Dear parents, carers, students and staff,
Over the weekend, the Victorian Government announced that, on the advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, we find ourselves again moving to Stage 3 restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Based on advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government announced that from 11.59pm Sunday 2 August, all Victorians over the age of 12 must wear a face covering when they leave their home.
These measures will slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and help protect the community.
Thank you for your interest in our College.
Due to COVID-19, we are undertaking our primary to secondary school transition differently. We hope that we are able to answer all your questions on our website in theYear 7 enrollment area http://kurnai.co/yr-7-2021, and look forward to seeing you later in the year.
Hello Everyone,
14 May 2020
Dear parents and carers,
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
I hope everyone is travelling as well as possible in the current environment, it is encouraging that the measures we are enduring appear to be having the desired effect with the amount of new COVID19 cases decreasing.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As advised by the Department of Education, school holidays have been brought forward and will commence tomorrow, Tuesday 24th March.
At this stage, students will resume Term 2 on the Wednesday 15th April.
Students of essential service workers, which may include health, police, corrections and emergency services workers are able to attend a care and supervision program at each Campus for the remainder of this week within school hours.
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please be advised that due to changes announced yesterday by the Federal Government all non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people are to be cancelled. This will include Parent / Teacher conversations due to be held on the 26th and 27th of March.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We understand there may be some concern in the community with regard to the COVID-19 virus. Please be assured that the Department of Education is sending regular updated advice to all government schools.
The Year 8 students from both Churchill and Morwell Campuses recently visited the Tech School, located in Morwell. The students participated in a range of activities which focused on the students creating their own experiment to test a hypothesis on a topic about energy.
A perfect autumn day hosted Kurnai College’s Inter House Athletics Carnival at Joe Carmody Reserve in Newborough on Tuesday 3rd of March 2020.
Students from across the College came together and participated in various track and field events, novelty events such as limbo, longest footy kick or the balloon toss or simply spent a relaxing day catching up with their friends.
Forsyth once again prevailed and took out the Kurnai College House Athletics Championship Cup winning by a margin of 148 points ahead of runners up Freeman.
Kurnai College, Churchill Campus student, Travis Colson was among one of four Aboriginal Victorians to receive a $5000 scholarship at Parliament House on Thursday 13th February. Presented by Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Gavin Jennings at an awards event at Parliament House, the inaugural Aunty Dot Peters Award supports Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students to complete Years 9 and 10 at a Victorian secondary school.
Once again, Moe Outdoor Pool was the scene for Kurnai College’s Inter House Swimming Carnival held on Thursday 13th, February 2020. While the weather were not ideal, the cool temperature and rain did not dampen the student’s spirits and the enthusiasm from all participants went a long way to making the carnival a success.
Students from across the College braved the cold conditions by participating in the various competitive and novelty events. Others simply spent a relaxing day catching up with their friends, or participated in the Best Dressed Competition.
Recently, 20 students from both the Churchill and Morwell Camp Year 9/10 Outdoor Education classes attended a three day surf camp at Wilsons Promontory. Weather conditions were forecast to be very rainy, windy and cold, however the students were still eager to not let the weather dampen their experience. The surf lessons were pushed forward to earlier in the days to make use of the better weather conditions. Rather than surfing at Wilsons Prom, the group travelled to Waratah Bay for all three surf lessons, as it provided better protection from the prevailing South-Westerly Victorian winds.
On Wednesday 23rd October a small group of Yr 9 students from Morwell and Churchill campuses attended a day at Ecolinc in Bacchus Marsh with a collection of other Gippsland schools. The students participated in a range of activities including:
• A video conference with Tiffany Yao, an electrical engineer at Ad Astra Rocket Company. Tiffany spoke to the students about some of the work she is completing at the moment in designing more efficient rockets for space travel.
42 Year 8 students from Kurnai College, Morwell Campus went to Karoonda Park, during the first week of term 4 for their school camp. On the way there, the students stopped off at Buchan Caves and went through the Royal Cave. The limestone cave consisted of many chambers, filled with calcite rimmed pools and stalactites crystals covering the cave’s roof. Jumping back on the bus the students travelled the last part of the journey before arriving at Karoonda Park. Excitedly the students exited the bus ready and wanting to explore the place they would call home for the next week.
Thursday the 19th September brought with it fantastic weather and the promise of two weeks holidays for the students.
But before they could celebrate the end of term, a small but talented group of Kurnai students competed against the best student athletes this side of Melbourne's metropolitan areas, at the Gippsland Track and Field Carnival at Joe Carmody Reserve Newborough.
Of the 8 students who attended, we brought home 9 podium finishes which is an amazing effort considering the size of a number of other schools teams in attendance.
Six Year 9 students from Kurnai College recently travelled to India and immerse in a life-changing-three-week cultural experience. The students, along with 40 other year 9 students from across Victoria, participated in the very first Victorian Young Leaders to India Pilot Program.
Kurnai College’s year 10 students recently embarked on a five-day tour of Tasmania.
After a somewhat bumpy flight to Hobart, they boarded an extra-long, pink touring bus and spent the next few days exploring Salamanca Place, Constitution Dock, Battery Point, Hobart City, Richmond, and Russell Falls.
Are you interested in embarking on a 3 week life-enhancing school expedition to Borneo, Indonesia, one of the world’s most stunning natural gardens – a unique ecosystem of vibrant jungle and unexplored tropical wilderness, teeming with exotic wildlife?
This opportunity is open to all current year 9, 10, & 11 students to attend in December 2020.
The expedition involves:
Over two Wednesdays, Year 11 Sport and Rec students at Kurnai College participated in professional Pool Lifeguard training with Life Saving Victoria.
The students interacted in a professional manner with their trainer, and completed a number of online and practical units in relation to gaining their qualification as a Pool Lifeguard.
Kurnai College commends its music's students’ efforts during their recent musical performances. The students performed brilliantly at Churchill Primary School and Yinnar Primary School, and did a wonderful job showcasing the schools musical program.
Proceeding on in their tour, the Music Students from Kurnai College then visited Churchill North Primary School and Morwell Central Primary School the following day. The students once again put on a magnificent performance showcasing their talents to our feeder schools.
On the 6th of August, six VCE students from University Campus attended Sale College for a Model UN Conference run by United Nations Association of Australia. The conference included students from six school across Gippsland with groups split up to represent different countries.
Kurnai College’s two teams were to represent the views and political ideologies of Iceland and Mexico in regards to the issue of Global Action on Climate Change.
Each year, Kurnai College celebrates NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observation Committee) week. This is an important part of our students’ education and a strong step towards honouring and understanding our First Australians.
Each campus takes it in turns in hosting the main event.
Students at the Churchill Campus were treated to a BBQ on a glorious winter’s day and Violet Juracevich explained to our students the origins and meaning of NAIDOC.
On Monday the 22nd of July, 30 students from the Senior VCE Biology classes attended an excursion for the day at AgriBio in La Trobe University Melbourne. AgriBio is a leading Agricultural Research Institute that is funded by the Victorian government, mainly focusing on improving local farming industry through genetic engineering practices.
Throughout the day students engaged in activities that will expand their understanding of DNA manipulation techniques and how they may be applied in various industries in Victoria.
During the second week of the winter school holidays, 16 students from the University Campus enjoyed 6 days of thrilling alpine skiing and snowboarding. The students endured the 5-hour bus drive up the Omeo alpine road to Mt Hotham Alpine resort.
During the school holidays, several of our students attended VIC SRC Congress last week which is a student-led and student-focussed conference. Nearly 200 students come together to talk about the systemic issues that affect all levels of the education system and come up with new, exciting, innovative ways to tackle them...together! These issues become central to VicSRC’s advocacy work as they take them straight to the Minister for Education and work with him on implementation.
L-R: Emily Brabazon, Bridget Cain, Claire Irving, Dylan Dunstall
Thursday 13th June greeted the brave runners from all across Gippsland who came together at Lardner Park for the Gippsland Region Cross Country. Lardner greeted us with a sunny but cold winter’s day, and the head wind on a long uphill section did the runners no favours.
Kurnai had a small but determined group of runners who had qualified for the event after great results at the Wellington Region event held earlier in the year.
VCE & VCAL Information Evening - 5 June
Session Time 6.30pm - 8pm
Lecture Theatre Room 5N104
On the 16th March, a group of five Kurnai students left for a six-week trip to China as part of the Young Victorian Leaders to China program. The students spent 2-weeks based at the ‘Beijing Language and Culture University’ where they were immersed into Mandarin classes, toured the local cultural attractions, all while living, studying and eating among Chinese students. The students found the language studies to be quite intense.
Mt Hotham is a well-known ski resort approximately 4-5 hours drive from Churchill via Omeo. The main activities undertaken on the camp will be downhill skiing and/or snowboarding.
The camp will run from Sunday 7th July to Friday 12th July. Students must be at the University Campus bus stop at 10.00am on the Sunday. We intend to return to Kurnai College (University Campus) at approximately 9.00pm on the Friday. Students will be staying at a Ski Lodge located at the top of the mountain. The total cost of the camp will be approximately $1650.00 which includes:
Parents & Carers of students planning to do the Debutante Ball in 2019 need to be aware that as the Deb Ball is an external event to the normal school curriculum, conditions are placed on student participation.
One of these conditions is that families with outstanding charges must be brought up to date before their child can begin dance lessons in preparation for the Deb Ball.
We recently held a belated Apology Day event that was organised by the Smith Family for all Year 7 students. Our guest speaker, Aunty Margy, came to share her personal stories about the impact of the Stolen Generation on her family and helped to bring understanding to our cohort about its broader impact to the community. With the assistance of some of our Koorie families, students created some handprint designs that will be able to be displayed in our new Year 7/8 building when it is completed. Students were also able to decorate some small boomerangs to take home.
A contingent of five Year 9 students from across the College flew out to China recently accompanied by Ross Fitzpatrick. Students will be undertaking a 2-week Language and Cultural Program as part of their six-week study tour. Students will be immersed into Chinese culture and school life through this life-changing opportunity. Combining language and cultural learning with personal development and leadership skills, the program focuses on one of Australia's main trading partners, China.
The College Athletics day was held on Tuesday 19th March on an overcast yet warm day where the rain held off to enable a very successful athletics day. A number of records were broken on the day and the level of participation by students, and even staff, appeared to increase from previous years.
During January all remaining traces of asbestos were removed from the buildings in F-block and the library. Shortly after, demolition of those buildings began and, as I write, they have completely gone. The surrounding concrete is now being broken up and being sent away for recycling. It has been great to see this demolition crew working carefully to salvage as much building material as possible. With only about a week of demolition to go, in-ground works for the next building will commence.
Work is well and truly underway at the Yallourn North Kinder. The Year 10 Precal group have designed and planned there sensory garden, mud kitchen and vegetable garden.
Kurnai College Hands on Learning students travelled to Melbourne’s Parliament House to join schools from across Victoria for the opening of a special showcase of their ingenious building projects on Tuesday 27 March.
The showcase in Queens Hall featured an impressive park bench and dog kennel built by the Kurnai Hands on Learning (HoL) team.
Kurnai students Jai, Khamis, James and Diamond also joined local MP Harriet Shing on stage to introduce a video about Hands on Learning at Kurnai College.
Kurnai College convened for its annual athletics carnival Thursday March 22 2018. While typical Gippsland weather greeted us with a cold and windy morning, the clouds broke away to leave fantastic sunshine, and perfect temperature for students to compete.
The fancy costumes and flair of the swimming carnival was left behind, making way for some fierce races on the track.
On March 15, Kurnai Year 11 student, Bridget Cain, attended the Gippsland School Swimming Sports. Bridget claimed success in the woman’s 17 year old 100mt Butterfly, 100mt Backstroke, 50mt Backstroke, 200 Individual medley, and had an outstanding performance in the 50mt Butterfly, where she broke the previous record, by 1.52 seconds. In the 17 to 20 year old woman division Bridget’s performance placed Kurnai College in 4th position. Overall out of 84 competitors, Bridget finished in 2nd place, just 2 points behind the leader.
On Wednesday March 7, students from all 3 Campuses were invited to attend the 10th anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generation. We were fortunate to be a part of the unveiling of a Contemplation Seat at Lake Hyland, Mathison Park Churchill. This seat was built by our students from the FLO Campus and Michael Stubbe.
As always, this year's swimming sports were a huge success. With perfect weather conditions, a free barbeque and freshly cut fruit, we were able to enjoy a fun and relaxing day. Many students participated in the various events on offer ranging from diving to a tyre race. The serious swimmers cemented their position in their chosen event and will go on to represent the college at the next level of interschool sports. Others were happy to cool down in the wading pool, socialise with their friends and enjoy the music provided by our music team.
Eight of our Year 10 girls celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, at Government House last Friday.
The girls were able to meet and hear from four of the Royal Women's Hospital top young women researchers as they shared their story of how they became a scientist and now make ground breaking discoveries to improve the health and wellbeing of women and babies.
The experience provided the students with an understanding of how a career in science can be applied in a hospital setting to make a dramatic difference to people's lives.
