Kurnai News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.