School Highlights

Year 5 Guest Author Workshop

Dante Di Felice, Year 5 and the Year 5 English Enrichment Group

On Tuesday 17 May, the Year 5 English Enrichment group was lucky enough to attend a very special workshop run by popular Australian author, George Ivanoff.

In a brilliant showcase of George’s mental writing process, not only did we get to see how he planned his books in the ‘You Choose’ series, but he also helped us plan out our own ‘choose your own adventure’ styled novel.

This was much needed, as the English Enrichment group is soon going to write their own ‘choose your own adventure’ stories.

Everyone who attended this splendid author talk felt very grateful for the opportunity to learn from George. We now look forward to putting our new knowledge and skills into action!

Thank you to Mrs Whitehead, the Library staff, and everyone else who was involved in organising this amazing experience.

Year 6 Shark Tank

Louise Hand, Year 6 Classroom Teacher

As part of our Term 2 HASS Economics and Business 'Kidpreneur' unit of work, which focuses on the elements of a business and the skills of successful enterprise, Year 6 students formed groups to present a business proposal to a Shark Tank panel of peers.

Demonstrating confidence and powers of persuasion, our budding business people outlined the best aspects of their product to the Sharks, who proved to be probing in their curiosity about each business, and decisive but sensitive with their verbal feedback.

SHARK TANK BUSINESS PROPOSALS

Our product proposals included:

Sunscreen Tablet: A kid-friendly, fruity-flavoured tablet for 50+ sun protection. Sam Loft and Luke Munnerley
The Yam: Eye-glasses that adjust to suit your eyesight using light refracting liquid. Phoenix Fishman, Lorenzo Wright and Lucas Maillet
Tangle Freak: A hairbrush dispensing style for ‘bad-hair' days. Lily-Rose Jackson, Charlotte Ferguson and Alice Yin
HYZ Lights: LED lights programmed to guide Years 7 to 12 students around the School when unsure of class location. Pounny Zhou, Changan Yang and Farees Huda-Rahman
Boredom Busters: Portable games tray to keep kids entertained off-screen. Stella Frangoulis, Jiawei Chen and Amilia Liveriadis

Our Shark tank panel of peers included Year 6 studentsJerome McClimont, Evelyn Zhou, Ella Spooner, Alice Perillo-Phipps and Ginger Shen.

STUDENT EXPERIENCES

Students were asked to provide feedback on their experiences of Shark Tank. Here are some of their comments:

What is the most important element of developing a business proposal?

Finding the right words and making it sound promising. Lily-Rose Jackson
Being convincing and acting like there's no reason why people shouldn’t invest. Sam Loft
Money. Phoenix Fishman
Advertising. Charlotte Ferguson
Being able to answer questions and fix any flaw. Lucas Maillet

What is your best character trait as a business person?

Positivity. This is important because when things go wrong, we still need to stay positive. Changan Yang
Creativity, because we need to be creative to develop an idea. Alice Yin
Determination, which is important because you don’t want to back away from an idea. Pounny Zhou
Debating, which is important because sometimes to succeed you need to convince others of your way. Stella Frangoulis
Confidence, because you need to be confident when you present your idea. Amilia Liveriadis

What is your best character trait as a Shark?

Honesty, which is important because if I am not honest, it would be lying. Ella Spooner
Kindness, which is important because when giving feedback you need to be kind. Jerome McClimont

What is the most challenging element of developing a business proposal?

Developing a proof of the concept. Lorenzo Wright
Learning to accept defeat. Farees Huda-Rahman
Dealing with getting your idea shut down. Luke Munnerley
Its impact on the world. Evelyn Zhou

How was your experience with the Sharks?

The Sharks were both kind and strict. They gave constructive criticism. Jiawei Chen
The Shark experience was so good. I had fun working with the other Sharks and I would do it again. Alice Perillo-Phipps

We now look forward to moving on to developing our own individual enterprise concept (minus the Sharks!).

Year 7 Da Vinci Decathlon

William Walsh, Year 7

On Monday 8 May, a group of select Kilvington students went to St Leonard’s College to compete in the Da Vinci Decathlon.

This competition is set over ten disciplines, including mathematics, cartography, science, code-breaking, ideation, art and poetry, creative producers, English, engineering and legacy.

We had eight students part of the Kilvington team, including Grace Anastasiadis, Barney Jones, Max Cleeland, Cam Leighton, Josie Clyde, Hao Kun Sun, Milan Bays and myself (William Walsh).

Each group had three hours in total to complete all the challenges, where each challenge required us to use our creativity, teamwork, knowledge and logic.

I found the competition quite challenging, but also very fun, and I had a great time puzzling over problems with my teammates.

The theme of the event for this year was Chaos. Kilvington placed third overall on the day, with category placements as follows:

Science – 1st
Ideation – 1st
Code Breaking – 2nd
Art and Poetry – 3rd
Mathematics – 3rd

I was absolutely ecstatic when I found out we'd come third, as this was much better than I'd expected!

Overall, I had lots of fun doing the creative producers challenge, and we all learnt a great deal about how to effectively communicate and problem-solve as a group on the day.

The Da Vinci decathlon is one of Kilvington’s extension programs and you can have the opportunity to join it next year just by signing up!

Year 8 Camp to Wilson's Prom

Evie Ellett, Year 8

The day of Year 8 Camp dawned bright and sunny. Perhaps too sunny for some, who had been forced by doting parents to pack extra layers. Later on, these students were spotted sweating in their trackies and thermals around the Wilson’s Prom campsite.

Luckily, the first activity up was canoeing. Since there weren't any instructions from the leaders that explicitly stated we couldn’t capsize our canoe, everyone took the chance to go swimming! The line for the showers that night stretched all the way down the road.

That evening, after about 45 minutes of struggling to chop up a vast amount of vegetables, our very healthy dinner took shape. The massive wok held the most amount of vegetables we had ever seen in one place! In fact, our camp groups were the healthiest on the planet … until someone whipped out a pack of Oreos.

Our main activity the next day was surfing. The surf was perfect, and the average student only got dumped about five times.

Back at Camp, we all spotted lots of wildlife, including having many up close and personal encounters with them! There was a moment where the campsite was simultaneously filled with the sounds of shrieking birds and shrieking kids, as birds landed on our heads, arms and around our feet. Another time, noticing the opportunity of free food, a group of red and blue rosellas literally swooped in on the prize!

Although the rosellas were everywhere, the wildlife highlight of camp was definitely the affectionately-named 'Prombats'. For the uneducated, these are the wombats that come out and terrorise campers when the sun goes down. Despite this sounding like a bedtime story to keep children in their tents, the Prombats were very real, with multiple cases of snack stealing, tent break-ins and midnight sightings to their name.

Overall, Year 8 Camp was such an enjoyable (and memorable!) experience that we will continue to look back on it with happiness and amusement.

Bayspeak Public Speaking Competition

Kirsten Maruff, International Student and Public Speaking Coordinator

Recently, Kilvington students Sarah O’Neill (Year 7), Tara Perera (Year 10) and Zara Bainger (Year 10) took part in the Bayspeak Public Speaking Competition at Firbank Grammar.

Zara, who presented a speech about the damage done by fast fashion, was selected as one of two speakers to proceed to the competition finals in June.

Congratulations to all three students on their fantastic efforts!