Middle Years  News

Term 3 Already!

It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway through Term 3. As always, we’ve had an incredibly busy start to the term. As at the time of publishing, Year 9 students have selected their subjects for Year 10 and have attended their 1-to-1 course counselling sessions and the Year 8s have started their planning for 2024. 

Seuss!

A huge congratulations to all the Middle Years students involved in the 2023 Koonung Musical “Seussical”. It was a fantastic show and a great display of the talent our students at Koonung possess. Whether it was on the stage, or behind the scenes, the students worked hard to put on an absolutely incredible show!

Well done to our on-stage stars - Isabella Triandafyllakos, Emily Nash, Victor Azubel, Gwen Mander, Zarah Buchanan, Payoja Basak, Steph Coleman, Izzy Johnstone and Millie Ferdowsian. And a further well done to our behind-the-scenes musicians and backstage crew – Zach Watkins, Skye Schaper, Hilary Dods, Kady McGrath, Xavier Cronin, Ash Jackson, Simon Cronin, Zoe Newbury, Michael Harding, Sabrina Hutchison, Odette Roberts, Daniel Goulding, Peter Liu, Alessio De Luise, Sophie Newbury, Lucas Yap, Poppy Taylor, Stella Nazarri, Weihan Chen, Brendan Gu, Ryan Teo, Kian Shafaie and Elsa Ji. Your contributions towards the Koonung culture are immeasurable!

100 days of Year 7

On 22 June the Year 7 students gathered together to celebrate a huge achievement – surviving 100 days of High School! Mr Kofoed and the Middle Years Team organised a range of activities for the students to celebrate and commemorate this achievement! Well done to all our Year 7s!

On the 22nd of June, the year 7s celebrated 100 days of High School. How? Well a week before, you had to choose one of the following: Dodgeball, Watch a movie, Soccer, Basketball and Board games.

My experience playing dodgeball was so fun!! We were split up into 3 teams. They would send one team up to the balcony to spectate, and the other two teams would play a round. When the time was up, one team would stay and the other team would swap, meaning the losing team would go to the balcony and the spectating team would verse the winning team. We did 3 rounds of dodgeball. It felt like it was the Olympics! After the 3 rounds, the teachers told us ‘have a great holiday!’ and gave us zooper doopers. I’m so grateful to go to a school like this. 

-Afra Eftekhar, 7B

Everybody enjoyed the movie (hopefully). I am really glad that this year’s Year 7s got to enjoys their hundredth day of high school and I hope Koonung continues to do this for our future year 7s.

-Daniel Goulding, 7B

IT Awareness

It has come to our attention that some Middle Years student students are using pre downloaded VPN or proxy bypass tools to access games & blocked sites during school hours. Using these tools during class time is in breach of the College’s Acceptable User Policy & furthermore creates classroom disruption impacting learning. These tools alter network settings which can then also create problems when accessing legitimate educational resources. 

The AUP states that use of these tools to bypass filters or access games is classed as a major breach.

Major breaches

5. Accessing blocked sites using VPNs, altering DNS settings to bypass the college proxy server, or accessing the internet by tethering to smart devices or internet dongles with the intent of bypassing the college monitoring systems and filters

The most common tool known to be in use is Psiphon.exe this can be searched for from within windows explorer and deleted. (Icon is a white P within a red circle) Another place that can be checked for VPN products is within Chrome browser Add-ons & Extensions. 

If students are using this software they should take this opportunity to remove it. Staff will be on the look-out and if found to be in use at school, consequences may be enacted.

Mat Delaney

Director of Learning: Middle School

mathew.delaney@education.vic.gov.au

Year 8 Roadie Incursion

The Middle Years Team organised for staff from Lord Somer’s Camp to come to Koonung and spent some time with our Year 8 students. The Year 8s spent their time bonding, and playing interactive games to build their connections to each other.

Student Experiences:

By Angus Brodie and Noah  J.D

Wednesday the 19th of July, the day all year eights got experience Lord Somers Camp, for me and many others it was a fun experience that we could share with our friends, it was made of many activities, and within the incursion we were brought together feeling like a well earned rest that we could share with our peers.

It was composed of many games that some of us may know, bringing back old memories and delivering a warm moment. 

The most notable being giants treasure, it was one the earlier games of our session and gave a great impression of the camp. 

The coordinators who held the games knew the ins and outs of their job, keeping everyone entertained and more than satisfied with the events from start to finish, even though the brief encounter bonds were formed between the kids and the coordinators.

Lord Somers Camp is a place of adventure and joy, incorporating teamwork and friendship to deliver a wonderful time, and overall left the impression of a journey for all.

Student Experiences:

By Oliver O’Leary

The Year 8 Roadie Incursion on the 19th of July brought to the year 8 cohort, from the kind staff at Lord Somers Camp, a thrilling event that built teamwork between the year 8 cohort. Throughout the two hours the incursion ran for, many icebreakers and small activities were present, my favourite being a Simon says like game where we had to get into groups of two and perform activities you would do on a beach, since Lord Somers Camp is located on a beach on the Mornington Peninsula. The game changed the word Simon to surfers and we responded to phrases such as, “Surfer’s switch!”, “Surfer’s yell for help!”, and everyone’s favourite “Surfer’s hula!”.

The incursion also had games like pirate’s treasure, circle games, and passing a ball around to everyone in a group, all with a twist of course. The event was certainly one of the best this year and from new friends, teamwork abilities, or just the lollipop at the end, everyone got something out of it. Finally, from everyone in the year 8 cohort we would also like to thank the amazing staff who worked non-stop to organise the whole event.

Kirby Sens 

Year 8 Coordinator | Art and Technology Teacher

VHAP at Koonung

At the beginning of Term 3 our Term 2 Victorian High Ability Students (VHAP) in the English stream welcomed the VHAP East Doncaster Secondary College students to Koonung SC for a day of language challenges and publishing.

It was a fun filled day in which the students produced a finished Anthology of student work and an article for the Newsletter.

Please enjoy the read.

Amy McLellan

Learning Specialist: High-ability Practice Leader 

Visual Arts/Technology Teacher

Middle Years Team