Middle Years  News

Welcome back to Term 2!

A warm welcome back to students and parents for Term 2. At Koonung, we have started Term 2 off with a bang and dived right into the daily routines of the school. The Year 7s are now confidently navigating the school and Koonung life, the RAISE mentoring has commenced, with selected Year 8 students participating and the Year 9s have all started and are engaging in their new Live Life modules. We also have 6 of our Year 9 students currently away at Dinner Plain, taking part in the School for Student Leadership program (more on that later).

Raise is a mentoring program that provides Year 8 students with the opportunity to be paired with a mentor and discuss ideas - big, small, personal or worldly. On Tuesday 9 May, fifteen lucky Year 8 students met with the Raise mentors for the first time. They participated in their first session affectionately known as "Jitters". They played some icebreaker games and enjoyed morning tea together. Students will be paired with their mentors and the program will be underway. The Middle Years Team would like to say a big well done to these fifteen Year 8s who were brave and bold enough to give something new a try. 

Link to Raise clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Bz3nVCx7o 

School for Student Leadership

This term, Koonung has been fortunate to have been offered a place at the School for Student Leadership (formerly the Alpine School). Six Year 9 students – Matt Kealy, Harry Veal, Justin Bao, Tiana North, Inara Leeuwenburgh and Poppy Taylor – have moved into the dorms on their campus at Dinner Plain on April 30, and will live onsite for the remainder of term. The School for Student Leadership focuses on developing student leadership skills, and encourages students to go beyond their comfort zones and to challenge themselves. All students have reported back that they are having a fantastic time learning new skills and new things about themselves they didn’t know. The students have sent an article which is included in this newsletter. We look forward to seeing these students back at Koonung in Term 3.

Mat Delaney

Director of Learning: Middle School

mathew.delaney@education.vic.gov.au

Using Momentum to Challenge yourself 

Each term the Year 8 cohort have been faced with two kick start challenges. In first term the challenge was to find a new friend and find out an interesting fact about them to build some connection across new classes. The second challenge was to set an obstacle to overcome. For some students it was to improve the grade on their math test, getting up for school a bit earlier or collecting more green merit points displaying our school values.  

The aim of the challenge is for us to build some momentum for us to get a bit closer to achieving our goals. Our school Motto is Excellence through Endeavour. Endeavour means to try hard to achieve something. Our school values are there for you to achieve the best for yourself, not just today but throughout your entire life. 

Challenges and hard situations are necessary, they require us to overcome obstacles and grow as individuals. They help us to improve and be the best versions of ourselves, better than we were yesterday so that we can face new challenges tomorrow. To be proud of who we are, win that day and put our name on that day. 

By giving yourself a challenge you can create momentum – movement in that area of your life. The more often we do things no matter how big or small, the closer we are moving toward our goals.  

You can build a strong work ethic by using momentum and by setting smaller targets for yourself. This could include studying every night for a set time, even when you have completed your homework. Perhaps it could be rereading notes from class, explaining a concept to your parent / carer or a friend or sibling. It could be reflecting on your actions for the day or thinking about positive behaviour you have seen at school around you, from your peers or teachers. It could be reading a book or improving a skill that is not related to school, to build knowledge in a range of different areas.  

We encourage you to use smaller tasks and habits to build momentum in your life to get you closer to achieving your goals. Momentum is valuable for work ethic because it means everyday we are moving toward something we want to achieve, no matter how big or small that movement is – it is moving forward!  

I would like to commend all of the courageous students who have shared the obstacle that they set themselves for term 2 and hope to hear this continue. Well done for achieving excellence through endeavour! 

Here is a drawing by Andrew Louey from 8H. Andrew has been practising his drawing skills of Sonic the Hedgehog in the Library. Andrew draws freehand and from memory and shows great attention to detail. We want to commend Andrew for his creativity and skill! We hope to continue to see creativity over the remainder of the term from our year 8 students! 

Kirby Sens 

Year 8 Coordinator | Art and Technology Teacher

Middle Years Team