Senior School Newsletter Issue No. 16 Term 4 2018

Inspire, Shine, Create.Dare to be wise.

Only 19 more school days remaining for the 2018 school year (not that anyone is counting…)

As we hit the final stretch of the school year, the events are starting to pile up with the calendar dates being filled to the brim as we speak. Over the next month, we have elective exhibitions, fashion shows, drama productions, LBL finals series, graduations, student reports, three-way conferences, transition days, Year 8 survival camp, carol evenings along with end of year celebrations, which makes for a very fun and exciting for the Alamanda College Secondary school staff and students.

As we wind down the year, our key focus over the next month will be to realign the Alamanda College mission towards the new Victorian Teaching and Learning model which emphasises that all students are empowered to learn and achieve, experiencing high quality teaching practice and the best conditions for learning which equip them with the knowledge, skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and shaping the world around them.

At Alamanda College, we placed a pinpointed emphasis on one of the key practice principles, where we truly highlight student voice, agency and leadership to empower students and build school pride. This is very evident through our student community projects as they beginning to understand their role in global citizenship along with how their actions can certainly shape the world around them. Over the last four Friday afternoons, we had a group of

Year 8 students organise the ‘Vega Program’ for nearly 150 of their fellow Year 2, 3 and 4 students. They organised sporting, cooking and origami activities for one hour each week in the hopes of raising funds to support the ‘Save the Children’ foundation. The charity aims to be at the forefront of saving children’s lives when disasters strike and creating lasting change for children and their families through their long-term education, health, child protection and climate change projects. The group have raised nearly $1000 thanks to donations from parents and students as part of this program and should be extremely proud of their efforts over the last four weeks of their project.

This past week, our student leadership group in the Secondary school also attempted to raise awareness in terms of protecting Aussie kids as they hosted a ‘white balloon week’. Café Dare has been decorated with a plethora of white balloons and streamers while offering discounted vanilla milkshakes, mini-cupcakes and icy poles to raise funds. Students also organised school events such as chalk drawing and balloon volleyball to enlighten their peers about their community project.

Last but not least, if you haven’t noticed a few of the male staff members (and students) looking a little bit hairy around the facial area at the moment, that’s because over the last three weeks they have been taking part in Movember. The Movember foundation was originally started right here

Alamanda College

Address: 86-100 Alamanda Blvd.

Point Cook PO Box 6606, Point Cook

VIC 3030

Telephone: 03-8376 5200

Email: alamanda.k9@edumail.

vic.gov.au

IMPORTANT DATES23 NovemberYear 7 Queenscliff Marine Excursion

26 November Year 9 Exhibition

3-6 DecemberYear 9 Point Cook Transition Day

10-14 DecemberYear 9 Werribee Transition Day

12 December 6PM-8PMYear 9 Graduation

13 DecemberYear 9 After Party

17 DecemberYear 9 Collarts Music Excursion

21 DecemberLasy Day of schoolCurriculum Day

Dare to be wise,

Kirsten Sullivan and Ryan MaActing Assistant PrincipalSecondary SchoolAlamanda College

dying prematurely by 25% by 2030. Last year, they raised over $88 million in support of their cause.

If you have some spare funds available and are willing to help contribute to some of these great charities, please visit the websites below:

Save the Children Foundation - https://www.savethechildren.org.au/donate/make-a-donation#AmountWhite Balloon Day - https://sna.etapestry.com/fundraiser/Bravehearts/wbd2018/donate.doMovember Foundation - https://moteam.co/alamanda-dare-to-mo?mc=1

As you can see, Alamanda College is certainly an exciting place to be and always attempts a pragmatic approach towards helping students build school pride and connectedness within our local and global community. As we head into 2019, our primary focus will be to continue to refine and improve our pedagogical teaching model which focuses on the E5 – Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate in order to help teachers apply the Practice Principles of improving student achievement and motivation.

Also, another huge congratulations to our F1 teams who competed in the Victorian F1 in schools competition last week. With Mr. Nikolsky and Mr. Thompson at the helm, our two Cadet Class teams, walked away with multiple awards including:

• Cadet Junior Class – State Champions• Cadet Junior Class – 2nd Place• Cadet Junior Class – Best Team Poster• Cadet Junior Class – Best Engineered Car• Cadet Junior Class – Fastest Lap

While our Development and Professional Class students also walked away with multiple awards including:

• Development Class – Innovation Award• Development Class – 2nd Place• Professional Class – Fastest Reaction Time

For finishing first in the Cadet class, the team also won a Dremel Ultimate Make Workshop Kit which is valued at $2452.95 and will be a great addition to help aide future teams in the F1 program.

Congratulations to the Development and Professional Class teams as they have now advanced to the National championships which will be held in Queensland or Victoria in 2019, unfortunately there is no national championships for the Cadet class.

Good luck to our Year 9 Boys basketball team, as they will compete in our second annual entry into the Australian School Championships which will be held from Dec. 3rd – 7th. Last year we finished with a bronze medal, so hopefully they can come home with something better in 2019. Time to fly!

Kirsten and I are currently in the process of trying to organise our programming for 2019. So, parents if you know that your child will not be returning for 2019, could you please kindly notify the office so that we can have the most accurate and up-to-date numbers as we plan for 2019. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.

in Melbourne by two mates (Travis Garone and Luke Slattery) with 30 ‘Mo Bros’ in 2003, and has now ballooned to over 5 million participants last year. The foundation is the leading charity changing the face of men’s health and are addressing some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate and testicular cancer, and mental health as well as suicide prevention. Their aim is to reduce the number of my

Year 7 News SPLISH! SPLASH! I reluctantly walk into the forest of seaweed that immediately starts clinging to my leg. I leap onto my boogie board and start paddling towards the instructor. I sit on my boogie board and wait until the instructor to blow her whistle. I hear a loud, high-pitched noise and I paddle to the shore like my life depends on it. When I reach the shore, I turn around and jump into the water and I go underwater. I quickly get up and push off the seabed to race back. Kenodh Gamanayake – 7F A cold, trickling feeling runs through my body as I run into the depths of the ocean. But I ignore it. I see my target and swim towards it when I can’t run anymore. I pass the cricket bat I am supposed to be saving someone’s life with to him and I start dragging him to the shore. This is the activity in which we save someone’s life with things you take to the beach. Panting, I go back into the water for him to save me. My scream for help stretched across the beach so loud it could have shattered someone’s ears. Then, before I knew it, I am struggling to find a place to hold onto on the cricket bat. We then use the foam things that lifesavers use and we learn how to approach a person who needs help. Po-Hsu Chen – 7F

Open-Water Learning Experience

In year 8 Mathematics, students have spent the last week preparing a study sheet to take into their Algebra test. Teachers are teaching students the skill of writing a study sheet as a way for students to show their understanding, as well as a way for students to goal set and identify areas they need to work on. Another reason for teaching the skill of writing a study sheet is that in VCE students are allowed to take in an A4 piece of paper with back and front or an A3 sheet one sided in to

Year 8 Maths

their exams. Each student has been given a graphic organiser to fill in so that they know what to prepare for the test. Moving on from this student will be starting on the Chance continuum which is under the Do-main Statistics and Probability. While working on this we will be starting to record videos showing their knowledge of questions that they have successfully answered on the year 9 Naplan test. These videos will be used next year to teach peers how to complete these ques-tions.

LOTE News

In Term 4, Year 7 Mandarin program gives the students the opportunity, under the Global Context of Personal and Cultural Expression, to integrate and inquire about Family Information and Orientation in Time, Place and Space.

During the term, the students have explored the language, culture, values and time zone difference about family, countries, nationalities and continents. They discover and express ideas, beliefs and values. They did a research on Chinese family policy and international geography. The studentsl had the opportunity to complete a project on Describing Family Information and Research on Time, Place and Space. The inquiry questions allow the students to link their knowledge to the learning objectives, philosophy, belief, language and linguistic systems. This task also enables the students to compare, contrast and rethink time difference.

Cultural aspects include Chinese

family policy, a comparison between Chinese and Australian geographic features, Chinese modern technology, facts about China, Chinese cities and tourism. During the course, the students are concentrating on organisation, thinking, comparing and creative skills throughout their approaches to learning.

The students have been displaying curiosity and passion for their language study. They strive to

formulate questions which guide them through their learning. They add new ideas to each piece of new work and attempt to develop their existing ideas and use them in new ways. The students have been displaying great collaboration skills through actively participating in class and peer discussions and expresseing their opinions, ideas or information.

The following are the projects completed by Year 7 students:

On Wednesday the 24th of October, 2018 a group of students from year 8 participated in the Robbie Kearns under 14 boys tackle competition. The competition was run by the Melbourne Storm and was held at Jacana Reserve in Broadmeadows. In the lead up to the competition, we were lucky enough to have Luke Suracai from the Melbourne Storm Development Team come out to run clinics and coaching sessions with the team, as well as students in year 7 and 9. This was a great opportunity for all students involved as they were able to learn and develop new skills and understanding of the game. On the day of the tournament, the boys played 4 games, and had to finish top of their pool in order to be crowned champions and advance to the State Finals. The boys put in a great effort throughout the day and showed great skills and effort as they played and won against Gladstone Park Secondary College, Melton Secondary College and Lalor Secondary College, as well as playing against Caranballac P-9 College where the game ended in a draw. With the boys not losing a game all day, they were crowned the champions of the tournament and progressed to the State Finals. Working hard, the boys continued to train over the next few weeks in the lead up to the State Finals which were held at Jacana Reserve, Broadmeadows on the 20th of November 2018. The boys put in a great effort on the day, however, unfortunately we couldn’t match the size and strength of the other teams, going down to The Grange 32-4 and Melton Secondary 12-8. Finishing third in our pool, we faced off against Gladstone Park Secondary College, defeating them 20-8 and placing 5th overall in the state.

Alamanda Makes the State FinalsUnder 14 Boys Robbie Kearns Rugby Tournament

A huge congratulations to all the boys involved in this competition who have worked hard throughout the year to develop their skills both individually as a team. - Mrs. Kate Tjia

Year 9 musicStudents in Year 9 have been learning basic rock songs as a small ensemble. To help build their musical skills they have been learning “Come Together” on the bucket drums with the Junk Orchestra. On Monday 17th of December students from Year 9 Music will be joined with select students from Year 8 to attend the Experience Day at Collarts College in the City. This will give students the opportunity to check out the campus facilities, perform for experts from the music industry and participate in feedback sessions with university students. Permission forms will be due back to Ms King by November 30th.

Music NewsStudents in Year 7 have been busy collaborating to perform class mashup of “The Scientist” and “Let It Be”. They have been building their skills on keyboards, drums, guitar, bass, ukulele and voice in small groups and then performed for their peers in the music room to finish the term on a high note!

It’s been a very busy term for Students in Year 8 Music. They have been focused on learning solos, duets and small ensemble pieces for our lunchtime busking sessions in the D.T.P. (Dare To Perform Amphitheatre). Our next performance will be Friday 30th November at lunchtime.

Helping students to overcome their fears, share their hidden talents and form new friendships has wonderful with our weekly sessions on Thursdays at lunchtimes. Matthew Bell has been our headline act with card tricks, followed by some of our young budding musicians playing guitar and ukulele. For those interested in performing please register your name with Ms King on Mondays in the secondary music room. All welcome Thursday’s lunchtime in the Birdcage (Secondary Building)!

2018 Performing Arts Evening

The students of Alamanda College’s Drama Club have been working hard over the term on preparing an end of year showcase performance to share with the community. The evening will be a feature a collection of mu-sic theatre songs, dances and comedic scenes. All community members are welcomed to come along and help

us in celebrating the talents of our performing arts students!

Drama News

The Alamanda College Drama Club presents

2018

PERFORMING

ARTS

EVENING

FREE ADMISSION

SING ALONGCAFE OPEN

 UNDER THE  

THURSDAY 13TH DECEMBER 3PM

COME & ENJOY SOME XMAS TUNES AT CAFE DARE

A L L W E L C O M E !

VIVACE VOICE& STRINGS

HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS WITH THE 

Wed 5th December 3pm Enjoy some Christmas treats from

Sweet Treats at Cafe Dare!

ALL WELCOME!

POP  BAND

POP  BAND