Around the Senior School

Year 11 Legal Studies Canberra Excursion

Twenty-four Year 11 students travelled to Canberra to enjoy two days of legal bliss – a visit to Parliament House and the High Court – in Week 9 of Term 3.

After departing early on Wednesday 13 September, the students conducted a self-guided tour of Australian National University. Students enjoyed visiting the Law faculty, blown away by the vast number of thick legal texts across a variety of legal areas in the Law Library, and enjoying seeing the lecture and tutorial spaces designed to practice court procedure.

At Parliament House, local Calare MP Mr Andrew Gee welcomed the Year 11 students, discussing contemporary issues like The Voice and Murray-Darling Basin water management legislation, and providing a wonderful “backstage” tour of the building. Students were stunned to find a full gym and sports facility, a hairdresser and medical centre all for MPs and their staff. The students got to set foot in the party rooms and quietly shuffle past the Prime Minister’s office. In addition to the tour, the students were entertained by a firey Question Time in the Senate.

Students enjoyed a dinner and movie night before recharging for the next day.

On Day 2, students enjoyed a quick shopping spree at the Canberra Centre before visiting the National Gallery of Australia and the High Court. The scale of the High Court building was impressive, and our tour guide was wonderful in making connections to landmark cases studied in class and the function of the court. 

The excursion has inspired students for their HSC Legal Studies course and opened their eyes to the opportunities after school in law.

Ben Ronald

Social Sciences | Head Mentor Brown House

Student Exchange

Thibaut FRONTIN

Dear Kinross Wolaroi staff and students,

First, I would like to say a big thank you for this exchange. This exchange was amazing and has enabled us to discover different ways of life and very nice people. I would like to say thank you for all the excursions and all of the trips that you prepared for us like going to Sydney. Sydney is such a beautiful city. This city is really different than Paris or other capitals where I have already visited. During the trip to Canberra, we were able to visit the Parliament, The National Gallery, the beautiful high court of justice and ANU. ANU is different to French universities because we don’t have any restaurants, pharmacies, banks and supermarkets inside a university campus. 

I am very grateful to all the different teachers, who for two months took care of us and taught us a lot of things. This exchange allowed me to improve my English level and it has been a great help for my studies and for my future job because I would like to become an airline pilot. 

During this exchange I have been able to discover a different way of life and school experience, it has been very informative and enjoyable. Your education system is so much better than in France because here you have 20 students in a class compared to 36 in France, and school begins at 8:45 am and finishes at 3:25, but school days in France are much longer. This timetable is nice because after school you can do a lot of things, my favourite aspect is the fact that Kinross values sport which is a great thing because you can play sport for school and not for a club like in France. 

This exchange also allowed me to discover different subjects like commerce, pass and STEM. I also discovered a lot of sports like league tag, cricket and netball, in particular hockey which is fun and so cool. 

The Kinross campus is very impressive and beautiful. I think during my stay in Australia, I have discovered my future country where I would like to live and work if possible. 

Thank you because you put me with the best family, the Websters with whom I was able to do a lot of things like going to Sydney and skiing in Falls Creek in Victoria state which was awesome. I have had the opportunity to live in Orange which is different to Canberra and Sydney. I like this city because the people are really nice, and it looks like its from a movie and I like it. I am very sad to leave Australia after these amazing two months and these lovely experiences with really nice people. 

Honestly, if I can work somewhere, I will try to come back in Orange to improve my English and to see my host family and all the people that I met during this exchange. If (when) I return, I will return to Kinross to say “Bonjour!” to my teachers, Dr Parry and Dr Ernist.

Sincerely,

Thibaut FRONTIN

Eliot Birr

I’d like to firstly say thank you for letting me have this amazing opportunity. The last two months were amongst the best times of my life, and that’s an understatement. From the people I’ve met, to the travels I did, every part of this exchange was awesome (except the bread, I really miss a good old French baguette).

I have been able to discover the Aussie way of life, and to be honest, I’d rather stay here than go back home. At first glance it didn’t seem different at all, so I didn’t experience a culture shock, but thinking about it and seeing more and more every day, it is very far from what I know. 

The way people treat each other was probably the most mind-blowing thing for me, like, 2 strangers being nice to one another? That’d never happen in France. The way education works here is quite different too, it’s much better. In a week, there’s almost as much hours of class as back home (30 to 33), and yet the days are not even 7hours, whereas we have class from 8 to 6. 

The variety of subjects studied was quite fun to experience, even though I didn’t do everything, the fact that you can study art, music, drama, or even cooking as electives is just so amazing and I would really like to see that at home. 

Being in Year 12 in France does mean that I wasn’t paying much attention to the “normal” classes (English, history, science) as it was mostly stuff I had already done when I was in Year 10, and I reckon it would’ve been really good if we could’ve tried Year 11/12 electives (Legal studies, ancient history, …) as these are subjects that we do have but only in Year 12 which means we could’ve discovered more new stuff. 

The sense of community that the school creates was also quite fun, and even though they try to have it as well at home, it’s on a much smaller level. The fact that you can do sports after school for school and the opportunity that you get doing so to go compete in other cities, or even just against other schools in Orange is so weird yet so cool to me. 

Besides sport, the fact that the school allows people to artistically express themselves through music and drama is wonderful. Putting on such amazing shows in the form of the musical (which, by the way, was incredible), HSC drama and Year 10 music performance wouldn’t happen at home, and even if did, there wouldn’t be such enthusiasm about it. 

Lastly, the school allowing us to go to other year and classes’ excursions was so awesome, thanks to that I’ve been able to discover Sydney (even though I did go multiple times with my (incredible) host family), Dubbo and just a few days ago, Canberra, which goes in the highlights of this exchange.

To conclude, I’d like to thank Kinross for organizing such an amazing exchange, but also my host family, for giving me a place to call home and lastly, all of the amazing people I’ve met and befriended for making me laugh so much!

So long story short, I’ve had an amazing time staying here, if I had to do it again, I’d do it twice. And it is  with a broken heart that I say goodbye.

Eliot Birr

Visual Arts Tour April 2025 - Italy

We are calling for expressions of interest to participate in a Visual Arts to to Italy in the April school holidays in 2025. The tour includes sights, food, experiences, art making workshops and gallery visits in Rome, Vatican City, Siena, San Gimignano, Florence, Bologna and Venice.

For full details, download the brochure below:

Duke of Edinburgh Adventurous Journe

Kinross Wolaroi School will be facilitating the Duke of Edinburgh International Award - Adventurous Journey to Kosciuszko National Park again in 2023. 

The “Bike and Hike” Adventurous Journey will provide participants with the chance to investigate this unique Alpine ecosystem with other participants.

The Adventurous Journey will take place in in Week 9 Term 4 2023 i.e. Sunday 3rd December – Wednesday 6 December 2023

Based in Thredbo, participants will be developing their campcraft, navigation and survival skills over a four-day period. 

If you would like to participate in this Adventurous Journey, please email nzinga@kws.nsw.edu.au Participant numbers are limited to x 20, therefore those are wanting to participate, must email Mr Zinga to book their place on this trip. Positions will be allocated on a first to email basis. 

Once participants are finalised, a meeting will take place in Term 4 Week 3 to commence the planning for this activity.  

If you wish to find out more about the Duke of Edinburgh International Award, please access information on The Hub or speak with Mr Zinga at any time. 

Mr Zinga