Secondary Update

Junior and Senior Secondary students have transitioned back to school super smoothly and it has been so lovely to see both teachers and students happily slotting straight back into familiar routines.

Term 3 began with a focus on the NAIDOC week theme, For Our Elders, celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders' knowledge and perspectives. In English, our text focus of Back on Country by Adam Goodes and Ellie Laing features beautiful illustrations by Barkindji man David Hardy. Students particularly enjoyed our phonics focus on the consonant digraph ng, and exploring vocab from Yura ngarwala, the language of Adnyamathanha and Narungga man and community leader, Adam Goodes.

Some of our students have been taking part in a 5 week STEM program at Geelong Tech called VR World. Utilising state-of-the-art facilities and resources, students have been exploring virtual reality technology, its real world applications and how we can work within the constraints of a design brief.

As part of their ASDAN program, the Year 12's visited Soft Cafe recently and thoroughly enjoyed ordering food and drink from the menu and paying at the register. This local excursion supported students to build and develop their communication, make connections with the local community, learn new skills to support their transition beyond school, and scaffold students to meet their ASDAN outcomes. 

The Green Team have done a fantastic job of promoting and educating their peers about Plastic Free July and how we can be part of the solution to plastic pollution. Each secondary class monitored and recorded their plastic consumption which sparked lots of great conversation and ideas around how we can reduce our plastic waste, at school, home and in our wider community. Even just bringing sandwiches in reusable containers instead of plastic bags or wrap reduced class waste by more than half! Small steps, big difference.

A big thank you to Jessie F and Jacqui for organising and running the Monty's Cafe Soup Kitchen. Just the thing to warm up. Secondary students loved being able to choose their favourite flavour, collect their order independently and with a bonus cup of fresh juice - yummo!

This week students are taking part in The Echo Cup Basketball Tournament and Futsal Specialist School Champs. It's ace to see sporting opportunities opening up again that offer greater choice, access and participation for all and we are so proud of our students' continued resilience, determination, tenacity and willingness to just have a go. We wish them luck - go Hamlyn Views!

Lia Van Arkadie

Secondary PLC Leader