Middle Years Update
The AFL leads from the front in the promotion of inclusion, highlighted last weekend with The Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous round. At Koonung we embrace the principle of inclusion very seriously. The ceremony at the start of each game and the unique design of each club’s jumper showed respect for the Aboriginal culture and indirectly other cultures as well. As our children work their way through their education they will come in contact with a wide range of students and teachers, who come from a variety of different religions and cultures. What a wonderful opportunity they have to learn from these people and to try to add what they learn to their everyday style of life. Melbourne has become one of the multi-cultural hubs of the world. We have learnt about different foods, different cooking styles, music, dance styles and languages just to name a few.
School values such as Respect and Collaboration encourages us to work side by side with people from different cultures offering mutual respect. The Dreamtime stories from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ culture carry strong messages about caring for one another and the strong bonds of family and friendship. There are many powerful messages from the migrants who come to our country and refugees who seek shelter here. We trust that the values that we uphold at Koonung, will be passed onto people who come from outside our immediate friendship group. This might be another student who has been brought up in a completely different environment or someone who has had to struggle with health issues, discrimination or poverty.
Let’s take this as an opportunity to think about how we can make life a little bit easier for the people around us by showing respect for the differences they bring to our society.
Extra-Curricular Excellence - Louise Cridland
Congratulations to Louise Cridland of Year 7 who came 1st in Element and 5th in Technical Programs in an Ice skating competition over the weekend.
Louise’s parents met playing ice hockey in Brisbane so she was bound to get on the ice.
One summer it was hot and she was looking for an activity to keep cool, so Louise’s mum suggested she go to the ice rink. Louise said, “In Canada during the winter we would flood the basketball courts and people would skate around and it was so much fun.” In the beginning Louise said she would fall over all the time, “but we were taught to fall over so we could learn how to get back up, now I only have the occasional fall. I like skating because it is different and not a lot of people do it. My long term goal is to make the Australian Olympic team and The Disney on Ice Tours. The costumes have to be ordered online and I like the different designs, I try to get an outfit that matches the routine I am doing.”
Louise started skating 12 months ago at the O’Brien Ice House in the Docklands. She trains every Thursday for 1 hour and on a Saturday she is at the ice rink from 8am until 1pm.
We wish Louise all the best in her skating career.
Year 9 Career Program news
In Term 1, DET introduced a Career Program for all Year 9 students which is being rolled out across Victoria. The program includes a student career test and a 30 minute interview with a consultant to discuss the results of their career test.
Our Year 9 students have already completed their Career Tests.
Year 9 Career interviews will commence on Wednesday 29 May and will continue to the end of term 2. The Career Education Association of Victoria (CEAV), on behalf of the Department of Education and Training, will be conducting all interviews.
The CEAV will deliver the service during school hours and the school has been allocated certain days with the visiting consultants. Therefore, we are unable to change interview times.
Interview dates will be finalised by the end of May.
Once the dates are finalised students will be provided a letter outlining the details of their interview. Interview times will also appear on the students Compass schedule.
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT)
Koonung celebrated IDAHOBIT on the 17 May to spread awareness and acceptance of the LGBTQ community at our school. Koonung Equality Collective and the SRC collaborated to make a memorable day. We held a bake sale and sold badges and ribbons to raise funds for Minus 18, a community organisation which stands up for and supports LGBTQ youth. We raised almost $400 for this cause. The rest of the school were supportive and many students and teachers participated and wore colourful accessories to promote the ideals of equality, love and friendship. Equality Collective hopes that discrimination will be minimised on school grounds because of this celebration, and our school will be a more positive experience and a safer space for everyone. We would like to thank the SRC for joining us for this event and Mr Hodkinson for his support. And lastly, well done to our wonderful Thalia for her amazing badge designs!
Homework Club
A homework club is now available to students. It is held every Monday in the library from 3:30pm to 4:15pm.
Uniform reminders
- Blazers are to be worn to and from school
- Scarves must be plain black or navy
- Spray jackets are for PE and Sport Education classes
- Everyone must be wearing a tie
Allira Howe
Director of Learning: Middle Years
Live Life program - Reflections from students
Scope – See the person
On 1 May, a group of us went on an excursion to the O’Brien Icehouse in Docklands for Live Life. We were working with Scope, meeting people with a disability to give them an ice skating experience.
Most of us had never ice skated before so we were excited and also a bit nervous. We all had a little trouble getting started but then some of our guests started to arrive. We each got to skate while pushing someone in a wheelchair, which helped to steady us until we started to get the hang of it. It was amazing to see how happy the participants were and how much they enjoyed the experience. It was nice to know that we helped make them happy. One girl who sings when she is happy sang ‘Amazing Grace’ for us as we pushed her around the rink, and it felt good to know she was having a good time.
It was a great experience and we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.
Amelie Storrar-Carey 9F
Live Life has been an amazing experience so far. Two of my fellow Live Life captains, Ruby Clark and Samuel Yao, and I were in Live Life Module Self, one of the four different modules offered over the course of the year. Self was a great module that focused especially on organisational skills. In the first lesson of the term our Live Life class split up into small groups and looked for activities that we could do in the next lessons of the term. These activities had to be around $10 and relatively close to the school. Once we found a good activity to do, like Laser tag at Dark zone, we had to call up the venue to make a booking and map out how to get there and back using public transport. These requirements improved our organisational skills and taught us how to use and prepare public transport routes for the future. Some of the activities organised were the 1000 steps, bowling and bubble soccer. They were really fun and helped you get to know other people in your Live Life class. I’m sure everyone can’t wait to see what the rest of the year in Live Life will bring!
Amelie Sorrenson 9D
Nicole Moussi & Kate Hindell
Live Life Coordinators