SCHS Newsletter volume 4 issue 06

Volume 4 Issue 6 | Week 10 Term 2, 2014NEWSLETTER

2Suzanne Cory High School Newsletter Volume 4 Issue 6 | Week 10 Term 2, 2014

R e s p e c t | A s p i r a t i o n | C o n t r i b u t i o n

From the Principal

Term two is coming to an end and I would like to congratulate all students for their commitment to their learning and the school community this semester. It has been a very busy term with students involved in sport, debating, school wide competitions, subject excursions and fundraising events.

Thank you to all parents for your support of school programs and events.

Families will receive written reports for Semester 1 this week. Student reports are prepared by teachers to inform parents/guardians of outcomes of Assessment Tasks and the student’s Approaches to Learning accompanied by a statement regarding student achievement and strategies for continual improvement in learning.

Student Representatives on School CouncilKristian Lang and Elyssa Carlos of Year 12 have taken up the two student positions on School Council. Kristian and Elyssa are the Chairs of the SRC. We appreciate the valuable time and input they will make to the continuing growth of Suzanne Cory High School in this important role. As a School Council we will continue to work to enhance the quality of our school with representation from students who provide an important voice within the school community. The Assessment and Reporting Policy was tabled at School Council for consultation at the June meeting and after final amendments will be taken to School Council for endorsement next term.

Breakfast ClubThe Breakfast Program has commenced with a very successful launch on Wednesday 18th June. The Breakfast Club will take place every Week B on Wednesday from 8.00am to 8.20am in the Agora. Thanks to the Wellbeing Team for their organization of the program which I know will be appreciated by students as the winter weather approaches next term.

The School’s Grand PianoAn integral part of the Instrumental Music Program here at Suzanne Cory HS is the establishment and continued proliferation of a performance culture amongst the students. Part of this process has been the promotion of performances at assemblies each fortnight, twice yearly Year Ten performance evenings, The Annual Art, Design and Technology Showcase concert, VCE Music recitals and Lunchtime Talent shows/concerts.

The school took delivery of a C3 Grand Piano on Wednesday 18th June to the delight of students and staff. It has been wonderful to hear the music from this superb instrument being played by our talented students. Thank you to Jason Portelli, Head of Art, Design and Technology and Mr Eddie Dorn, Piano teacher for all their work in researching and organising the purchase of the instrument.

The first official performances from students playing the Grand Piano will be at our end of Term assemblies.

3Suzanne Cory High School NewsletterVolume 4 Issue 6 | Week 10 Term 2, 2014


Scientists of the FutureOn Monday the 16th and Thursday 19th June we hosted 150 students from Mackellar Primary school.The Year 3 and 4 students were involved in a Science Immersion program where they were embedded into our Science classes taking part in a range of activities that exposed them to Secondary School Science. The teachers from Mackellar Primary School were very impressed with how our students supported and engaged with their pupils in the activities and the way in which our students conduct themselves at school. Our students were magnificent ambassadors for Suzanne Cory HS. Photos of the visit can be seen on page 9 of this newsletter.We wish all families a safe and restful break and we will see all students on Monday 14th July for Term 3.

This issue’s cover features

year 11 student Kristine Nguyen

playing the school’s new Grand Piano.

Parents can report students absences via phone, email to the school email address or via the website.

If you wish to report absences via the website, look for the button below and complete the form.

Student absences still require a note from the parent upon the student’s return to school. If you have any queries relating to student absences, please contact the school.

All school dates are now available on the school’s website. Please take a look at http://suzannecoryhs.vic.edu.au/events/month/

Term 3 begins on a Week B on the 14th July.

Key DatesStudent Absences



Out of uniform dayAs is normal practice, the final day of term is an out-of-uniform day for all students. So tomorrow Friday 27 June, students are asked to contribute a gold coin donation towards an important charity—this term funds raised will be put towards “Below the Line” which is run through the Oaktree Foundation to raise awareness of poverty. Students may wear appropriate and neat casual clothes to school on this day. The start and finish times and bell times will be the same as normal on the final day of term—the only exception is that Year 12 students will be dismissed at lunchtime.

Travelling to and from schoolA large number of our students travel to and from school using public transport. Many students walk to and from the station on the Federation Trail, which is the path along Hoppers Lane, and our students have been commended by numerous members of the public on their positive behaviours on their way to and from school. It is important to reiterate that we expect students to show consideration for other pedestrians and cyclists when they are travelling to and from school along the trail and we expect students to ensure that they leave enough space for others to use the path.

The bus stop immediately out front of the school is supervised by school staff after school each day to ensure that students are congregating in an orderly and safe way by the roadside and to monitor the buses. There is a council crossing supervisor on duty at the crossing immediately outside the school on Hoppers Lane before and after school as well. Parents please note that teachers are rostered on Yard Duty inside the school ground from 8.30am onwards each morning but no earlier.

We are unable to supervise students crossing the busy intersection at the corner of Hoppers Lane and Princes Hwy on their way to the station. It is a considerable distance from the school (approximately 1 kilometre away). However, we have approached the local council a number of times to request that a crossing supervisor be provided for students at that particular intersection as the traffic is often very heavy there. To date, the council have refused to provide a crossing supervisor there. We ask parents to remind their children to take great care crossing that busy intersection and we

encourage parents to contact the council to advocate for improvements to the safety and supervision of the intersection.

It is an exciting time as our school is situated within the rapidly developing national priority area of the East Werribee Cluster. There are approximately 7000 jobs in this area through the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital, the University of Notre Dame, Victoria University, the Werribee Mercy Hospital, Wyndham Private Medical Centre, CSIRO, and a range of high-tech research companies in the food and agricultural industries. With continued expansion, it is predicted that this cluster will ultimately provide well over 50,000 jobs and these jobs will predominantly be white-collar jobs in the health, education and high-tech research industries. At a recent school council meeting, the Mayor of Wyndham Cr Bob Fairclough outlined to council that the government is planning significant new infrastructure in our area and along Hoppers Lane, including a freeway interchange at Sneydes Road that includes a new bridge to Point Cook as well as a possible re-alignment of Hoppers Lane across the Princes Hwy to enable safer pedestrian crossing and smoother traffic flow. Other proposed developments include a lake, waterway and parkland system and tree-lined boulevards in the surrounding area. Further details on these plans can be found at http://www.mpa.vic.gov.au/east_werribee

Snow Camp with Nossal High SchoolOur Snow Camp this year will be held at the Bogong Outdoor Education Centre with a week’s skiing at Falls Creek Resort together with students from Nossal High School. This is a unique opportunity to attend what is hoped will be the first in a succession of combined camps and further activities with Nossal High School. Nossal High School is the only other co-educational select entry government school in Victoria and as such is an important connection for Suzanne Cory High School. This combined ski camp will be held during the week 8th – 12th September (Week 9, Term 3). This camp will cater for a total of 40 Year 10 students combined from both schools with 20 students from each school. The aim is to further enhance and build connections between our two schools while also focusing on enhancing student leadership. Year 10 students were provided with details about this camp recently and we are currently determining the final list of participants for this camp.

Assistant Principal



Planning and sustaining access to technology 2015The school’s eLearning committee and the school council have this week formally approved a proposal that we move to a full Bring Your Own Device program in 2015 at Year 9. This will enable parents and students to select a device they like and can afford and enable parents to handle maintenance and repairs independently. Next year there will not be a portal for parents to use to purchase devices. In the past the Department of Education’s eduStar software could only be made available on devices purchased through a portal or school-leased devices but there is now a website where students who are connected through a school BYOD program can download eduStar software as they need it, so there is no longer a need to have devices pre-imaged for students by a particular supplier.

Students who will be in Year 10 and 11 in 2015 will continue with their Managed BYOD devices and the school will meet our ongoing obligation and commitment to support those devices at school by organising repairs on the behalf of those families for the next two years. However, those students will also have the option of switching to another device at any time, if they wish. Next year’s Year 12 students will be the last group to use the fleet of school-leased laptops before those devices are decommissioned. But they will also have the option of bringing their own device to school if they wish.

Please note that a set of minimum specifications for devices will be provided to parents and students early in term 3. The minimum specifications will be set to ensure that students can successfully connect to our school network. Please do not purchase a new device for 2015 until information about the BYOD program and the minimum specifications are provided in term 3.

Our IT team are continuing to develop the school network environment to support multi-platform devices—netbooks, notebooks, tablets with different operating systems—and to ensure that students will be able to connect themselves (self-connect) to the network at the start of the year, rather than have their device manually configured by our IT staff. School council has also approved a move to increase our school internet connection speed and bandwidth

through internet service providers external to the Department of Education’s internet service. These external services will have up to five times faster connection speeds, will be combined with appropriate filtering of web content for a school environment, will include firewalls and caching capabilities, and will enable quota management and internet monitoring to ensure that students are safe online and to support students in learning as much as possible at school. With the state election approaching, our school council also encourages parents to consider sending a clear message to state politicians about the importance of properly funding technology in government schools and of improving internet services and IT support for schools to better meet the educational needs of students. Increasingly, learning content and learning activities and e-textbooks are stored and made available to students online rather than on internal servers or CD-Roms and so fast and reliable internet connection is more critical than ever before. The slight increases in the internet bandwidth for schools over the last few years have simply not kept up with the steep increase in internet use for learning at schools. More broadly, this second half of the year is an opportunity for our school community to reinforce with state politicians the depth of feeling around the need for strong support for selective-entry government education.

Oval developmentThe development of the new school oval is proceeding to plan stage by stage. Construction activity has mostly stopped for the time being apart from some tree planting and some final work on irrigation but essentially the oval has to be left fallow over winter. As the oval is a natural grass oval, not an artificial turf oval, the sprigs of grass have to be sown in spring when the night-time temperatures have started to rise again so that the sprigs can survive and grow quickly. The oval is due to be completed, as scheduled, for use by students at the start of the 2015 school year. The oval will predominantly be used for cricket and football but will also be available to students for play during recess and lunchtimes.

Stewart MilnerAssistant Principal



BBQ The sausage sizzle at Woolworths was a great success. A really big thankyou for those that pitched in. Liz and John Hunter, Mark and Luke Mannix, Raj, Navneet Rekhi, Wendy Oakes, Natalie Alchin and Debbie Zsidai.

More than $450 was raised to go towards assisting the school to provide for our students in such programs as the Breakfast Club.

For enquiries, suggestions, expressing interest in helping or just to say hi, please email us at [email protected]

Entertainment booksAs there were not sufficient orders, the Entertainment Books will unfortunately not be available for purchase.

MeetingWe are holding an Extraordinary Annual General Meeting on July 30th as there will be vacancies for office bearers of the PFA. We are asking for all parents and guardians to come along and lend your support to our association as we are here to help the school and the students.

Jasper Ramage of 9C competed in a fencing competition on the 15th June and came 13th out of 90. He is aiming to go to the nationals in Sydney during the school holidays. Fantastic work, Jasper!

Fencing



Nine students from year 9 and 10 interested in environmental issues and who want to make SCHS a ‘greener’ school attended the inaugural Wyndham City Council Environmental Youth Summit at the Wyndham Youth Resource Centre.

The 9 students submitted an application as well as a Sustainability Snapshot survey to help identify how Suzanne Cory High School can improve in the areas of Biodiversity, Energy, Waste Reduction and Water Conservation.

On the day the students attended many engaging workshops to do with the environment including such topics as waste & recycling, climate change and raising the issue of sustainability to the wider community.

Speakers for the summit included the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Tim Silverwood from Take 3 and Kirsty Costa from CERES Environment Park. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition ran workshops designed to educate and mobilise the students to take action on climate change. Tim Silverwood spoke about raising awareness of marine debris, especially plastic, and encouraging

individuals to take 3 pieces of rubbish before leaving the beach, places near waterways or coastal areas.Kirsty Costa, who was recently named Sustainability and Environment Educator of the Year, used a football-friendly mantra to motivate her audience on how to raise issues to do with the environment.

It was an inspiring day! - Mr Bruce Drummond

Wyndham Environmental Youth Summit

Round three of the inter-school debating has come and gone during a particularly busy time for students at SCHS. It was great to see so many keen debaters committing to the program during the exam week. And their efforts continue to result in winning performances for teams and students alike. Best speaker awards went to Ella Byrne, Matthew Lagamba and Elena Demosthenous. With two rounds to go until the finals our are teams are well placed. A grade occupy equal first and equal second positions; B grade equal first and equal second positions; C grade equal third and fourth positions; and, D grade equal first (two teams), one team equal second and one team equal fifth.

On Tuesday 10th of June, SCHS hosted a round

of the VCAA Plain English Speaking Awards. This is a highly regarded state wide public speaking competition adjudicated by the VCAA. Two of our student, Matthew Lagamba and Ryaan Rashid entered on the school’s behalf. Congratulations to Matthew for winning the round. Matthew will now compete in the regional semi-final next week, on behalf of the school community I would like to wish Matthew every success.

Mr Cummins

Debating & Public Speaking



As the skies darken quickly as we enter the winter months, students are given the chance to survey the stars. Every Week A, Thursday, the school hosts a telescope program in which planets and stars can be seen through the telescope that Melbourne University has generously lent us. Learn the constellations in the night sky, navigate around the cosmos, and understand the wonder of the things that were always simply just above us. From the rings of Saturn, to the stripes of Jupiter, tiny specks in the night sky will no longer seem as insignificant as you once thought. On the 29th of May, we attended the second night of the Telescopes in Schools program. The program was an opportunity to look thought the telescope and see planets and stars with our own eyes. As we tackled the cold, we learned information about the planets of the solar system and the stars that we see in the sky. Some of the planets we had a look at included Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, and we also got to view the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius. We even

got to take photos of the planets through the telescope to keep for ourselves! There were teachers and astronomers who were able to answer and discuss any of our questions or queries. Overall, the program was a great chance to meet new people, discover interesting facts about space and have fun!

Sophia Pacheco

Astronomy Night



We recently had some students from Mackellar Primary School visit us to join in on some science experiments.

“On behalf of the 3/4 teaching team at Mackellar Pri-mary School, we wish to thank you, your colleagues and students for providing an educationally rich ex-perience for our students on Monday the 16th of June and Thursday the 19th of June. The level of student engagement clearly demonstrated their interest, cu-riosity and wonderment and awe in the experiments and activities presented to them.

Teaching staff at Mackellar Primary School were also

extremely impressed with the positivity and friendli-ness of your students at Suzanne Cory. Many of our students said that they would love to attend the school in the future.

Thank you sincerely for such a wonderful opportunity.

Kind Regards,Tanya O'Brien 3/4 Team Leader Mackellar Primary School”.

Mackellar Primary School



The inaugural Commerce Week started off with some exciting and engaging speakers from Monash University. Anita Forsyth, who is the VCE Economics Chief Assessor and Senior Lecturer of Education, Monash University spoke about ‘Economics is for Cool Kids’, explaining the importance and relevance of Economics in today’s job market. Dr Linda McGuire, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management, Monash University spoke about ‘Marketing Yourself’ and the relevance of brand names in today’s society and how branding is essential in the workplace. David de Garis, Director and Senior Economist with the NAB, spoke about fiscal policy, monetary policy and the Australian economy at the Suzanne Cory High School Budget Breakfast. There was good discussion of this year’s

budget and its impact on the economy and the consumer. Marijana Graijuk, youth lawyer from the Wyndham Legal service addressed the topic ‘Legal Service and How to Become a Lawyer’. All the speakers brought their own impressive insight to careers and how the students can manage their career pathways. It has been a very successful Commerce Week. Ms de Garis

Commerce Week

David de Garis, Director and Senior Economist with the NAB, addresses students during the Commerce Week Budget Breakfast presentation



The implementation of an RFID Self-Loan station will be started in Term 3, which will enable students to take more responsibility for their own borrowing by using state-of-the-art technology. Self-Loan is already commonly used at public libraries and universities. Students will be able to borrow and renew items using an intuitive check process.Implementing RFID will initially involve tagging all the resources in the collection, during Term 3. In Term 4 the Self-Check Unit will be installed and

should be operational by the start of Term 4.I will be on Long Service Leave during Term 3 and will be replaced by Ms. Pauline Wigan, who is an experienced Teacher Librarian. Ms. Lisa Birchall, iCentre assistant, will be on leave for the first 7 weeks of Term 3. She will be replaced by Ms. Kahna Cooper.

Ms StarfordiCentre Manager

iCentre

Recently students from the Year 9 Co-Curricular Competition Writing group entered the State Library of Victoria’s Centre for

Youth Literature online writing competition on the Inside-a-dog web page. Students uploaded short creative paragraphs to answer the question “If I wasn’t quite human, I would be…” Congratulations Johnson Tran 9E who won the competition. Johnson wrote about being a ‘Magic-user’ if he wasn’t quite human. Johnson will receive a prize from State Library of three books. Congratulations also Jenny Pan 9E who wrote

about being a ‘Werewolf’ if she wasn’t quite human. Jenny will receive a book prize for runner-up. For more information about inside-a-dog:http://www.insideadog.com.au/Competition Writing students also participated in the UNSW International Competitions and Assessments for Schools Year 9 Writing test this term. This year students were required to complete a narrative. Students will receive reports and certificates later this year and will be eligible for prizes.Ms. Pauline Wigan, who will be replacing me during Term 3, will be responsible for the Competition Writing class next term.Ms StarfordCompetition Writing

Competition Writing



On Monday the 19th of May, I along with six other students participated in the first Model United Nations in French held in Australia. It was a simulation of debates and deliberations that were centred on the topic of refugees: rights and risks. For the entirety of the day we were delegates of an assigned francophone country. We had to take into account and understand key global issues that are affecting French speaking countries and to come up with suitable amendments regarding human rights, peacekeeping and sustainable development.The day was split into three sessions: the first of which involved us stating our position on the issue of refugees. The other two consisted of making amendments and resolutions by debating and negotiating with delegates of other countries. All in all I had a wonderful experience and it was a great opportunity for us to practise our French skills outside of class and meet students from other schools. Vivian Nguyen 12F

During the conference, Year 11 and Year 12 French students represented either Lebanon or Cameroun and engaged in debates and discussions all in French. I would like to congratulate the following students; Students who represented Lebanon Ella Bryne 12ASaurya Shrestha 12HVivian Nguyen 12FDavid Nguyen 11H

Students who represented Cameroun Elena Demosthenous 11DMary Bekele 11DThao Tran 11HElise Zsidai 11G

Please find an article published in the Age about this French Model United Nations conference. http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/junior-diplomats-begin-a-language-revolution-20140530-398ym.htmlMs Inoue-AnderssonPLT Leader LOTE

French Model United Nations Conference



Training for the Great Victorian Bike Ride is now underway with a team of enthusiastic students, 5 exerienced parent support riders and Principal Mr Peter Starford. The rides are now well underway and great bonds are forming between the students and adults.

The early morning starts are a bit of a smile-killer in this cold weather, coupled with the fact no teenager in history has enjoyed an early start on a weekend! But everyone has been so diligent and it doesn’t take long before there is lots of laughter and fun as we zoom along the bike paths.

Our first 2 sessions were all about some skills training to build a little confidence, and a bit of a test to see how the students dealt with riding a little longer than they may have done before. We have now completed approximately 150km across 4 rides…that’s great progress!

What is really fabulous to see is the older more experienced students really mentoring the new riders and sharing their knowledge. It can be tough as a new rider, but we can already see some

AMAZING effort and personal challenge occurring. The group will only get stronger and we are looking forward to extending the distance of each ride.

Over the holidays we will be focusing on some really important skills of descending and cornering safely and we will be using a closed road route for this. These are two areas where it is important to really know what you are doing, and from past experience, we know our student riders take this very seriously – they are a fabulous team!

By my very rough calculations, did you know our Parent Support Riders and Mr Starford have covered around 12,000km collectively across the 3 years we have held the Great Vic Bike Ride, while our students have covered around 41,000 kilometres across 3 years of rides and training! That’s once around the earth. Pedal power SCHS style…WOW!(Sounds unbelievable, but it’s true!)Ms Tina McCarthy

Great Victorian Bike Ride



As we reach the half way point in the year, for the first time with a full cohort, it is incred-ible to think that just a short time ago many of our students were starting their journey at Suzanne Cory High School.

As a Council, we have also come a long way, however

there is still much work to be done in formulating new policies, ensuring the future direction and management of the school and providing clear and transparent management of the finances, as well ensuring our assets are well looked after and plans put in place for their ongoing maintenance.

As some of you may know, we have 5 parents who sit on School Council: David Blake as Vice President, Marty Oakes as Treasurer, Sarita Dawhale as Sec-retary and Iqbal Gondal, as well as myself as Presi-dent. For David, Marty and I it will be our final year on council and sadly our final year at the school. All three of us have been on Council for 4 years and we hope to be able to pass on the roles to some new parents.

The role of Council is to ensure sound management of the school for the future, assist in developing and approving the Annual Implementation Plan, con-

sider policies such as Reporting and Assessment Policy or Drive To School policy for our older stu-dents, look at resources and approve expenditure on projects such as the new oval, and also look at ways the school can enhance the learning and ex-perience for our students, such as IT needs for the future.

As we move towards completion of the second part of the year we would love to see some interested parents step forward who may consider a position on council in the future. It is not a hard job, but it does carry a responsibility with it. It would certainly be advantageous if we could start an informal hand-over process over the next few months with any parents considering taking on the roles at Council for 2015. If you are interested, please email the of-fice with an expression of interest.

If you have any questions, or think you might be in-terested but have some questions, please feel free to email me at: [email protected]

On behalf of Council, we wish all our students a very successful second half of the year, especially our first VCE students...may all your hard work reward you with what you wish for!

Tina McCarthySchool Council President

School Council



Geography students from SCHS tested their geographical skills and knowledge against students from all around Australia in the 2014 Australian Geography Competition.

Geography teacher Ms Byrne said she had just received the results and was pleased with how their students had performed.

“We have a number of student geographers at our school who performed to a very high level in the Competition this year with 7 gaining high distinctions,” said Ms Byrne.

“Over 70,000 students from 760 schools entered the Australian Geography Competition so the results give us an external benchmark as to how our students are going in certain aspects of geography,” she added.

Bernard Fitzpatrick, the competition’s national coordinator, said the competition played a role in promoting geography to students.

“Geography is such an important subject to develop in students a real understanding of the complex social and environmental interactions happening in the world around them,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.

“Over time, I hope the national geography curriculum will mean all students get the opportunity to better study this endlessly fascinating subject,” he said.

High-scoring students in the Australian Geography Competition progress to two international contests. Students aged 14 and 15 years will represent Australia in the 2015 National Geographic World Championship. High-achieving older students will take part in a 6-day training/selection event, Geography’s Big Week Out, to choose the team to the 2015 International Geography Olympiad near Moscow, Russia.

The Competition is a joint initiative of the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association and the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland.

Congratulations to the following students on receiving a high distinction:Abdul Ali 9DDean Baziotis-Kalfas 9HManan Bhandari 9EJoshua Cordina 9FJames Dang 9BSarah Ng 9AJoseph Phan 9D

SCHS students excel in Australian Geography Competition



WINNER: PAPER CUTS BEST

BOOK TRAILER

SHORTLISTED: TRAILERS SCREENED

AT PAPER CUTSONLINE

SHORTLISTED: COVER DESIGNS ON

SHOW AT PAPER CUTS ONLINE

WINNER: PAPER CUTS BEST

BOOK COVER DESIGN

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APRIL 28 – JULY 31APRIL 28 – JULY 31

PRESENTS

VICTORIA'S FIRSTBOOK TRAILER &BOOK COVER DESIGN

COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

FOR FULL DETAILS VISITEDUCATION.VIC.GOV.AU/PAPERCUTS

FOR FULL DETAILS VISITEDUCATION.VIC.GOV.AU/PAPERCUTS

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SCHS Newsletter volume 4 issue 06

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