Senior School 

Senior School Update 

Year 12 Focus Day  

We had a jam-packed day of inspirational sessions from a variety of guests for our Year 12 Focus Day on Thursday 2 February this year. Speakers from Elevate, Headspace and Edrolo offered strategies for study skills and stress management as well as tips and tricks for using educational platforms. Students were also offered mindfulness tips in learning origami from Ms Jepson and self-defense from tai chi master, Lucky. The massive pizza lunch lasted all of ten minutes as students and their teachers enjoyed some down time on the VCE lawn. We hope the students remember the strategies they learnt during this day and can call on them in times of pressure throughout this year.  

A massive thank you to teachers who volunteered their time, energy and dedication on the day: Judy Anderson, Holly Jepson, David Teakle, our Mental Health Practitioner, Fosia Mohammed, and our Careers Educator, Voula Jakubicki, who began the day with the students’ Career Action Plans. 

Elevate has left us with a free Student Activity Pack. Just click on this link to access it. In addition, they are offering parents from Wheelers Hill Secondary College their free parent webinar series, which are held fortnightly on Wednesday evenings. Parents and guardians can go to https://get.elevatecoaching.info/au/register to register.  

Units 3 and 4 SAC Calendar 

This year, we are publishing a SAC Calendar to parents, carers and students undertaking a Unit 3/4 subject. This is being finalised and will released ASAP. Please be advised there will be after-school SACs this year that will run from 3.20pm – 4.40pm (TBA) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and occasionally Mondays for subjects that have multiple classes. It is vital students don’t schedule work commitments, driving lessons and the like during these times. We are giving a semester’s notice so students can organise themselves accordingly. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the College.  

Motivational Monday 

 We launched our weekly informal support session for VCE students last week, with many students and teachers involved. Our senior students were able to grab a free toastie, Milo and collaborate with their friends and peers to improve their understanding of what had been covered in the first week’s classes. Students are also able to access informal support from any of their teachers who pop into the Senior Centre from 3.15pm – 4.15pm each Monday. Please keep an eye out for Compass posts from Ben Shepherd alerting you to our Motivational Monday sessions

 each week.

 Year 11s are invited into Senior Centre 

This year, we’re welcoming our Year 11 students into the Senior Centre to help us build a collaborative learning culture within our senior student cohort. They are invited to undertake self-directed learning, peer learning, quiet study, discussion groups and access the kitchen facilities. We have so far been very impressed with the integration of this initiative and look forward to seeing the connections build and strengthen throughout the year.  

Year 10 Camp 

As I write this, we have just returned from a highly successful surfing camp at Waratah Bay. All Year 10s are to be commended on their impeccable behaviour and their willingness to go outside their comfort zones and take safe risks. We will have a larger article in the next edition of this newsletter, but for now, we wanted to congratulate the students on a wonderful camp and to draw attention to the huge amount of work that Nick Molan and Sharon Sharpe invested in making this camp so enjoyable. In addition, we are grateful for the generous time and energy given by Donia Yao, Peter Stone, Wendy Ning, Max Ellis, David Gill and Mikayla Ellis.  

Felicity Graham-Prowse 

Acting Senior School Leader