Student Voice
College Captains' Report
As Semester 1 ends, we have been reflecting on our year so far. We have had a wonderful first two terms as School Captains and have had some lovely moments to celebrate during the semester with our Year 12 Formal, successes in SACs and representing the College through the ANZAC Day Dawn Service, as well as the opening of our new Debbie Locco STEM Centre. Needless to say, we are very proud of our College's achievements throughout the first semester.
Whether it be students participating in the Sports Department's inter-school sports or performing in the Performing Arts Carnival, we would like to applaud our students on exemplifying our key College values of High Expectations, Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, and Teamwork.
We would also like to congratulate all the junior students on completing their mid-year exams, as well as say "well done" to the senior students for all their hard work throughout this semester in completing SACs, exams (for those below Year 12), but also the VCAA's General Achievement Test. We thank our College community for always striving towards our core values as we look over the horizon to our final term of schooling.
Looking ahead, we are excited to participate in our final House Athletics Carnival, Wellfest Week, and the School Production. We encourage everyone to participate in all the different activities and events next term to make the most of these wonderful opportunities and wish everyone a restful break.
Your College Captains
Jason Pouliezos and Sylvia Krozian
SRC Presidents’ Update
This term, our Student Representative Council has consolidated their progress from the first semester. We have had a very productive term with each Portfolio building on the previously established foundations.
We hosted many successful events, including IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia), the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea and Historical Fashion Day. We held bake sales, raised money for Minus18, and promoted inclusivity and positivity in the school community. We also raised significant amounts of money for the RSL and Cancer Council, and we thank the community for your support.
Leading up to Term 3, our team have come together to plan Wellfest Week, which aims to promote all dimensions of well-being throughout the school and is one of the year's most significant events.
Our schedule is jam-packed and full of exciting events and initiatives, so stay tuned for more information.
We hope everyone had a successful exam period and is ready to enjoy and relax during their break. We thank you all once again for your unwavering support of our events this year and look forward to bringing more fun initiatives to the community next semester.
Genna Windsor and Shyli Barak
Your Student Representative Council Presidents
Campaigns Portfolio Update
We’ve now come to an end of an eventful and busy term. With mid-year exams and endless assignments, our Campaigns portfolio has worked harder than ever to plan and execute events for the school. We started the term with Historical Fashion Day, where students were invited to come to school dressed in fashion from older decades! All funds raised from this day were donated to The Returned and Service League of Australia (RSL) - https://rslvic.com.au/.
Our Portfolio also assisted the Connections and Wellbeing Portfolio with IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia), a day to stand against discrimination towards members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Campaign members aided in the organising, setting up and cleaning up at the bake sale.
The second main event was the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea. We sold hot chocolates and a few baked goods during recess and lunch. Everyone involved worked extremely hard to make the day run smoothly. All funds raised went towards the Cancer Council (https://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/). Overall, this has been a busy but eventful term, and we can’t wait to start working towards term 3 with the House Athletics Carnival Canteen and Wellfest Week.
Mackenzie Dickson
Your Leading Campaigns Representative
Student Representative Council
Connections & Wellbeing Portfolio Update
This term was a really good time for our Connections & Wellbeing Portfolio! We started with our IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) bake sale, donating funds raised to Minus 18 (https://www.minus18.org.au/). Thank you to all the students and staff who donated cookies, cupcakes, and other sweet food. Our foyer was filled with colourful flags and decorations to celebrate queer youth in the South Oakleigh College Community.
Our next objective in Connection & Wellbeing is Wellfest Week, which will involve hosting various activities to boost school morale. We look forward to releasing our program soon! This a reminder from our team for everyone to look after their mental health over the break, reach out if you need support, and hopefully recharge ready for an exciting Semester 2.
Ana Donnellon
Your Leading Connections & Wellbeing Representative
Student Representative Council
Breakfast Club Update
On the 22nd of June, our school's Student Leadership Team hosted our end-of-term Celebratory Breakfast Club, which turned out to be a fantastic event for everyone involved. The Breakfast Club is a tradition we have been carrying for many years, and it is always a highly anticipated event in our college. We wanted to ensure that we had a large spread of foods that would satisfy the tastes of all our students. The menu included a wide range of delicious items, including our regular breakfast offerings such as cereals, toast, juice, and fruit, as well as bacon, eggs, pancakes, milkshakes, pastries, and hash browns.
We were amazed to see over 100 students and staff attend the Breakfast Club. We were also delighted to have one of our program sponsors, Bendigo Bank – Murrumbeena Branch, join us for breakfast. Alongside the Rotary Club of Oakleigh, Clayton and Huntingdale, Buxton Oakleigh, and Foodbank Victoria, we are proud to partner with these organisations to support this initiative. It was rewarding to see our efforts in planning and organising the event pay off and positively impact our school community.
Overall, the Celebratory Breakfast Club was a huge success. We acknowledge all of the students who come to help run our celebratory breakfast club, and it is deeply appreciated. I hope to see more students and staff come to our next breakfast club in Term 3 on the 13th of July in the Canteen.
If any students would like to help with the program, please get in touch with Genna Windsor (gmwin1@schools.vic.edu.au) – S.R.C. President or Soham Dhital (SDHI15@schools.vic.edu.au) – S.R.C. Breakfast Club Liaison.
Soham Dhital
Your Campaigns Representative & Breakfast Club Liaison
Student Representative Council
House Captains’ Update – Waratah
Hey everyone! As semester one ends, we would like to reflect on the last few months and everyone’s achievements. Term 2 has been extremely busy, and the holidays are an opportunity to rest and recharge for the upcoming semester.
Firstly, we’d like to congratulate everyone on their exams. Exams are a chance to work out your strengths and weaknesses, and you can use those to your advantage for the rest of the year. Over the holidays, don’t forget to give yourself a break to relax from this hectic semester.
This past week, the Year 11’s had our first fundraiser of the year for our formal. The Sausage Sizzle BBQ was a great success, and we would like to thank everyone for their support. We have many more fundraisers to come, so keep an eye out for them!
One event we’re really looking forward to is the House Athletics Carnival in Week 3. There will be many events to compete in and earn house points. Be sure to get involved, bring lots of energy to your house and may the best house win!
We hope everyone has a good break, and see you next term :)
Claire Yeung and Nathan Cohen
Your Waratah House Captains
Year 7 Leaders Report
Well done to all my fellow year 7s who have completed our first-ever end-of-semester exams! We all did amazingly, whether you got 1% or 100%. Even if you got a low score, it is all a learning curve. After all this stress, we obviously deserve a break; we are so lucky we have the holidays coming up! Make sure to relax and chill.
Some good ways I like to unwind after a lot of stress are lying down and listening to my favourite songs, doing something that I love (cooking, art, gymnastics), playing a video game just to chillax and go into a different world with only my friends or me or hanging out with a good friend to take my mind off whatever’s bothering me. You all did great in the exam; even if you think you didn’t, that’s okay because there are many opportunities to keep growing!
Tessy Makse-Hill
Your Connections & Wellbeing Representative and Year 7 Leader
Student Representative Council
This term, the Year 7s participated in Year 7 Pi Day! We had fun all day exploring different activities and chances to win prizes! We were split into groups depending on our mentor groups and had to work as a team to win challenges to be the winning team.
Activities ranged from trivia to difficult maths problems. My personal favourite was doing an ‘Amazing Race’ around the school. We were all given a clue at the very beginning of the challenge, and we would then have to run around to find the Year 8s at their specific location based on our clues. Once we found them, they would give us a task to complete, ranging from maths problems to team tasks and riddles. The rest of the day's challenges included trivia, countdown/taskmaster and maths relay! We were then treated to pies and veggie burgers for lunch!
Finally, to finish the day, we gathered in the theatre for a ‘Pi Recital Contest’! Many determined year seven students (including me) attempted to recite as many digits of Pi as we could remember! Unfortunately, no one could beat the previous year’s score of over 100 digits, but everyone gave it their all! We all received a range of prizes for giving it a go! Overall, the day was great and extremely enjoyable! I hope this day is continued and enjoyed for the years to come!
Inara Linehan
Your Communications & Student Experience Representative and Year 7 Leader
Student Representative Council
House Captains’ Report - Banksia
Hey Everyone, this is Greg and Stacey, your Banksia House Captains! First things first, Where has the time gone!? We have already approached the end of term 2! The time has zoomed past us because of another busy term at South Oakleigh.
We had a smooth start to this term, which is always great! A lot has gone on, particularly for term 2, having nine weeks. We recently concluded our semester one exams. A huge congratulations to everyone for putting their best efforts into this! Looking back to earlier in the term, we had our House Cross Country! This got us active by running laps around Karkarook Park.
Despite Banksia coming in 4th place, we commend everyone for their efforts. Next term, we have the House Athletics Carnival to look forward to. We encourage everyone to get involved and boost our Banksian house spirit! Our house has been talking about giving Banksia a new look for some time now. We gave our house the opportunity of submitting a new house chant idea to go along with our new mascot, “Barry Banksian”. After this, we went through the voting process to decide our new chant. With careful counting of the votes, we can happily announce that we have an official new house chant:
“Chomp, chomp, chomp! You will hear us stomp. Chomp, chomp, chomp! We will rule the comp. Chomp, chomp, chomp! Banksia will win. Chomp, chomp, chomp! We’ll put you in the bin. Gooooo Banksia!!”
We have been discussing ways to implement some sort of beat to accompany our chant. If there are any ideas, please contact Ms Crespo or see Greg Acciarito or Stacey Maskas as soon as possible! But now, as we approach the holidays, take a well-deserved break… recharge! Take some time to reflect on your semester one performance, come up with new goals for semester 2, spend time with family and friends and most importantly, relax! Thank you, and we hope that everyone has a safe and reviving break!
Greg Acciarito and Stacey Maskas
Your Banksia House Captains
Reflection on the YR9 YLead Conference
Overall, the experience at the YLead Conference in Melbourne was great.
I really enjoyed the conference itself, the energy of all the young people was upbeat and interesting. I believe I liked it because the organisers there really understood the students and this new generation. Something I enjoyed was how they kind of forced us upon one another to make connections and talk to people and step out of our comfort zones and I did. I think it is something I have never done or ever would have done before this. For the next few weeks, I stayed connected with the peers that I met. It was awesome. It would have been much better if all the schools were more local so I could have kept a stronger connection.
I also had a great time on the train ride there and back. I do not normally take public transport or go to the city, but it was fun, and it was nice to get to know some of the other students in my year's level better. This was the first time I had contacted a particular student. She seemed like a lovely person, and I would love to get to know her better. I am not really sure what it is, but I feel like we could be good friends.
When we arrived at the event, I did not like the cramped room we had to stay in or the "icebreaker" activities they made us do and was glad that was over when we went into the conference room. The four guest speakers were very effective and inspirational. Each of them shares their unique experiences. The two girls were truly inspiring. It is amazing that there are people out there like them that are willing to give love and time to people in need and even though I am not big on feminism, to be encouraging and assisting women specifically like that is so important.
I really appreciated having this experience and it did motivate me to change.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Annika Tarjan
Year 9 Student
Victoria Police Incursion
On Wednesday the 10th of May, our Year 11 Legal Studies class got an exciting visit by Senior Constable Jaclyn Mahood, Youth Resource Officer from the Victoria Police.
This visit was a headstart into Unit 2 Area of Study 1 Sanctions - Enforcing Criminal Law. At the same time, this incursion was beneficial to students who are wanting to have a career in law enforcement, particularly, joining the Victoria Police. Jaclyn shared with us her journey in the force, experiences and stories from jobs and information about joining the Victoria Police. It is quite a process to join the Police force but that shouldn't deter anyone who is wanting a career in this field.
If you are a person that loves to work with people and stands up for people's rights, then this may be a field to look into. The values of the Victoria Police do closely align with our College values of High Expectations, Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Teamwork. Throughout the session, we had the opportunity to ask any burning questions we had, with detailed and insightful responses. To answer one of the burning questions from the class which was whether the Police vest was heavy.
To answer this, I had the lucky opportunity of trying on the Police Vest! To be honest, It does have some weight to it with the equipment being carried! Thank you to Ms Marlborough for organising this incursion for our class!
Greg Acciarito
Year 11 Student
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Program
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra programs with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra every year in their Side-by-Side program, and I had the privilege to be invited to play with them this past month. Conducted by Johannes Fritzsch, our program consisted of Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1911) and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin: Prelude.
We had 3 nights of rehearsals before concluding with the concert on the 8th of June. It was an extremely enriching experience to get an insight into how professional orchestras rehearse. I got the chance to be decked with an MSO musician, and I learnt so much from her in the rehearsals. The week wrapped up with an amazing concert at Hamer Hall, and it was such an incredible experience.
Claire Yeung
Waratah House Captain
International Student Term 2 Recap
Moonlit Sanctuary Excursion
Our International Students began Term 2 with an exciting excursion to Moonlit Sanctuary to get up close and personal with Australia's unique animals.
Highlights included getting to cuddle a koala and getting to interact with the many kangaroos and wallabies around the sanctuary.
Moonlit Sanctuary is a great place to visit and learn about wildlife conservation.
EMR Cross Country Championships – Darsh
Congratulations to Year 9 International student, Darsh Shukla, for representing South Oakleigh College in the Eastern Metropolitan Region Cross Country Championships!
Darsh enjoys playing AFL on the oval every lunchtime and attends Fitness Club often, as well as being a part of our Sports Development Program for Soccer. It's great to see Darsh taking advantage of many of the enrichment programs offered at our school.
Pi Day – JJ
JJ is another student that is really embraced College life this term. On the 16th of June, the Year 7s of South Oakleigh College celebrated "Pi Day", a day to celebrate the Mathematical sign 'pi' and participate in various circle-related activities.
JJ represented 7E in the Pi Day bean bag throwing competitions. When he stepped up on stage, JJ hyped up the crowd and the whole crowd became electric, chanting "JJ, JJ, JJ!". He successfully got his bean bag into the hoop twice, even whilst being blindfolded, which causes students on stage to rush to JJ and hold him up in the air!
JJ came to our school from Colombia at the start of this year, and has quickly become adored by all the other Year 7s, due to his infectious enthusiasm and willingness to participate in every activity.
GAT Preparation Session
Our International VCE students benefited from a GAT Preparation webinar specifically for EAL students hosted by Ms Carlyn, a lecturer with over 10 years of experience marking VCE exam papers and teaching English.
A huge thank you to Mollie Pham in Year 12 for sharing her experience and knowledge from sitting the GAT in 2022 with her peers, and providing them with extra resources over Teams.
Homework Club and VCE Maths Tutoring
This term, our International Students benefited from attending Homework Club and the VCE Maths Tutoring hosted at school every Monday and Wednesday after school.
At Homework Club, students receive support with work for any of their subjects, from teachers of all learning areas.
Our VCE Maths tutor from Monash University achieved a very high VCE study score in Maths Methods. She has been assisting our International Students with their weekly Maths work.
End of Term 1 Highlights
- Our International Students all came out to participate in the South Oakleigh College Walkathon to raise money for the Monash Children's Hospital School. Some of our International Students had never had a "sausage sizzle" before, so this was a new experience for them, which they thoroughly enjoyed.
- Our Global Prefects, Mollie Pham and Sally Wu, worked hard to update our 'Cultural Diversity Map' to represent the cultural backgrounds of all of our students who submitted their cultural flag to them. Thank you to the other students who assisted with this (Alex and Mads in Year 11, Yahya in Year 10).
Sarah Crespo-Liu
Banksia House Leader
NAIDOC Week
As part of our NAIDOC week activities, Mentor Group 7F with Ms Matheson familiarised themselves with some of the local Woi Wurrung languages. Students then challenged themselves to write some poetry incorporating this vocabulary with some Indigenous values and imagery.
The following wonderful poem is by Jacob Gili - 7F
Yaalingbu, kulin on the biik, a nganga around the wiin,
Darebin on the toolangi, singing under the dust.
On the narre warren, the murrup watchfully gaze upon the mernda.
In this land, yaalingbu the marn-marn are bubup; yurramboi they will be mamem.
Today, man on the ground, a dance around the fire.
Swallows on the stringybark tree, singing under the stars.
On the foot hills, the spirit watchfully gazes upon Country.
In this land, today the sons are babies; tomorrow they will be fathers.
Kerryn Hoernel
Year Level Leader: 7
Year 7 Pi Day
Last Friday the year sevens experienced Pi Day, with the help of some year eights and teachers. It was a fun day with many different activities such as The Amazing Race, trivia, maths mini-games, and worksheets, there were also many prizes to be won.
After everyone was worn out with these activities, the year sevens and the year eights that helped, got free lunches including meat pies, sausage rolls, fruit cups, and vegetarian options. In the afternoon, the students and teachers had a fun afternoon in the theatre with games and a competition on reciting the digits of Pi, the winners were Andrew Macrae, Jacob Gili, Jamie Yin, and Harshul Moon.
Ruby Winstanley
Year 7 Student
Year 7 & 8 District Soccer
On Thursday the 8th of June, the year 7 and 8 girls competed in district soccer against 2 other schools. The year 8 girls were victorious and won all three of their games and will be moving on to the next round. Unfortunately the year 7 girls did not make it through to the next round but showed great teamwork and enthusiasm throughout the whole day.
Erin Goumas and Allegra Kourkoutzelos
Year 7 & 8 Students