year 12

How wonderful it was to see everyone back at the College in person to begin the new year. The whole year level in their perfect uniforms, complete with the now mandatory pigtails for the Year 12 photo, was a sight to behold. The Class of 2022 had certainly arrived!

The highlight of our first day was hearing Clare Bowditch - ARIA Award Winning Musician, Logie Nominated actor, ABIA Award Winning writer, 'Rolling Stone' Woman of the Year and one of Australia's most respected public speakers,   speak and perform to our students, encouraging them to think of what they could do and not what they cannot! She spoke of dreams and putting in place systems to enable them to achieve their best. 

Organisation was the focus of our first pastoral lesson. Setting up a study timetable and actively engaging in classes is a must! Students were encouraged to ask questions and be proactive in their learning; to seek out support when things are difficult and not use avoidance strategies. It has been encouraging to see so many students utilising the Library after school for study.

We have also had a wonderful team building morning lead by YLead. Breaking down cliques and encouraging us all to see that we are one group all moving in a similar direction, means that we can focus on strengthening each other by seeing the unique qualities and talents that together make us a strong year level. 

“We are a force to be reckoned with."

Sue Dempster

Level Leader:

Year 12

Clare Bowditch

The beginning of a new school year can be tough, especially for us Year 12 students who have had a rough couple of years with Covid-19 lockdowns and remote learning. The new year was proving to be a little bit nerve-racking and brought a lot of anxiety amongst the whole year level. 

On Wednesday 2 February, we were lucky enough to have singer, actress, author and radio show host, Clare Bowditch, come and visit us. Clare is the perfect role model of a strong, busy and independent woman and we were so lucky to receive some incredible advice from her. Clare used her musical talent to share guidance from her life experiences and the lessons that she learnt with her severe anxiety as a teenager. 

One of the greatest pieces of advice that we learnt as a year level was to ‘tame our inner critic'. This piece of advice (also the name of Clare’s new book), told us to shut down the voice at the back of our brain which encourages our self doubt. Clare named her inner critic ‘Frank’ and whenever she was finding herself in a situation where she was doubting her abilities she came up with a saying to tell Frank to go away. 

Clare was a very engaging speaker and her advice was very relevant to the stress and anxiety that we will experience in Year 12. Our year level feels even more prepared for a difficult year with the lessons that we have learnt from our amazing guest speakers so far!

Francesca Malignaggi

College Co-Captain

 yLead Reflection

Our crazy introduction to Year 12 was kickstarted with an exciting workshop from yLead, conducted by our leader, Amy, which focused on our cohort working together to grow our communication skills, confidence and connection to one another.

One of our first activities was the group dance. In small groups, each member came up with their own unique dance move to teach the others. Once all moves had been learnt, they were combined to make a dance for the group to perform. 

The highly questionable dance moves made for some entertaining performances, but this activity was a very funny and effective way for us to learn how each member of our team has a set of totally distinctive strengths and talents which, when we work together, can benefit us all. 

The highlight of the workshop would have to be the rope exercise which involved trying to get the entire year level under a big skipping rope within our goal of one minute. To achieve this, we had to discuss tactics about timing, the number of waves and communication. 

After numerous futile attempts and a sincere doubt that the exercise was going to work at all, we finally all made it under the rope in 13 seconds. The huge reaction may have seemed wildly over the top for what was really a kids' game, but the accomplishment and excitement we felt was amazing. This exercise really illustrated just how determined and successful we can be when we work together as a unit and don't give up, no matter how many times we fail.

Overall we learnt some very valuable lessons for this year in a really fun and engaging way.

Siorcha Creaton

Year 12