Student Voice

A message from the Student Leadership Committee

On Thursday, 27th October the SLC held a Sport Day, where students came to school in sports themed clothing and gave donations to State Schools' Relief.

State Schools' Relief is a not-for-profit organisation that works with schools to give assistance to families who are experiencing financial disadvantage.

We organised lots of different activities for the day. At recess we had a State School Spectacular Workshop, which was run by Ms Gourlay and the dancers who were part of this year's Spectacular. We decided this would be a great thing to do because the school is invested in the event as it was a huge success this year, and because it is such a physical and active thing to do.

I spoke to some of the performers from this year, to see what they thought of being part of the troupe and they said that it was "fun", "highly recommended" and they "loved it".

At lunch time we had fun games in B12. There were a variety of games for students to play, such as Chess, Jenga and Connect 4. The students who came along all looked like they had a great time. Unfortunately, the planned dodge ball game had to be postponed.

Thank you to all of the students who donated to such a good cause and we hope you had fun on Sport Day.

Lauren Cudmore - 8.1

Student Leadership Committee

Student Focus Group 

On Friday, 21st October, our Principal, Mr Smith, conducted a Focus Group with 10 students from years 7-11 to get their feedback on the proposed motto ‘We Grow Through Connection’. The cohort agreed that the motto was great, with Indiana from Year 8 commenting that it "reflected well on the school". Blake from Year 7 further stated that the students “all had a good conversation with the Principal”.  

The focus group also had a discussion about the possibility of changing the house names to indigenous names. Blake Faliszewski from Year 8 remarked that "everyone thought this was a good idea". This was an initial discussion and no decision has been made.

We would like to thank all of the students who took part in the focus group for their time and input.

Evergreen Retirement Village Initiative

For the past couple of weeks, our Year 11 Personal Development Skills students have been visiting the Evergreen Retirement Village, to create intergenerational connections with the residents as part of their Unit 2 Outcomes. This is a particularly important program after the isolation during Covid, and is occurring over a three week period.

The students and residents spent the first week getting to know each other by asking open-ended questions,  with both residents and students having some excellent conversations.  This week, during their second visit, they spent the afternoon chatting and playing a variety of board games. Darcy from 11.5 said that the visits "have definitely been worthwhile" and have given him "confidence to speak to strangers."

The benefits of connecting the different generations has been tremendous for both parties, and the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. We look forward to developing and expanding our Intergenerational program for 2023. 

The Pakenham Secondary College program has featured recently in the local paper, appearing on the 14th October (available online here), and another article "Bridging Generational Gap" featuring the students and residents, was also front page in the Star News last week.

Well done to all of the students involved in this exciting new program.

Re-establishing  Native Habitat - Lily Pond Project

Pakenham Secondary College have recently received a 2022 Victorian Junior Landcare and Biodiversity Grant, and have partnered not only with the Western Port Landcare Group, but also the Shire of Cardinia, to clean up the weeds along the 'Henty Road Wetland Lily Pond' area of the school. This is an important program to re-establish a local indigenous native habitat that will increase the bio-diversity of the school grounds.

We have removed the invasive weed species with the financial support of Cardinia Shire and South East Water, which will enable us to set out 1,400 plants in total.

On the 10th October, 150 plants were planted in the area by Year 11 VCAL and the PACT Students, in conjunction with Landcare.  The students were all enthusiastic to take part in the project, with the PACT students making the following comments:

Decklan: "I learnt a lot. The men showed me how to take out the seedlings carefully and plant the grasses."

Katison: "It was fun to get out of the classroom and not do the usual learning stuff."

Michael: "Mulching is better than Maths!"

Maeve: "I'm glad I did mulching instead of Maths."

James: "It was hard work but it was good to be part of it."

The students worked hard and did a fantastic job, as the area looks amazing already. 

The remaining 1,250 plants will be set out in April next year, as an Autumn planting.

Best Wishes to Our Year 12 Students

We would like to congratulate Our Class of 2022! We are very proud of their efforts and achievements and would like to thank the students for the wonderful contribution that they have made to Pakenham Secondary College over an extended period of time. 

We wish them all the very best for the future.

PSC School Clubs

All students are welcome to attend any of the School Clubs. If you have any questions, please contact the appropriate Coordinator.