Imagined Futures

Imagined Futures is a vodcast series that was developed by the English Faculty at Punchbowl Boys' High School in collaboration with the NSW Equity Consortium.

This four-episode vodcast allowed Macquarie University's Equity Ambassadors to support the Year 7 cohort of 2021 as they engaged in the Imagined Futures program from home.

The views and opinions expressed in the following vodcasts are those of the Equity Ambassadors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Macquarie University, Punchbowl Boys' High School, and the NSW Equity Consortium.

Episode 1 - Thinking beyond the moment: Building for the HSC and a career

Episode 2 - Do something now: Making positive choices about the future

Episode 3 - Thinking differently: Different ways of studying

Episode 4 - Lifelong learning: Lifelong journeys

Bonus Episode - Before we go: Imagined Uni

About the NSW Equity Consortium

The NSW Equity Consortium is an alliance between Macquarie University, the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney. The universities have worked in collaboration with partner schools in Western Sydney to co‐design a three-year research and literacy project to be delivered to students in Years 7, 8 and 9. The program uses literacy intervention to support the development of students’ academic attainment and reflective learning, and to contribute to students’ understandings of post‐schools options and tertiary education pathways.

Acknowledgements

From Punchbowl Boys' High School:

We would like to thank Dr. Janet Dutton, Ms. Sophia Halpin, and Ms. Jacinta Carruthers of Macquarie University for their tremendous support throughout the production of the Imagined Futures vodcast series.

We thank our wonderful host, Ms. Virginia Harding, for lending us her time and voice to deliver this program to our students.

We express our gratitude to our Year 7 English Team (Ms. Emily Pearson, Ms. Maryam Succari, Ms. Eman Klink, Ms. Eman El-Masry, Ms. Veronica Tsang, Ms. Virginia Harding, Ms. Nicole Samsa, and Mr. Francis Floresca) at Punchbowl Boys' High School who worked hard to ensure that the content of the Imagined Futures program are accessible to every student in the cohort. Of course, we also show our appreciation for our Head Teacher English, Ms. Jane Drabble, who was a true source of guidance throughout the entire program.

We give thanks to Ms. Veronica Tsang and Khodr Moubacher from Year 7 for lending us a hand to support our needs in terms of music and video editing.

We are ever grateful to the amazing team of Equity Ambassadors at Macquarie University (Ida, Zoe, Kevin, Nicholas, Talissa, Samantha, David, Trisha, Christina, Pume, Emily, Joshua, Sherlin, Tom, Naomi, Ella, Simone, and Andrew) whose willingness to share their diverse range of experiences allowed us to create resources that will benefit Year 7 students at Punchbowl Boys' High School for years to come.

Finally, we thank the NSW Equity Consortium for inviting us to take part in this project in an effort to improve our students' literacy skills while simultaneously starting a serious conversation about their futures.

From the NSW Equity Consortium:

In return, Macquarie University - on behalf of the NSW Equity Consortium - would like to thank Punchbowl Boys' High School for their collaboration on the Imagined Futures project, particularly the English faculty and other staff involved in this vodcast series and accompanying lessons. Special thanks go to Mr. Francis Floresca for his role in conceptualising and leading the vodcast series.