PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Term 2 comes to an end this week and a well deserved break is ahead. I hope staff, students and parents can enjoy the much needed rest and down time.

I applaud everyone’s effort for getting through some challenging weeks.

What I appreciate the most is the collective efforts of everyone. The parents who emailed, sent letters, cards and put on a morning tea in appreciation of staff going above and beyond to keep students engaged with their learning and focused on their growth and improvement. Adversity will no doubt come again but it’s the way we stick together that is most impressive. Thank you for your encouragement and support.

CARE DOGS

Our care dogs Kai, Chilli and their friend Minka have made numerous visits and the joy in the students is truly palpable. They have indeed brought joy and you can see anxiety being alleviated just by their presence. It’s a wonderful initiative and I thank the parents who have paid the ‘non compulsory’ component of their subject contributions. These payments make our numbers above and beyond normal initiatives possible and create wonderful memories for everyone.

GYMNASIUM

This school funded project is coming to an end.

We hope to be using our new gymnasium by August – as long as the wet weather subsides.

We have experienced a few delays because the soil is so water logged and difficult for machinery. It is indeed a wonderful building and will be a much valued asset for the community.

PARENT EVENING – SEX EDUCATION AUSTRALIA

Raising kind, compassionate and respectful young people is a parent’s constant endeavour.

I hope parents’ found the latest event (Wednesday evening) informative and resourceful. I know that there were some technical difficulties for some parents. We will look to run another session next term.

These events are so accessible from your own home and although we miss the “in person” connection it’s important to avail everyone of the opportunity to access guest speakers with important learning.

Respect needs to be fundamental for happy and healthy relationships to grow.

I thank Patty Etcell for organising another very successful parent event.

END OF TERM

Congratulations to all staff and students on a terrific term. Much time and effort has been undertaken to ensure the best learning and I thank the entire community for their combined efforts.

I wish everyone a well-earned break and I look forward to everyone’s safe return. 

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OXFORD SCHOLASTICA ACADEMY

McKinnon Secondary College is delighted to announce it has become one of the first schools to become an Oxford Scholastica Partner School. Ms D'Ambrosio has arranged for the school to join a select number of schools around the world.

Oxford Scholastica's mission is to inspire students to discover, explore and prepare for their futures at an earlier stage, giving them the edge to enable them to succeed, have purpose and make a difference, and they partner with leading schools that share those values.

As an Oxford Scholastica Partner School, McKinnon Secondary College students get priority access to Oxford Scholastica's popular online:

● Courses - offering a taste of university learning, stretching students beyond the curriculum and giving them the edge with their university applications;

● Internships - work experience with real organisations;

● Conferences - giving real-life insight into careers and courses such as Medicine, Business, Engineering etc.

McKinnon Secondary College's commitment to academic excellence makes this partnership an excellent fit, and Oxford Scholastica looks forward to welcoming McKinnon Secondary College students.

McKinnon Secondary College students are entitled to a 15% discount on Oxford Scholastica's online programmes with the code

15-MCKINNONSECONDARYCOLLEGE - please note, this is just for McKinnon Secondary College students. There are also some bursaries available for students who meet certain criteria - please contact Ms D'Ambrosio for more information.

You can read more about the opportunities on offer on the Oxford Scholastica website at www.oxfordscholastica.com, or speak with Ms D'Ambrosio.

OXFORD SCHOLASTICA’S ONLINE LEGAL INTERNSHIP

This year during the Term 1 holidays I participated in Oxford Scholastica’s online law internship. This was a four-week internship with a professional legal researcher at Oxford University and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Whilst it did involve staying awake until 2 am every Saturday night for four weeks, the experience was amazing nonetheless. 

Our first session involved a discussion about how legal research is done especially by PhD students and the new area of law that our research focused on ‘The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the law’. During this session, our amazing mentor, Fernanda, gave us a few general topics we could research.

For the next week we researched two of these topics. I focused on ‘Freedom of movement and Judicial Review in Covid’. Finding fascinating papers on freedom of movement and judicial review, I was joined with people from France, Germany and Saudi Arabia to complete our research paper.

In the second session we decided on our final topic of ‘How does the coronavirus pandemic undermine different freedoms and affect today’s democracy?’

By the third session we had already had five meetings outside the internship, and while one of our members was uncontactable until the final week, we managed to cover her portion of the paper which just made it more interesting.

In our fourth session we presented a ‘conference style’ presentation to the entire cohort about our topic. This was one of the best parts of the internship for me. I really enjoyed presenting all my findings to the group, and the questions posed by our mentor, Fernanda, were extremely insightful, leading us to critically think about our work, leading to an improved research paper. 

After the fourth session, our research paper was still not finished, this led to a week of collating all our work through ad hoc meetings during the European afternoons around 2am in Australia. Finally, submitting our research paper was an extremely rewarding experience, especially after all the long nights spent researching, writing, and referencing.

At the end of the internship, one person is chosen to receive a letter of recommendation, which is priceless for applications to university, especially those prestigious universities in the UK. 

A few weeks ago I received such a letter of recommendation and I was absolutely elated. Doing such an internship with Oxford Scholastica was one of the best decisions I have made, and the cost of a few sleepless nights is definitely worth the advantage and experience it has given me.

Millie Dodos

Year 12 Legal Studies student