Student News

Year 8 Camp

This week our Year 8 students have experienced a fabulous 3-day adventure at Camp Rumbug, which is situated in 200 acres of beautiful rainforest in South Gippsland. Their days were filled with exciting activities such as raft building, mud runs, a low rope course, a flying fox (which was a favourite amongst the students) as well as a sensory trail, which was challenging, muddy but great fun! In the evenings the students enjoyed trivia and games nights. Despite the weather being so cold, the students remained extremely positive and had a wonderful time.

Thank you to our parents in supporting your child’s active participation and also to our teachers for giving their time on the camp. School camps build confidence and team-building skills, as well as promoting independence and developing problem solving abilities.

Victorian State School Spectacular 

There are only two weeks until our amazing dance troupe perform at the Victorian State School Spectacular.

They have worked tirelessly over the last few months and will attend a full dress rehearsal on the 8th and 9th of September in the City before their actual performances on Saturday 10th September at John Cain Arena at Melbourne Park. We wish them the very best on the day.

Tickets are still available to attend the Victorian State Schools Spectacular 

For a fun, family entertainment experience, and to cheer on our students from the audience visit www.ticketek.com.au/spectacular

Cannibal Creek Land Care Excursion

Recently our students from the Year 7 & 8 PACT program, the Year 10 Pathways class and our Year 11 Environmental Science class, volunteered their time to help members of the Cannibal Creek Land Care Group plant over 600 native trees on a property located in Pakenham South. The trees will form part of a wildlife corridor connecting fragments of remnant Swampy Woodland that remain in the Pakenham area. 

Our help was very much appreciated by the landowner and the Landcare group, which is run by volunteers. Our students had a great day working outdoors and have gained an understanding of how important volunteering is to our local community. 

We have one more Land Care activity planned for October this year which will involve the students learning how to collect, dry and store seed from native plant species and then propagate them as tube stock.

A reporter and photographer from the Pakenham Gazette visited on the day and published a story of the planting in the newspaper. A link to the article can be found below:

600 trees in the ground | Pakenham Gazette (starcommunity.com.au)

Cellular Agriculture Incursion

Cellular Agriculture Australia came to visit earlier this month to present to our Year 11 Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science classes, as well as 10.1.

Cellular Agriculture Australia is a nationally recognised charity dedicated to raising awareness about cellular agriculture - an emerging and innovative new technology in the food and sustainability space. Their aim is to equip the next cohort of Australian scientists and engineers with the knowledge they need to take up the opportunities presented by this new technology.

The presenter, Brodie Peace, is a Cellular Agriculture scientist completing his PhD at the University of Melbourne. He gave the students an understanding of:

• The side effects associated with traditional animal agriculture
• The basic principles of cellular agriculture
• The challenges that cellular agriculture must overcome and 
• How students can get involved and make a real difference.

The students found the presentation informative and thought the concepts that Mr Peace discussed, were very interesting and look forward to finding out more in the future.

Ross Huggard VCE English Lecture

Our Year 12 VCE English classes are getting closer to their final exams. This week we have been fortunate to have Ross Huggard, an experienced VCE English Teacher and Exam Assessor, visit and speak to our VCE students about their Unit 4 English Outcomes. This is Mr Huggard's second visit to the school this year. He previously gave our students some fantastic tips and insight into their Unit 3 exams.