It has been amazing to return to Koonung after a term of leave and the disruption of the last 2 years and see the College returning to a much closer semblance of normality. Sporting teams are going out, there are excursions galore, we held an Anzac day Assembly for years 7-10, Year level assemblies for each year level, a talent quest in the Theatre and we are quickly approaching opening night of the school play and two music concerts. Today, after a slightly damp start, we had a great day at the Athletics Carnival once again seamlessly run by Sam Prosenak.

Mother's Day Breakfast

On Friday 6 May we ran our first large scale event, the annual Mother’s Day breakfast, in the new building, A block. On behalf of all who attended I would like to thank the PFA for the work to coordinate and run such a large event. It was fantastic. It was so pleasing to see that the design of the space worked as we had envisioned. It is truly a multipurpose area which can easily be transformed to run large events and also function effectively as a classroom space.

A Block open

The Middle School team and classes moved into A block last Monday and have thoroughly enjoyed the light, airy and sparkly new space. Paul Hamer arrived on Monday morning to see our students in the new classrooms and also to announce that we will be receiving a grant to refurbish the breezeway toilets.

We are very excited by this announcement and have now received confirmation from the VSBA that we have been allocated $500,000! This will provide all of our students with access to modern, accessible and easily cleaned toilet facilities, we have waited a long time!

Parent/Student/Teacher interviews

This semester we have provided our parents with two opportunities to speak to teachers during parent teacher conferences. One full day event at the end of last term and a second half day session this term. Last year we added a second set after feedback about booking challenges for families, there was fairly mixed take up of this opportunity. This year we planned the second set from the start and were very happy with the number of families taking advantage of the opportunity to speak to teachers. Data collected by Darren Marsh indicates that we had 3108 interviews booked over the two days. There were interviews conducted for 667students. This was slightly down on 2021 with 707 students but the average number of bookings per student was higher. We are hopeful that we have now managed to get the balance right and that parents who are seeking interviews have been provided with the opportunity to speak to teachers. Unlike many schools around us our interview times are 10 minutes in length and this has created challenges with availability of sessions. However, feedback indicates that our families value the more detailed feedback that they receive with our current time allocation.

Koonung Alumni

Our Alumni program, led by Nancy Manders, is going from strength to strength and we have been welcoming back a number of past students to speak to specific year group and classes. If you know of any ex-students please ask them to contact the College so that they can be included in our Alumni list. Karen Riding and Carol Marcianti, our careers counsellors, are very excited by about the positive impact that members of the Alumni are able to have on our students as they share their experiences.

Staffing challenges

As a College we have always been very fortunate to be a school of choice not only for families but also for teachers. We too are starting to see the impact of the shortage of teachers available for short term contracts to replace staff on leave and also the availability of emergency teachers to replace staff who are absent on a day to day basis. The relaxing of the requirement to isolate for household contacts will hopefully help throughout this term, but we are concerned about the prospect of a heavy flu season on top of covid. Currently we are managing, but it can be challenging.

Sandra Greenhill

Acting Principal

Teaching and Learning Update

This year, for the first time, all schools Australia-wide are required to run Naplan Online; in addition it was Koonung’s first online exposure to Naplan testing. Much preparation has taken place behind the scenes, with Naplan Coordinator and whole staff training, so that our processes were as smooth as possible. In addition, two mandated practice sessions were held with our students beforehand, to give them valuable online Naplan experience, and to further enable us to identify any areas for improvement. As well, year level assemblies have been held, in conjunction with newsfeeds, to reinforce key messages to our Year 7 and 9 cohorts.

Last week saw the administration of the Reading, Writing and Language Conventions tests, with Numeracy to be held this Wednesday. Most of our students have risen to the challenge of bringing a fully-charged laptop and headphones to their sessions, and we have witnessed a marked improvement in the smooth functioning of these tests as the week progressed. From 2023, Naplan will be held earlier, in March, to better enable teachers to utilise data to inform their teaching strategies so that students are catered for at their appropriate level, a key educational goal at Koonung.

On the topic of assessment, Years 10 and 11 students will be attending their Semester 1 examinations in the final two weeks of this term. Their teachers will be providing revision activities in the week leading to these exams, and now is an appropriate time for students to start to organise their study notes for earlier topics in their subjects and begin to allocate time for regular revision.

Mary Eade

Assistant Principal- Teaching and Learning

Working bee thank you

We held our second working bee for 2022 on Sunday 15 May. Parents, students and staff moved a great deal of mulch to numerous garden beds throughout the College, weeded, cleaned classroom tables and whiteboards and gave the grounds a general tidy up. We would like to warmly thank the hard workers who attended, it's great to have the support of our community as we continue to improve our physical environment.

Stace Kerr

Business Manager

International Student Program

Celebrating Koonung!