Newcomb Secondary College Newsletter

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TUESDAY 9th June 2015 ISSUE: 17

Coming Events

Thursday, 11th June

Year 9 REACH: Period 3 to 6.

Year Level Assembly.

Friday, 12th June

End of VCE Semester 1.

Report Writing Day: Student Free

Monday, 15th June

PSD Swimming Lessons

IDAHO Day - Casual Dress Day (gold

coin donation).

Tuesday, 16th June

Year 7 and 9 Immunisations.

Year 9 REACH, Period 3 to 6.

Deakin Aspire, Yr 7 and 8 ECO.

GFC Players Talk (2pm to 3pm)

Parent session - School review, 4.30pm.

Wednesday, 17th June

Biggest Morning Tea.

Thursday, 18th June

Connect Meeting.

Friday, 19th June

GROW at Gordon.

Monday, 22nd June

Year 9 REACH, Period 3 to 6.

CSEF application closing date.

Wednesday, 24th June

Year 9/10 Circus Oz/IMAX.

Music Excursion - The Lion King.

Year 10 REACH.

Thursday, 25th June

Year 11/12 REACH.

All School Assembly.

End of Semester Reports Staff are gathering information in relation to the students’ progress to include in the upcoming reports. There will be a report writing day on Friday, 12th June and reports will be available online through the Parent Portal on XUNO by Wednesday, 24th June. Once you log into Xuno you will see a link on the left hand side that says ‘Reports and Letters’, click this and you will see the report to be downloaded. It is important to read these reports with your young person and discuss the comments from the teachers, in order to plan for Semester 2.

Student Free Day This Friday, 12th June is a student free day for Report Writing Purposes. No classes will be running on this day.

Year of Review As part of the Department of Education and Training practice, each school in Victoria undergoes a review every four years. 2015 is the year for Newcomb Secondary College.

We are currently reviewing our policies and procedures, as part of this process. We are also reviewing the goals that we set in our Strategic Plan four years ago and evaluating how we have progressed over this timeframe. Our Leadership Team have looked at this and as a follow up; a Data Team (Mr Lingham, Ms Goldsmith, Mr Owens, Ms McNamara and Mr Elevato) was established to review the information and present it to the staff early in Term 3.

To ensure all members of the College community have had an opportunity to participate: staff, students and parents sessions have been organised for each group. On the 1st June a group of 30 students covering each year level of the College, represented their fellow students in a discussion with their Year Level Team Leaders and the Assistant Principals in the morning. In the afternoon two students from each group presented their findings to Mr Honeywell. Three of those students: Baillee, Luke and Emma then presented these finding to the staff at Thursday’s staff meeting.

College Council: Student Leaders: Student Leaders: President: Yvette Ramsay Mitchell Allen Toby France

Vice President: Vidas Kymantas Amanda Clydesdale Bailee Jones

Exec. Officer: Phil Honeywell

81-85 Bellarine Highway Newcomb VIC 3219 Phone: 03 5248 1400 Fax: 03 5248 3523

Email: newcomb.sc@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.newcombsc.vic.edu.au SMS student absences: 0416 907 351

Our parents are invited to a session on Tuesday, 16th June at 4:30pm in the College Library and staff will be involved in a session early in Term 3. All of these discussions will help to inform our self-evaluation and assist us in forming a new strategic plan for the next four years.

Parent Participation in the School Review The planned session for tonight has had to be postponed until next Tuesday, 16th June at 4:30pm. We are inviting parents to have a discussion about the future directions of the College, in the Learning Resource Centre (Library). Please contact the College Office on 52481400 if you are able to attend. We would love to see you there.

Camps, Sports, and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Closing Date for CSEF Applications is fast approaching. The closing date is Monday, 22nd June. If you are the holder of a valid Centrelink Pension Card, Health Care Card, Veteran's Affairs Gold Card or you are a temporary Foster Parent or your child has a Youth Allowance Health Care Card you may be eligible to claim. Application forms can be collected from the College Office.

Family Accounts Family accounts have recently been mailed out. Thank you to all the families who have paid their family account up to date. There are a small number of families still with outstanding essential charges that are now overdue. Prompt payment would be much appreciated.

IDAHO Day As part of being a supportive school and sharing the values of inclusion, equity and respect, we will be recognising International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), on Monday, 15th June. The Stand Out Group has organised a Colour Fun Run, which will take place at lunch time. Students can wear casual dress on this day in exchange for a gold coin donation, which will be donated to supporting kids with cancer. It is important to note that all students involved in the colour fun run are required to bring a change of clothes to school. We look forward to students participating in this event. Stay tuned for some photos of the day in the next addition of the newsletter.

General Achievement Test On Wednesday, June 10, all senior students undertaking a Year 12 VCE subject will be joining students across the state in completing the General Achievement Test (GAT). The GAT will be happening in the E Block from 10AM-1:15PM and students are required to attend in full school uniform. The GAT is a formal assessment that brings together aspects of all subject areas, in the event of a student not being able to complete their final examinations, the GAT results are used by the VCAA to calculate the student’s final results. It is a process that should be treated with the utmost respect, and we encourage students to do as well as they possibly can with this challenge.

Mr Phil Honeywell, Principal

Mr Shane Elevato, Assistant Principal Mrs Liz McNamara, Assistant Principal

iSeek Geelong

On an icy cold June morning, SWV metro students travelled by V/Line train to Geelong to spend the day with their Geelong counterparts. A highlight of the day was being picked up by a McHarrys bus and taken for a ride to the waterfront where students worked in pairs to explore the bus and discover a myriad of facts about buses and safe bus travel. Everything that could be counted on the bus was carefully discussed and documented. Bus driver, Garry, patiently answered questions and provided tips and information to students about safe travel.

Garry kindly dropped the group back at Westfield and hungry students enthusiastically researched the foodcourt options and, supporting each other, independently purchased lunch and drinks. Following lunch, students worked in teams on some mobility challenges. Several teams explored inside the shopping centre, while another team braved the outdoors for a special street challenge. Students in the street challenge discovered the difficulty of finding an address that didn’t appear on their iphone GPS! But their efforts and determination to locate a particular café were greatly rewarded, as can be seen by the photo below of Aiden between a couple of local celebrities. Can you guess who they are?

SWV Region Visiting Teachers extend a big thank you to Laura and Simon from GDV Children’s Mobility Service for the fantastic support and assistance on the day. And a special thanks also goes out to McHarry’s Buslines for generously providing a bus and driver to support the stationary bus exploration.

Streetsurfer You may have seen a giant green bus on the school grounds over the past few weeks and wondered what it is. This is the Streetsurfer Bus and is a part of a program run by Barwon Youth called Groups in Schools. It runs for five weeks and explores topics such as bullying, feelings and emotions, and safe partying. Nine of our Year 10 boys are involved and are really enjoying the interactive style program, especially wearing the beer goggles while trying to do activities! At Newcomb Secondary College, we try and offer a variety of learning experiences and are very lucky to have youth services come in to the school. The bus also attends events and does some outreach, offering playstations, laptops, and TVs as well as a BBQ and some pretty cool youth workers. If you are interested in finding out more about the bus, why not check out their website here - http://www.barwonyouth.org.au/street-surfer

REACH Foundation

Newcomb Secondary College are very lucky to have the REACH Foundation working within the school throughout 2015. The Foundation was established by Jim Stynes and Paul Currie in 1994 with the vision of inspiring young people to believe in themselves and get the most out of life. REACH are based in Melbourne, but bring a team of motivated, skilled, young leaders all the way to Geelong to work with our students in school. So far this year, we have had a group of Year 11 students participate in two workshops focussing on leadership. The students are encouraged to find their personal strengths, identify what a leader really is, and develop an understanding of how they can change their community and really make a difference. This group will have four workshops over the year which will culminate in them running an activity for the school in Term 4. Over the next few weeks, our lucky Year 9’s will be partaking in a four week workshop series focussing on wellbeing. The students will look at a range of issues that they may be facing in their school at the moment, develop some strategies around dealing with these, and learning the skills they need to live a balanced life. The aim of the workshops is to build on the student’s resilience, social connections, and an increase in self-awareness. In Term 3, our Year 10’s will be involved in some workshops that look at identity, gender stereotypes, and acceptance. This year level will work in male and female groups to debunk the stereotypes and myths around expectations of behaviour placed on our teens. The students will look at the impact of gender expectations and challenge these ideals to assist them in being able to express their authentic selves. The school is very lucky to have these opportunities and really encourage our students to be involved. We are proud to be able to work with other organisations to provide such unique experiences for the school. If you are interested in finding out more about the REACH program you can find it all here: http://www.reach.org.au

Cass Langdon

Senior Years Wellbeing Co-ordinator

News from Indonesia

The second week of the program is going really well. The kids have made good friends with their hosts and share a lot of jokes. We visited Gili Trawangan and the Sendang Gile waterfall which was flowing very fast! On Saturday night we attended Sketsa which was a 'night club style' concert organised by the kids at SMANSA. Lochie's host brother Ai deejayed under his stage name Dj Aywall and the crowd of 1000 people went off. The trip to Panti Asuhan Pat Mos was very moving. Lochie Cropley writes: "My experience of the orphanage in Mataram was a learning experience. I learnt that we should appreciate what we have and not take anything for granted. These kids we met had hardly anything and when we put a smile on their faces it was amazing. This trip to the orphanage has opened my eyes to the small things we all take for granted in Australia."

Bu Millis Indonesian Co-ordinator

Lochie Cropley with his host brother Ai, who is also a famous DJ, his host mum and Pak Wing

The Harrison family with Hannah's host mum and sister and the SMANSA principal Pak Wing

Sarah Buckley chilling by the pool in Sanur The group in front of the Welcome sign at SMANSA

The group doing the Bali Baik Bike tour in front of a rice paddy

Lake Kintamani Sarah Buckley with her host mum and sister and Pak Wing

Aspire Classes

“The Year 7 Science ASPIRE class travelled to Deakin Waterfront while Year 8 Introduction to University students visited the Waurn Ponds campus. Year 7 students were treated to a talk with guest lecturer Trace Ollis before preparing for their excursion to the Ecolinc wetlands next week. Trace is the Director of our Masters of Applied Learning and Teaching course. She shared with the students a little about her personal journey all the way to achieving her Doctorate. Students were very engaged in hearing about Trace's pathway as this provided an excellent example of how the journey can, in reality, be achieved. Wonderful applied learning!!

Year 8 students worked on literacy and oral communication skills, They logged onto the Deakin online environment to complete a web-quest focusing on next weeks excursion to Ecolinc. The intention of this activity was to familiarize students with environmental science terminology, to become familiar with the Ecolinc web site and to set expectations for their excursion. Students were all required to present the findings of their web search to the class. We would especially like to thank Trace for making herself available at a busy time in the academic calendar and sharing about her journey.”

Anna Darcy Deakin University

Group 72 “Chalk

About” in Melbourne

On Wednesday, 3rd June, Group 72 spent a day in Melbourne as part of Drama. The students all agreed that they would not have improved the day at all – it was great! Thank you to Hannah, from the Victorian Arts Centre, for organising the money for the trip so we may attend for free – show and transport included. Many of the places we attended were free and people can go to them nearly all year round.

From the train station we took a tram to Swanton Street, we mustered along the ‘Swanston’ to see our lunch site and St. Paul’s Cathedral (a favourite for some). Then we proceeded along St Kilda Road to the Art Gallery’s water wall and College of the Arts. We toured the memorabilia under the Arts Centre spire before we descended to the third level of the Arts Centre into the Rehearsal Room for “Chalk About”.

The show used chalk drawings on the stage to help tell stories plus the use of recorded interviews, show music/noise, white material cut outs and balloons. We learned the performers were from Scotland and Belgium who had trained in dance and acting. They told the stories of their lives, and included snippets of the students’ lives that they had interviews. Chloe and Tim ended up on stage and in the Q & A after, our students asked some involved questions. The show posed questions about what are the most important aspects of life.

After some rapturous applause and thanks to the performers we ascended the stairs to go to ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Federation Square. Several students also put ACMI on their ‘faves’ list. We saw the car from the movie Mad Max, costumes from Moulin Rouge. We experienced how strobe lights trick your brain, the ‘dark room’, the list goes on……. We stopped for lunch, then looked at Hosier Lane’s street art, before walking back through Federation Square to the Ian Potter Art Gallery to see works by Australian artists, architects, and VCE art and deign students work. We perused the Southern Cross shops before making our way home. Their next excursion will be hopefully to local primary schools with their own shows. I would like to thank the parents for their help in transporting their students on a cold day to/from South Geelong railway station. But massive thanks to Mrs Swan for her assistance on the day, Ebony and Pauline for their HUGE help in organising the day and to the students - nearly all behaved really well – it makes the day so worthwhile.

Paul Kellett Drama teacher

FAMILY ACCOUNTS Family Accounts for Semester 1 are now overdue. Payments can be made in person at the office. There are several ways to pay your account. BPay (Biller Code is listed on your account), Direct Deposit (contact the office for bank details) or over the phone with a credit card.

SCHOOL EXCURSIONS AND REMINDERS

Students who don’t attend an excursion are expected to attend school as normal.

Parents are asked to not keep students at home.

Year/Group Excursion Date Cost Permission Slips &

Payment Due

Year 9 Geelong Tertiary Tasters Begins Friday, 17th July $40 20th June

Various The Lion King—Musical Production Wednesday, 24th June $70 22nd June

Optional: Years 9 & 10

IMAX and Circus Oz Wednesday, 24th June $9 21st June

Year 7 Cyber Cats Tuesday, 14th July Nil 11th July

Year 10 REACH Foundation Monday, 17th August Nil 15th August

Senior Concert Band

Band Tour, Daylesford Friday, 21st August $280 $100 deposit by 25th

May

SCHOOL FUNDRAISER

Entertainment Books The College is selling Entertainment Books as part of fundraising for 2015.

The books sell for $55 and are packed with hundreds of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers from many of the

region’s most popular restaurants, attractions, take-away chains, accommodation, and much more! Available as a traditional Entertainment Book OR the new Digital Membership for your Apple or Android

device.

Entertainment Books can be ordered online at www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks or by contacting the College office on 5248 1400.

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IRONING

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Contact Annie 0487 317 772