Our+Applciation

=Our Application so far:=


 * The Alpine School Application**
 * Caroline Springs College**

Our team feels that if we attend the Alpine School we will have a great opportunity to widen our knowledge and have a greater sense of ourselves and our community. It’s not just a learning experience for us as students but we know it will also be a great opportunity for our teachers, peers and our whole community within Caroline Springs. Thus meaning as a result of the project we are bringing the whole community together for a learning experience. What is most exciting about the Alpine School is we see this as an opportunity to educate us in a way that the classroom can not. In doing so we will experience new learning opportunities in studying and learning and new environments which will take us out of our comfort zones. We know this will inspire the community to support our commitment to improving body image and inturn develop our independence, leadership, team and our domestic skills. We look forward to being given the opportunity to have fun, learn new skills, share the experience, meet new like-minded people to inspire us, experience something exciting and something different that will help prepare us for the future.
 * Please tell us about your reasons for wanting to go to the Alpine School:**

Firstly we see leadership as an important part of any school or community. We define a good leader as someone who is respected and respects other people’s opinions, is confident and inspires others and is a good listener. Leaders are also not afraid to ask questions, they get results for people they are representing and also inspire others to contribute and be part of a new project or make a difference. We recognise that there are many formal leadership structures within our school such as Student Representative Council (SRC), School Captains, Campus Leaders, House Captains and the ‘buddy’ program across Kindergarten/Prep to Year 9. However, on a daily basis there are many informal roles of leadership we play that have a far greater impact on other students. In a unique setting where all students interact from the age of five to fifteen, leadership is extremely important. The school yard offers us the opportunity to demonstrate leadership such as modelling good behaviour, positive social skills with other students and teachers and encourage others to be part of the school program and activities. We realise that this type of leadership has a large potential for involving the most students. We find that students who are often voted into formal leadership roles are often quite popular and have a lot of confidence, which reflects on their body image. The informal powerful leadership is another reason why this is an important issue for us in the community and why we want to explore this further.
 * In your own words, tell us about the leadership opportunities that Year 8,9 or 10 students can participate in at your school:**

Our College has eight values, one of which is community. Our College is one of the most important community facilities available for families to utilise for events and this is important to us. We even share our resources with Mowbray College, an independent school, including our ovals and library. This is extended into our Year 9 curriculum where we are given the opportunity to volunteer within the community in the ‘Volunteering is Ok!’ program. This includes community service at places such as the Burnside Retirement Village, The Salvation Army, The Brotherhood of St Lawrence and local kindergarten and child care centres. We have also been given the opportunity to volunteer overseas at a rural school in a Thai village in 2008. This will involve assisting younger Thai students with their English skills and supporting and fundraising for their community. We are really looking forward to doing more of these sorts of community projects because it gives us the chance to get out of the College environment and learn new skills relevant to the workplace. We will have the chance to test our skills in real life applications that also benefit our community.
 * In your own words, tell us about the community based learning opportunities and programs that Year 9 students can participate in at your school:**

As a group of students, we wanted to acknowledge existing community projects and issues that were currently a concern of local residents. As this is a project based on body image, we are already in the process of including community support from people related to the issue. In particular, we already have gained the commitment of //Re-Creation Health Club, Caroline Springs Police, Melton Shire// and //Delfin Lend Lease// to work with us in addressing the issue of body image and community participation and interaction. In the near future, we will also be approaching other organisations such as Caroline Springs CFA, Caroline Springs Development Association, local sporting clubs, residents and businesses as volunteers and sponsors, VicHealth, Bicycle Victoria, Gold Cross Cycles, Subway and McDonalds who are all committed to improving the health of people in Caroline Springs. This project will give us the chance to work with and unite many community groups to make sure that body image is recognised in our community, which will make it easier for us to gain financial support from these groups.
 * Please tell us about any proposed or definite community support or sponsors that you might have to support the cost of going to The Alpine School:**

We understand that nine weeks away from school, home and people around us is a long time and there will be certainly a lot to catch up on. Our teachers will be able to continue to support us in this process by helping us feel connected to the school even while we are away. Our teachers have already set up communication systems such as having one ‘Student Campus Liaison’, Marty Kanambra, who can keep us informed of events weekly. We have also created our accounts so we have already established teacher commitment to use our on-line forum. For example, our Alpine School wiki page will allow us to keep in contact with staff by using the following link: [|www.cscommunity.wikispaces.com] This space will allow us to post photos, discussions and keep an on-line journal to share daily events at both the Year 9 campuses and at The Alpine School. Our teacher, Miss Williams is also looking into other ways we can connect to this experience. As it is our very first opportunity to be part of the Alpine School, we would have a community farewell party hopefully sponsored by Subway or a local restaurant with special guests from the community invited to celebrate the beginning of our journey. Martin, our community links co-ordinator, will regularly contribute a column in the //Caroline Springs Community Update// to keep everyone updated about our project. Once we return to school, we will have the opportunity to share our experience at a special presentation for all Year 9 students at a whole year level assembly. This will be our chance to recruit other Year 9 volunteers and unsuccessful applicants for the Alpine School who would still love to take an active part in the project.
 * Please tell us about the things your teachers will do to help you when you get home:**

After the numerous sessions and discussion with community organisations, we believe we have generated significant interest and developed a commitment to ensure that this project goes ahead. We are really excited about the opportunities this project offers and the joint connection to community that has already developed.Although this project offers significant opportunities for us individually, what is most appealing is the chance of actually doing something really good for the community that will raise a lot of awareness surrounding one of the biggest issues that concern youth of today. Please take a look at our photos & discussion on [|www.cscommunity.wikispaces.com]
 * Please tell us anything else that you think might be important with your application:**

We thank you for considering our application and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

//**The Year 9 Caroline Springs College Alpine Team**// Shahwaiz, Eliza, Kate, Gemma, Ashley and James Rachel Williams & Martin Mielimaka 03) 9361 4200


 * Caroline Springs College**

Background The Alpine School program was explained to us in a way that inspired us to be a part of it. We were most interested in finding out more about what was involved and whether we would get the chance to experience this for ourselves. We first found out about the program during the Year 9 Information Night about our electives for 2008. A lot of students signed up to find out more information, a total of around fifty students. After realising the dedication required, some of these students decided it wasn’t for them, however many of us were still eager to follow through. The teachers asked the two Year 8 Team Leaders to short list the students based on their dedication to their studies throughout Year 8 and their ability to demonstrate appropriate leadership skills. The 12 students (across two campuses) were short listed and were asked to write a one page summary on why they believed they deserved to be part of the team. This was a difficult process because we wanted to make sure it was perfect, ‘we spent ages on it’. We have included these one page summaries in this application for you to look over.

Six students were chosen, however an extra student was asked to be part of the team to act as a ‘Student Liaison’ to support the work and liaise with the community at our home school. We were all invited to attend the Caroline Springs Delfin Sales and Information Office for a meeting to plan our project. We discussed and brainstormed issues in our community that needed to be addressed such as traffic, body image, youth activities, a veteran’s memorial and we discussed the pro’s and con’s of each idea. We decided as a group to come up with criteria (attached) to help us decide which was the most significant issue to us as a group but was also aligned with the criteria of the Alpine School. We then ranked our ideas and it was clear that body image needed to be dealt with in our community. This was also raised by the media that very morning as the biggest concern of teenagers before drugs, alcohol and family. This meeting was hosted at Delfin as they are strong supporters of community development. We were able to meet Martin Gaedke, the Delfin Project Director and explained our ideas. We also set up our wiki site up links with Martin Mielimaka at our school so we could begin communicating with each other to share any ideas before our next meeting.

Our next meeting involved writing our proposal and completing the application form required to be part of this project. We spent the day really thinking about the purpose of our project and realising how far we have already come in this journey. We will also be utilising the wiki page to share our thoughts on our work and keep us focussed over the holidays.

The Issue Our project is about the issue of body image. This issue became apparent to us as we were driving to the Delfin offices for our first meeting. The news reader on the radio program announced that body image was more important to adolescents than alcohol, drugs and family issues, based on a recent study. This really highlighted to us the importance of body image in our society and we felt connected with the issue and it also scored very well in relation to our criteria. We felt that the issue involved the whole community, not just teenagers, and could benefit a health-related charity. We had many key concerns about this issue such as the media’s influence on body image and how adolescents look up to celebrities, particularly in magazines and on reality TV shows. We also felt that community groups such as Caroline Springs Police, Re-Creation Health Clubs, Subway, McDonalds, Melton Shire, Delfin and VicHealth would support us in making our community more active and raise awareness about the need for positive self-image. We feel that we could make a difference by organising a fun run in our local community, taking advantage of our landscaped parks and lakes in Caroline Springs.

The Process

__Before the Alpine School__
 * We need to:**
 * Collect information and statistics on body image.
 * List all of our local numbers and make initial contact with potential sponsors.
 * Collect maps of the Caroline Springs area.
 * Work out the complexities of a fun run.
 * Speak to our partners Re-creation Health Club and Caroline Springs Police Station to help us plan the route of the fun run, help us redirect traffic and decide on the charity that will be rewarded.
 * Survey students within our school on body image and also whether they would be interested in a fun run. We could compare our results with the current statistics.
 * Work with the community groups to decide on the fun run date.
 * Farwell Party

__At the Alpine School__
 * We need to:**
 * Work out costs of the fun run for participants.
 * Reporting progress of the event in the College newsletter and the Caroline Springs monthly update.
 * Organise the fun run show bags, advertisements and information flyers on body image.
 * Organise donations from sponsors to go into the showbags.
 * Continue to communicate with the Police and Re-Creation to plan the event.
 * Work out the volunteers required to run the event and what roles need to be completed.
 * Plan the social events for after the fun run (bands, fireworks etc).
 * Keep in contact with the Student Liaison, Marty, to support us from school.
 * Invite the Alpine Staff to the event.

__When we get home__
 * We need to:**
 * Advertise the event in the community.
 * Prepare for the event and finalise all tasks.
 * Keep track of how many participants are signed up to do the fun run.
 * Hand out information packets.
 * Run the event.
 * Register participants and organise volunteers (including water stations).
 * Complete a survey within the community after the event to see whether they have better understanding of body image or self-acceptance.
 * E-mail the Alpine staff, let them know how it went and thank them for the opportunity.

//Thank you, students of the Caroline Springs Alpine Team.//

__From the Liaison Teachers__

We are all very excited about being given the opportunity to attend The Alpine School for the very first time. The students have worked really hard to develop a project that they really feel passionate about. We thank you for your time in reading the student’s application and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

//Rachel Williams// //Martin Mielimaka// Year 9 Leading Teacher Community Links


 * Supporting Evidence – Liaison Teacher**
 * Caroline Springs College**

Please briefly describe how the team was selected: The Alpine School program was discussed in small focus groups with both Year 8 and Year 9 students in October 2007. We found that students were excited about the idea and we decided that we would put forward the details to parents and students at the Year 9 information night in early November. We had nearly fifty students record their name on the expression of interest sheet. As the Year 9 Leading Teacher, Rachel then spoke to the Year 8 Team Leaders at both campuses to determine the students who would make the shortlist based on their efforts and commitment to school throughout the year. We then asked the students to submit a one page summary and made our decisions based on both processes. We nominated a student liaison so we would have an extra student on stand by just in case other students could not attend. This student was also involved in the planning process and was considered a genuine member of the team.

Please describe the amount and type of release being given to you to support the team in attending the Alpine School: As our positions are leading teacher positions in ‘community’ and ‘Year 9 innovation’ we have the flexibility in our timetables to run extra programs for Year 9 students and manage visits and supporting the students in the planning and implementation stages. We will be given time to visit the Alpine School also as the College is very committed to ensuring our students in Year 9 are given exciting opportunities to explore.

Please describe the re-entry you and the school will implement to support the team on their return: Students will be asked to present at a special whole year level assembly (with both campuses involved) to share the experience and gain support from other students as volunteers with their project. They will also be supported through regular contact during their time away through the wiki page and will not be expected to ‘catch up’ on work while they are away.

Please provide any other information that you think might be valuable for the selection panel in making their decision: These students have been extremely energetic and committed to being given the chance to represent the College at The Alpine School. They appreciate that they are the very first group who have been given the opportunity to apply for this program. They are committed to completing this proposal whether they get into the program or not as they are very excited to be part of a great community event. They have all worked very hard in writing up their own notes to support the proposal writing as a group and are really showing great leadership skills in planning and implementing a large project already.

We thank you for giving our students the opportunity to be part of the Alpine School program.

Kind Regards,

Rachel Williams & Martin Mielimaka