Koonung Secondary College

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Koonung Secondary College
Koonung Secondary College logo
Name

Koonung Secondary College
Address

615 Elgar Road
Suburb

Mont Albert North, Victoria 3129
Established

1964
Type

State
Students

1169, co-educational
Grades

7 to 12
Principal

Mr. Peter Wright
AKA

Koonung High School (until the early 1090s)
Colours

Blue / Navy Blue, Yellow (plus Maroon for Senior School)
Uniform

Compulsory
Publications

Weekly Newsletter, Semesterly Koonung Chronicle magazine
Yearbooks

School Fossicker magazine, Student-produced Year 12 yearbook
Website

www.koonung.vic.edu.au

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 nearby Koonung Creek.

Curriculum

Koonung follows the VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) for the years 7-10 curriculum. 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 a range of VET (Vocational Educational Training) subjects also available, providing a variety of education opportunities.

Junior/Middle School

Year 7

Students undertake the following subjects:

Plus one semester each of: Art and Textiles.

Year 8

Students undertake the following subjects:

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

Year 9

Students undertake the following subjects:

Plus one semester each of: Geography and 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

In 2012, the Middle School separated, with the Year 9 students moving to the Junior/Middle School and the Year 10 Students moving to the Senior School. The following Middle School Captains were student leaders under the former arrangement:

  • The 2008 Middle School Captains were Gemma Watts and Paul Gear
  • The 2009 Middle School Captains were Dana Samuel and William Thiel
  • The 2010 Middle School Captains were Kate Fletcher and Nat Cutter
  • The 2011 Middle School Captains were Eliza Campbell and James Bennie

Senior School

Year 10

In 2012, the school implemented a new Year 10 curriculum. Year 10 students are able to choose the majority of their subjects, with the only constraints being two units (one year) of English and at least one unit (one semester) of a maths subject, a humanities subject and a science subject. The subjects available:

English:

  • Core English
  • ESL
  • Advanced English

Maths (each subject is worth one unit):

  • Mainstream Maths A
  • Mainstream Maths B
  • Enrichment Maths
  • General Maths A
  • General Maths B

Science (each subject is worth one unit):

  • General Science
  • Biochemical Science
  • Physical Science
  • Human Science

Humanities (each subject is worth one unit):

  • History: Australia & The World
  • Money & Markets
  • You & the Law
  • Global Connections
  • Geography for Travellers & Explorers

Languages (each subject is worth one unit):

  • French 1
  • French 2
  • Japanese 1
  • Japanese 2
  • Chinese 1
  • Chinese 2

Art and Technology (each subject is worth one unit):

  • Art
  • Drama 1
  • Drama 2
  • Photography
  • Music Performance
  • Music Styles
  • Media
  • Food & Health 1
  • Food & Health 2
  • Computer Applications
  • Simple Software Development
  • Wood Technology
  • Textiles
  • Textiles Advanced

Health & PE:

  • Health & Recreation
  • Sports Physiology & Performance
  • KSC Super Coach

Year 10 students are also offered to take one of a wide range of VCE subjects, including Psychology, Human Development, Chinese Second Language Advanced and History.

VCE

Year 11 & 12 students can undertake the following unit 1, 2, 3 and 4 subjects:

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.[1] The program runs from years 7 to 9. 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. 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 is one period of normal classes beforehand) and Year Nine students may come to school out of uniform on these days. The program consists of Five 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, short films and yearbooks are popular choices), and Self (students have a choice of broadcasting a one-hour show on youth radio station SYN FM or doing a range of outdoor excursions that end with a surf camp at Anglesea). Every year nine student completes each module once; one per term.

Connections

Students in Year 7 to 9 learn strategies for completing homework, learn study skills, time management, discuss issues such as bullying and self-esteem and compete in inter-class challenges such as quizzes and an outdoor activity. 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 activities are included. The program also includes (as electives) driver education, first aid courses and other courses considered relevant life skills.

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 must participate in one 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 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, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown, Fame, and Oliver!. One of their most successful musicals was Grease,[2] performed with 8 sell-out shows in August and September 2011. 2012 saw the production of Footloose, and in 2014 it was a repeat production of Urinetown which was first performed in 2007.

2010 saw the beginning of what became a yearly tradition at Koonung - a School Play. Students were responsible for all aspects of stagecraft and performance, including detailed costume design and construction, and the composition and performance of music. The 2010 play was Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare. In 2011, Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, as adapted by Ms. Jessica Graham, pushed the boundaries of the kind of show Koonung has presented, highlighting the professionalism and courage of the cast and crew. The beloved American comedy, You Can't Take It with You was performed in 2012, before a return to Shakespearean comedy with a 1960s political twist in an adaptation of Twelfth Night in 2013. The 2014 School Play was the brilliant farce-within-a-farce, Noises Off, involving the most elaborate set yet to grace the Koonung stage.

In all staged productions, 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. The School Play also extends student participation to include music composition, dramaturgy, logo design, adaptation of the script, and multimedia production.

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

There are two Music captains and two Drama captains each year.

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.

Blazers were originally part of the school uniform for both girls and boys, along with straw boater hats in summer and berets in winter - for girls. Sometime around 1971 girls were offered the option of wearing slacks in winter, at the time this was very forward thinking. Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s blazers were phased out and replaced by bomber style jackets. Blazers were brought back into the uniform starting with the 2005 Year 7 students, so by 2010 all students owned a blazer.

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. 2010 saw the introduction of lunchtime house activities such as "House Warball" and music concerts that were introduced by the very strong student leadership team of 2010. 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.

The original house teams were: Thames (red), Shannon (green), gold (?) and blue (?) named after local streets in the Box Hill area.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://www.koonung.vic.edu.au/images/Documents/newsletters/newsletter-2011_08_09.pdf

www.koonung.vic.edu.au

www.koonung.vic.edu.au/uploads/uniform_req_2013.pdf

External links

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