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| Name |
Koonung Secondary College |
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| Address |
615 Elgar Road |
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| Suburb | ||
| Established |
1964 |
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| Type |
State |
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| Religion |
Secular |
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| Students |
Approx. 1150, co-educational |
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| Grades |
7 to 12 |
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| Principal |
Mr. Peter Wright |
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| AKA |
Koonung High School (until early 1990s) |
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| Colours |
Blue / Navy Blue, Yellow (plus Maroon for VCE) |
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| Uniform |
Compulsory |
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| Publications |
Weekly Newsletter, Semesterly Koonung Chronicle magazine |
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| Yearbooks |
School Fossicker magazine, Student-produced Year 12 yearbook |
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| Website | ||
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.
Contents |
The college is situated on a single campus, and has many facilities including an extensive library, four 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 and a theatre of approximately 170 seats.
Sporting facilities include one sports field a hockey / tennis / soccer with two cricket nets with artificial grass, six outdoor asphalt basketball/netball courts 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.
Koonung's logo was created 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 represents the cultural aspects of a student's life at Koonung. It also symbolises an aspiration into new fields of knowledge and experience.
The large circle represents the sun and the quest for scientific knowledge of our universe.
The symbols of male and female represent 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.
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 Hospitality and Multimedia VET (Vocational Educational Training) subjects also available, providing a variety of education opportunities.
Students undertake the following subjects:
English, Pastoral Care (known as Connections), Mathematics, Music Science, Physical Education, Sport Education, History & Geography (recently combined in a full-year Humanities course). Students also undertake a LOTE course of their choice, ether French, Japanese or Chinese
Plus one semester each of: Art and Textiles.
Students undertake the following subjects:
English, Pastoral Care, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Sport Education, Humanities: History and Geography. Students also undertake a LOTE course of their choice, ether French, Japanese or Chinese
Plus one semester each of: Visual Communication, Drama, Food and Health, Wood Technology
Students undertake the following subjects:
English, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, LiveLife (Year 9 Special Program) Students also undertake a lote course of their choice, ether French, Japanese or Chinese
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:
Technology Electives:
Students undertake the following subjects:
English, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Pathways
Electives: Three 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 Communication, Wood Technology, Geography, History, Commerce
Current College Captains
The 2011 College Captains are Josh Clarke and Elise Kennett
The 2011 Vice Captains are William Thiel and Emily Dean
Past College Captains
The 2010 College Captains were Paul Gear and Megan O'Donnell
The 2010 Vice Captains were Sean Lanigan and Gemma Watts
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.
KSC has a large range of programs; some common and some unique and innovative. These include:
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 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 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 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.
Students in Year 7 to 10 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.
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. In 2006, Pathways is run on a Wednesday during periods 5 and 6, and often involves out of school activities.
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. The most recent musical was Grease[2], performed with 8 sell-out shows in August and September 2011. The 2012 school musical will be Footloose.
2010 saw the beginning of what will be 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.
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 - in 2011 these were Dana Samuel and Claudia Bunce (Drama), and Juliet Bennie, Davis Clarke and Lahra Lanigan (Music).
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.
As of the start of the 2005 school year, blazers were made compulsory for all students starting Year 7, as they were gradually phased in to ensure all students would be wearing a blazer from 2010.
The four houses/school teams and associated colours are;
Each year these houses compete in athletics, cross-country and swimming carnivals. And in 2010 we 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.
www.koonung.vic.edu.au