9-12 Community News

Welcome to the last 9-12 Community report for Term 1.

The 10 week term has certainly been a busy one for our 9-12 Community. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our wonderful students, families and staff for their valuable contributions and hard work to ensure the smooth running of our community. We wish all our students and their families a well earned and restful break.

Our VCE students will be continuing on with their studies over the term break. To assist them in preparing for success, students have been given a list of work to complete for each of their subject areas so that they hit the ground running as they begin their Term 2 studies.

The term break is a great time to consolidate their learning, create chapter summaries, revise content and complete some practice examinations. This helps students to prepare for mid year (internal) and end of year (external) exams.

While we are at the end of the term, the learning and activities have certainly not stopped. Below are two recounts of activities that our Year 12s have been involved in over the last week.

On Friday the 31st of March, the 9-12 College Leaders attended the Campaspe School Leaders Forum at Twin Rivers in Echuca. We were joined by students from Years 10-12 from six other schools. The focus of this forum was to encourage networking between local school leaders and to learn and build on leadership skills that can assist their school and community. 

We were accompanied by Mrs Downie and Peter Fawcett as presenters from the Youth Affairs Council Victoria shared their knowledge about youth leadership. We focused on what it means to engage in advocacy, generating ideas around changes that can be made in our school and wider community and how we can make a difference as student leaders. 

The day concluded with a guest speaker who contributed further to our learning by sharing her experiences and advice as a leader. 

Last Thursday, our Year 12 and Foundation students gathered together to attend our Parish Mass. Following on from Mass, the Foundation team made their way to Tolle Lege to meet up with their buddies and share their morning tea time together. What a wonderful time they had with their buddies, with lots of dance action and fun!

The Year 11 Food Studies students have been focusing on 'Food Origins' and exploring the factors influencing the emergence of different food systems, food products and food practices around the world. Students have been learning about the development of early agricultural food systems, including those that enabled the cultivation of wild plants and the domestication of animals for farming along with patterns in the global spread of food production and the growth of trade in food commodities such as chocolate, coffee, grains, oils, salt, spices, sugar and tea. Using their skills and knowledge, students were required to design and create an innovative ‘spin’ on a traditional hot cross bun. Flavour combinations included carrot cake, banana and white choc chip, spiced pumpkin, iced vo-vo and lemon and white chi-chip. They all tasted as good as they looked.

As part of their studies, VCE-VM and VPC students engage in Structured Workplace Learning, where they spend one day a week in workplaces, applying their academic studies to the practical world of the workforce. Our VCE-VM/Work Experience Coordinator, Mr Peter Fawcett, paid a visit to many of our students in their work and training places. As you can see, the workplaces for the students (and some of our Partnerships for the Future alumni) are many and varied, but the experiences are ones that all students are enjoying and from which they are learning valuable skills and knowledge that they will be able to apply in their future workplaces and career pathways.

Something for students and families to think about before the return to school is to dust off the winter uniforms and consider if the uniforms still provide the right fit.

Below is a link to the Uniform Guide to assist you.

https://sakyabram.ceosand.cspace.net.au/Assets/1295/SAC_UniformGuide_PROOFv21.pdf 

Once again, congratulations to all members of the 9-12 Community on a great Term1 and we encourage all students to enter Term 2 with purpose and enthusiasm.

Enjoy the break; may you have a blessed Easter.

Michelle Downie                         Brad Downie

9-12 Community Leader           9-12 Community Leader

Wellbeing                                      Student Learning and Professional Practice

Unit 3 OES Barmah National Park 

This term, the Unit 3 Outdoor Environmental Studies students have been learning about the history of the Barmah National Park and surrounding towns. We have had two excursion days and an overnight canoe journey. 

On Friday 10th February we went to the town of Barmah and spoke to Hilda and Gretta who are two Yorta Yorta elders. Through our discussion with them on the banks of the Murray River we learnt about the perceptions, interaction and positive impacts the Yorta Yorta people have had with the local environment. Hilda and Gretta work for Parks Victoria and are a part of preserving and caring for ‘country’. Through their work with Parks Victoria they continue to learn about their ancestors and pass important cultural knowledge on to the next generation. We also had a stop at the Nathalia Heritage centre and learnt about the importance of timber and the river red gums during the early days of settlement in the area of Barmah. 

On Friday 3rd March we went to Echuca Discovery Centre. Here we were taken on a tour of the Echuca wharf and looked at the past 200 years of history around the Echuca area including the Barmah Forest, known today as the Barmah National Park. We learnt that Echuca was settled as it was the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne and the area supplied Melbourne with food, timber and other resources needed for the city. 

On Thursday 30th and Friday 31st March, we participated in an overnight canoe journey from Picnic Point to Barmah, camping at the Barmah campground and covering approx 30km paddling overall. On this trip we got to witness firsthand the characteristics that have shaped the Australian landscape. We saw many different types of bird species such as the Whistling Kites who had a very distinct call and were woken by the ‘bush alarm’, the Kookaburras. We also noticed the flood marks on the trees of the River Red Gums. During the night we saw and heard lots of brushtail possums but were sure to keep our food away from them. We enjoyed our evening by the fire chatting and playing games and found the challenge of no phones tricky at times but also not as difficult as we first thought. 

Thank you to River Country Adventours for providing us with the canoes and Barry’s canoeing expertise. Thanks also to Mrs McIntosh and Mr McIntyre for taking us.