Student Leadership

This term our School Captains have been passionately leading the Student Leadership Committees to mark a number of celebration days including; International Nurses Day, IDAHOBIT, and Reconciliation Week. The committees worked closely together, delivering a wide range of engaging and interactive opportunities for the students and staff to take real action! 

As we come to the end of semester one, I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate some stand out contributions from our committee members. These students have consistently contributed to the success of student led initiatives, and are demonstrating their commitment to developing their leadership skills. 

SHOUT OUT TO OUR FUTURE LEADERS . . .

• Greta Schumacher (Year 7) for always volunteering to help create and organise activities.
• Saskia Proctor & Angelina Georgiopoulos (Year 7) for volunteering to help collect names of students interested in joining the Reconciliation Action Plan group during Reconciliation Week and for constantly showing up to meetings. 
• Cyrus Sajjadi (Year 9) for volunteering as 'Mentos Defender' (and countless other tasks) at our Reconciliation Week stall. 
• Ashley Welsh (Year 10) for always helping the Arts Committee out. Ashley helped put together the ‘Break the Bias’ Art Competition display in the Year 7 Centre, and cut out loads of badge templates for IDAHOBIT. 
• Lewis Manterfield (Year 10) for getting students across the school involved in SRC activities and for always sharing great ideas in meetings.
• Mark Nguyen (Year 10) for volunteering to take photos for Reconciliation Week and helping out during meetings.
• Poppy Fitzgerald (Year 10) for sharing great ideas in our SRC meetings and taking an active role in leading activities. 
• Scarlett Branigan (Year 11) for finishing her 'Exam Tips’ article so quickly and to an exceptional standard. 
• Chelsea Zhong (Year 12) for constantly putting her hand up to complete activities while also juggling Year 12!

This term we welcomed the newly elected Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 Form Captains and Vice Captains to the Student Leadership Committees. These students have all selected a Student Leadership Committee to work with, and will have an opportunity to be mentored by our senior student leaders. 

Year 7 Form Captains

Ivy Cooper, Cecily Phung, Angelina Georgiopoulos & Chrisovalantis Kalodimos (7A), Eloise Thornton, Jocelyn Sutanto & Ramona Ware (7B), Lumina Rotar & Mathilda Lee (7C), Saskia Proctor, Zara Wilson & Amaya Perez (7D), Greta Schumacher, Myla O’Leary, Elsie House & Victor Wang (7G).  

Year 8 Form Captains

Elio Viran Richards (8A), Max Wills (8B), Poppy Winter (8C), Luke Novello (8D), Zoe Grekos (8E), Stella Cunningham (8F), Dana Tingwell (8G) & Noah Carter (8H). 

Year 8 Vice Captains

Angus Wallace (8A), Athan Nalpantidis (8D), Maeda Hassan (8E), Daniel Licastro (8F),  & Billy Kelsey (8H)

Year 9 Form Captains

Makayla Lo Piccolo (9A), Caitlin Young Atkinson (9B), Xenon Brownsea (9C), James Mandarano (9D), Mason Dunmore (9E), Maddy Engeler (9F) & Cyrus Sajjadi (9G). 

It’s been wonderful to see so many of these students actively participating in our meetings and taking on leadership challenges. I encourage all of our Form Captains and Vice Captains to continue to embrace this opportunity next term, and learn from our fabulous Year 12 School Captains. 

Bec Perkin

Student Leadership Coordinator 

International Nurses Day

Our captaincy team ran International Nurses Day on May the 12th this year. We aimed to raise awareness around the hard work that our nurses have been applying not only everyday but especially over the past few years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students from around the school practised donning PPE, including a facemask, face shield, protective goggles and sterile gown to gain awareness of the amount of PPE our nurses have to wear on a daily basis!

Mask templates were also available for students to decorate and write thank you notes to our local Austin Nurses which were then displayed in the atrium. Nursing biographies were also available on the display to educate students about nursing professions that are not quite well-known. 

Tess Marjanovic

Academic Captain

IDAHOBIT

The 17th of May this year was IDAHOBIT which is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia. This day marks 32 years since homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organisations' classification of disease and related health problems. 

The Rainbow Lounge collaborated with the Student Leadership Committees to run activities throughout the week to encourage students to show their support for their LGBTQIA+ peers. During the week there was a board in the atrium that displayed information about influential LGBTQIA+ people, a workshop on ‘How to be a Good Ally’ and a ‘How to Come Out’ workshop run by Cas Darlington from the Rainbow Lounge.

On the 20th of May we celebrated IDAHOBIT through a rainbow dress day with gold coin donations and created a support wall in the atrium. Students turned up to school wearing rainbow colours, pledged ways to support LGBTQIA+ people, and made their own badges. The Rainbow Lounge students organised this with help from the SRC and staff like Jess Manzie, and Bec Perkin. All in all the Rainbow Lounge raised over $700 for Zoe Belle Collective who will use the funds to run workshops for young gender diverse people.

Overall it was a very successful week leaving the Rainbow Lounge and the Student Leadership Committees very impressed with how the entire school showed their participation. We hope that students will continue to show their support for the LGBTQIA+ community every day!

Cas Darlington (Rainbow Lounge)  

Chelsea Zhong (Academic Committee Member)

Reconciliation Week 

The Reconciliation Week Committee worked with the Reconciliation Action Plan working group to organise several activities between the 26th of May and the 3rd of June.  Announcements were made to the whole school to acknowledge National Sorry Day and the Anniversary of the Referendum. This was followed by an announcement on the 3rd of June which aimed to explain the significance of Mabo Day. 

On Thursday the 2nd of June, floods of students entered the main atrium to pledge their support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Students wrote how they aim to show support for the traditional custodians of Australia and what reconciliation means to them. Several responses included educating themselves on Indigenous traditions and histories. A beautiful pledge wall was created as a result.

Finally, on Friday the film 'The Sapphires' was screened in the main auditorium. This was a fun and relaxing way to end the hectic week! Overall Reconciliation Week was an educational and engaging time for all students, and helped highlight the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures within Australia's history.

Mia Armstrong

Civics and Citizenship Captain (SRC) 

Leadbeater Workshop

The lovely Steve Leadbeater came to Thornbury High to do an awesome workshop from 2:00pm-4:00pm on the 23rd of May. He taught a bunch of creatively driven students his process of work and showed them the kind of art he does for his job and free time. 

Steve told students to come up with three words to be the main prompts - ultimately creating a new and interesting piece of work!

It was a wonderful afternoon and we hope to get more workshops in the future!

Sarah Arquiza

Arts Captain