Community Service

Year 7 Parents Morning Tea

We were delighted to meet with about 20 Year 7 parents at a morning tea held on Tues 3rd September.

The purpose was to reflect on the Year 7 year so far and provide feedback to the school on how the girls were travelling at this stage of their first year at Secondary school.

Two Year 7 leaders: Sabelle Luong - Sports Leader and Naychi Soemoe - Community Service Leader, provided their version of how the year had gone. They talked about homework, their daily routine, the various activities they had participated in and also their changing friendship groups.  Parents were able to question them on some of these comments and explore some other issues such as computer use and practices. They felt their daughters were now more confident and independent in Year 7 compared to Grade 6.  

They discussed computer issues with Amy Nguyen from IT talking about school policy and operations of the apple macs.  Parents were interested in the possible uniform changes that have been discussed in term 3 and are waiting the outcome of these discussions. One other issue was how to keep up with the number of activities that were available each week.  Parents were reminded about the student learning conversations scheduled for 12th Sep and encouraged to attend with their daughters. Parents who had attended the Susan McLean Cybersafety session were keen for her to be invited to speak to the Year 7 students. This will occur in Term 4.

At the conclusion of our discussions Parents enjoyed visiting the Year 7 classes to observe their daughters working through their scheduled lessons.

Michel Kennedy, Year 7 Student Development Leader

Roger van Langenberg, Family Learning Centre

Killester Homelessness Sleepout

On the 29th of August, approximately 25 senior students gathered in the hall to raise awareness for homelessness. Upon arriving we set up chairs and tables and continued to play various ice breaker games. We then got partners from different year levels and discussed a variety of topics ranging from, what would you do with a magic wand that could do anything? to What are some methods the government could use to improve homelessness? We then read aloud some statements about homelessness and choosing whether we agreed, disagreed, or were neutral, sparking discussion on what is happening, what we would do and what the government should be doing. After this, we went on a walk around the school lead by Mr O'Neil, where we scouted out warm places we could sleep. As well as learning where a homeless family actually camped out for many weeks. After this, it was a rush back to the hall to grab sleeping bags as we all ran to find a warm place outside to sleep for 20 minutes. For many of us, it was a first experience sleeping rough and allowed us to try and find some understanding, to what it would actually be like if we had to do that every night. Then it was back to the hall where we ate simple soup and bread. Followed by this were a quiz and short video on the homelessness crisis and what is being done, and some simple statistics. Then it was time to roll out the gymnastics mats and got into our sleeping bags ready for bed, with the movie the Pursuit of Happyness. In the morning we ate some egg and bacon wraps and got ready for the school day, ready for a day spent in our pj's. It was a successful night that raised $300.50 for our chosen charity while also bringing some awareness to homelessness in Australia.  

Michayla Bayliss

Year 11 Laura Montoya