19 June 25 June 2014 Newsletter 14 Volume 37

t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Street, Southbank 3006 Victoria Australia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au

News bulletin: 2 June 2014 From the Department Victorian students will receive more mental health support thanks to a new program that gives teachers and parents the tools to understand how mental health issues affect young people. SAFEMinds aims to identify and intervene early in mental health issues in primary and secondary school students. The $750,000 program has been developed by the Department in partnership with headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation. SAFEMinds will educate and empower the whole school community including parents, teachers and school leaders to recognise the signs that a young person is dealing with mental health issues, and to know when and where to refer them for professional support. By the end of 2014, 3500 Victorian teachers and school staff will have completed the SAFEMinds face-to-face training program. Parents will be able to access online and face-to-face training sessions in the second half of 2014. Headspace Chief Executive Officer, Chris Tanti, said SAFEMinds will build on the work headspace is already doing in Victorian schools through its national school support program. Young people spend a huge amount of their time at school, with teachers and school staff, so it makes sense to have this type of training designed specifically for school communities. The earlier issues are identified, the faster the young person can get the support they need to get things back on track, Mr Tanti said. A number of mental health organisations were involved in the development of SAFEMinds, including beyondblue, Orygen, CYMHS, Centre for Adolescent Health, as well as Independent Schools Victoria, the Catholic Education Office, the Victorian Association of Secondary School Principals and the Victorian Principals Association.

From The Principal

We are quickly coming towards the end of term and the winter vacation. This has again been a really busy term as we brace ourselves for Term 3.

Next week are key performances and exhibition preparation in our programs. On the VCASS program side, dance, music and the visual arts all have events planned. We have Dance Studio Performances and the Warrnambool Tour, in

music Winter Jazz (this will sell out please book fast) and our first Year 12 Exhibition at the VCA Student Gallery is confirmed for 15 July. The NICA students are preparing Rouge et Blanc for early July, and the ABS students are continuing their work on Australian Ballet School 50

th

Celebrations. Look for our Special Newsletter focussing on the Australian Ballet School next term. Diving and Gymnastic students have just finished their competitions with great success. This of course is on top of the normal academic program work students do. Next week we are collaborating with Melbourne Recital Centre to present a Kings Singers Masterclass here at the school. This is one of the key ways our place in the Arts Precinct delivers quality experiences to students.

On Friday next week we will issue semester reports. These are again being done in the Compass system. I have read many and am impressed with students efforts overall. Parents and students need to be able to log in to download the PDF of reports. I will also send out a Ready Reckoner in the Compass Newsfeed. Make sure you store this PDF in a safe spot you can always access after you download it. Last year I recommended you purchase some nice paper and print it out for your paper records. I appreciate the effort staff have put in to deliver comprehensive and quality reports to parents.

I want all of our students to have some rest time over the break, some time to do non-school related things is never a mistake at this time of year. My sincere thanks to you for all your work this term and to the year 12s, never forget the sometimes challenging effort you are putting in is so worth it. I told some year 12s this week of the most invigorating feeling I had when I walked out of my last examination in year 12. That feeling was reward for all my hard work.

I look forward to working with you in Term 3.

COLIN SIMPSON

Incorporating What's on

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t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Street, Southbank 3006 Victoria Australia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au

Incorporating What's on

Music

On Monday 2 June we

welcomed tutors from the Australian Chamber Orchestra to VCASS to conduct their annual Secondary Schools String Workshop. Zo Black (first violin, and VCASS alumni), Ike See (second violin), Nicole Divall (viola) and Melissa Barnard (cello), with Education Manager Vicki Norton rehearsed with 10 VCASS students and 20 other students from various schools in Respighis Ancient Airs & Dances, plus a

traditional Finnish work Lundgren. The final concert for parents and teachers was a joyous demonstration of what can be achieved by high-performing students and tutors in a short time period. Congratulations to all students, and a warm thanks to the ACO for their continuing great work, and collaborations with us. Pictured: Nicole Divall

Musical Society of Victoria In May 2014 the MSV held their annual competition for the Olwyn Game Chamber Music Award, adjudicated by Eidit Golder. Congratulations to VCASS students Helena Wang (violin), Oscar Jiang (piano) and Keaghan Kennedy (cello) whose piano trio took third place, and have been awarded a masterclass with the Firebird Trio. Equal second place was awarded to two trios of tertiary students, each including VCASS alumni; our congratulations to Camille Stevenson (cello), Ling Ling Chen (piano), and separately Jovan Pantelich (cello). First place was not awarded this year. Melbourne Recital Centre's Bach Competition Congratulations to Miles Johnston who performed as a 2014 finalist in the Melbourne Recital Centre's Bach Competition on the 15

th June. Miles performed Bachs Prelude and

Allegro, BWV998, and received an Encouragement Award. The competition was adjudicated by Dr. Richard Mills AM, Lin Bender AM, Ben Opie (oboist), Caroline Almonte (Sutherland Trio) and Leigh Harrold (Syzygy Ensemble). Older VCASS students may be interested in entering the Recital Centre Great Romantics Competition which is now open for applications. Entrants must be 18 or older by November 2014.

MICHAEL SARGEANT HEAD OF MUSIC

Jazz in Germany

I have recently returned from a musical tour of Germany and Luxembourg with The Andrea Keller Quartet, who I have performed with since 1999. The tour entitled Melbourne Meets Cologne was a reciprocal tour following an initial collaborative project, presented at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival with the Christina Fuchs Quartet in 2012. In May this year, we performed in Cologne, Berlin, Luxembourg, Munich, Dortmund, Dresden and Wuppertal, and were well received by the audiences. It was an amazing experience, filled with some inspiring musical exchanges, opportunities to perform in some fantastic venues, and some very long trips on the train system! A big thanks to VCASS for their support during this time. IAN WHITEHURST IMPROVISATION COORDINATOR Visual Arts Sean Peoples at DARK MOFO Visual Arts Program teacher Sean Peoples is participating in a project with collaborator Veronica Kent at MONAs DARK MOFO this week. The sold out event, Motel Dreaming, is for one night only, and sees a 1950s-era motel near MONA transformed into a large scale sleepover and 'dream incubator'. Using sound, lighting, video and performance, artists will augment the existing features and ambience of the motel rooms, buildings and grounds to create an immersive, dream-like environment for guests. Veronica and Sean have been working together as The Telepathy Project since 2005 devising and presenting collaborative works that engage with alternate ways of knowing and being together. Their projects have been presented in private and public galleries and festivals in Australia, USA, Germany, Spain, France and India. These projects have often been realised collaboratively both between each other and with other artist collectives such as A Constructed World and with the general public, students and exhibition audiences taking forms as diverse as; musicals, dream recitals, remote international drawing projects, epic sleepovers, telepathically curated exhibitions, collaborative paintings and institutional interventions.

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As a recap, here are some of Veronica and Seans recent works focused on dreaming: Dream Work, 'Reading Solaris to the Great Moorool', Tarrawarra Biennale 2014 (forthcoming) Dream Recital, White Night Melbourne, National Galley of Victoria, 2014 Dreaming the Collection, Melbourne Now, National Galley of Victoria, 2013/14 Dreaming The Arabian Sea, (en)counters festival, Mumbai, India 2013 Dream Paintings, Gertrude Contemporary 2013 Dream Studio, Gertrude Contemporary 2013 20 Nights of Dream Telepathy, Barcelona OZCO apartment Spain and West Space, Melbourne 2011

ANDREW LANDRIGAN HEAD VISUAL ARTS RAD @ VCASS Examination Results The Session 1 examination results are due to be posted during the term break. These will be distributed at the beginning of Term 3. Year 7 Students Welcome to Year 7 students who have commenced classes. For those not yet enrolled, please complete your enrolment forms and return to the school office as soon as possible. One or two classes weekly may be taken during Term 3. Advanced 2 Girls New Syllabus From Term 3 new work only will be taught in this class. Any students wishing to take their exam in old syllabus in October will need to undertake a private lesson for this work. This lesson will be held on Mondays 5.45 7.15pm. Please see me as soon as possible to indicate your interest. Dates to note Entries for 2

nd Session exams close 25

August

Entries for Spring School close 1 September. All students taking exams in the 2

nd session should attend Spring School.

Non exam students are also welcome to attend. Term 3 Term 3 commences the week of the 14th July. Please be sure to pay fees by the due date or call the school office if this is not possible.

JANNE BLANCH RAD@VCASS COORDINATOR EMAIL: BLANCH.JANNE.J@EDUMAIL.VIC.GOV.AU

t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Street, Southbank 3006 Victoria Australia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au

VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS SECONDARY SCHOOL

A LEADING VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND EDUCATOR AND TRAINER OF SECONDARY AGE GIFTED AND HARDWORKING

VISUAL ARTISTS, DANCERS AND MUSICIANS

THE ACADEMIC SCHOOL FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET SCHOOL, GYMNASTICS VICTORIA, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR CIRCUS

ARTS AND DIVING VICTORIA THANK YOU TO OUR FOLLOWING SPONSORS

t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Street, Southbank 3006 Victoria Australia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au

Date / Month

Day Event Time

25 June Wednesday School Tour Music Winter Jazz

9:00am 6:00pm

26-27 June Thursday-Friday

Dance Studio Performances

6:30pm & 8:30pm

27 June Friday Semester 1 School Reports Last Day of Term 2