Activities in the Secondary School have certainly ramped up in the last week or so. There have been a number of excursions across different year levels such as our Year 12 Business Management class travelling to the Chocolaterie in Yarra Glen, the Year 10 Commerce classes to local businesses in Eastland and our Year 12 Core English classes who went to ACMI in Federation Square for a group lecture on the texts they have been studying in Units 3 and 4.
Music Camp
Our Music department held their annual Music Camp from Friday 22 July to Sunday 24 July with over 120 staff and students attending throughout the weekend. It is a huge event that brings together all of our music students and includes solo performances, small group ensembles as well as our larger orchestra groups. A huge thank you to all students for their efforts and especially to the music staff who provide such a great support for all our students.
Volleyball tournament
On the weekend just gone we had in excess of 70 students representing Tintern in the Volleyball Victoria Four Days School Cup at the State Volleyball Centre in Dandenong. Our volleyball squads have been training for this since the end of last year under the guidance of our Head of Sport Mr Viney, Mrs Petchell, Miss Vine, Ms Thomas and Ms Nguyen. They have worked incredibly hard and improved significantly over this time. Congratulations to all students for their effort and participation in the tournament.
Subject Selection
We have completed the process of subject selections for 2023 across all secondary students and I would like to thank everyone for putting their preferences in on time. These choices are important for all students with our Year 7s and 8s looking to choose subjects based on fun and interest for their elective program, whilst our Year 9s have the option of continuing with electives in Year 10 or potentially adding in an accelerated VCE subject should it be deemed appropriate. Our Year 10s are looking at putting together the suite of subjects they feel will carry them through their two years of VCE, whilst our current Year 11s are in most cases moving into the Unit 3 & 4 of the subjects they are currently studying. The process of subject selection and timetable development is a huge task within a school and I would like to thank Mr Hobday (and others) for his work in this area.
Cross Country Training
Cross country training has begun this term and is open to all students from Years 5 to 12. The sessions run Monday 7am – 8am, Wednesday 3:45pm – 4:45pm and Friday 7am – 8am.
Maths Assist
Maths assist is our “Maths Help” program that is student to student assistance under the guidance of our Head of Mathematics. They run on Monday lunchtimes for the Middle School (Years 7 – 9) in our library, and on Friday lunchtime for our Senior College (Years 10 – 12). This is a program for all levels of Mathematics; those who find it hard can get some assistance and tutoring, whilst others who may be looking for a bit more of a challenge can also come to the sessions with questions that they have.
Leadership
We have begun our leadership process with the current Year 11s in preparation for 2023. This process will continue for most of Term 3 with applications and speeches, followed by voting occurring later this term. This is also the case with our current Year 8s who will be doing a similar process in the Middle School in preparation for the Middle School leadership positions in 2023.
Year 7s and 8s
In their pastoral time, our current Year 7s and 8s have been working through a program based on self-confidence and body image. These topics are extremely important for all girls and boys across all ages and our pastoral staff have been helping to facilitate conversation and develop understanding around these important areas. In the coming weeks we will be having our next GEM Day across the Middle School and our Year 7s & 8s will be involved in sessions to do with online safety which leads them into their next pastoral unit, another extremely important topic for our younger generation.
Year 9
Our Year 9s are currently preparing for their upcoming Winter Camp (Aug 08 – 12) where they will undertaking activities such as white-water rafting, hiking, mountain biking and cross-country skiing. These experiences are fantastic for our students in terms of their own personal development along with bonding experiences they will have with their peers and their teachers.
In their pastoral program they have been doing a number of preparatory activities for the camp such as snow safety sessions and rafting sessions in our school pool (a little warmer than the water they will experience on the camp!). They have also been working on other areas such as financial literacy, school-based service activities and the beginning of their road safety module titled Roadset.
Year 10 and 11 Incursion
On Wednesday 20 July our Year 10 and 11 cohort participated in an incursion focussed on being future ready and on leadership. Our Year 10 session was titled Lead for Impact and focussed on developing ideas around self-leadership, leading others, leadership behaviours and practices, and influencing the systems, services and institutions around them. Our Year 11 program was titled Future Ready and this is aimed at enabling our younger generation to explore the future world of work, explore future career options and identify the contribution they want to make in the world. By adopting a proactive and optimistic stance young people enhance their prospects and gain a competitive advantage.
Brett Trollope | Head of Secondary
