South Oakleigh College has introduced a new mentoring program that targets and supports new students who have recently arrived from Greece. As part of the Year 10 Peer Support Program, Year 10 leaders of Greek background have been placed in groups consisting of only Greek students. This has been an extremely successful way of helping students who have recently arrived from Greece and who are dealing with many transition issues – changing from primary school to high school, while also dealing with issues that arise from moving to a new country.
“Our Peer Support leaders have been in Australia for one year and are in the best position to empathise and understand the issues new students face. We want our students to have a strong work ethic, be positive about their future and embrace all the opportunities that Australia has to offer,” said Peer Support coordinator Sophie Stametelatos.
The Peer Support group, consisting of three leaders from Greece and ten Year 7 students, also from Greece, deals with issues like how students can best organise homework or make friendships and provides an open forum for students to discuss their concerns. The school Welfare Team, led by Welfare Leader Annette Ford, has involved the Greek Welfare Society and the teaching staff (nine teaching and support staff that are of Greek background) to support the students as much as possible.
South Oakleigh College 2013 School Captain and School Dux Scott Murray, who achieved an ATAR score of 98.5 and perfect score of 50 in Further Mathematics, spoke to the students about success and being optimistic about their future.
“It’s important for all our students to believe in themselves. I’m proud of all of our Greek students especially our new School Captain, Nikos, who is of Greek background and has been in Australia for only two years. He has shown his strength of character and resilience. Bravo to Nick and all of South Oakleigh’s students.”
South Oakleigh Secondary College has won first prize in the Antipodes Film Festival (2011), Pontian Art competitions, theatre competitions that involved trips to Crete and two consecutive essay competitions that led to students winning free trips to the Youth Parliament held in Athens. Modern Greek is offered as one of two languages at the school.
It has Enrichment Programs in English, Mathematics and Science to encourage students who are achieving results of a high standard in order to keep them motivated and challenged. Writer in Residence, Skye Melki Wegner, author of the highly popular Chasing the Valley, is currently conducting Writing Workshop sessions for talented writers. Students particularly interesting in Physics visit Melbourne University on a fortnightly basis.
For information about the Enrichment Programs and the College’s Open Night on Wednesday 2 April, at 7.00 pm, visit www.sosc.vic.edu.au or contact Helen Koziaris, Assistant Principal on (03) 9579 2322.