Senior Years News

Good Luck Year 12 Students

We wish the yr 12 students a smooth and eventless exam period, one where their time can be spent revising and then iterating their learning in the most effective way for each of them.

The year, as is to be expected, has had its challenges and the students have faced each one head on, drawing on friendships, family and folks at school to keep them going.

Often we look at the VCE solely as the academic accountability that leads them down a path to university or further study but what I have noticed this year is how the year is as importantly a time of establishing identities, ascertaining values and forming beliefs through facing a multitude of challenges, academic, social and emotional. While all of these things hopefully build personal resilience and perseverance in the acquisition of knowledge they go beyond that and are almost a right of passage to adulthood. I have often likened VCE to a marathon, two years of a steady training to get to the exams but I am actually realising it is much more than that. It’s a trial to learn how to manage stress, how to form ideas, and make choices about who we are and what we want from life. It is also the beginning of a new stage where students need to increase their capacity to face the next, more complex series of challenges inevitable in the future, both personal and vocational.

I have witnessed some incredible strength this year in the students, strength that has seen them ‘bend, not break’, I hope that they themselves can acknowledge their own strengths and be brave to face what is ahead.

So it is with anticipation of what is to come that the students enter their exams and it is with every wish for their success that we send them on their way.

Year 11

As part of the VCE Headstart program students currently in Year 11 will participate in a VCE Melbourne Camp. The camp is particularly important for students who have yet to decide what direction to take their future career choices, it’s a time to explore a diversity of opportunities they may not have considered before.

The students will stay at Queen's College, Melbourne University, and have the opportunity to visit universities, Tafe and other organisations to broaden their perspectives on the career and study pathways that will be available to them beyond the completion of VCE. We are very excited to be participating in sessions at Collarts, RMIT and Monash as well as visiting the Holocaust Museum.

The camp is also structured to provide access to advanced exposure to the yr 12 English texts, study skill building and exploration of social justice issues.

An important factor in yr 12 success can be the connection the cohort has. Positive relationships can be an important factor in a successful and smooth year. Group challenges will be embedded throughout activities on camp to allow for students to explore and problem solve while reinforcing friendships as they embark on the shared experience of yr 12.

The camp dates are;

November 26th Tuesday to Thursday November 28th.

Leaving MSC at 8am on Tuesday

Returning to MSC 7pm Thursday

Year 11 Theatre Studies

“The River, The Dirt and Us”

Year 11 Theatre Studies students performed their production “The River, The Dirt and Us” by Shaun Charles to an intimate audience on Friday the 25th October. The play was a piece for historical fiction weaving Australia’s past into a non-linear narrative. This allowed students to explore many different characters throughout the piece and challenge their acting skills.

The challenge for the students was also to take on a design role, costume, makeup, set, lighting, and sound to bring the piece to performance.

For many of the students it was their first performance and they captured some really beautiful moments in performance, both funny and poignant.

Congratulations to Riley Pleydell, Steph Macklin, Chloe Williamson, John Kemp, Mitch Wright, Alyssia Stephens, Jess Bower and voice work by Aaron Prisk.

Exams

October 30th : English

Oct 31st: Psychology

Nov 1st: Biology & Further Math

Nov 4th Further Math

Sarah Whitwam

Senior Team Leader