Newsletter Issue 8 : 29 August 2014

St Mary’s 7-10 Campus 273 Victoria St, West Melbourne 3003 Tel: 9321 9200 FAX: 9321 9299 St Brigid’s VCE Campus 20 York St, Fitzroy North 3068 Tel: 9403 6800 FAX: 9403 6899

www.sccmelb.catholic.edu.au principal@sccmelb.catholic.edu.au  

There is a quote that states, “the only constant in life is change”. This is certainly the case in regard to education. Over the past two weeks, screens have been installed in each of the St Mary’s Campus classrooms to further enhance 21st Century learning through the use of Apple TV’s. I had a very interesting conversation with two staff members recently who like myself have been teaching for over thirty years – as we reminisced about the fairly minimal resources available for us as young teachers in the 1980’s, compared to the technology that is now at our fingertips, and also so readily available to our students. I think it is important to note that whilst this increase in technology can really enhance student learning, the relationship between the teacher and the student is of paramount importance, and it is when there are many resources and such technology available, combined with positive and strong relationships between the student and teacher, that the best possible outcomes are able to be achieved by students.

This time of year is a critical time at Simonds Catholic College in our planning for the 2015 academic year. In recent weeks there have been many staff presentations to students and parents, regarding Subject Selections for 2015 as students look to a suitable pathway for the future. I am aware this is a real time of discernment for many students as they make these important decisions in regard to their future. A reminder too, that final subject selections are due now, and when they are all received, we can begin the construction of our timetable for 2015.

Finally, a sincere thank you to those families who were able to attend the recent Parent Teacher Interviews held at St Brigid’s Campus due to the continued re-furbishment of the A Building and General Purpose Room at St Mary’s Campus. The re-furbishment is on schedule to be completed by the end of Term 3. Many parents from Years 7-10 made comments on how pleasant it was to actually visit the St Brigid’s Campus for the first time before their son(s) begin their VCE on that Campus in years to come.

Yours sincerely, Mr Peter Riordan Principal | Simonds Catholic College

FROM THE PRINCIPAL – Mr Peter Riordan

Prayer for Migrants, Refugees & Assylum Seekers

God, no one is stranger to you And no one is ever far from your loving care.

In your kindness watch over migrants,

refugees and asylum seekers, Those separated from their loved ones,

Those who are lost And those who have been exiled from their

homes.

Bring them safely to the place where they long to be

And help us always to show your kindness to strangers

And those in need.

We ask this through Christ our Lord, Who too was a refugee and migrant

Who travelled to another land Searching for a home

Amen

On Monday the 25th of August, we were required to meet up at the State Library by 9am. If we were late, we would lose one dollar off our lunch money every minute we were late. While we were at the State Library, Miss Tan briefed us, gave us our objectives and cameras and put us into our teams. I was grouped up with Matthew, Milton was with Weng Wei and Johanes was with Long. The scavenger hunt started straight away. Our first location was Melbourne Central. The first question we had: “What was the Function of the Tower?” We got the answer to this question through asking someone that worked at Melbourne Central. Apparently the Tower was used for making bullets. For our second objective, we had to go to the Shot Factory Museum. Unfortunately for us, it was closed at that time, so we had to find out where our next destination was. After reading the objective over and over, we finally figured out where our second destination was. It was at the Royal Exhibition Centre. The objective stated that we had to locate the Stone Pillar. We had to write down what the plaque was protesting about. After ten minutes of trying to figure out where south west was, we eventually made it to our third destination. It turned out it was just a “special” stone from Antarctica pointing south. It was finally 11am; we started to make our way to the meet up location so that we could have lunch. Matthew and I took the wrong tram and as a result, we got lost. We finally made it to the lunch location half an hour late. The restaurant we had to meet up at was a Singaporean Restaurant called Killiney Kopitiam. After lunch we made our way to our fourth destination. It turns out it was Hosier Lane; an alley way full of graffiti art. After taking a couple of photos, we then proceeded to our fifth destination located near Docklands, by then it was time to meet up again. We needed to meet up with Miss Tan at an ice cream shop called ‘The Lab, Nitrogen Gelato’ I decided to order a cappuccino because I didn’t feel like eating an ice cream. The weather was far, far too cold for ice cream.

The VCAL class of 2014.

Simon Luu, Danny Quan, Patrick Tu and Johan Pagdanganan represented Simonds Catholic College with aplomb at the Year Eight Mathematics Games Day at PEGS, Keilor. The Maths Games Day is an opportunity for students to develop their mathematical talents and thinking skills in a setting where maths is regarded as fun and worthwhile with like-minded students from a diverse range of schools. It is an ideal way for students to participate in mathematical activities without the usual class room pressures and is a very effective vehicle for getting young people – particularly in the middle years of schooling – excited about maths. The four boys finished in the top 30% of over 85 schools that attended. Congratulations gentlemen on a fantastic result.

Mr T Smith |Mathematics Faculty Manager

Year 8 Maths Games Day

The VCAL Hoddle Waddle Excursion

This is Oliver Phommavanh the author of THAIRIFFIC the book that Year 7's read this year. I thought he was very funny. He was a nice guy to be around I really liked him I hope we can see him again I really liked his personality and the fact that he made Mr. Winfree after himself. He has three jobs 1. A comedian 2. A teacher and 3. An author. He had all these stuffed animals on his desk and that's why Mr. Winfree had a teddy bear called Grumpy Bear. I hope everyone will read his books. I know I will.

Harry Knight 7 White

Pearls of laughter were heard coming from the Library when Oliver Phommavanh

was invited to speak to the Year 7s who this year have read his book, Thai-riffic!, as their class novel. It was easy to see that Oliver, who has worked as a comedian, loves to make people laugh as he leapt about the Library entertaining the students with his hilarious and wacky tales of life at school and at home. What came over strongly too was his love of reading as he constantly urged the students to read at every opportunity. It was great to hear that when he is not writing or giving talks to students he can always be found reading, as in his words, “I’m proud to be a bookworm”. Not surprisingly, there was a line of boys to have their books signed after the session and I was very busy too, checking out other books by Oliver to eager students.

Mrs J Dymond | Librarian

The Science Department, last week took 21 keen Year 9 and 10 students to the programme called ‘Be a Chemist for a Day’ where they completed a day of Chemistry activities at Victoria University, Werribee. They completed a two and a half hour rotation of experiments, which highlighted what a practising chemist does. They participated in tutorials and experiments in synthetic organic chemistry, conductivity, chromatography, electrochemistry, magnetic particle technology and spectroscopy. The students went along included: Adam Monteleone, Anthony Titone, Aaron Lai, Alistair Lim, Tai Tran, Nathan Kwong, Bishal Shrestha, Andrew Antic, Anthony Trinh, Daniel Som, Andy Huynh, Phan Le, Kevin Van, James Stewart, Bruce Aing, Phu Chau, Cholo Viray, Godwin Makabory, Loius Tran, John Nguyen and Michael Dang. The boys were wonderfully behaved and we all really enjoyed the experience!

Miss L Fisher | Science Faculty Manager

Author: Oliver Phommavanh | Thai-riffic

A Day as a University Student  

Over the past eighteen months I have attended a series of talks organised by the organisation menALIVE with a number of our senior students. Keynote speakers have included Kevin Andrew, Francis Bourke and most recently, the Vice- Chancellor of the Australia Catholic University, Mr Greg Craven, who have all spoken about their Catholic Faith and the importance that faith has had in their lives. Archbishop Denist Hart has also been a regular attendee at these Breakfast talks.

Mr Peter Riordan | Principal

Risk taking, Responsibility & Resilence

Teenagers, Alcohol and Drug Issues

Presented by Paul Dillion

DARTA: Drug and Alcohol Research Training Australia

Essential new information for parents and local community.

• Alcohol issues in Australian society-what can we realistically do? • Teenagers and alcohol

DARTA parent information sessions cover a range of issues, including resilience and the important of connectedness.

Wednesday 8 October 7.00 – 8.30pm

Marian College

Bookings essential: 9363 1711

Parent Education Program 2014  

menALIVE Breakfast Series  

Time to Shine