Senior School Report

SENIOR SCHOOL UPDATE

All Schools Leadership Program

On Friday of last week (May 4th) I had the pleasure of attending the Presentation Evening of the All Schools Leadership Program, in which Adam Gason (Year 10) was a participant.

This program, offered by the City of Monash, ran from Monday 30th April – Friday 4th May, and involved students from a number of different Secondary schools in the Monash Area. The aim of this program was to develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence in different areas of Leadership.

I was impressed by the students’ presentation. The participating students shared with us, the audience, some of their experiences from the week and highlighted some of the topics covered. It was great to see all the students dancing on stage together as they demonstrated the importance of the “first follower”. I would like to congratulate Adam on his valuable contributions to the week. The facilitator, Karen, said of Adam, “he really brought a lot of life and insight to the program, despite not knowing anyone else there on the first day”. I would also like to thank Monash Youth Services for making such a valuable program available to Year 10 students.

Australian Scout Medallion

Congratulations to Gabby Giulieri (Year 10) who has recently achieved her Australian Scout Medallion.

The following citation was forwarded to the College on behalf of the 1st Rowville Scout Troop:

I am writing to you to tell you about Gabby Giulieri currently Year 10 at Wheelers Hill SC, who has achieved her Australian Scout Medallion at 1st Rowville Scout Troop. This is the highest badge awarded at Scout Level by Scouts Australia. She received her Medallion at a ceremony on Saturday 5th May from Brendan Watson OAM who is Chief Commissioner of Victoria for scouts.

To achieve this award, Gabby had to work for over a year fulfilling several key badges which were Citizenship, Campcraft and an elective badge. Scouts at this level are expected to be self-motivating and are able to work independently, reporting to the adult leaders when necessary.

Some highlights for Gabby were:

Planning, preparing and implementing a 3 day hike in the Brisbane Ranges with a group of 5 scouts, independent of adults. Gabby had to consider accommodation, food, transport, navigation, equipment, booking with Parks Victoria and lodging the appropriate Risk Management forms.
Over Easter in 2017 Gabby was the Patrol Leader at a competition camp (Stradbroke Cup) where the scouts camped for 4 nights independent of adult leaders with a patrol of 4 other scouts. Gabby led the patrol in designing menus, equipment, transport, activities, shopping and packing the trailer. At the camp, the patrol, with Gabby in the lead, was responsible for setting up the campsite, cooking, welfare of the patrol and packing up at the end.
1st Rowville Scout Troop runs a Youth Led, Adult Supported troop. This means that the scouts nominate, plan and run the troop with the Youth Leaders (Patrol Leaders) doing most of the work. The adults support the scouts so that they achieve their goals. This includes running their own governing body, Troop Council. This council makes decisions affecting the troop including programing, scout achievements, leadership and discipline. During Gabby’s time on Troop Council, she represented her patrol, developed leadership skills, making some very difficult, mature decisions that effected the troop.

Gabby also participated in a Leadership course and in a 10-day camp in Sydney with 10,000 other scouts from around Australia. (Jamboree) She has camped over 70 nights during her scout career and hiked over 250kms.

She now moves on to Venturers where she hopes to achieve her Queen Scout Award.

The 1st Rowville Scout Troop and the leaders of the group are very proud of Gabby and her achievements over the last 4 years.

Regards,

Alex Watson

ASL (LIC) 1st Rowville Scouts

YEAR 10 “WIRED” Performance

On Friday 27th April, Year 10 students attended a performance of “Wired” by Brainstorm Productions. The performance highlighted the causes and effects of stress and depression associated with exams, relationships and everyday life. These issues are relevant for teenagers in 2018.

Our students were very engaged in the presentation and the feedback from them was very positive. They felt that they could relate to many of the situations being highlighted by the actors.

Mrs J. Riddoch

Senior School Leader