Faculty news

Counselling

FRIENDSHIPS and BELONGING

Oakleigh Grammar recently launched School TV. A parenting resource filled with numerous parenting tips to help us navigate the complex task of parenting. I have chosen to highlight the topic ‘Friendships and Belonging,’ which you will find listed under ‘All Editions’ in the topic headings. Remember, go to our school website and click the parent portal, then click School TV or click this link to ‘Friendships and Belonging.’ 

https://oakleighgrammar.vic.schooltv.me/newsletter/friendship-belonging

Children form friendships from a very young age. Most of our early learning is modelled by those around us, primarily our nuclear family. Toddlers unconsciously pick up on the ways that you as the parent interact with your friends, the way you speak to them, the way you treat them and the empathy and understanding displayed to your friend. In short, you are guiding your child on how to be a good friend and navigate a friendship, by the way that you do it yourself. Parents of toddlers, instigate most of their child’s early friendships and actively teach their children to share, take turns, have manners, speak and behave appropriately. Our child takes this direct guidance and blends it with what they observe from us, to form their own unique ‘friendship behaviours.’

Just as we, directly and indirectly, shape our child’s friendship behaviours in the toddler years, we are also their most significant guide in shaping friendship behaviours throughout all of childhood. It is the conversations that you have with your child regarding friendship difficulties, that further refine their skills of both being a good friend and maintaining friendships. Guidance from us as parents, therefore, is fundamental in helping our child’s friendships flourish and be meaningful throughout childhood.

Learning how to make new friends and keep them is not luck, it requires several skills. For some, given their genetic predisposition, these skills will come naturally, for others they will need to be actively nurtured by the adults around them. Friendships are never consistent and smooth because they are a relationship and all relationships require work at times, which is where you as the parent are so important. Your input and guidance to develop these skills in your child is invaluable, as this builds their long-term friendship skills. It is tempting at times, to step in and take over to help our child move through a friendship challenge, but ultimately this only increases our friendship skills, and not our child’s.’ It is best, therefore, to help them work through the difficulty with your guidance, or contact the class teacher if assistance is required at school.

Friendships are based on belonging. The need to belong is hard-wired into our brains, as it ensures survival. It is an important component in what is referred to as our ‘first brain or primitive brain’ which is based on survival. Our brain knows that if we communicate (another hard-wired brain need) and belong to a group, we will improve our chances of survival. Think primitive man and their chance of survival against a predator on our own, compared to those in a group. We have a much better chance of fighting off the wild animal if we are in a group. Belonging, therefore, is a vital element in our overall wellbeing, so no wonder friendships form such a key part of our happiness – especially in adolescence.

I hope you find some of the short videos on this topic helpful, in helping your child navigate the skillful art of friendships.

Fiona Baudinette

Student Counsellor

Careers

TERM 2 CAREERS EVENT NEXT WEEK AT OG!

Year 11-12 Careers Morning Tea

On Tuesday 14 June, 2 special guest Alumni speakers, Nick Limnios (Class of 2016) and Janvi Gupta (Class of 2019), will talk to our students about their career journeys. Watch this space for a recount of this event in our next issue of Grammar News.

News from Monash University

Campus Tours – Winter Holidays

Get a feel for what it's like to study on campus. Students keen on studying at Monash University are recommended to register for one or more of the upcoming campus tours. Register at Campus Experience. 

Monash Information Evenings

Note: some are ZOOM meetings**

SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY EARLY ENTRY PROGRAM FOR 2023 

A different way to enter university, that will not depend on your ATAR

The 2023 Early Entry Program is a unique opportunity for current Year 12 students to receive a conditional offer based on a recommendation by the school, and not based on an ATAR. Applications opened on 18 May 2022 and the final day for school recommendations is 31 October 2022. Successful students will receive a conditional offer and the offer will become unconditional should students complete Year 12 and must meet the course prerequisites – particularly English (study score of 25) or EAL (study score of 30). Details of the application process, as well as participating courses, can be found below.

1. Application process 

Students must organise a recommendation from a school representative – such as Mrs Frame or your year level coordinator – in order to proceed with an application.

2. Eligible courses 

Courses that will be offered through this program can be found at Eligible Courses, and students can only apply for one course. Students will be required to complete 3 questions in a Next Gen Now questionnaire, and students will be asked to provide a 200-word statement per question. 

3. Recommendation form 

Once an application is submitted, students will receive a confirmation email which will include the form they need to forward on to their chosen school representative, who will complete the form and return it to Swinburne. Students must also make a VTAC application.

Michelle Mascaro

Careers Advisor

YEAR 12 CORNER 

Some of the Year 12s have recently been working on a formal video for our cohort. We have been conducting interviews and skits with our peers and teachers that we film and edit during our study periods. It's been really fun and joyous to organise and it gives us all the opportunity to bond and do something we will all look back on and have a laugh at. Our main focus at the moment is to conduct a dance video of "A Night to Remember” from High School Musical which is about the graduating class preparing for their prom. We feel this is a great representation of how we are all feeling and preparing for our School Formal and we can’t wait to share the finished video. 

- Anastasia Voutsas

LOTE 

It’s week 6! While students are preparing themselves for their summative assessments, the language teachers decorated the classroom with pictures, traditional Chinese paper cutting, vocabulary flashcards, students’ works and national flags. Students love the new look of their language classroom. It is so colourful and inviting! 

Additionally, we’d love to congratulate the following students on their achievements in the Year 6 Language Competition: 

Well done to these students for their hard work and perseverance! 

The Languages Department wishes everyone a wonderful break. 

Lydia Liu 

Middle School Academic Learning Leader (LOTE)

Language and literature 

Year 10 students have been exploring the gothic genre, please enjoy ‘Sovereign Gold’ by Lucas Kouts and Max Ward.

Standing under the Southern Cross I stared right at the entrance to the Sovereign Hill gold mine, a damp hole like that of a demon's maw. I took a good deep breath, the cold air flowing from the tunnel filling my lungs with a sense of uneasy dread. With a sharp breath in, I trudged onwards into the dastardly hole, a dark tunnel corrupted by years of greed and ambition. I held an old lantern in my left hand, its oil supplies in need of a refill, its shiny exterior peeling back. In my right, I held a dull pickaxe, made blunter than a hammer from its endless servitude to wicked claws. I had only one goal. To find the truth of what happened down here. Why so many men were lost to the mine, never to surface again.

After some time, I had made considerable progress venturing into the mine. Faint echoes caught my ear, but I dismissed them as nothing but my mind playing tricks on me. The rocky walls of the tunnels became damp as I travelled further in, the lantern’s light bending itself around the uneven surface of the walls. I picked up a smell, something indescribable, but nothing out of the ordinary in these mines. There were many minerals throughout the walls, capable of making any odour. The odd dampness of the walls seemed to have gotten worse, the unfamiliar liquid seeping from the cracks had dripped down, forming puddles on the floor. A foul odour rose from the puddle, a smell most unknown to me. The liquid was that of a blue complexity, but as clear as fog. What it was, I could not put my finger on it. But my eye caught a strange sight. Footprints, clear as day were before me. They perplexed me, for its shape was something not even a zoologist could decipher. It was not that of any known beast or a man.

It seemed that the misshapen tracks did not match with any known native animals, creating discordance in the makeup of the environment. Nevertheless, I trudged onwards, following the unknown beast’s tracks. The deeper I descended into the tunnel, the more alien my surroundings became. The walls and ceiling slowly closed in as I kept walking as if the cave was crushing me like an ant, its surroundings a boot. Strange tessellating crystal patterns came out of the hard rock, the angles bending the light of my lantern. I inspected one of these patterns. To any man, these strange shapes are wholly unnatural, even to any seasoned miner. The shapes infatuated me, but before I could admire them any longer, a sound of pure horror invaded my eardrums, a sound wholly unknown to human ears. Fear should’ve taken me over, but curiosity got the better of me.

As I followed the sound, I heard the terrible noise again. It was a sort of guttural scream but muffled in a horrid way. Curiosity turned into determination, and I pushed onwards. Too soon, I laid my eyes on a terrible vision. A hunched beast was feasting on a spoilt corpse, that of a miner whose fate was sealed. Its scaly skin cracked and split as it breathed in and out. I caught a stench from it so terrible I almost heaved. At that moment, the creature noticed me and reared its horrid visage. In the middle of its face, there was a tumorlike growth of crystals that spread to the temples of its head, obscuring most of its face. The only parts that remained were a crooked mouth, bearing its cracked teeth, like blunt knives. Although blind, I felt that it could sense my presence, and made vocalisations that no man could comprehend, beginning to advance towards me.

I began to run as fast as my legs could get me, hoping to escape from the demon down here, but the more I ran, the more convoluted and maze-like the tunnels became. The thing was behind me, bolting like a mad dog on its four limbs. My lantern was on its last breath when it went out. Pitch black surrounded me. I scrambled and stuttered through the tunnels, blind as a bat. I heard all sorts of noises, screaming, shouting, barking. I could not tell which way was up or down. But then I saw a light. A tiny, flickering, beam. It was the only thing I could see. I ran to it without a moment’s notice.

As I got closer, it became larger and larger and larger. I found the room it was in. Standing around an odd figure, were many creatures not unlike the beast I had encountered minutes ago. But the central figure caught my eyes. It was taller than anyone or anything else in the room, its head adorned with a crown of gold ore. From its neck grew many long, strand-like tentacles that grew and tapered towards the ground, hovering a few centimetres above it. The thing looked at me straight on, and I heard an indescribable noise emit from its mouth. My vision slowly turns white, and a feeling of warmth creeps over me like a blanket.