Congratulations to the Class of 2023

On behalf of the whole Koonung Secondary College community, I would like to congratulate our graduating class of 2023. Unfortunately, we hear a great deal in our media and community regarding all of the bad things about the younger generation. However, this is so far from the truth. I wish to commend and thank our graduating students for everything they are. They are kind, empathetic, considerate and respectful of their peers and community, they have demonstrated our key values of respect, resilience and our College motto of excellence through endeavour. They have worked hard in order to achieve at their best and they have been exceptional role models in our College community.

Their end of Year 12 celebrations, including a breakfast with their families, Final Assembly and Graduation ceremony were exceptional events and demonstrated a respectful way to finish their time as high school students. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours and look forward to hearing of their future successes.

Farewell and Welcome: Student Leaders

I would also like to thank our Year 12 Leadership Team for 2024 and our Middle Years Leadership Team. Student leadership is a vital part of schools, and our leader have been exceptional, both as role models and also for the work they do around the College in their many roles. So a big thank you to-

College Captains- Keira Singleton, Rory Spicer

Vice Captains- Chris Allison, Mary Elyas

International Captains- Chuxuan Ji, Chang Yuan

SRC Captains- Sophie Wolrige, Bella Cidoni

House Captains- Harry Thomas, Lola Dobie, Khushi Choudhari, Keira Tate

STEM Captain- James Lonnen

Literacy Captains- Sammi Shepherd, Rose McKinnon

Art Captains- Erin Daw, Chuqi Zhang

Drama Captains- Jesse Pickering, Taran Kaur

Music Captains- Ronak Sen, Ben Harding

Sport Captains- Cora Davies, Halle Henson

Wellbeing Captains- Mietta De Luise, Cicely Oakley

Language and Culture Captains- Alyssa Reid, Taneka Huber

Middle Years Captains- Latitia Moar, Olive Porcaro, Jude Crouch, Aliyah R Shakeel

Congratulations to all our 2024 College Leaders. Please see the Student Leadership page of this newsletter for the full list of our exceptional leaders for 2024.

Farewell and Welcome: Koonung Families

With our Year 12 students moving onto their own pathways, I would also like to thank the families who will be leaving Koonung at the end of this year. Thank you for your support of both the College and of your child's education - we appreciate your support.

As we say farewell to the families with children finishing their secondary school education, we now also say welcome to the families of new students joining us in Year 7 in 2024. Welcome to Koonung Secondary College! We wish all the best to your child for the reminder of Grade 6 and look forward to you joining our Koonung community in 2024.

Travel Safety and Expectations students

We have recently received a few concerns from members of our wider community regarding the actions and behaviours of some students as they travel to and from school. This is includes bicycle safety and not crossing roads at designated crossings, using public transport (particularly the buses towards Doncaster at the end of the school day) and unfortunately, littering the areas around the College before and after school.

We will continue to remind students of both their expectations to and from school, as well as demonstrating a key College value of respect to the wider community, but I ask all families to have a conversation at home about travelling to school in a safe manner.

Building Works

There is much happening in the College at the moment around Capital Works. Our student toilet refurbishment continues, but unfortunately delays to the project now mean the toilets will not be in use until the start of 2024. The project has had to include further works on the underground pipes which has delayed the completion date.

A block Extension Work

Planning for construction to extend the A Block or Middle Years building is well underway. With the architects being appointed, they have begun consulting work with students and staff about the spaces within our new building. It has been fantastic to hear the voice of our students as part of this process. The ideas of the students will be used by the architects as they plan for learning spaces that suit our learning needs, as well as providing a safe and supportive learning environment for our students.

Vocal Soiree

Last week we held our final concert for the year- the vocal soiree. It was an exceptional evening of performances. Please see the page in this newsletter- including a video of the final act- the Chamber Choir.

Artist in Schools and Whitehorse Council

For many years, Koonung has maintained a strong partnership with the Whitehorse Council and our Visual Arts team and Faculty with the Artists in Schools program. This partnership sees practicing artists working the in the College supporting our curriculum and program with their expertise. In the past two years we have been fortunate to have had Damian Curtain and Farimah Eshraghi work with our staff and students in visual arts. the results are exceptional and later this term we will be hosting an opening of the outdoor sculpture garden with the Council and both practicing artists.

VCE Art and Technology Exhibition

This past month has also seen the annual VCE Art and Technology Exhibition. Please see the Visual Arts page of this newsletter for more details. A key event in the annual Exhibition is the awarding of the Principal Acquisition Prize. The College purchases the award winner's art work for permanent display in the College. This year the recipient is Parmis Abedini for her work 'Unwanted Proliferation'.

Victorian Schools Chess Championship

Congratulations to our Chess team for their continued success in the Victorian Schools Championship. After placing second in the Eastern Metropolitan Championships, our team confidently moved through the Victorian Championships. Chess being one of the few competitions where both Government and Private schools compete against each other, the team knew they were facing stiff competition. I am so proud of the achievement of the Koonung team, where after a full day of chess battles, Koonung achieved a second place in the state.

IT Upgrades across the College

As you may be aware from Compass messages to students and families, Koonung is undergoing a significant upgrade to our I.T. systems. Koonung is moving from its school based Google server, to the Department of Education provided EduPass systems. All Victorian schools will be required to operate under the EduPass and EduStar system. This means that every device in the College needs to be re-imaged and settings changed to work with the new servers. Students have or will be informed about when their devices will be worked on by the IT team.

The key change that students will notice is that we will no longer be operating the @koonung email addresses. All students will be migrated across to the @schools.vic.edu.au address. This new email will be used for all apps and programs at the College. Please ensure that any third party accounts used by students will need to be changed from using their @koonung address as the username.

The other key change that students will notice is the shift towards the use of Microsoft 365 as a learning platform. This will begin with the use of Microsoft Teams for all classes in 2024. The use of Compass remains for Lesson Plans, Course Outlines, Assessment and Reporting, but with resources for learning being part of the Microsoft Class Team. Compass will continue to be the communication and admin tool used with families and as the key point of connection between school and home.

Facebook and Instagram

The College utilises social media to provide quick updates, interesting events, and lots of photos to our community.

We have one official Facebook page and three Instagram pages for member of our community to follow.

Facebook-

Koonung Secondary College | Melbourne VIC | Facebook

Instagram -

Official School Account- Koonung.secondary.college

Library Account- KSC Library

Student Leaders- Koonung_secondary_college

Andrew McNeil

Principal

andrew.mcneil@education.vic.gov.au

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