Middle Years
Year 9 The Voyage
It has been an exciting start to Year 9 in The Voyage, with two ceremonies already taking place. The two most recent ceremonies were ‘The Call’ and ‘The Departure’. It was encouraging to see the way both the students and their families have embraced The Voyage program early in the year and shown their commitment and support.
The Call: The Call ceremony occurred on Thursday 2 February and symbolised the staff preparing the students to get ready for ‘the voyage’ ahead. The ceremony also gave an opportunity for the students to set goals for the year in how they would express The Endeavour Way to people in their lives. These goals have been sealed in the boats that were at the top of Mt Lofty and will be reopened at the final ceremony of the year ‘The Arrival’. It will be exciting to open the envelopes at the end of the year to see if their goals have been achieved and their hopes for 2017 have been fulfilled.
The Departure: The Departure ceremony occurred on Wednesday 15 February and was well supported by students, parents and families. This ceremony symbolised the students departing to begin The Voyage program for the year. One focus of the night was for the students to give their parents a letter they had written and the second was for parents to give the Voyage teachers their blessing for the year. The balloon releasing ceremony was a highlight of the night showing the students and parents letting go of childhood and progressing towards adulthood.
I would like to thank all parents and families who attended The Departure ceremony and I hope the experience was beneficial in opening communication pathways for both students and parents. If you were unable to attend, a letter has been sent home explaining more about the night along with the letter your child has written to you. You can also view the presentation on the schools ECOLI page under the Year 9 section.
The other area that was discussed during The Departure Ceremony was the Year 9 Camp for 2017 called The Adventure. This camp will be in the Grampians and it will be a ‘choose your own adventure’ themed camp with activities such as bushwalking, rock climbing and abseiling along with nature walks, night walks and an aboriginal cultural cooking experience. The camp will be a four night and five day camp during Term 4. The boys will be going from Monday 6 November- Friday 10 November and the girls from Monday 13 November to Friday 17 November. There will be more specific details to come later in the year, but please put those dates in your diary.
Ben Crook
Year 9 Year Level Leader
Year 7 Community Sport
This term, we have registered two Year 7 Netball teams who are participating at the Golden Grove Rec Centre in the U13 division. This falls under the Year 7 Community Sports banner, which also includes two Year 7/8 Basketball teams and hopefully more teams to come as the year progresses.
Both our netball teams are off to a good start this season, with all students enjoying themselves and making friendships with their new Year 7 peers. Last week both our netball teams went head to head competing against each other for the first time. Despite only having one winner on the night, it was fantastic to see great sportsmanship and all the girls joining at the end for a group photo.
Final score Team 2: 24 Team 1: 16
We have been fortunate enough to have a number of parents willing to coach and manage teams and we are very thankful for their involvement and dedication to providing these opportunities for our students.
We wish all our community sports teams all the best as they continue their season.
April Dunstan
SAPSASA and Community Sport Coordinator
