History of Newlands Houses

As time moves along the stories get lost or forgotten. One such amazing story is the coming-to-be of Newlands's unique house names...

Newlands has a history of always listening to its people (the community, students, and staff). We knew we needed to have new House Names that better reflected who we are as a school and what we are about.

In 2021 Newlands was fortunate to get a Creative Arts Grant to help develop new house names. Therefore, through an Inquiry Cycle, a group of student leaders, alongside Hanna Tai, and Sra. Karren began the process of starting to create our Newlands House Names.

We 1st looked at the local community connections with the school, thinking of how the 1st Nations people would have seen and used the land. We enlisted the support of Uncle Bill through Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. He told us in an online forum (yes, the days of online learning) about the area, the significance of symbolism within culture and the importance of waterways.

Then we investigated what flora and fauna each area had, drawing ideas on symbols such as the red okra rock. We investigated by doing an excursion to Edgar's Creek, and historic websites. We also wanted to make sure the bilingual nature (Spanish) of our school was present in some form. 

We consulted with Uncle Bill every step of the way to ensure we were on the right path. Finally, ending with our amazing 5 new houses. 

Each house name represents waterways in the area, symbols from the flora and fauna within that waterway and colours in Spanish to honour bilingualism at Newlands. These were presented at a special smoking ceremony in 2022 as part of NAIDOC celebrations This project meant a lot, it is a visual reminder of what can be done when students are encouraged to be creative, use their skills, think about their community and be given a purpose and voice.