Co-curriculars @ Plenty Campus

Co(VID) Curricular Activities

By Frank Bevacqua and James Li, Plenty Campus, Year 11

As a community, the students of Ivanhoe have continually adapted and faced each challenge that has arisen - whether it be Internet issues, missed lessons, fatigue, the new timetable, missing your friends or mountains (seemingly) of homework. Each week, or day, will have its ups and its downs – for us, a huge ‘up’ has been the continuation of co-curricular activities.

What is a co-curricular activity? Simply, an activity that is not part of the normal curriculum – an ensemble, a sports team (that is not compulsory), debating, cadets, mentoring… we think you get the drift. Here at Ivanhoe we have tonnes of voluntary co-curricular activities to choose from! We certainly didn’t think it possible to be doing these activities via a ‘Teams’ call but our teachers have made these activities not only possible, but engaging.

A commitment of ours is to the Plenty music department. Music lessons have changed. It certainly can be a drag waking up 40 minutes earlier to make it on time to a 7:40 lesson with Ms Richardson (clarinet teacher) and be engaged – we can all agree 40 extra minutes of sleep does sound appealing. But somehow Ms Richardson, and all teachers, are there on time, with a smile and committed to making our music lives that much more enjoyable and engaging online. “How do these lessons run?” you ask. Well for musical activities (choir, orchestra, ensembles - etc) there is a lot of stopping, listening, and repeating – we continually laugh and have fun along the way. When someone plays a wrong note, someone cracks a joke – those are the moments that help us forget we are in isolation – it’s almost like being back at school. 

Cadets is the most popular co-curricular activity during isolation (purely based on numbers) and who would’ve thought that our cadet ‘teachers’ would be able to maintain an activity online that includes more than 500 kids!? With the annual promotions course meant to be starting around this time we are back on the grind of refining our cadet knowledge, proving our leadership capabilities, developing as individuals, making new cross campus friendships - in syndicates - and participating in group calls. It is a privilege to go to a school that offers a cadet ‘program’ and we are even luckier that it can continue online – we know all students who participate in cadets are thankful to the staff involved and grateful that the program is continuing online.

Let us look at debating now.  You must wonder how debating is continuing now that the inter-school debating season has been put on hold. Well, debating is still alive, and the debaters are continuing to refine and advance their skills at picking apart their opponents’ arguments and advancing their own. “How are they doing this in isolation?” we hear you asking. Well continuing during cadet time our individual debating teams are still alive and debating each other in an internal debating competition! There is also a little extra added competitiveness, with the incentive of winning bragging rights over your friends and peers! For those Year 10s and above (at Plenty) interested in getting involved get into contact with Ms O’Keefe.

A highlight of the week is mentoring 3 awesome Year 7s (shout out to Vaughan, Josh, and Fin) in the peer mentoring program at Plenty. The program provides an opportunity for Year 11 mentors to talk with their Year 7 buddies online every Friday. This is an energising opportunity to see fresh faces and just talking and, hopefully, helping someone! Mentor sessions are a pivotal time in the week that give us a chance to breathe and chill – always a highlight.  Similar to the peer mentoring program is the academic tutoring program that provides the same rewarding opportunity to support and help a younger student. This is very rewarding, so if you ever get the opportunity either formally or informally, we encourage you to jump at the chance.  It makes a massive difference in the middle years!

Now I am sure you have all also heard about ‘@sportivanhoe’ and the page’s newfound stardom – extracurricular sport is also surviving in isolation and… adapting! The School community is connecting by posting short clips of sport trick shots to both unite the School and unite the broader school community in the AGSV by challenging them to do the same. For all of you that have Tik Tok… yes just admit it – we all know YOU have Tik Tok - please watch and like all the videos! Who knows, maybe one of your friends is in one of them!

To conclude, co-curricular activities around the School live on during Covid-19… they are just reimagined!! We encourage everyone to get involved in any aspect that you can, whether it be during the last two periods of your Tuesday – learning to juggle, joining debating or showing your skills in a musical ensemble… even if you only want to play the triangle!! Even give choir a go, believe me – you are a better singer than us! Co-curricular activities are a rich and rewarding part of school life and remember, you only get out of them what you put in!

Big Brother, Big Sister, Big Difference

By Charlotte Cattell, Plenty Campus, Year 11

Over the last 10 years at Plenty campus the program ‘Big brother, Big sister' has been run. This is an awesome program which consists of Year 11’s providing mentorship for the Year 7’s coming into the School and has been a key part in the forming of community over the School, and the student relationships across year levels.

Looking back onto Year 7 myself, I don’t know if I would be the person I am today without it, which although cheesy, very true. The Year 11’s were the ‘older kids’ who would do anything out of their way to help me, as new student, without friends, though I hate to admit it. They helped me to find people that I liked and find a place in my year level which now feels like a family to me, considering they were once a bunch of strangers.

This year, the School made the decision to slightly alter the program I experienced in Year 7, and make it more personal, having 1-3 Year 7 students per year 11 student rather than a few Year 11’s for each different class. This has allowed the Year 11’s a greater opportunity to get involved with the younger students, along with it being more beneficial for the Year 7’s coming into high school.

When at school, the program would be run on Wednesday's wellbeing after recess for 10-15 minutes just to have a catch up. This consists of the Year 11’s discussing and finding relation with what the Year 7’s are experiencing and going through in that current week. This may be things like preparations for camp, or simply their first week doing homework.

Over our at home learning, the program has been slightly different. However, has been a really good program to continue in efforts to further develop our inter-school relationships and communities. Now the programs run on Friday mornings during wellbeing time.

I know personally, on the Friday mornings I get to see my 3 Year 7’s, it’s something I genuinely look forward to. It is a highlight of my week! Last week my Year 7’s were just talking to me about what they’ve been doing over isolation to keep themselves occupied. It was very entertaining seeing their positivity and creative ideas of entertainment they’ve found, whether it’s doing group Minecraft and Fortnite games, to learning how to unicycle. The connection this program has provided over isolation to both me and my Year 7 pals has been revitalising and has certainly kept me smiling and looking forward to a bit of an earlier wake up on Friday mornings.

Matilda, one of my Year 7 buddies said that she likes talking to me because I’m ‘cool’ which definitely put a smile on my face, and although I don’t view myself as the coolest out there, I'm glad I can be a positive influence and an older student she can look up to. She also told me that its nice having someone older to come to for advice, because as much as they may not believe it, we all go through similar things and I can offer her some wise words, as can all of us Year 11’s about some of the hardships they’re facing, whether is the new idea of homework, to struggles with friendship groups, to preparing them for their Year 7 camp.

Overall the Year 7 mentor program is an amazing experience run at Plenty Campus which has made the school yard more of a community and allows us to connect on a larger scale.