Student Leadership News

Amanda GOMES 

Student Leadership Coordinator

Classroom Teacher

House Cup

The long-awaited Highvale House Cup made its return on the last day of Term 3. The House Cup was first introduced by the college captains in 2019 but has not run since. This year, the student leadership team vowed to bring it back, as they recalled the memorable time they had when they were in Year 7.

It proved to be a day full of fun, friendly competition, and school spirit, with students and staff dressed in their House colours. Students participated in a range of exciting activities (guess that song, golden child and jeopardy to name a few) to earn points for their House.

Congratulations to our winning House, Bunjil! 

A tremendous amount of time and planning went into the day. Thank you to The House Cup Committee (Jaydee, Angelina, Colette, Eliza, Trisha and Chris) for their efforts.

A big thank you to all staff for the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the day. Thanks to all the Year 12 leaders who facilitated each activity and ensured it ran smoothly.

Student Leadership Update

Congratulations to the following senior students who have been elected as captains for 2025. Welcome to the Student Leadership Team:

VicSRC Ambassadors Program

Highvale was fortunate to have a group of students across different year levels representing our school at the VicSRC Ambassadors Program. Students applied for the program through Monash Youth Services. Congratulations to the group (Imeth, Sheena, Ayaka and Thisen) who, after pitching their proposal, were announced as the recipients of the VicSRC Internship!

In early September, Thisen, Sheena, Ayaka and I received an email from an organization known as VicSRC (Victorian Student Representative Council), telling us that we had been selected to take part in their Ambassadors program. The Ambassadors program was all about cultivating leadership traits in young people, teaching us how to represent the student body effectively (hence the name ‘Ambassadors’). We were told all about what the program involved. We had a chance to create a proposal to fix a problem in our school, and we got the opportunity to present our proposal to a panel of staff and student executives at VicSRC for the chance to win the Ambassador Internship, which would allow us to bring our idea to life, with the help and backing of VicSRC themselves. We spent a week carefully crafting our speeches and presentations to give our group the best chance of winning. At the final session, the panel came and listened to everyone’s proposals. They left the conference room to discuss which groups would be awarded with internships, a task which took 15 minutes of careful consideration. When they emerged, they declared that our Highvale group had won their prestigious internship, and that next year, we would have the opportunity to bring our proposal to life!

By Imeth A, 9.1

“In the VicSRC Ambassadors program, we learnt about ways to improve school leadership and voice agency. The program was held by our facilitator, Kane, who walked thorough and guided us through the program. He taught us the parts of having a good basis to student voice, such as what great advocacy looks like, having a policy, creating convenient voice environments and tips on how students can proactively raise awareness or issues to improve school environment. We learnt that having good advocacy, it means to work in groups to achieve advocacy, promote what you are doing to the public, backing up your opinion with facts and evidence, and having a strong, clear and easy message shared publicly. Throughout the course of the program, we learnt how to pitch an idea, which we had to present to three panellists at the end of the program with a chance to get an internship. 

During the second session, Ayaka, Thisen, Imeth and I worked diligently to make an innovative pitch to gain the internship of VicSRC. Our idea was to encourage more students to take interest in what it means to be a leader. On the third day after each representative of their schools went up to present their pitch we were chosen as recipients for the VicSRC internship and we can't wait to work with VicSRC next year! 

It was a pleasure and really engaging to work in such a friendly environment with many other students who were easy to get along with. I would certainly recommend this program to anyone who wishes to enhance their skills in leadership and student voice.”

By Sheena. L. and Thisen. W.