Secondary School News

TERM 4 SECONDARY SCHOOL UPDATE

I would like to congratulate all students on an incredibly successful term 4 at Collingwood College. As the Assistant Principal, it gives me great pleasure to see students succeed in their education. I would like to congratulate all of our Year 12 students who completed their final year of secondary education and have received their results. Finishing your schooling career is difficult and they have done it in an amazing job with perseverance and stamina.

Our Year 10 and 11 students just completed their early commencement program at Wurun. It was an exciting time to see them get settled into their new space and meet their new classmates and teachers for 2023.

We had our Year 7 2023 orientation day this week with students. We had an excellent day with music, school tours, art activities and Main Lesson. We can’t wait for 2023 when these students are with us full time.

Thanks so all of our amazing teachers for their hard work this year in and out of the classroom supporting our students. It was great to have them support our students in the last week with Activities Week a particular highlight was The Amazing Race through the city.

I would really like to thank our parent volunteers and the student volunteers who worked tirelessly on the Swing into Spring event that was held in late November. It was an amazing event and great to share food and music together again. We can't wait for the 2023 Swing into Spring event - stay tuned!!

I would like to also congratulate Amber Seymour-Jones on her ADF Long Tan Leadership Award which she has been the successful recipient of. Amber's worked really hard this year in student leadership leading in Swing into Spring, the Green Team, Pride Club, State Schools Spectacular, School Production, Eurythmy Club, Rotary Interact and SRC. Congratulations, Amber!

I'd like to also acknowledge the great work that Rotary and have been doing to support Collingwood College. It's been great to see our students be involved in the Rotary Interact club for the first time this year, and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for 2023.

Wishing you all a safe holiday period.

See you in 2023!

Angela Watters

Secondary Assistant Principal

Year 9 & 10 Happenings :)

Year 10 have had a very busy end to the term and are congratulated on their amazing achievements! They had a successful exam period undertaking exams for all core subjects - English, Humanities/Main Lesson, Science and Maths. It was wonderful to see students develop their skills and confidence to independently think/write under test conditions. This was followed by a student-led assembly in our theatre where Academic Excellence and Achievement awards were presented. A highlight of the assembly was the viewing of the much anticipated video produced by talented student Laszlo Boetker-Smith - a thoughtful short film with reflections from our students about their experiences at Collingwood College.

I enjoyed attending the ‘Discovery’ day at Wurun with Year 10 students and watching them ‘step’ into their new learning environment and meet new peers and teachers.

ECP was next with students officially commencing their studies as senior students. Again, new subjects, new teachers, new pathways!

Camp at Phillip Island Adventure Resort came after that and we had perfect weather as we set off for the coast. This was a combined camp for Year 9 and 10 which provided an opportunity for students to get acquainted with other students across the 9/10 cohort; students were reminded that they would eventually form the Wurun cohort in 2024! We stopped off at Sanremo to eat lunch and see the pelicans being fed. The footy then came out quickly and set the scene for the rest of the camp! Our camp experience included archery, the giant swing, flying fox and the ropes course but a highlight was the afternoon swim in the pool and walk to Smiths beach. We filled our two nights with a ‘surf’ movie and trivia competition! Camp experiences create life-long memories and I would like to thank all Year 9 & 10 students for making this a memorable time for all.

Year 9 students also completed exams this semester - Math, English and, for the first time, science. Well done Year 9! These practice exams allowed students to establish some very good study/work habits moving into Year 10 in terms of time management, organisation and revision.

Year 9 students selected their preferred electives for next year to run alongside the core subjects. We are very excited to introduce a range of new elective offerings to engage and challenge students in preparation for moving into the senior secondary years such as Outdoor Education and four specialised Humanities electives.

A number of Year 9 students were successful in being accepted to study an enhancement subject at Wurun next year and started their studies alongside Year 10 students during ECP.

This term we hosted the Real Industry Job Interviews at our college and invited Year 9 students from Fitzroy High School to join us. These were conducted by 17 volunteers who performed ‘mock’ interviews with our students based on a job that students had applied for by submitting a resume and cover letter for the position. Students later received personalised feedback based on their interview performance.

It has been a wonderful experience to lead the Year 9 and 10 cohort this year with the support of coordinators, James Agombar and Hannah Young. I have seen our students mature throughout the year and show stand-out qualities such as kindness, resilience, humour and respect! I wish all Year 9 & 10 students and their families a safe and restful break, and the very best for next year!

Lori Michael

Year 9/10 Education and Programs Leader

Year 9 Steiner Orienteering

On Wednesday the 16th of November, both of the Collingwood College Year 9 steiner classes travelled to Westerfolds Park in Templestowe to compete and complete some orienteering! We all set out in groups of 2 or 3 to find markers scattered around the park as fast as possible, never knowing who was in the lead. It felt like The Hunger Games. Each group was given a whistle, compass, and map that led us to the location of the number marker. Every location had a unique stamp that we would put onto our sheet. 3 groups out of 7 managed to complete all 30 stamps. Kangaroos. mentally frankie and issy

The fastest competitors to complete this challenge were Luca Jansen, Owen Casey, and Aurelious Antony.

Thank you to Tom, Alex and Rachael who joined us on this excursion :)

Isabella, Frankie, Otto and Kami.

Year 9 Students

Year 9 Steiner Hiking Camp

On November 21st - 25th, Year 9 steiner students went to hike in Taunurung country, in the Victorian alps. There were two groups, the King Parrots and the Lyrebirds.

The King parrots hiked near the Howqua river, which involved some exciting creek crossings due to the recent rainfall. Most of the creeks would reach your knees but one in particular was waist deep and was very cold. One thing that was very memorable about this trip was that one of the students had a tumble, but is completely fine and recovered well. We ended up staying on the track longer than intended waiting for some medical assistance to arrive. The weather changed quickly from rainy and cold to sunny and quite warm but there were still cold nights.

Overall, we (Rhiannon and Lola) enjoyed this camp and are grateful for the very memorable experience we had.

Thank you to the camp leaders of King Parrots: Caleb and Katherine for being really supportive, encouraging and managing the incident so well.

The Lyrebirds were also near the Howqua river but later ventured higher, hiking difficult elevation, up to The Bluff. The Bluff had beautiful views and scenery, and was covered in snow. The snow was a significant highlight of the Lyrebirds’ camp. We made snowballs and had snowball fights, it definitely kept us entertained and motivated to keep hiking.

Despite what we thought would be particularly cold weather, the weather was beautiful. The hikes were challenging, especially as we went uphill and downhill for long periods of time. However, we all had a sense of achievement and are grateful for this incredible experience. Thank you to Tom and Sarah, our amazing camp leaders, who organised and made this possible.

By Kika, Rhiannon, and Lola.

Year 9 Students

Interact District Assembly Day

On the 5th of December, 4 students apart from Rotary Interact, Aish, Sari, Raf, and Mackenzie travelled to Camberwell Grammar to participate in an Interact District Assembly Day. The day started with all the students that were there getting raffle tickets for a little 'get to know each other' activity. You had to find someone who had a number that was opposite, so if you had an even number, you would have to get to know someone with an odd number. You introduced your name and three facts about yourself. Then you would go find 2 or more adults and introduce each other to the adult. During the day though, your name could be chosen off the role and you would have to introduce each other to the whole group. After doing this activity, we went on to talk about leadership. We talked about what a good leader is, and what a good leader does.

We used the Be, Know, Do model.

Be meaning; What sort of leader do you want to be?

Know meaning; What do you know?

Do meaning; What are you going to do?

After doing this, we broke up into our Interact clubs to talk about SWOT; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We came up with some good ideas. After doing this activity, we all grouped back together and talked about what we just did, and then we broke off again to talk about our ideas and goals for next year. At the end of the day, we all participated in a kahoot to revise what we learnt during the day. The winners won a box of lindt chocolates. The winners were two Camberwell Grammar students. It was a successful day and I would love to do it again next year as this is a good opportunity.

Kind Regards,

Mackenzie Arnold 8B