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.