Captains Corner

This week in Captains Corner ......

Monash Council’s Civic Center Chambers

On Wednesday, June 4th, 2025, the Highvale School Captains drove to Monash Council’s Civic Center Chambers to take part in the Junior Advisory Group (JAG). We were one of five schools who went, the others were, Albany Rise Primary School, Glen Waverley Primary School, Holy Family School and Pinewood Primary School. When we went up to the Council Chamber there were four staff members, Taylor Eldridge, Ilsa McBryde, Loredana Iovino and Anne Donovan. They were all Youth or Infrastructure Officers. We sat down in the Gallery, a place for the public to sit and listen to the councilors discuss issues and listened to the Acknowledgement of Country. The Monash Council staff introduced themselves and informed us of the Children, Youth and Family Service Hubs and how we were there today to provide them with relevant feedback on the services offered to young people in the Monash municipality. Then we began the activities.

The first round was Voting. All the students were numbered and split into four groups. Each group had some butchers paper with images. We had to place a sticker dot on our choice. After one, we rotated to the next group. The next round was Ranking. For ranking we were given a ballot paper and had to do a preference vote that had eight preferences. The 3rd round was Design, we were put into group based on our year level. We were meant to design a kindergarten center and youth hub. We ended up making a 3-floor building that had a basketball court, pool and an underground arcade.

By then it was time for morning tea/free food, so we went out to eat. While we were eating the Mayor of Monash, Paul Klisaris, appeared from nowhere, all the schools got a picture with him. We went inside and had a Q&A meeting with him. Finally, we filled out a final thoughts sheet that we were meant to complete earlier but we burned too much time. 

We all had an enjoyable morning and it was great to get an inside look of how Monash Council operates. Being part of JAG meant we were able to give our thoughts and ideas to Council about facilities and services offered to young people within Monash. A huge thank you to Sham’s mum, Tamara for driving us to and from school and facilitating the opportunity for the four of us to attend.

Mann & Ethan