Koonung Secondary College

Koonung Secondary College is a secondary state school in Mont Albert North, Victoria, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The school takes its name from the near-by Koonung Creek.

Facilities

The college is situated on a single campus, and has many facilities including an extensive library, three class-sized computer rooms (plus four computer 'pods' with four to six computers each, most sandwiched between classrooms), a study centre to allow VCE students to study in a quiet area, a Flexible Learning Centre for use by the Junior School and a theatre of approximately 170 seats.

Sporting facilities include two large sports fields, five concrete tennis courts, eight outdoor asphalt basketball/netball courts, two cricket nets and two multi-purpose gymnasiums. The gymnasiums are used for a range of activities including inter-school sports competitions, physical education classes, year level sport classes, school assemblies and sub-school assemblies.

Main buildings

*The main school buildings (not visible from Elgar Road) are constructed mainly of light orange clay coloured bricks, with twelve other classrooms being cream and green coloured portable classrooms.
*The J.D. Stove Koonung Centre, housing the library, main gym and theatre, is constructed of grey concrete cinderblocks, and is the main building visible from Elgar Road.
*The Senior (VCE) Study Centre is a refurbished block of two standard classrooms, completed in early 2005.
*The Flexible Learning Centre (Yrs. 7 and 8) is a refurbished block of five standard classrooms (two of them formerly detached from main building), opened in May 2006. This centre allows the school to adopt a new approach to teaching in the core KLAs (key learning areas) for the Junior years. Year 9 also use the Flexible Learning Centre for Live Life activities (see below), and one room has taken on an additional role as a miniature video studio, featuring a permanent green wall for chroma key effects."'

Logo

Koonung's logo was born at the time of the planning of the Melbourne Arts Centre, in which a stylised spire from the Arts Centre is incorporated into the logo. The spire represnts the cultural aspects of a student's life at Koonung. It also symbolises an aspiration into new fields of knowledge and experience.

The latge circle represents the sun and the centre of our solar system, and the quest for scientific knowledge of our universe.

The symbols of male and female represnt the co-educational nature of Koonung, and the extended arrow curved arorund the symbol of the sun to represent the space age and the future.

Curriculum

During 2008, Koonung is making a transition from CSF (Curriculum Standards Framework) to VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) for the years 7-10 curriculum. This transition has been a problematic one, with the new mathematics textbooks not being available in time for the start of the year (as a result, ALL students were required to purchase CSF mathematics textbooks second-hand). A standard VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) course is run in years 11 & 12 (year 10 students also have the option to take one or two VCE subjects), with Hospitality and Multimedia VET (Vocational Educational Training) subjects available. Students are encouraged to work to the best of their abilities.

Junior School

Year 7

Students undertake the following subjects in 2008:

English, Pastoral Care, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, French, Japanese, Sport Education, History & Geography (recently combined in a full-year SOSE course).

Plus one semester each of:
Art, Music, Textiles, Learning Technologies

Year 8

Students undertake the following subjects:

English, Pastoral Care, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, French or Japanese, Sport Education,

Plus one semester each of:
Visual Communication, Drama, Food and Health, Wood Technology

Middle School

*The 2008 Middle School Captains are Gemma Watts and Paul Gear

Year 9

Students undertake the following subjects in 2008:

English, Mathematics, Science, French or Japanese, Physical Education, LiveLife (Year 9 Special Program)

Plus one semester each of:
Geography, History

Electives:Each student undertakes two elective subjects, one from Arts, and one from Technology, per semester. The subjects will only be run provided that there is an available teacher, and that there are enough students applying for it.The choices are:

Arts Electives:
* Art
* Music
* Visual Communication
* Drama
* Drawing
* 3D Art and Craft

Technology Electives:
* Information Technology
* Wood Technology
* Food and Health
* Textiles
* Photography

Year 10

Students undertake the following subjects in 2008:

English, Mathematics, Science, Geography (High Achievers Program: VCE Unit 1), History (High Achievers Program: VCE Unit 1), Commerce, Physical Education, Pathways

Electives:Two per semester chosen from the following:

Art, Calligraphy, Computer Applications, Drama, Drawing, Fashion, Food and Health, French, Japanese, Music Performance, Photography, Science of Health, Science of Structures, VCE Business Management, VCE Information Technology, Visual Basic, Visual Communication, Wood Technology

VCE

Year 11 & 12 students are undertaking the following unit 1, 2, 3 and 4 subjects in 2008:

Accounting, Art, Biology, Business Management, Chemistry, Design & Technology, Drama, English/ESL, English Language, Foundation Mathematics, French, General Mathematics A, General Mathematics B, Geography, History: Revolutions, VET: Hospitality, Information Technology (year 11), Information Technology: Apllications (year 12), Japanese, Literature, Legal Studies, Mathematical Methods, Media, Music Performance: Solo, Music Performance: Group, Physical Education, Physics, Psychology, Specialist Mathematics, Visual Communication.

* 2006 School Captains were Allister Loughran, Taylor Curry, Yamiko Marama and Laura English
* 2007 School Captains were Rowan Epstein, Sofia Toumbas, Emily Durham and Mitchell Murray.
* 2008 School Captains are David McIndoe, Bonnie Aylen, Freya Newton and Daniel Cavalcante.

Special programs

KSC has a large range of programs; some common and some unique and innovative. These include:

High achievers program

This program aims to allow students who "show an ability beyond that of most of his or her peers" to perform to be best of their abilities, in part to keep them engaged and interested in school. [cite web
title = High Achievers' Program
publisher = Koonung Secondary College
date = 2006-05-15
url = http://www.koonung.vic.edu.au/Programs/Achievers/Achievers.html
accessdate = 2006-10-06 ] The program runs from years 7 to 10. Students receive the same work as students in other classes, but High Achievers teachers encourage students to look at it in depth and often give different, harder and more homework to justify. Students in year 10 take part in unit one of both VCE History and VCE Geography (all year 10 students at Koonung have the option of taking certain other VCE subjects as electives). It is important to note that this is not an "acceleration" program - students are not generally permitted to complete VCE a year early - it simply enriches students to challenge them, and in this way it is nearly unique. Students are required to take a general aptitude test to participate. All four of 2006's captains participated in the High Achievers program.

Live Life

Live Life is a program run exclusively at Year 9 level, and was designed to make the later years of students' schooling more fun and less monotonous. The program runs on Wednesdays from 11am onwards (there are two periods of normal classes beforehand) and Year Nine students may come to school out of uniform on these days. The program is comprised of four modules; "Life" (teaches life skills, in a way a precursor to the year ten 'Pathways' program), "Community" (students select a community-based placement such as kindergarten or retirement home, and assist there during Live Life time), "Group" (students work in small groups to produce something - it could be anything, shorts films and yearbooks are popular choices), and "Self" (students work together using their own abilities to produce a play; there is also the option in this module for up to twelve students to take an alternative "Peer Skills" module). Every year nine student completes each module once; one per term.

Pastoral care

Students in Year 7 and 8 learn strategies for completing homework, learn study skills, time management, and discuss issues such as bullying and self-esteem. Year 7 Students also participate in activities with their mentors in Year 10.

Pathways

All Year 10 students participate in 'Pathways', a weekly career orientated programme. Work experience, occupational health and safety training, various excursions and other career related are activities are included. The program also includes (as electives) driver education, first aid courses and other courses considered relevant life skills. In 2006, Pathways is run on a Wednesday during periods 5 and 6, and often involves out of school activities.

Performing arts & music

Koonung offers instrumental music lessons in brass, woodwind, percussion, strings and voice and students from all year levels can participate in the school Concert Band, Swing Band, Choir, and various instrumental ensembles. The music program also supports numerous bands and groups of varying style and ability. A Music Concert is held once a term in the Koonung Theatre. There are two music captains at Koonung, in 2007 these are Craig Mattingley and Steph Cooper. In 2008 they are Graeme Best and Nathan Segal.

There is usually a school musical production held every second year or annually, produced by both students and teachers. The musical in 2005 was the highly successful "Cabaret". Other musicals have included "Little Me", "Anything Goes", "Guys and Dolls", and "Little Shop of Horrors". The most recent musical was "Urinetown" held in May 2007. Students audition and have the opportunity to dance, act, sing, or work behind the scenes in make-up, lighting & sound, ushering, creating sets & costumes, directing, and playing the musical scores.

Students can undertake performance subjects such as Drama and Music up to VCE level.

Uniform

As with most schools in Australia, Koonung has a set uniform which is always enforced with uniform regulations. As a "shirt, tie and blazer" uniform, its uniform could be described as "somewhat" formal (as far as Victorian public school uniforms go), though less so than most private schools in the area.

The uniform policy is unisex, meaning that a girl "may" wear the "boys'" uniform if she so wishes, or vice-versa but most girls just wear the school dress.

Introduction of blazers

As of the start of the 2005 school year, blazers were made compulsory for all students starting Year 7. All new Year 7 students from 2005 onwards will be required to wear the blazer as part of their uniform, and this will continue through years (ie, in 2007 Year 9 students will be required to wear blazers, but Year 10 students will not be). Thus by 2010, students in all year levels will be required to wear blazers.

Houses

The four houses/school teams and associated colours are;
*Conder (Yellow/gold)
*McCubbin (Green)
*Roberts (Red)
*Streeton (Blue)

Each year these houses compete in athletics, cross-country and swimming carnivals.The houses take their names from Charles Conder, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton, notable artists of the Box Hill artists' camp and Heidelberg School movement.

Notable alumni

*Liam Ayres, "Riverdance" lead role, currently touring the United States
*Laura Fitzpatrick, actress, singer
*Jo Hall, Channel 9 news presenter
*Michael Simcoe, General Motors Asia-Pacific Chief Designer
*Michael Buxton, Royal Melbourne Institute of Scientific Research Chief Molecular Biologist
*Xavier Cramer, successful entrepreneur and global trader
*Lochlan Denholm- Currently starring in the Sydney production of Billy Elliot The Musical in the title role.

References

External links

* [http://www.koonung.vic.edu.au Koonung Secondary College]