Student Leaders

A word from DaVinci

by Raed Arnaout, Gecko House & Charlotte Symonds, Tawny House 

Hi everyone, I am Raed Arnaout and this is Charlotte Symonds, and we are the Da Vinci leaders for 2026. In the past few weeks there has been some exciting events including the Preston Market excursion and the whole school swimming carnival. Both cohorts had lots of sport opportunities such as Volleyball, Tennis and Cricket.  

Here are some things to look forward in later in Term 1. Cohort 2031 are going to Coburg Basketball Stadium for group activities inside and outside the stadium and, of course, some basketball with friends.  

Thank you for a great couple of weeks and we hope you have a great year ahead; we hope you enjoy the rest of the term! 

A word from Bandler Parks

by Xavier Riordan, Tawny House 

Hi everyone, I’m Xavier and I will be the Bandler Parks leader for 2026! 

We kicked the year off with a wonderful leadership day at the Town Hall. Followed by the incredible Year 9 summit camp where we learnt that it’s great to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them, and to be comfortable being uncomfortable (which we needed for the mud run). A huge shoutout to all the incredible people that make all these events possible. We are excited to apply our new learnings in the remainder of Term 1. 

Updates from our Ada Leaders: Cohort 2028

by Alexis Challenger, Tawny House & Zoe Pavlidis, Glider House 

Cohort 2028 officially started their Ada years, with a new and exciting transition allowing us to start to take our steps into the real world to discover various pathways and opportunities. This term Cohort 2028 welcomes guest speakers in to run a presentation by Consent Labs titled Healthy relationships which explored what healthy relationships look like and provided us with examples of unhealthy relationships. 

We were also able to take part in a volleyball tournament, with the Girls team barely missing the finals and the Boys/Mixed team making it into the finals and placing second overall. Upcoming we have the chess tournament on 6 March, which we wish everyone luck in!  We are all absolutely stoked looking forward to the term ahead and especially the school holidays.  

Cohort 2027

by Escher Barnett, Acacia House & Ruby Stokes, Acacia House

Cohort 2027 participated in our Ada Day activities and workshops at Latrobe University to give us an idea of what VCE and life after high school may look like. In Week 4, our cohort participated in a ‘REAL’ workshop which taught us about regulating our emotions and managing stress. English students from our cohort also had the opportunity to see Medea by Euripides performed live in Week 5. 

We are also utilising our study time in Ada sessions on Tuesdays to keep up with any homework or independent study we may need to complete. Later in the term, we participated in a road safety workshop from RYDA. We are looking forward to next term and we wish everyone a happy holidays! 

Cohort 2026

 by Huy Pham, Gecko House with Blaise Kramer-White & Talei Landeryou, Tawny House

Aside from slaving away in a laborious year of studies as our time in high school nears its conclusion, Cohort 2026 has so far been able to enjoy a day at RMIT and an afternoon of bowling for Ada Day, which taught us that it’s still possible to have fun in Year 12. 

English students took in a live performance of Oedipus the King, VM Students met the Prime Minister somehow among a variety of additional activities. Overall, a solid start to the year. 

As always, we encourage everyone to reach out your Ada team including ourselves and the HOCs with any suggestions or ideas you have about the Ada program this year!