Koonung Secondary College
Encyclopedia
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Koonung Secondary College
615 Elgar Road
Mont Albert North, Victoria
Mont Albert North, Victoria
Mont Albert North is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Whitehorse. At the 2006 Census, Mont Albert North had a population of 5008....
3129
1964
State
Secular
Approx. 1150, co-educational
7 to 12
Mr. Peter Wright
Koonung High School (until early 1990s)
Blue / Navy Blue, Yellow (plus Maroon for VCE)
Compulsory
Weekly Newsletter, Semesterly Koonung Chronicle magazine
School Fossicker magazine, Student-produced Year 12 yearbook
www.koonung.vic.edu.au
Koonung Secondary College is a secondary
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
state school in Mont Albert North, Victoria
Mont Albert North, Victoria
Mont Albert North is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Whitehorse. At the 2006 Census, Mont Albert North had a population of 5008....
, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The school takes its name from the near-by Koonung Creek
Koonung Creek
Koonung Creek is a small tributary of the Yarra River in Melbourne's east. The creek originates in Nunawading near Springvale Road, and flows to join the Yarra at the border between Ivanhoe East, Bulleen and Balwyn North. The place the two waterways meet forms the borders between these suburbs...
.
Facilities
The college is situated on a single campusCampus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
, and has many facilities including an extensive library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, four class-sized computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
rooms (plus four computer 'pods' with four to six computers each, most sandwiched between classrooms), a study centre to allow VCE
Victorian Certificate of Education
The Victorian Certificate of Education or VCE is the credential awarded to secondary school students who successfully complete high school level studies in the state of Victoria, Australia. Study for the VCE is usually completed over two years, but it can be spread over a longer period in some cases...
students to study in a quiet area, a Flexible Learning Centre and a theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
of approximately 170 seats.
Sporting facilities include one sports field a hockey / tennis / soccer with two cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
nets with artificial grass, six outdoor asphalt
Asphalt concrete
Asphalt concrete is a composite material commonly used in construction projects such as road surfaces, airports and parking lots. It consists of asphalt and mineral aggregate mixed together, then laid down in layers and compacted...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
/netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
courts and two multi-purpose gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasiums. 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 twenty other classroomClassroomA classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...
s being cream and green coloured portable classroomPortable classroomA portable classroom A portable classroom A portable classroom (in Australian English a demountable and often referred to as a demountable, a "Terrapin" or a "Portakabin" (after the two companies) in the UK and called a prefab in Ireland (not to be confused with a prefabricated building) is a...
s. - The J.D. Stove Koonung Centre, housing the library, main gym and theatreTheatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, is constructed of grey concrete cinderblocks, and is the main building visible from Elgar Road. - The Senior (VCEVictorian Certificate of EducationThe Victorian Certificate of Education or VCE is the credential awarded to secondary school students who successfully complete high school level studies in the state of Victoria, Australia. Study for the VCE is usually completed over two years, but it can be spread over a longer period in some cases...
) Study Centre is a refurbished block of two standard classroomClassroomA classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...
s, completed in early 2005. - The Flexible Learning Center 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 cadmium approach to teaching in the core KLAs (key learning areas) for the Junior years. Year 9 use the Flexible Learning Centre for Live Life activities (see below), and one room has taken on an additional role as a miniature video studioTelevision studioA television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...
, featuring a permanent green wall for chroma keyChroma keyChroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
effects.
Logo
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.
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 EducationVictorian Certificate of Education
The Victorian Certificate of Education or VCE is the credential awarded to secondary school students who successfully complete high school level studies in the state of Victoria, Australia. Study for the VCE is usually completed over two years, but it can be spread over a longer period in some cases...
) 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
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
) subjects available. Students are encouraged to work to the best of their abilities.
Year 7
Students undertake the following subjects:English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care
Liber Regulae Pastoralis or Regula Pastoralis is a treatise on the responsibilities of the clergy written by Pope Gregory I around the year 590, shortly after his papal inauguration...
(known as Connections), Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Physical Education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, Sport Education, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
& Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
(recently combined in a full-year Humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
course).
Students also undertake a LOTE course of their choice, ether French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
or Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
Plus one semester each of:
Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and Textiles.
Year 8
Students undertake the following subjects:English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care
Liber Regulae Pastoralis or Regula Pastoralis is a treatise on the responsibilities of the clergy written by Pope Gregory I around the year 590, shortly after his papal inauguration...
, Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Physical Education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, Sport Education, Humanities: History and Geography
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
. Students also undertake a LOTE course of their choice, ether French, Japanese or Chinese
Plus one semester each of:
Visual Communication
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon...
, Drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, Food and Health, Wood Technology
Middle School
- 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
Year 9
Students undertake the following subjects:English, Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Physical Education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, 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
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
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:English, Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Physical Education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, Pathways
Electives:
Three per semester chosen from the following:
Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, Calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, Computer Applications, Drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, Drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, Fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
, Food and Health, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Music Performance, Photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, Science of Health, Science of Structures, VCE Business Management, VCE Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, Visual Communication
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon...
, Wood Technology, Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, Commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
VCE
Current College CaptainsThe 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
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, Business Management, Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, Design & Technology, Drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, English/ESL
ESL
ESL is a common abbreviation for English as a Second Language, see English language learning and teaching.ESL may also refer to:-Companies:...
, English Language, Foundation Mathematics, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, General Mathematics A, General Mathematics B, Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
: Revolutions, VET: Hospitality
Hospitality
Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers...
, Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
(year 11), Information Technology: Apllications (year 12), Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, Legal Studies, Mathematical Methods, Media
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
, Music Performance: Solo, Music Performance: Group, Physical Education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, Specialist Mathematics, Visual Communication
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon...
.
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. 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 HistoryHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and VCE Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
(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 enrich
ENRICH
ENRICH is a 125-item questionnaire—completed separately by a couple—that explores conflict resolution, role relationship, financial management, expectations, sexual relationship, personality compatibility, communication, marital satisfaction, and more...
es 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 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.Connections
Students in Year 7 to 10 learn strategies for completing homework, learn study skillsStudy Skills
Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, are considered essential for acquiring good grades, and are useful for learning throughout one's life....
, 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 mentor
Mentor
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...
s in Year 10.
Pathways
All Year 10 students participate in 'Pathways', a weekly career orientated programme. Work experienceWork experience
Work experience is the experience that a person has been working, or worked in a specific field or occupation.- Volunteer work and internships :...
, occupational health and safety training, various excursion
Excursion
An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other purposes....
s and other career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
related are activities are included. The program also includes (as electives) driver education, first aid
First aid
First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...
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 brassBrass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
, woodwind, percussion, strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and voice and students from all year levels can participate in the school Concert Band, Swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
Band, Choir, and must participate in one instrumental ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s. 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
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
production held every second year or annually
Year
A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving around the Sun. For an observer on Earth, this corresponds to the period it takes the Sun to complete one course throughout the zodiac along the ecliptic....
, produced by both students and teachers. The musical in 2005 was the highly successful Cabaret
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
. Other musicals have included Little Me
Little Me
Little Me was the parody "confessional" self-indulgent autobiography of "Belle Poitrine" , subtitled The Intimate Memoirs of the Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television, by Patrick Dennis, who had achieved a great success with Auntie Mame...
, Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
, Guys and Dolls, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown
Urinetown
Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...
, Fame
Fame (musical)
A stage musical based on the 1980 musical film Fame has been staged under two titles. The first, 'Fame – The Musical' conceived and developed by David De Silva, is a musical with a book by Jose Fernandez, music by Steve Margoshes and lyrics by Jacques Levy. The musical premiered in 1988 in Miami,...
, and Oliver. The most recent musical was Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
, performed with 8 sell-out shows in August and September 2011.
The 2012 school musical will be Footloose
Footloose
Footloose is a 1984 American musical-drama film directed by Herbert Ross. It tells the story of Ren McCormack , an upbeat Chicago teen who moves to a small town in which, as a result of the efforts of a local minister , dancing and rock music have been banned.The film is loosely based on events...
.
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
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
, by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. In 2011, Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
's The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
, 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
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
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).
Uniform
As with most schools in Australia, Koonung has a set uniformUniform
A uniform is a set of standard clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, security guards, in some workplaces and schools and by inmates...
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
Unisex
Unisex stands for the meaning that either gender or sex will be able to, but can also be another term for gender-blindness.The term was coined in the 1962 and was used fairly informally...
, 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, blazerBlazer
A blazer is a type of jacket. The term blazer occasionally is synonymous with boating jacket and sports jacket, two different garments. A blazer resembles a suit coat cut more casually — sometimes with flap-less patch pockets and metal buttons. A blazer's cloth is usually durable , because it is an...
s 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 (i.e., 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
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
, cross-country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
and swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
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
Charles Conder
Charles Edward Conder was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australian tradition in Western art.-Early life:Conder was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, the second son,...
, Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin was an Australian painter who was prominent in the Heidelberg School, one of the more important periods in Australia's visual arts history....
, Tom Roberts
Tom Roberts
Thomas William Roberts , usually known simply as Tom, was a prominent Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School.-Life:...
and Arthur Streeton
Arthur Streeton
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton was an Australian landscape painter.-Early life:Streeton was born in Mount Duneed, near Geelong, and his family moved to Richmond in 1874. In 1882, Streeton commenced art studies with G. F. Folingsby at the National Gallery School.Streeton was influenced by French...
, notable artists of the Box Hill artists' camp
Box Hill artists' camp
The Box Hill artists’ camp was a site in Box Hill, Victoria, Australia favoured for plein air painting in the late 1880s by a group of artists who were part of a movement that later became known as the Heidelberg School....
and Heidelberg School
Heidelberg School
The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. The movement has latterly been described as Australian Impressionism....
movement.
Notable alumni
- Zachary Clarke, 3rd round pick (#37) in 2008 AFL Draft2008 AFL DraftThe 2008 AFL Draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2008/09 Australian Football League off-season. These were Trade Week , the National Draft , the Pre-Season Draft and the Rookie Draft...
, selected by Fremantle Football ClubFremantle Football ClubThe Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia... - Eric Huynh- Creative attacking midfielder for Eastern Lions Soccer Club.
- Liam Ayres, RiverdanceRiverdanceRiverdance is a theatrical show consisting of traditional Irish stepdancing, notable for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept largely stationary. It originated as an interval performance during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, a moment that is still considered a significant...
lead role, currently touring the United States - Laura Fitzpatrick, actress, singer
- Eliza Taylor-CotterEliza Taylor-CotterElizabeth Jane "Eliza" Taylor-Cotter is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Janae Timmins in long-running soap opera Neighbours.-Biography and Career:...
, actress, - Jo HallJo Hall-Career:She began her career with a Melbourne newspaper cadetship, then joined Nine News in 1979. In 1990 she became the first woman to be presented with the Thorn Award, a national award for journalism....
, Channel 9Nine NetworkThe Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
news presenter - Michael Simcoe, General Motors Asia-Pacific Chief Designer
- Michael Buxton, Royal Melbourne Institute of Scientific Research Chief Molecular Biologist
- Lochlan Denholm- Starred in the Sydney production of Billy Elliot The MusicalBilly Elliot the MusicalBilly Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Sir Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes...
in the title role. - Rob GellRob GellRob Gell is a geomorphologist and weather presenter formally with National Nine News and later Seven News.He was one of the only Australian weather presenters on free-to-air television with a degree in Meteorology along with David Brown.-Career:Gell, who attended Koonung Secondary College is a...
- weatherman - Kerryn Carmichael Marketing Manager Pfizer Launched Zoloft, and other pharmaceuticals into Australia