Student Voice
Global Prefects Term 1 Update
Hi everyone! We are Junghoo Kim and Nathanie Hanadi from Year 11, and we are excited to be your 2024 Global Prefects! We are here to help assist students in adjusting to the school environment – making sure everyone feels welcome and included. As prefects, we offer insight into diverse cultural celebrations across the world, not only for international students that come from all around the world, but also our local students with diverse backgrounds.
To build stronger connections and create optimal experiences, we hold regular meetings for feedback and to catchup with one another. We also provide weekly opportunities to meet and partake in an activity. This year, the international students voted badminton as the activity. We are also planning our next international student excursion, which provides students with the opportunity to get the full experience of living and studying in Australia.
A part of our role is organising celebrations, with input from our international students, allowing them to share their cultural celebrations with the whole school. This term, we had our 2024 international student lunch for our Lunar New Year celebration.
The 2024 international student lunch held earlier went well. We are so delighted to see students bringing their friend and enjoying the food together. We had diverse types of food and some red pockets we can take home. It was a wonderful opportunity to exchange and learn more about their cultures. Thank you to the student helpers that helped to prepare the food: Abigail, Aku, Darrien, Ikko, Jenny, Mimi, Minh, Nancy and Sovan.
South Oakleigh College offers language courses that includes Japanese and Greek. We encourage everyone to get really involved in learning another language, as it has so many benefits, including learning more about a different culture, work and travel opportunities, positive effects on the brain, etc. Look out for opportunities to partake in activities relating to your selected additional language on Compass later this term.
We look forward to strengthening bonds with our new international students this year and envision a wonderful year ahead with our peers from last year. We are always happy to assist students in our extensively inclusive community.
Junghoo Kim and Nathanie Hanadi
Global Prefects
Cyberpowers Excursion
On Wednesday the 21st of February, Alexis, Kirrily, Hazel, Zara and I went to Monash Tech School for an all girls cybersecurity excursion. When we arrived, we were all seated at a table and then the program was introduced. First they gave us locks and we had to guess the password. They never gave it to us though. Afterwards they talked about different passwords and how to create a password that no one could hack into easily.
Then we had a break and moved onto the next part of the day. We all went into a simulation that was a pool that we owned and had to try and find all the unsafe things the place contained.
After that we looked at AI generated images and how to spot them. We had lunch afterwards and then went back to our room. It was then revealed that the password to the locks were hidden all throughout the activities that we did today! Next, we had to create a realistic social media account and then have someone else inspect it to see how much information we were giving out about ourselves. We were all
given back the locks and this time a few people guessed it! At the end of the day, we were given bags filled with things to take home. Overall, it was a great experience and I would definitely do it again.
Deeva Makwana
Year 8 Student
Breakfast Club
In 2024, there have been multiple additions of portfolios to the SRC, one of which is the Breakfast Club. At South Oakleigh College, breakfast club is held every Thursday before school to provide food to students who might have difficulty getting breakfast in the morning. Breakfast club was unfortunately heavily affected by the storm a few weeks ago which has led to the decision to discontinue breakfast club for the rest of the term. However, we still plan to run some alternate events in replacement of breakfast club for this term. We intend to restart activities on March 8th with an event held outside the canteen to distribute food to students during lunchtime as breakfast club is currently on hiatus. We also plan to investigate possible changes to the menu so that students enjoy various options when breakfast club returns. We look forward to a great term and a great year ahead.
Yohan Soju
Breakfast Club Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Student Experience:
The Student Experience representatives work towards incorporating the College community in our plans to prioritise the needs of the students in and outside the classroom. Term 1 has been an optimal time for us to plan and organise the Year 12 yearbook, looking at what to include, how to format it, and what we want to prioritise. Later in the term, we plan to begin working on focus groups, using a polling system to gather information on what’s working, what could be improved and what isn’t working to help elevate student experiences during their time at South Oakleigh. We hope to connect with our peers in the next coming terms and support them along their 2024 journey.
Jack Wright
Student Experience Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Communications:
Communications has begun the year strong with promotions for our annual Walkathon, and collaborating closely with our Wellbeing and Campaigns portfolio to advocate for our Random Acts of Kindness day. As a team, we have been working on creating information posters, TV talking points, and in-class promotions to get everyone in the loop of what’s happening in the school. In the next coming weeks, we will be spreading more information about Harmony Week, ran by Campaigns, Year 7 elections, and the CAD Walkathon. Our aim is to keep students and staff aware of what’s coming up so everyone can prepare in time. We look forward to informing everyone on –save-the-date school days!
Ezra Bernshaw
Communications Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Curriculum:
Curriculum’s goal for this term is to supply students with relevant and useful study tips/habits to make staying on top of work easier. We hope to put these tips on the TV talking points and posters
around the school, working with the Communications portfolio to get the ball rolling. So far, our team has worked on gathering ‘Walkathon Stories’ to promote the annual event. These anonymous stories are submitted by students, talking about what they’ve done at the Walkathon in previous years, what they enjoyed, and what they look forward to. We appreciate all the response so far collected and are excited to see more to come!
JJ Syer
Curriculum Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Campaigns:
Starting the year strong, the Campaigns portfolio held a bake sale for Random Acts of Kindness Day on the Friday 1st of March. Students brought in various baked goods and sweets and it was great to see everyone contributing and enjoying the day. We worked in conjunction with the Breakfast Club with selling of the goods, and collaborated with the Connections and Wellbeing and other activities held on the day. We'd like to thank everyone for their support of our first event of 2024! Additionally, we have been busy planning for the rest of term with fundraisers such as Harmony Week. During the week, we will have events like a cultural/orange themed out of uniform day, bake sale, and Mentor group activities! We're excited to see what the rest of the year has in store!
Stefani Milanovic
Your 2024 Campaigns Portfolio Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Connections and Wellbeing:
Our Connections and Wellbeing portfolio have been productive and excited to start off the year with some fun! We’ve had a blast on March 1st as we held a Random Acts of Kindness Day, filled with tons of activities for students to participate in and spread positivity around the school community including a chalk art competition, positive sticky-note mural, and a special art club craft.
Students across all year levels were enthusiastic to partake in the chalk art competition. It went to become a big hit with tons of laughter. It was awesome to see each students’ artistic abilities shine and be displayed for the whole school to see. Congratulations to the winners of the competition but know that everyone is a winner!
The art club craft we did also a great activity where students were able to showcase their own personalities to the cards they made. Big thank you to Deeva Makwana for planning the crafts and the art teachers for allow the session to be possible!
During lunchtime, we also had a Positive Sticky-note Mural activity where anyone and everyone can contribute in, sharing kind and positive messages for everyone to see. Students wrote encouraging messages towards their friends, teachers, and the whole school community.
Overall, the day was a success! We hope you all enjoyed all the activities we offered, and received some positivity and kindness.
Abigail Avienna
Connections and Wellbeing Leading Representative
Student Representative Council
Presidents:
Coming off from last year left large shoes to fill for our 2024 Student Representative council, but we are proud to express the commendable effort and high-quality work we’ve received in these first few months. Our plans for term one have grown, and we are excited to present the events we have for the rest of the term.
The year has started with a team of innovative minds, strong teamwork, and a mountain of challenges to overcome. One of the highlights of this mid-term was our Chalk Art Competition, sticky note mural, specialised art club, and bake sale – a collaborative effort completed by both Wellbeing and Campaigns to create Random Acts of Kindness. We thank everyone who donated food to the bake sale, participated in the sticky note mural, or got to show off their creative talent in the Chalk Art Competition. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to both Wellbeing and Campaigns for planning such a successful event.
Our other portfolios have begun the framework for an intensive year. From strengthening the communications within our school, sharing experiences from events, and starting the archiving for our 2024 yearbook, these portfolios have put in a significant amount of work that doesn’t go unnoticed. Keep an eye out on the TVs, poster boards, and student leaders to hear more about upcoming plans.
The Student Representative Council is committed to making your time at South Oakleigh College as enriching and enjoyable as possible. If you have any suggestions, concerns, or ideas, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at adoni@schools.vic.edu.au or mldic@schools.vic.edu.au We value your feedback and look forward to working together to create a stronger, more vibrant campus community.
Ana Donnellon and Mackenzie Dickson
S.R.C Presidents
Student Representative Council