As many of you will already know, I am Ry Mathieson and I oversee the Junior School at GEC. Essentially this means I support the year level leaders to support your students in achieving their very best.

I would firstly like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we learn at GEC and the elders past, present and emerging. We pay tribute to the long history of learning that has occurred on these lands.

I am absolutely thrilled to welcome you all to the 2021 school year. To our returning parents and carers, welcome back. To our new parents and carers, a huge big welcome and know we are here to support you along your journey. We look forward to spending another great year learning in partnership with you all.

Our Year Level Coordinators for 2021 are:

Year 7: Deb Cordingley (dco@gec.vic.edu.au) and Jake Sherman (jsh@gec.vic.edu.au)

Year 8: Jess Ballingall (jba@gec.vic.edu.au) and Lou Tsarpalas (lts@gec.vic.edu.au)

Year 9: Parminder Kaur (pka@gec.vic.edu.au) and Sasha Byrnes (sby@gec.vic.edu.au)

Let’s start with some handy hints on beginning the year well:

Start how you wish to continue

Starting the year off strong allows students to experience early success and move forward into the year with an optimistic attitude. This revolves mainly around organisation and getting into healthy learning routines.

Some ideas to put in place at home:

Set up a weekly home learning schedule. This could include dedicated times to revise, to read, to do Education Perfect modules, or to catch up on any incomplete work from class. Put this in a space where everyone can see it and ask questions on how you will help each other stick to the schedule.
Read through the homework policy together (in the student planner) and discuss the best way to approach homework.
Read through the uniform policy together (in the student planner) and ensure you are set up for success. Feel free to contact us if there are any concerns or questions in regards to uniform.
Jump on to Xuno and check out your timetable - Bell-times, 2 week schedule, colour-code it to match your folders for ease when you go to your locker.
Conversations for parents to have with their kids re: their day at school / their learning

Learning begins at 9

We have a strong focus on attendance for the simple reason that when students are at school, we can monitor their learning growth. Did you know that one day off per week equates to approximately 40 missed school days for the year? Imagine the learning opportunities missed in this time. Each learning moment counts and it often encompasses far more than just the set work in terms of building social and emotional skills for the future.

Homework help

Homework help kicks off this week after a COVID break last year. You can access Homework Help Tutors in the library from 3:30 - 4:30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Clubs to get involved and engaged and have a voice

Students can access a list of Clubs to get involved in on the GEC Hub. Remember, our mantra for the Junior School is Get Organised, Get Focused, Get Involved and getting involved in different clubs helps to make new friends, find like-minded people and just have fun. Alternatively, follow our Instagram/Facebook account for a clubs series.

We are so thrilled with the way our junior students have started the term and we are looking forward to all the learning ahead.

Ry Mathieson

Junior School Leader

First Week at GEC for Year 7

Wominjeka to our newest members of the GEC community. It has been wonderful for Mr Sherman and me to welcome everyone to 2021 on site to get ready to learn. Although, the academic year began with a down pour of summer rain, our school captains and leaders presented passionate speeches around how to move past 2020 and engage strongly in learning, friendship and student voice.

The formal part of the ceremony was introduced by Nile Robert (7A) who gave the Acknowledgement of Country in Language, English and French. After Nile’s respectful acknowledgment, the VCE students along with the Year 7s were witness to N’arwee’t Dr Carolyn Briggs, Boon Wurrung Elder, welcoming in the new year of learning, while the Welcoming Ceremony was streamed to the other Year Level Assemblies.

Following the sharing of Language, the Year 7s were offered the opportunity to experience a Smoking Ceremony outside. The experience was a wonderful start to a promising year of Valuing Success.

First of all, I would like to thank Ms Cordingley and others for inviting our traditional landowners and organising the Smoking Ceremony. As an individual with an ethnic background, I was emotionally moved by the wonderful speech given by Dr Carolyn Briggs. The speech was so motivational with wonderful values such as being respectful to elders, teachers, nature, and the importance of learning and gaining knowledge. I felt privileged to witness the Smoking Ceremony and to hear more about their culture.

Arivu Kumaran

Maths Learning Area Leader

The Transition

Rainy and muddy water gave me a wet welcome. With the rain pouring onto the PAC’s roof and the teachers coming gave me a mixed range of emotions. As soon as I started to see my friends I started to feel comfortable. After that we had a range of different things to get organized and ready for the year and that included getting lockers, Chromebooks and planners. This process helped me to get organized for day to day life that will teach me and my peers our life lessons. A big thank you to our teachers who helped and guided us to settle in this new environment.

Gautham Sriram 7H

My experience so far at High School is great! It's a bit different to Primary School because we have more lessons like Food Tech, Science, Humanities and more. We all work together as a class to achieve a fun and successful Year 7 at GEC!

Barak Shemesh 7H

Glen Eira College's 7C French Immersion class were assigned Ms Cordingley, Ms Deng, Ms Fompudie and many more teachers for their subjects. The differences from Primary and High School are vast, broad and extensive. Firstly there are numerous bells that seemingly go off at random times. When the bell sounds all of the students' arms are crammed with books and folders. After the doors are opened it is as though they cascade out of our arms. No talking and other expectations are ramped up in strictness and many rules are enforced differently to our primary years. 200 new Year 7s were welcomed to GEC this week and we are split into 8 classes ranging from A to H. Recess and lunch times are reduced to walking and talking rather than playing, running and sweating. Overall the beginning of my High School journey has been an experience and I hope to have many more new happenings in the future.

Lucas Kennedy 7C

As I walked into the main gates of Glen Eira College on my very first day as an official Year 7 student I was very nervous, yet excited because with many changes there was some good. Our first day, I was lost and had no idea where the Performing Arts Centre was. To my fortune a couple of Year 10 students told me that it was on the far right. Although I was a bit intimidated by them nevertheless I thanked them because they were helpful. Then we had the opening ceremony which was followed by another ceremony - a Smoking Ceremony. I was very intrigued and excited to see what this meant, as I had never been in a Smoking Ceremony. I found out that the Smoking Ceremony is traditional. After we left the Performing Arts Centre we went up to Room 209 which looked like our homeroom. We learnt mathematics there and met our teacher. I was very anxious for only one thing: Lockers. I wanted to know if it was big or small or how I would have to adjust. When I found out the size, I saw the lockers adequate to my year level. At our fifth and final period, all Year 7 classes gathered for the House Assembly. I was very joyful when I found out I was in Sapphire House with a couple of my best friends who were in other classes. Even though I was scared at the start of this day I kept the positives in my mind, like Chromebooks. Today ended well as I walked out of the gates confident and assured that it was going to be a great experience for me and that College was going to be great.

Pranav Swarup 7C

At the start of Year 7 it wasn't easy to adapt to the changes that High school had to offer - with the different classrooms, teachers and expectations - it was a lot to take in. I can't judge if the work is hard or not since I've only been here for a week but I definitely do know that I will learn something new every day, here at GEC.

Leo Clarke 7

On Friday the 29th we started our exciting new journey of school at GEC. Once we entered the school, we met with our new friends at the entrance of the Performing Arts Theatre, then we went in to have our morning assembly. We were all very excited to learn more about this fantastic school; we proceeded to learn lots about the new year that was ahead of us. I made the opening Acknowledgement of Country that I learned from my old school. Then N’arwee’t Dr Carolyn Briggs taught us a few indigenous words relating to knowledge and respect and the importance of them.

After that we went outside under some shelter to undertake the very first GEC Smoking Ceremony! At the ceremony we gathered around a fire that an Indigenous Elder had lit. Then they danced around the fire singing important indigenous lyrics while adding leaves to the fire to make smoke come out from the fire. We then walked through the smoke cleansing ourselves in it. Each leaf represented an element of success that we needed for our journey here at GEC.

Nile Roberts 7A

The halls were full of students. Huge crowds moving here and there. There was a buzz of excitement and hurry in the air, the students were getting ready for school. It was the 2nd day of school, and classes were about to start. As we entered the classroom we were given a warm welcome. The first day was a mixture of excitement and anticipation. We met so many wonderful teachers, who have made us feel welcome at this magnificent school. This first week has been a remarkable start to our brand new adventure, high school!

Harshitha Gaddamanugu 7C

Deborah Cordingley & Jake Sherman

Year 7 Coordinators

Year 8 News

Welcome to 2021!

Our "catch cry" for this year is STEP UP, TO 2021 - Meaning that we are all hoping for a better year, in which we strive to do our best. Thank you to all Year 8 staff for a smooth transition to the start of the year. Currently we are planning for our Year 8 camp - more information forthcoming (watch this space). As always, we are here for you -students, parents and staff.

Jess Ballingall & Lou Tsarpalas

Year 8 Coordinators

Year 9 News

Welcome back Year 9s of 2021.

We would like to extend our warmest wishes to you all at the beginning of the new academic year.

We all know that new beginnings are always full of excitement, full of new experiences and new challenges. So in order to overcome these challenges it is important to implement strategies to make your dreams come true! We can’t be good at everything but we should try our best and compete with ourselves every day.

This year we have picked up a theme for year 9 cohort , which is “Seize opportunities to participate and learn'' which is one of our motto from Glen Eira 5 that our students should do and reflect everyday at school.

We encourage every Year 9 student to branch out of their comfort zone and try something new this year. A little quote here “Not all storms come to disrupt our life, some come to clear our path”. So look forward, learn from your mistakes and seize every opportunity to do the best you can!

Continuing on from that, we would like to acknowledge and congratulate all those students who received academic and endeavour awards last year and also participated in many competitions such as Math Olympiad and got scores from Credit to High Distinction. Well done everybody!

Secondly we would like to congratulate our Junior School Captains for 2021.

Tali Erman
Nina Gibbs
Eve Gascoigne
Oskar De Bruin

The four of them will share the role and responsibilities that come along with it and we know they will be great leaders for the Junior School.

We would also like to acknowledge Lucas Nenke for his achievements outside the classroom. Lucas has been selected as a Ball Boy for the upcoming Australian Open. This is a huge achievement for anyone and we are very excited for him and will be looking out for Lucas on the TV.

Wish you all another bright year of school life!

Parminder Kaur and Sasha Byrnes

Year 9 Coordinators

We Welcome New and Returning Staff