Year 9 City Link Program
The aim of the City Link program is to develop the life skills of persistence, initiative, collaboration and communication in our Year 9 students. Through a wide range of hands-on activities, they explore their future pathways and possible vocations. They meet with prospective employers, take part in Try a Vocation activities and visit tertiary institutions.
They also begin to plan their Work Experience placement for the following year.
They reflect on their own goals and how they might achieve these. They hear from a range of speakers and think about how to overcome challenges and adversity and how they might make their own contribution to their community.
Junior Enquiry Program
Every year Thomastown Secondary College runs a special learning program at the end of term two. The goal of this program is to provide Junior students with learning experiences which they may not have during the normal school year. Typically, the program involves students investigating themes and participating in new ways of learning.
Typical themes which students have investigated in the past include
• The Environment and me
• Personal Wellbeing
• Bullying
• Poverty
• Our Local Area (Thomastown History, Pollution in Thomastown and jobs in Thomastown)
The extended nature of this program allows students to explore in depth ways of learning which are not possible during the normal school year. Typical learning methods used in the program include
• Extended problem solving
• Maker activities – designing and building items to solve a problem
• Inquiry learning – researching a topic over several days in a highly structured way
• Role play and simulations which may last for a day
• Excursion and field work activities where students learn on site and through experimentation
The nature of the program changes from one year to the next, depending on the interests of students and the focus of the program.