As the halfway point of the year fast approaches, students have been busy finishing their first round of electives and looking towards their future pathways. Students have been both expanding and consolidating on skills developed in Term 1 to ensure they are ready for Semester 2 and are accumulating required skills for Senior School.

As a reminder, the Middle School is where students are encouraged to further explore their own identity by solving real world problems to develop key 21st Century skills.

BY THE END OF YEAR 9 STUDENTS WILL:

• Be effective, independent and self-directed learners
• See feedback as an opportunity to improve
• Be active and positive community and global citizens
• Know what success looks and feels like
• Be prepared for senior secondary school

In Connect, students have been focusing on creating their career action plan, exploring and researching to identify 3 different industries they are interested in working towards. The message is that there is no one “right” career pathway but it is important to plan and prepare for the future. Last week, Rachel Metelmann from Kangan Institute came to speak to the students about pathways and TAFE options, as well as a few members of staff who shared their career stories to emphasize the need to reflect and notice what they enjoy and are interested in.

Semester 2 is shaping up to be as busy as Semester 1 as students step up to transition to Senior Schooling. They will develop greater independence and ownership of their pathways through the subject selection and course counselling process early next term and then they  will embark on visits to RMIT, Latrobe and Kangan institutes in Term 4 to explore and understand the learning environments and possibilities open to them.

Parents will notice events being published on Compass with payments attached to them. These events are all tied to Connect and support students to challenge themselves and develop enterprise skills such as communication, digital literacy, problem solving and resilience. Below are the detail and descriptions of each. The Middle School team of leaders and teachers have planned and developed these with the needs of students in mind and the skills they require to ensure a successful transition to further study. If parents have concerns about payment, please ask for support from the front office team.

TERM 3

Project Rockit and Illuminate: The Project Rockit team will be coming to run their Level Up workshop, supporting the safety of students in the online world. The Illuminate project was started this term but in response to students needs, it was postponed to next term. This external company will work with our students to develop an initiative which focuses on Community Values, challenging students to work in teams to identify, create, plan and pitch their plan to an expert panel. The Illuminate Showcase originally planned for this term will instead occur next term, involving Year 7 and 8 students and parents.

Leadership Camp: Following on from the Lorne Surf Camp last year, students are encouraged to step up and join the King Valley Leadership Camp from Wednesday September 11 – Friday 13^th September. Although last year’s camp was free due to funding from a government initiative, this year’s camp is very reasonably priced, including smaller individual cabins, teamwork activities, tasty food and travel to and from the campsite. This is another excellent opportunity for students to develop their independence, challenge themselves and build resilience to thrive in the world outside of school.

TERM 4

Pathways excursions: Students will explore the campuses of RMIT, Latrobe and Kangan institutes, learning about the learning environment, courses available. At RMIT they will engage in a STEM taster workshop. Regardless of their future pathways ideas, these site visits are an important part of the program and promote exploration and curiosity.

City Experience: This is an exciting event which students have been buzzing about all year. Over three consecutive Wednesdays, students will head into the city to visit several landmark locations and learn about the colourful history of Melbourne. Venues include Eureka Skydeck, Immigration Museum, Melbourne City Mission, Law Courts, Koorie Heritage Trust and a venue of their own choice to finish! Further information will be sent out early next term.

All experiences over the course of the next semester work towards graduation to Senior School and are an integral part of the Connect program. For this reason, every student is expected to attend.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of these opportunities, please contact the team!