Student Leadership

RYPEN presentations for Rotary

In term 1, three of our students attended a Rotary meeting to make a presentation on their experiences at the RYPEN camp, which stands for Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment. This camp is sponsored by Rotary, and Jessica Phillips, Chloe Fleming and Jemma Frisina were able to attend this camp last year thanks to the sponsorship of Rotary. They attended the Rotary meeting to thank the Rotarians for their generosity in sponsoring this valuable program, and to explain the benefits of the program to the members of the Rotary committee. Jemma Frisina attended the most recent camp as a Colour Leader, and spoke very articulately about the positive impacts of the program on the leaders and participants alike. Chloe and Jess both spoke eloquently about their experiences on the camp, and how they will both be attending the next camp as Colour Leaders themselves. All three students were able to speak confidently to a large audience, and demonstrated a commendable sense of gratitude for the opportunities they were given through the sponsorship of Rotary. It is wonderful to see our students taking the opportunity to be involved in these experiences - we thank Jemma for her contributions as a Colour Leader to last year's camp, and look forward to hearing from Chloe and Jess after their experiences as leaders this year. Congratulations to all three girls!

Student Voice Conference

"On the 22nd of May, five students and I, from years 7 to 10, went to a conference on Respectful Relationships held by Doncaster Secondary College and supported by Blackburn Secondary College.

We arrived there in the morning and were led to a hall with several tables set up in the middle. Each of us was assigned a table number (I was number 7), and were told to sit down and have a chat with the other people sitting there until the meeting began. I was seated with two girls from Wellington and Doncaster Secondary College, and they were lovely to talk to.

We started the meeting, and met the students who were going to be leading it. We learnt about emotional literacy, gender identity, stress management and the influences your relationships can have on you. It was informative and they included activities while you were learning that helped you get to know the people around you, like a little activity at the start where you had to make a tower out of spaghetti with the people on your table, and whoever made the tallest tower won. My table, unfortunately, did not win, but I think we made a pretty decent spaghetti tower.

There was free tea, coffee and snacks in our break, and you were free to talk to anyone you wanted. I had a few interesting discussions on veganism, the government, and the state of our environment with the other students there that day.

After our break, we broke into our school groups to come up with action plans for programs or ideas we wanted to integrate in our school. My group and I, along with Mr. Razaai, had a very productive discussion and came up with a few ideas that you all will be seeing pop up in the next few months to years.

Talking to the different people at this event really made me realise the different programs that Wheelers Hill has in comparison to these other schools. We as a school are quite focused on our community and how we connect with the people around us, and that was one of the reasons I personally came to the school. Going to this event helped me re-realise this, and motivated me to keep up the work that is being done at our school.

I want to thank Miss McMahon for giving me the opportunity to go to the Respectful Relationships forum, Mr. Razaai for accompanying us there and pushing us all to go out of our comfort zones and talk with the other people attending and Ms. Anderson for being our chauffeur there and back. Also a big thank you to the other students who came along with me to represent the school - Molly Downie, Lachlan Palmer, Seth Scholl, Mitchell Wills and Chloe Fleming."

Chelsea Gottliebsen, 10E

World's Greatest Shave

This year, the Wheelers Hill Community provided a phenomenal level of support for the Leukaemia Foundation when we participated in the World's Greatest Shave for the second year in a row. The Student Voice group organised a free dress day for the last day of Term 1 as a fundraiser for this cause, with a number of lunchtime activities to help raise more money. A hot dog sale proved to be very popular - we thank  Melbourne Food Distributors (MFD) for their generous donation of the hot dogs for our fundraiser, and to Ms Sharpe and Ms Richey for their assistance in helping the hot dog stall to operate smoothly. We also ran a braiding stall, with the assistance of one of our parents, Leeanne, who we thank for her time. Student Voice members helped to run these stalls during lunch, as well as running a hairspray stall and a face painting/photo booth opportunity. We also thank our year 10 and 11 student helpers who assisted with waxing legs!

We had many students who coloured their hair on the day - congratulations to all who participated! Special mentions go to those who raised money for colouring their hair - Shay Coxhead, Jordan Gwynne, Bailey Hopkins, Claire Inglis, Bianca Jorgic, Shanelle Langford, Jessica Saunders, Neve Sharry, Natalie Wills and Hannah Wright.

We also acknowledge the fundraising efforts of our team of leg waxers - Mr Arcaro, Thomas Bowley, Josh Richardson, Thomas Brown, Jared Cooke, Jack Thomson, Oskar Notaro, Tyler Oliver, Adam Redenbach and Lachlan Palmer.

A special shout out goes to our team of brave shavers - Liam Barnes, Zoe Hunt, Isayah Schellebeck, Ethan Smith, Yucheng Ma, Jordan Plant, Mitchell Wills, Harry Coles, Jack Steele, Kynan Wilkins, John Sharry, Mr Mat Bailey, Mr Nick Molan and Mr Ben Shepherd! We also thank our volunteers who gave up their time to come and do the shaving - student Jemma Frisina, parent Tanya Rendell and Jacinta Frisina, who took time from her own business of Jacinta Hairdressing and Make-up Artistry to help us in this cause. 

We also acknowledge the fundraising efforts of PJ Petty and Logan McKenzie, who also shaved their heads for the Leukaemia Foundation, but at external events at different points in the year. 

At the end of our fundraising deadline, which was the 31st of May, we had raised a grand total of $7354.69, which was even higher than last year! Thanks again to all staff, students, families and community members who supported this cause. 

Gemma McMahon

Student Leadership Coordinator