HUMANITIES

SMART SAVER INCURSION

On Monday 20 May all Year 11 Business Management classes attended a Smart Saver incursion. This was sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank and Ms Catherine Ayd was the presenter. The focus was ‘Smart Spending’. To start we played some ice-breaker games which tested our knowledge of marketing strategies. Catherine is quoted as saying “Choose your purchases before they choose you!” This essentially means think before you buy, ensure you decide if you truly require the product and establish if and how this product will benefit you in a year’s time. We learned about different money strategies which can help us grow our savings. This information is all valuable to our future and our learning of business concepts and we thank Catherine very much for her time.

Madelyn Do  & Anastasia Prystay

Year 10 Students

YEAR 12 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

The Year 12 Business Management students have been learning about the key elements of an operations system. Thus, they participated in a practical activity called 'Funny Faces' where they have to create funny face biscuits in class - which involves the making of icing sugar and the preparation of lollies in the shapes of a nose, mouths etc to form the face. Students learnt how to work as part of a team, and also gained an insight into how to be more productive, manage their materials more effectively and the importance of quality control and waste minimisation. 

Kate Jobson & Marie Lucarelli

Business Management Teachers

SCHOOLS SHARE MARKET GAME

The Schools Share Market Game is an online game run by the Australian Stock Exchange twice a year. Students receive a virtual $50,000 they can invest over a 10 week period, in 220 companies listed on the ASX. The prices students buy and sell at are the same prices as they would get in the live market so this is as close to real life share trading as you can get.

The purpose of the game for students to:

·         Develop their knowledge of the sharemarket

·         Learn how to research companies

·         Discover the importance of wise investment decisions

·         Gain a greater knowledge of economic and world events

·         Begin to learn more about investing which is beneficial for their future

Eighty-five students from Year 10 VCAL, Year 11 Business Management and Year 11 Accounting were enrolled in the first game of 2019 making up 29 syndicates (students can select to be in a syndicate of 1-4 students).

Kalia Torcasio and James Liao from the Year 11 Accounting class are to be congratulated on being the highest ranked syndicate from McKinnon Secondary College. Their final portfolio was valued at $58,099.09 and they were ranked 14th in Victoria of 5,938 syndicates and 54th of 18,918 syndicates overall.

Helen James

Accounting Teacher

GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIP – YARRA VALLEY

On a chilly morning, the Year 12 Geography students headed up to Yarra Valley for our only field trip of the year. Our main purpose of the visit (aside from tasting chocolates!) was to investigate the change of land use and its impact on Yarra Glen - a region traditionally dominated by agricultural industry, and slowly transforming to a popular tourist destination.

We first arrived at the Yarra Valley Chocolate and Ice Creamery, which is beautifully surrounded by Dandenong and Yarra Ranges. After enjoying some truly delicious and unique flavours of chocolate, students were given a talk about the history of the business, regarding the steps and challenges of change in land use, and the whole process of transforming farmland to a popular tourist destination. Some of us were amazed by the development and explanation of the business. We also walked around the factory to investigate the work done by the factory to minimise negative environmental impacts.

We then went back to the Yarra Glen township where we interviewed some local people.

Our survey provided some more diverse opinion of changing land in the region. By analysing the data we collected, we could understand the impact of land use change on local people, local environment and local economy. We also visited Christmas Hills of the Yarra Ranges where we had a view of the scenic Yarra Valley, its beautiful landscape and recorded Yarra Valley’s different land uses.

Other highlights include Yarra Glen’s fantastic playground, where we spent such a good time swinging, climbing ropes, leaving many laughs on dizzy spinners.

It is indeed a wonderful journey, and many thanks to our excellent teachers Mr Blackmore and Ms Mauger for organising this trip (and helping me skipping EAL and double Specialist!). Personally, I highly recommend that all students choose Geography as a subject, as you are guaranteed to have more fun than any other subject!

Yonghan Wang

Year 12 Student