Year 11 News

YOU CHOOSE – Youth Road Safety Presentation

On Monday, 16 June, all Year 11 students attended the ‘YOU CHOOSE – Youth Road Safety’ presentation by Melissa McGuinness.

In 2012, YOU CHOOSE  founders, Melissa and Peter McGuinness's 18-year-old son, Jordan, made driving choices that caused the loss of four innocent young lives. Jordan also died in the crash. Since 2017, the program has been facilitated for approximately 250,000 teens.

YOU CHOOSE – Youth Road Safety is highly acclaimed and the winner of the Australian Road Safety Award for school programs.

YOU CHOOSE’s messages are challenging, though extremely important for young people and their decision-making as drivers and passengers. Many students were moved to profound personal introspection about their own families and connections to their intentions, their choices and their actions. This is a key intent behind the mission's motto - Own the Choice Own the Outcome.  

Melissa challenged the students to consider how they will personally seek leadership in road safety, live life to its fullest, protect their loved ones, and be truly accountable in situations where they need to place their safety and wellbeing at the forefront of decision making. To exchange expectations, commitments and permissions to speak up and to act in moments-that-matter.  

We were extremely fortunate and grateful for the time Melissa spent sharing her own personal experience with our Year 11 students.

Ashley Watson - Dean of Students - Year 11

Year 10 & 7 News

Elevate Education 2025

On Wednesday, 25 June, our Year 7 students participated in a session with Elevate Education lasting one lesson. Elevate have been coming into our College for many years now, and working with our students on how to improve their organisation when at secondary school. After having their Semester 1 assessments, now was a great time to begin to prepare our students for Semester 2, with Elevate working on time management during the session. The focus was on how students can feel less pressure and stress at certain times if they can forward plan and allocate time for each of their tasks (both inside and outside of school). The feedback from the Elevate presenters was very positive; they spoke highly of our students and their attitudes. Hopefully, this information can help our Year 7 cohort move forward through the College.

The Year 10 students also participated in a high-impact workshop presented by Elevate Education early this week. This program is specifically aimed at this age group and is designed to address and provide skills for students to improve their studentship and time management. This is of utmost importance to students as they head into their introduction to senior subjects next semester. All students attended two very worthwhile sessions over the two days. 

Session 1: Study Sensei (Monday, 23 June 2025)

In this session, students addressed the question: “What is study?” This breaks down the study techniques of the top students, providing students with a road map for what work they need to be doing across the rest of the year, and how to do it. Skills covered include working consistently and note-taking. Students learnt how to get organised and effective notes done during the term, instead of just before exams. They also covered conceptual learning skills and how to stand out on assessment, distinguishing oneself from other students.

Session 2: Time Management (Tuesday, 24 June 2025)

In this session, students addressed the question: “Once I know what to do, how do I find the time to do it?” Students have busy lives and for most, the challenge is simply finding time to get the work done. Skills covered in this seminar include how to develop a study routine that ensures productivity and how to work smart to achieve the most marks. Students were also shown how to develop effective study groups with their peers and were introduced to the most common reasons underlying procrastination, and how to manage (or even eliminate) them.

Matthew Baisden - Dean of Students (Year 10)

Year 9 News

The Resilience Project - Year 9

In Year 9 Resilience Project lessons this term, we have been focusing on the key areas of Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM). Mrs Borg’s class have worked through activities including:

• grounding ourselves when we are feeling overwhelmed
• identifying our emotions and how they can affect the way we see the world
• evaluating how we are influenced by peers and social media
• changing the narrative, guided by the story of Ned Brockmann

In our final lesson this term, we created acrostic poems using the key GEM words with activities to help us ‘change the narrative’ of our thoughts and feelings. These will be displayed in our classroom for the rest of the year.

Zoe Borg - Teacher