Preston Life

The PHS Music Festival is coming

Get set for a treat for your ears as our Preston music students showcase their talents in our upcoming Music Festival.  Our ensembles, bands, orchestras and soloists are rehearsing with gusto to bring you an instrumental event like no other.

The evening festival will run here at school on Tuesday, June 23, from 5.30pm. Performances will be held in the Gillard building and in the C04 Theatre. Tickets are strictly limited - use the QR code to secure today!

Women at Work Workshop 

On Monday 1 June, ten Year 9 and 10 students attended the Women at Work Workshop at Northern College of the Arts and Technology (NCAT).

Throughout the day, students participated in three hands-on workshops: Electrical Engineering, Painting and Decorating, and Building and Construction. The sessions were led by young women currently enrolled at NCAT, providing our students with inspiring examples of women pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated industries.

The workshop also offered a wonderful opportunity to see several former Preston students thriving in a practical, hands-on learning environment and demonstrating leadership through their mentoring of younger students.

Our students enthusiastically embraced every activity, developing new skills and confidence while gaining valuable insights into vocational education and career pathways. By the end of the day, all students left with either prizes or projects they had created themselves, making the experience both rewarding and memorable.

The Women at Work Workshop was an excellent opportunity to celebrate women's leadership, challenge stereotypes, and encourage young women to explore a diverse range of future career options.

The Generations in Conversation project

by Abbie and Billy, Cohort 2027

In Term 2, Year 11 VM students have been going to Uniting Age Well aged care home every week for our Generations in Conversation project. Each group has been assigned a resident that we sit with, play games with, and interview about their life. We recorded their stories and collected photos of them from over the years as we are creating a documentary about their whole life. 

At the end of this experience, we are all sharing the documentaries that we made about them in a screening being held at the aged care home, exploring the lives these people have lived and all the experiences they have had throughout their lifetime. 

The project has been an amazing learning experience for everyone around, and especially for us VM students. To be able to learn more about personal life skills from someone who has lived an entire life in front of our eyes is such a privilege. These skills we have developed will heavily improve and impact the rest of our lives, giving us an understanding of what our lives could be. 

Student leadership training day 

by Lewin Blanch, Acacia House and Niko Tootoo, Gecko House 

Students from across the school recently participated in a student leadership day held offsite at LCI in Collingwood. Students attended to develop a deeper understanding of their leadership roles within the school and how they can further support the PHS community. Throughout the day, we took part in several engaging workshops led by institute professors. One of the sessions focused on the stages of managing a project, while another explored colour theory in marketing and advertising. These sessions were insightful and helped us, as leaders, learn how to more effectively plan and promote our school initiatives. 

International Women’s Day 

by Lily Paterson, Glider House and Evie Jackson-Hugill, Acacia House

The Ged Kearney Scholars are a group of students from Year 7 to Year 12. We organise events throughout the school year such as period poverty drives, International Women’s Day stalls and bake sales. We get the privilege of receiving mentoring from Ged Kearney herself and use these skills to improve our leadership. 

On 27 March we had our first meeting of the year with Ged. We shared a morning tea while learning about her outstanding career. We then brought up some key issues that young people in Australia are facing today. Ged listened intently, mentioning that she would be eager to bring some of these topics up in parliament. It was a great experience for all involved and we’re excited to continue working closely with Ged throughout our high school careers. 

For term one, our main focus was International Women’s Day, which we celebrated by setting up a photo-booth in the H Building courtyard and by giving away free stickers and ribbons in the library. Many students had their photos taken individually or with friends-and overall, it was a massive success.  

Both activities were a great opportunity to celebrate such an important day, and it was amazing to see the Preston High community come together! Thank you to everyone who lent us the equipment that made this day possible, to all who participated in these events, and to everyone who helped run and organize them!   

Keep an eye out for news on our Women in Sport activities running in Term 2. 

All aboard for the You Yangs

by Lenny Vance, Gecko House 

The Year 10 Geography class visited the You Yangs regional park near Geelong in April to gather data for their fieldwork summative. The excursion started with a bus ride which lasted just over an hour, which brought us to the start of the hiking trail. When we arrived, we were greeted by the Park rangers who introduced themselves and shared a couple of facts about Aboriginal practises in the area. We had a quick recess before setting out on the trail.

The walk was around 4km long and included many views from the heights of the You Yangs down to Geelong and beyond. We stopped at several locations to gather data on things like weather conditions and flora, and had a lovely lunch stop halfway. At the end of the walk, we went to visit the Big Rock (yes it's called the Big Rock) before heading back to school on the bus. The day was a lot of fun and we spent valuable time walking in nature with our friends, whilst getting a feel for what VCE Geography fieldwork would be like. 

Cash for Cans and Green Day with the Green Team

by Mahla Ellis, Acacia House 

The Green Team at PHS have purchased special bins to recycle bottles, cans and containers that are eligible for the 10c deposit scheme. PHS now has its own account and the money raised is used to purchase sporting equipment for students to use at recess and lunchbreaks.  

Families and friends of PHS can also choose to donate your money to our school when you privately deposit cans and bottles at one of the CDS-Vic North deposit centres. When you log in on your app at the centre, just look for Preston High School and select us as the charity to donate your funds to on the list! 

Our main focus was working towards Green Day on May 27. In preparation we met every Thursday during lunch to come up with ideas and activities to ensure that it can be as fun and enjoyable as possible. Some of these include gathering seeds to plant and hand out, up-cycling/making green accessories to give out and wear on the actual day, to show of support for our wonderful planet. 

We all need to remember that saving the planet isn’t a global effort, left to politicians and scientists, but an individual effort, given to all the people on Earth who want to make a change.  

School for Student Leadership 

by Sidney Welton, Acacia House, Wednesday Mckenzie, Glider House, Zoe Murdoch, Acacia House and Mason Mitchell, Tawny House

We are the Year 9 students who were selected to attend the School for Student Leadership Marlo camp this term. We tried mountain biking, surfing and a bunch of other stuff. The highlight of the last week for our school group was definitely surfing as a class, it was really fun and I think we have improved so much. 

We really enjoyed all of the different concepts that this school teaches. Whether that be identity or environment, the curriculum here is incredible and teaches us so much. The community here is amazing everyone is so kind and I feel like everyone was definitely picked to come here for a reason. Just the nicest people I've ever had the chance to meet. 

We had a couple of guest speakers over the past few weeks including Samuel Mclennon, the VIC police and an Olympian, Darcy Morton. They have all been so inspirational, lots to reflect on! For most of our evening classes, we have had student-led activities which are always fun as well as watching some movies. 

We have been learning a lot about ourselves and the experiences and lesson we have here will live with us for the rest of our lives. We can't wait to share more of our learnings and adventures soon.