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KSC Indigenous student leaders deliver National Sorry Day speech 

Senior Indigenous students Koori Pickalla (left) and Nickiera Johnson (right) delivered an exceptional and timely keynote speech on National Sorry Day for the whole school community at Banksia.

Nickiera and Koori initiated and developed a solemn and precise presentation with support from Banksia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ meeting group, which is known as ATIG.  

The presentation footage was soon promoted to the college website (and transcript below).

https://intranet.keysboroughsc.vic.edu.au/video/2022Reconciliation/

Also, for the first time at Keysborough, the ‘acknowledgment of country’ was delivered by Indigenous students of the college.  

(Transcript of speech delivered by Nickiera Johnson and Koorianna Pickalla at Keysborough Secondary College on the 26th May 2022)

My name is Nickiera and I am a Wiradjuri and Gunditjmara person. I am joined by Koori and she is from Yuin and Gunai Kurnai. 

Firstly we would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land the Bunurong people, which is that land that we are all gathered on today. We would also like to pay our respects to all Elders past, present and emerging.

As some of you may know today Thursday 26th of May is National Sorry Day. In simple terms it is the day where descendants of colonists are reminded of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were severely mistreated. It is a day to also acknowledge the way that the first nation people were forcibly removed from their homes, separated from their families, and taken from the place they called home. 

It is not a day to celebrate, it is a day of reflection and acknowledgement. Australians need to know the story of what happened to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people need to be educated on how the First Nation people were mistreated and traumatised.  Young Indigenous people, people the same age of Students here, still feel the repercussions of that time and have developed generational trauma because of it. Today, children that identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander are still 10.6 times more likely to be removed from their homes and families, when compared to non-indigenous people.

We thank you for your time this morning, and we hope that you will think about and acknowledge what has happened on the very land we meet on today, and carry that with you for times to come.

National Reconciliation Week promotion at Banksia campus

Indigenous and allied students at Banksia campus have produced communal art with a message.

Participants of the Banksia students’ meeting group known as ATIG (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and allies meeting group) invited fellow students and staff to endorse the National Reconciliation Week message with hand prints in the colours of the Aboriginal Flag. 

ATIG hopes the completed work will be featured prominently in the school. 

Banksia ATIG students received support for the Reconciliation Day message 

FREE PARENT SEMINARS

The Butterfly Foundation are facilitating a couple of free parent seminars in Term 3. Please see below information and links to register. 

Let's Talk Body Image in Boys - Information for parents

This webinar explores the particular challenges facing pre-teen and adolescent boys and strategies for supporting body image in males.

DATE: Wednesday, 31 August 2022

TIME: 7 - 8.15pm AEST, via Zoom

FREE: Offered as part of Body Kind celebrations!

To book- Event Details (butterfly.org.au)

Let's Talk Body Confident Children and Teens

This webinar is designed to help parents support the development of positive body image and healthy behaviours in children of all ages and genders. 

DATE: Monday, 12 September 2022

TIME: 7 - 8.15pm AEST, via Zoom

FREE: Offered as part of Body Kind celebrations!

To book- Event Details (butterfly.org.au)

The Pronoun Lowdown

Recently, the Banksia campus of Keysborough Secondary College had the privilege of welcoming Nevo Zisin, a transgender educator, to our school. The Year 7s and 8s attended an engaging talk on gender identities in the school theatre. 

Nevo was able to find relevant examples about how much gender can affect our day to day lives, even questioning the validity of gender reveal parties! They were able to promote ideas about expressing yourself to all our Year 7 and 8 students in a way that was practical. They informed students that LGBTQIA+ identities are worth exploring, even when there might be a lack of knowledge surrounding these topics from peers. Nevo’s presentation prompted students to feel a sense of freedom about their own identities going forward in Junior and Senior School, and even into the future! 

Various students provided the teachers with incredible feedback on the presentation. One student commented that “it was wonderful…and now we have opportunities and ways to express our identity”. The students learnt so much from Nevo’s eye-opening experiences. The feedback that Nevo was “brave to talk in front of everyone” was accurate and also some students “learnt how to respect everyone” from the presentation.  The reviews from the students demonstrated how much of a need there is for all students to feel comfortable and safe in their own environments, especially around their friends. 

The Keysborough Junior School students also learnt how to be good allies to the LGBTQIA+ community, and many students agreed that being an ally is standing up for “what is right”. The teachers, too, found Nevo’s presentation to be very applicable to our current school climate, as all students deserve a right to be themselves inside and outside of the classroom. 

The exploration into discovering your identity in adolescent years was executed well by Nevo overall and many students and teachers not only benefitted from listening to them, but took away some incredibly important life lessons

Do you know what they’re vaping?

Many schools in Victoria, have seen a recent spike in young people vaping. 

Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, often called ‘vapes’, are electronic devices designed to deliver vapourised liquids into the lungs. There are many different styles of vapes and types of e-liquids, or e-juices, available. Vapes come in many shapes and sizes and can be made to look like everyday items including highlighters, pens, or USB memory sticks.

The biggest misunderstanding about vapes is that they are harmless compared to cigarettes. This is not true. Vapes are not safe.

Vaping facts 

• Many vapes contain nicotine making them very addictive. The nicotine in 1 vape can equal 50 cigarettes.
• Vapes can contain the same harmful chemicals found in cleaning products, nail polish remover, weed killer and bug spray. They just don’t put it on the pack.
• Vapes can leave young people at increased risk of depression and anxiety.
• Young people who vape are 3 times as likely to take up smoking cigarettes 
• Vape aerosol is not water vapour.
• Vaping has been linked to serious lung disease.
• Vapes can cause long-lasting negative effects on young people’s brain development.

Signs your child might be vaping

Tell-tale signs that your child might have started vaping include the symptoms of nicotine addiction such as feeling irritable or anxious. 

The laws around selling vapes 

Young people often purchase vapes online, from retail stores or from friends and contacts on social media. 

• It is illegal to sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18 years. 
• It is illegal to sell nicotine vapes to anyone unless they are prescribed by a doctor to someone over 18 years for smoking cessation purposes and obtained with a prescription from a pharmacy. 

1. There are a number of retailers who sell vapes to young people. For more information:

• visit the tobacco reforms website <www.health.vic.gov.au/tobaccoreforms>
• call the Tobacco Information Line on 1300 136 775

To view the legislation visit the Victorian Government’s legislation website <www.legislation.vic.gov.au> and search Tobacco Act 1987.

Talk to your child about vaping

Whether you suspect your child is vaping or not, take the time to talk to them about vaping and help them understand the risks. Try to start the conversation in a relaxed easy-going way, be patient, and remember your goal is to have a conversation, not deliver a lecture. Importantly, have your facts ready.

For more information 

Get the evidence and facts at:

• Drug and Alcohol Research Training Australia https://darta.net.au/vaping-parent-resources/
• Quit – E-Cigarettes and Young People E-cigarettes and young people: what you need to know (quit.org.au)

Theresa Sprekos – Health Promotion Nurse

And just like that, we're officially over halfway finished with our final year of schooling. It's crazy to think that in just a few short months we'll be walking across the graduation stage. This term (and semester) has gone by incredibly fast, with so many fun and exciting things happening. 

Something the year 12s can have to look forward to is our formal, which officially began planning earlier in the term. The passionate team have made exceptional progress, preparing for what is bound to be a fabulous night. The committee can’t wait for everyone to experience all the hard work we've put into making this night memorable. We hope this can be something for our peers to look forward to, especially after a stressful term where a lot of hard work has been put in by everyone.  

Another exciting occurrence was the return of Breakfast Club! The recommencement of this initiative has been enjoyed by all year levels, and we’d like to thank the Wellbeing team for all they've done in running it. 

In the first week of term, senior VCE students were fortunate enough to attend the Careers Expo at Caulfield racecourse. For year 11 students attending for the first time, the event was an opportunity to immerse themselves in their options following high school, whether that be going to university, taking a gap year or jumping straight into employment. For 12 students, it was a good way to consolidate any premade plans or see whether our minds had altered on our path after graduating. It was overall a beneficial experience for students, and I’m confident we all took away something from the day. 

One of the major highlights of the term was the school house activities day. After a two-year hiatus, the day returned in full glory, bringing together year levels in a fun-filled and spirited session. With music, games and lots of prizes, the day was lively for all involved and was a great success. A special shout out to the House captains for their hard work planning the day. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

To conclude, we would just like to take this opportunity now to let all our fellow Year 12s know that we’re almost there, and we can do it! No matter how stressful the next few months will be, it’s going to be worth it in the end, and we only hope that you all make the most of the final months of your schooling career. 

Jimmy Webster and Lydia Mccracken-Matthews

Acacia Campus Captains 2022

The Year 7’s have been learning about what body image means, what does media expectations mean, how does the media change images to sell things, how does the media demonstrate the “expectations” of how we should look, how much would they cost and take, and if this makes us happy.

For instance we watched a video on someone editing a model. That model was not ‘perfect’ until many adjustments overtime such as how they changed the models eyes to blue, how they made their neck more wider, and how they made the face much longer. This shows that no one has a ‘perfect’ body. Even models! To add on that, I’m sure many models must have been edited before getting put on a billboard or ad. 

Fashion has changed by a lot over decades. To elaborate on this, over these past few decades, clothes have gotten much more revealing. For example, In magazines from the 1800s-1900s do not have much words nor are the human beings real as they are mainly illustrations of a person with the latest fashion from the 1900s. 

Media has demonstrated many ‘expectations’ for society such as posting ‘perfect’ bodies on an advertisement or even putting a model on a billboard. Many have followed these expectations as well. These ‘expectations’ aren’t as easy to follow either. We learnt that it costs lots of time, money and effort to achieve the ‘ideal’ body people want.  We learnt that even if you’re reaching the expectations of media, most would say they’re still not happy. 

Overall, during these past few weeks of happy be me, we’ve learnt many things on how to accept ourselves for who we are. Some things the students (we) would like to learn about are:

• How to learn to accept ourselves regardless of other people pressuring us
• How to care less when other people are judging you for the way you look
• How to feel pride regardless of your sexuality 

Thank you to the Well Being team for organising this program over the past three weeks for us. 

By Vanessa Kov- Year 7 Captain

Library News

Here at Keysborough College libraries we are always looking for new and innovative ways to get our message out. (The message being: Reading is awesome!) Mrs Sansom, who resides at Banksia Junior Library has devised a….. BOOKSTAGRAM! (Like Instagram, but invented especially for books). 

Find Bookstagram on your student’s intranet page, under resources. 

Progress Reports are Changing – The 5Ps

We are very excited to inform you that the College progress reports will now include our ‘5Ps Student Learning Framework’ from Semester Two. The learning behaviours described by the 5Ps are closely linked to successful student outcomes. Not to be confused with the Semester reports, a 'Progress Report' refers to the brief learning snapshots that are published on Compass every 6 weeks currently indicating a student’s academic performance, effort and behaviour. The new format of progress reports will include feedback on student ‘Year 7-10 curriculum achievement’ OR ‘VCE/VCAL achievement level’, as well as an indicator for your progress in each of the 5Ps. The ‘effort’ and ‘behaviour’ feedback that was previously included will be incorporated into feedback on students’ Persistence, Proactivity, Productivity, Presence and Preparedness. Students and parents/guardians are encouraged to discuss their results in upcoming progress reports, identifying areas of how the students can improve their adherence to the 5Ps learning behaviours. As an inclusive learning community we highly value the opinions and feedback from our student's families and invite you to complete our survey about the new reporting process and the introduction of the 5Ps by clicking on this link.

Performing Arts

The students have been working hard to prepare for the upcoming Wakakirri Dance Festival. Students have been meeting and rehearsing every Monday after school since term one, in preparation for our upcoming performance at the Frankston Arts Centre on Tuesday 23rd August. We can’t wait to share what we have been working on, and appreciate all the support from staff, students and parents in the meantime.