Senior School Newsletter Issue No. 7 Term 2 2017

Inspire, Shine, Create.

Dare to be wise.

Dear parents,

On Wednesday we held the second Alamanda Athletics Carnival and what a wonderful day it was, despite the cold. Credit goes to all the teachers who organised and

participated in the event and the students who involved themselves with enthusiasm and commitment.

As we have become such a large school, belonging to a House helps our students feel part of a smaller community within the larger whole school community, a team in which students of all ages can work together and with members of staff to achieve common goals. The system of House student leadership is a key part of this, with students being given responsibility for organising big events.

Our House system also provides opportunities for students to achieve success through participation in a wide variety of competitions, as well as earning House Points for academic success or positive contributions to the school. We want our students to feel proud of belonging to their Houses, this was very evident on Wednesday, with the comments I overheard such as ‘Just do your best and you’ll get points for your house,’ and the chanting and cheering that went on.We named our houses after prominent Australians who

have made a significant and positive contribution to society. Graeme Clarke, Charlie Teo, Fiona Wood And Fred Hollows.

Professor Graeme Clark, for example, dedicated years to the research of a cochlear implant for profoundly deaf people.

Clark house has great success yesterday and came a very close second to Wood house . Wood house overwhelmed all the teams at the last great advent “the great clean up of the sports oval and pavilion area “a scored event. That community minded last gesture enable wood house to soar to the front of the tally sheet.

As they say it is not over until it is really over... so do not pack up too early or ever give up. I believe there is a giant ‘tug-of-war’ planned for the Grade 2 students.

Please enjoy these photographic memories of the event.

Dare to be Wise and have a great weekend,

Jeanette FineganAssistant Principal, Secondary SchoolAlamanda College

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OLD ALGORITHM

NEW ALGORITHM

THE NEW STUDENT GRADING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF

EDUCATION AND TRAINING 2016-2017

Dear Parents,

F r i d a y ’ s c u r r i c u l u m day featured discussions with staff concerning

the new student grading system implemented by the Department of Education and Training 2016-2017. All schools are expected to have adapted their reporting system to reflect the newly revised algorithm for student grading.

The algorithm is very similar to the previous grading, put simply the algorithm assigns gradings to year level attainment scores. In the past, if a student attained a score that was 12 months ahead of the expected score for that year level (e.g. Year 1), then the report software would assign an A grade to this student. See sample above.

In the newest algorithm, the student score would need to be 18 months ahead of the score expected for that year level for the software to assign an A grade. See sample above.

Put simply, this means fewer students will be most likely to attain an A grading. It would be very typical in a good school that many students could be working 12 months ahead of the state standard. Logically, less number of students will be working 18 months ahead of the state standard for this time in the reporting cycle.

Parents should note this change in grading does mean you child has ‘slipped’ or is not continuing to achieving an excellent standard, the algorithm has changed making it more challenging for students to attain an A grading.

SCALE

A = 18 months beyond expected standardParents often equate A = Excellence

In the Victorian Grading System, this is not the meaning attached to the mark A. Please see below:

New A = 18+ months ahead of expected year level standard

Old A = 12+ months ahead of expected year level standard

New B = 6+ months ahead of expected year level standard

Old B = 6 months ahead of expected year level standard

New and old C = at expected standard

D = 18+ months behind expected standard

E = months behind expected standard

Take a deep breath and read again as this change will not make significant difference unless you do not understand the changes to the grading system

Dare to be Wise,

Lyn JobsonPrincipal

IMPORTANT DATES

Year 8 Archery & Ten Pin BowlingEvery Thursday for the next 5 weeksArrow Plus & Wyncity12:30pm – 3:15pm Year 9 Archery & Ten Pin BowlingEvery Friday for the next 5 weeksArrow Plus & Wyncity12:30pm - 3:15pm

Year 8 Dance Every Thursday for the next 5 weeks commencing Week 3

Year 9 Dance Every Friday for the next 5 weeks commencing Week 4

Year 9 VicUni visit‘Be an engineer for a day’1st June, departing at 9AM, returning for normal school

Year 8 Bike RidingEvery Thursday for the next 5 weeks commencing Week 4

Year 9 Bike RidingEvery Thursday for the next 5 weeks commencing Week 4

5 JuneWyndham Environmental Youth Summit

19-21 JuneYear 9 City Camp Experience

23 June Year 9 Werribee Secondary SchoolTour

27 June7B, 7C, 7D LOTE Excursion

29 June7A, 7E LOTE Excursion

Dear Families,

Last chance to join one of these fantastic experiences for 2017:

Year 7 Great Barrier Reef The Year Seven students at Alamanda College have been presented with an exciting opportunity to participate in a Great Barrier Reef Expedition during Term Three based on expression of interest. This opportunity will be made available to 20 students and three teachers from Alamanda College.

During this experience, students will meet with a marine naturalist who will focus on further developing the students’ understandings and perceptions of sustainability and our human impact on the environment due to globalisation. Students will visit Fitzroy Island, while also having plenty of opportunities to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, discovering the vast biodiversity of one of the natural wonders of the world. This expedition will focus on marine biology, as well as data sampling techniques, to determine the healthiness of the Great Barrier Reef. Highlights of this trip will include a visit to the turtle rehabilitation centre on Fitzroy Island, as well as possibly spending a night on a boat to experience the reef at night.

Year 8 and 9 Service and Action Trip to Central Australia• 7 nights camping at traditional

campgrounds, including Uluru Resort• 3-4 days of service work where

students will have the opportunity to teach at local schools and participate in a building project to help a local indigenous community

• Visit Kata Tjuta sunset, Uluru sunset bushwalk, National Park sunrise walk at Uluru

• Cultural Centre Experience: students will learn about the local area and speak to people from the Indigenous community to learn about traditional painting, storytelling, singing and dancing

• Learn about the local area from experienced tour guides Jen and Leroy who will give us access to exclusive areas not accessible to the general public

• Meet and interact with local communities at some of the different campsites we stay at

• Opportunity to participate in a traditional painting lesson, traditional cooking experience and spend an evening interacting with a local community

OPTIONAL EXPERIENCES – Camel ride, helicopter flight

Year 9 Bali • 5 days of service work where

students will have the opportunity to teach English to young children and/or participate in a building project

• Visit to local orphanage(s) to deliver shorts and skirts that have been made by Year 9 community students

• Visit to one of the traditional Balinese temples• Opportunity to attend a traditional Balinese Kecak dance show• Other sight-seeing and cultural experiences to be confirmed closer to the date

which may include a visit to the monkey forest in Ubud, • Waterbomb park, a trip to the local markets and moreStudents will stay in private dormitory style accommodation located in Ubud

organized through the International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ)

Please see the Office if you would like more information.

ATHLETICS CARNIVALStudents from Year 7 represented their Houses on Wednesday, in what was an amazing and exciting event! The Year 7 students worked with younger and older students when competing in Athletics events, and cheering for their Houses. Enthusiasm was in the air! Students were particularly excited when watching the teachers compete in the ‘teacher relay’. Congratulations to all Houses, especially Wood who are the 2017 Champions!

Year 7 NewsThis term, the Year 7 students are enjoying experimenting with a range of alternative sports. Collaborating in their house groups, they have been participating in Yoga, Cycling, Martial Arts and Walking. This week, Clark and Wood girls participated in Yoga, with our very own yoga expert – Ms Rani. It was a calm and challenging environment, in which all girls felt success. To end things on a high, we even got to see Ms Rani do the splits! Clark and Wood boys showed enthusiasm when exploring the local walking tracks. Teo and Hollows girls were eager to jump on bikes and cycle around the local area. Students who were walking and riding in the community showed a principled nature, representing school in a respectful manner. Teo and Wood boys took Martial Arts to a whole new level. Learning about skills of self-defensive, students were able to work cooperatively with an Martial Arts expert leading the reigns. Students are becoming excited about Term 3 Recreational Sport when they have the opportunity to pick their favourite sport and pursue the skills.

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Students in the Year 7 Music Elective participated in their first performance of the unit last week. After exploring the rehearsal process, working on their instrumental skills both individually and in their small groups, all students showed courage in performing in front of an audience of their peers and teachers. Students were excited to be able to choose their own music, and selected a variety of music that showcased their abilities. Their support of each other was wonderful to see, and is promising for all future music performances in the subject.

MUSIC

Making of the Clark Banner for Athletics Day

Over the last week, we have been used our own time at recess and lunch to make the Clark Banner for Athletics Day with help from Ms Osborne. We started off by dyeing calico fabric purple to represent Clark. We tried a few graffiti text designs to find the perfect one for our banner. We drew the final design onto the fabric, and put tape around the edges of the letters to make our painting have a clean cut and neat finish. We started painting

Their next project is a whole class band performance for an audience of another year level- learning to work together as a larger ensemble and to arrange a song for their

chosen instruments.

Congratulations on a fantastic first performance as Year 7 music students!

our first coat of white paint, let it to dry, then went around the outline of the letters in black and re-coated the white paint. We finished off by adding the silver streamers for our Clark athletes to run through at the finish lines and attached the wooden steaks to hold it up. We are really proud of our hard work!

Brooklyn Hawkins, Madi Filer, and Kaitlyn Forsell

ENGLISH NOVELSOur English unit this term consists of five books with the common theme of ‘migration’. The theme ties in with our humanities work as we are learning about Australia’s migration history and the cause and effects of it. The five books are: The Bone Sparrow which is about Subhi, a boy who was born and raised in a refugee camp whose life changes after he meets a girl, Jimmie, who has him read her deceased mother’s journal for her; When Michael Met Mina which is a love story between a boy whose family is against letting refugees into the country and a girl who is a refugee herself; Trouble Tomorrow is about a Sudanese boy running from the Rebels in the midst of a civil war in Sudan; Plenty is about a girl who moves from the city to the country side; and Yong: The Journey of an Unworthy Son is about a Chinese father and son travelling to the goldfields of Ballarat during the Gold Rush and the hardships they faced. We must read at least 2 of these books over the next month and a half, respond to a range of comprehension questions, and write a text response essay on each them then compare and contrast between them. We are enjoying our class book club sessions where we get to discuss the novels and the events happening within their pages. -Maha Rao

LUNCHTIME BASKETBALL LEAGUEThis semester, the 7, 8 and 9 boys have participated in the Lunchtime Basketball League (LBL). The league was constructed by the selection of captains and then they held a draft to select which players would play in what teams. The LBL has been a great success, encouraging many of the learner profiles to be used in the process such as: commitment, cooperation, confidence and enthusiasm. I personally think that the LBL is fantastic and great for all the students. It keeps us active and usually draws in a big crowd, as it is clearly entertaining and gives us something to look forward to at school. It also

Year 8 News

makes is easier for the older kids to collaborate with the younger ones, as they have to work together in achieving the ultimate goal – taking the win and making the playoffs! -Fletcher Snell and Turi Caesar

REC SPORTEvery second week of this term we have the choices of rec sport which are: bowling and archery. At the start, I chose to do bowling but I asked everyone I knew and they were all doing archery, so I also switched to archery! We have been doing archery

for the past 7 weeks. I thought that archery would be classified one of the dangerous sports, so I thought that it would have been an outdoor sport. But no, it is inside a very small building! There were many cases when we shot an arrow and it came flying back, but luckily it doesn’t hit anyone. We learn the techniques and skills such as how to hold the bow. Last week, we were given balloons on our target and told not to hit it. My group hit the balloon by accident. But then, when we were

told to hit the balloon… we couldn’t! - Keisha Wiranto

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HOUSE ATHLETICS DAYPanting, drinking, eating and cheering, humans filling up the entire stadium whilst others ready themselves on the track and fields. As the events unfolded, the commentator (Mr Hickson) boomed through the microphone as people representing the four houses zoomed through the lanes, sprinting for their lives and trying to surpass each other. For the field events, crowds watched as the students used all of their strength to hurl up shotput balls, fling the javelins into the distance and shooting themselves into the air and landing onto the sand with a thud! When it was time for the relay races, the most intense of all, the four houses chanted with the loudest of their voices. It was an enthusiastic event as everyone did their best, congratulations! -Yizi Shao

EVERESTIn Everest, we do accelerated learning, cramming 2 years into one. The work forces you to pick up good habits and always strive for the best possible mark. Most of the learning is at our own pace an d by ourselves, meaning most try their hardest. Another thing that is different about the Everest class is that it encourages use to become thinkers and open-minded, showing us what is happening in the world, why it is happening, and we discuss the morality and ethical issues that come with that! -Erick Hadi

YEAR 8 CAMP – TERM 3Please be on the lookout for Survival Camp Forms, which will be distributed to classes next week. The camp will be held in Term 3, in Anglesea, and will encourage students’ independence, cooperation, resilience, leadership and confidence, by taking them outside their comfort zone and into the bush for 3 days. - Mrs. Sullivan

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In Year 9 Humanities we have been focusing on our IDU; physical journeys can impact on personal growth and change, determining the outcomes for wider social groups. We have been inquiring about the history of Australia and about how the first settlers arrived here and why they came to Australia.

In Physical education (P.E) we have been learning about the rules and origin of Volleyball and Badminton. We have been learning about the techniques of Volleyball such as setting, digging and spiking. Over the last few weeks a lot of the students here have been participating in interschool’s sports representing Alamanda. On the 30th of May multiple teams went out to compete in events such as soccer, badminton and netball. The day after the year 5’s, 6’s, 7’s, 8’s and 9’s went out to compete in the Athletics carnival.

In English our mentor text was a play script called Away. Away is about 3 families going on their separate holidays during Christmas time in 1967. This play relates back to our IDU, as Away has many references to physical journeys and personal growth. To gain more knowledge on the text we went to the Malthouse Theatre to watch the play in action on the 18th of May. For our assessment task we need to get ourselves into the mindset of reviewers and review the play. We need to talk about a lot of aspects of the play such as the acting, lighting, costumes, sound, set etc.

Year 9

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The Lunchtime Basketball League (LBL) has been continuing and the students participating as well as the audience have been absolutely fantastic and respectful during the lunch/recess time matches. We are now entering the final week of regular season play while the playoffs

will begin in Week 9. Attached are some photos as well as the current ladder. Good luck to all participants while they make their push towards glory!

Lunchtime Basketball League

On Friday 12th May, the Year 9 Drama and Music classes made their way to the Melbourne Recital Centre to view Top Acts, a combined performance of the top VCE student work in Drama, Theatre

Studies, Dance and Music from 2016.

The students were required to reflect upon their experience and the performances viewed in a review. Harnessing their developing skills in critical analysis, artistic interpretation and responding, Year

9 Drama students have built on their understanding of stagecraft and expressive skills through evaluating the work of others. Below are excerpts from two reviews completed by Lily Van Bert and

Yash Dhukate respectively.

Top Acts is a compilation of VCE performing art student performances. This was performed at Melbourne Recital Centre and was an inspiring and intriguing show.

MANUTUUFANGA LAVEMAI - LIBERTYManutuufanga Lavemai performed a solo performance written by her on ‘Liberty’. Her performance on the topic of liberty was truly unique and captivating as she used this opportunity to speak about the corruptness of liberty, especially in America, while creating characters through her voice to tell her story of lost values and desire to redeem them.

Lavemai used the elements of stagecraft to express her character and make it clear who she was, which was definitely needed since her monologue seemed very complicated on first look. She was dressed as ‘Lady Liberty’ and used her famous torch for multiple uses than just costume. The torch was used a device for differentiating characters

and to set a cold, haunting tone when it was used as the only light source. It was clear she was in America because of the choice of words and accent. As she changed into character, she varied her voice for distinction, using accent, tone, volume and range to assist that. She also used height, stance and body movements to separate characters; some were hunched whereas some stood tall.

She played many characters such as Liberty’s sisters, gangsters, scared child and Donald Trump. Manutuufanga Lavemai is a very physical actor; she used the space constantly and moved around to engage and tell the story. Every movement had a purpose; a specific moment of this, was when she scanned the audience with her flashlight in a slow and haunting pace, which was a real engager for the audience. Lavemai, when she performed, seemed confident in her character, but it would have been interesting to see more of her personality. Liberty was like an

onlooker of the story, she watched, in despair, as her country began to corrupt and lose its values of equality and fraternity. Her character’s intention and values were clear and she used current events to help drive that. Manutuufanga Lavemai created an effective performance. - Lily Van Bert

Tom Hughes used stagecraft in his performance to communicate time with his metronome. He speeds up the metronome when he needs to speak fast and slows it down when he needs to speak in a normal tone of voice. He communicated place with his prop, the umbrella. For example, when the scene had rain in it, he covered his body with the umbrella, and when he was walking, he used it as a walking stick.

Candice Farrugia-Roberts used stagecraft in her performance to communicate time by describing her past memories with her owner since her character is a dog. She

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communicated her character by saying sentences like “I will stop chewing you shoes”; she didn’t tell us she was a dog and she didn’t dress like one, but the audience understood through her use of dialogue.

Tom Hughes’ performance was about a journalist and he communicated his character through his Australian accent since his setting was in Australia. The gestures he used was equally as excellent as his voice. He used his hands to move and transform the prop (an umbrella) to help describe what he is talking about. For example, when he was a turtle he bent down and put the prop over his back, indicating the turtles shell. He moved around the stage to set his scene as a room, since he sat on a chair indicating that it has to be inside not outside. The costume he used was

an old journalist clothing: shirt, jacket with a lot of pockets and jeans.

Tom Hughes’ expressive skills in his character was top-notch. He used an Australian accent when he described all states of Australia. He didn’t lose the accent so that made his play better. His performance was a rhyming monologue and his prop was a metronome. With the metronome, he managed to use it and also match the beat to it. When the metronome ticks every second his rhymes would match the speed of it, and when it was 4x faster, he moved around the stage quicker and rhymes quicker. With all that said, I can’t think of any negatives or areas he needs to improve on. Furthermore, his act included comedy. If he expanded his act and did a monologue about different cultures, included all voice,

gestures and movement the same as this one, that in my opinion would be the best play ever.

Candice Farrugia-Roberts’ expressive skills in her character was amazing. She used an excited voice and her tone of her voice was squeaky just like an excited dog would be. The squeakiness of her voice made her seem happy and bright and then when the conflict occurred her voice was not a loud but still in the squeaky tone. That bumped up her act very much since it sounded like a dog begging. With all that said, the monologue was a touching piece and had excellent acting. Just as Tom Hughes monologue, I can’t think of any negatives or areas she needs to improve and any way to change it. - Yash Dhukate