Mooroolbark College Newsletter – November 2020

HOUSE REPORT – GREEN HOUSE 

It has been great having the entire Green House cohort back on Campus the past month. Whilst it was quite stressful for some to return, I am pleased to see everyone settling back into the school routine. 

We have been concentrating on getting the Green House Spoonville looking good. All students have decorated a spoon by themselves or in pairs and our Year 7 students’ spoons welcomed back the 8-10 students. The garden beds are looking really good with some colour. Congratulations to Blake Moir who was the first student to put his spoon in the ground – he won a $10 canteen voucher!! 

We ended up winning the best layout! Go green house!! 

Before the Year 12 final day, we farewelled our year 12 students at a Green House assembly. The year 12 students were in the ECA as a group. They have been an excellent group of students throughout their time at Mooroolbark College and we wish them the best for their future. 
Green House is continuing to close the gap on the other Houses in regards to the House Cup. The culture is growing and we have some enthusiastic younger students who are keen to keep it growing.  Unfortunately, we still ended up in 4th place, but it was only 200 points between fourth and third. We will continue to close the gap and overtake in 2021!! 

We had a very strong group of students apply to be a captain for Green House in 2021 and it was a very difficult decision. I am pleased to introduce the 2021 captains – Josh McMeekan, Caitlyn Kavanagh, Belle Gavin and Mia Caruana and I can’t wait to work with you. Finally a huge congratulations also to Jonty Just, another green house student, who was announced as the 2021 school captain! Well done to all our leaders for 2021. 

 
Thank you to Meg Mast and Connor Tisch, as well as Carla Hunaidi and Charlotte Gardiner who led Green House through the most challenging school year that was 2020.  

Middle School House Captain Interviews

Carla Hunaidi 

What made you apply for a leadership position?  
I wanted to be more involved in the school community and felt that applying for this position would have been the best thing to do. I’ve always enjoyed working with teachers and students to improve the school. 
What has been the best thing about being a middle school house captain?  
It was great to help and talk to more teachers at school. I felt more included in the community and I loved seeing what goes on behind the scenes! It was also amazing to help people (mostly year 7 students with their transition) with whatever they needed, even the smallest things like a short talk during lunch.  
What are your best leadership qualities?  
I believe my best leadership qualities are my communication skills and integrity. I find it quite easy to speak with people about most topics and feel like it is important to understand what someone you are working with is thinking, while they know what you are thinking too. It’s easy for me to ask questions and start a conversation, but I also find it important to be honest and open when speaking to someone, no matter who they might be. Honesty and integrity lead to better communication, which leads to better results.  
What do you like to do in your spare time?  
I enjoy hanging out with friends and family, painting, reading, and baking. I do spend A LOT of my time on my phone, but I also make sure to put it down every now and then to check with myself and see how I’m feeling.  
Do you have further leadership aspirations? What are they? 
I definitely don’t have my life planned out, but I do know that I want to keep learning and improving every day with the things I do. I want to build connections with people all over the world with different backgrounds while also remembering the current people around me who help me grow as a person and leader.  

HOUSE REPORT – RED HOUSE

We have been very excited to see all our students return back onsite to Mooroolbark College from remote learning. It has been nice to see students’ smiley faces (behind masks).  

PRINCIPAL AWARDS

I would like to congratulate Tyler Charlton, Sam Thomas, Ella Mcintosh and Nick Attard on the outstanding achievement of receiving a Principals Award. This achievement requires students to receive 5 merits to achieve a value award in Respect, Endeavour, Compassion and Resilience. Well done! 

HOMEGROUP

We have had some changes to homegroups with students in year level groups for the remainder of the year. During homegroups students have been contributing to the Red House Spoonville. Decorating and designing some very creative spoons. Red House Spoonville is definitely a sea of red. It looks extraordinary. Judging day was on the 13th of November and Red House took out most entries, most unusual entry and best layout. Great work Red Devils! 

CAPTAINS 
We are excited to announce the Red House Senior School Captains; Cara Schofield and Tristan Torriero, who will be joined by our Middle School Captains; Hayley Lamb and Ritika Panwar. They will all provide outstanding support and energy to the red devils team. We look forward to working with them closely in 2021.  
Our 2020 captains; Kaeli Farralley, Alex Linnie, Alex Strahan and Cooper Williams have all done an exceptional job in what was a very different year for our captains – we can’t thank you enough for the support and enthusiasm you gave to red house this year. 

A little bit about our Middle School Captains of 2020: 

  COOPER WILLIAMS 
Favourite colour: Cian 
Favourite movie: Man from the Snowy River 
What do you like doing in your spare time: Playing cricket 
How did you survive remote learning: Keeping physically active. 
What have you enjoyed most about being Middle School Captain: Helping at the carnivals, being enthusiastic! 
What will you tell future generations about COVID-19: It was bad, BUT it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. Just had to remember to do things to help yourself to get through. 

  ALEX STRAHAN 
Favourite colour: Aqua 
Favourite movie: Train to Busan 
What do you like doing in your spare time: Play instruments, reading and basketball. 
How did you survive remote learning: Talk to friends and keeping in contact with people. 
What have you enjoyed most about being Middle School Captain: Working with other captains, enjoyed the teamwork. 
What will you tell future generations about COVID-19: It was really hard, but you can get through it. Keep in contact with people and take care of yourself. 

Congratulations to Blue House, Mooroolbark College House Cup winners for 2020! 
1st Blue House – 9035 points 
2nd Yellow House – 8563 points 
3rd Red House – 8384 points 
4th Green House – 8146 points 
A special mention to the following Houses for achieving success in the following areas: 

• Yellow House for earning the highest points for sporting endeavours in the swimming carnival and cross-country. 
• Blue House for earning the most individual merits as well as an impressive 10 Principal Awards. 
• Red House for the highest academic points for the Credits, Distinctions, High Distinction and Honours.

  
Congratulations to our newly announced captains for 2021. We can’t wait to work with you in these exciting leadership positions. 
College Captains 

  Jonty Just        Lily Philpott 

Senior House Captains 
Blue House 

   Harry Brzozek   Jordyn Doevelaar 

Green House 

  Josh McMeeken   Caitlyn Kavanagh 

Red House 

  Tristan Torriero   Cara Schofield 

Yellow House 

  Jaymie Cathie    Zoe Jacobs 

Arts Captains 

  Liam Casey   Grace Pearce 

Sports Captains 

  Ciara Delaney   Harry Woolhouse 

Middle School House Captains 

Blue House 

  Rhianna Gray    Charli Brzozek 

Green House 

  Mia Caruana   Belle Gavin 

Red House 

  Hayley Lamb   Ritika Panwar 

Yellow House 

  Eden Soutar-Cussen    Amy Pearce 

With the college full of students again, it is nice we are at last back to our busy, noisy normal self. We are hearing stories from students about struggle and survival and resilience and almost universally students are saying “I am so glad to be back”. Our goal for the rest of this year is not about catching up on missed work, but we are all about getting students back into a normal school routine of bells, uniforms, settling down in class, renewing friendships, and homework. The educational specialists and psychologists tell us that routine, consistency and familiarity are the most important things when the world around us is topsy turvy. In addition, we will not be asking students to repeat the year level. In reality, in any year,  very few students repeat at Mooroolbark College. Repeating frequently creates social difficulties and students rarely do better educationally. We want to spend the remaining weeks of the year preparing students to be ready to go in 2021. 

As always, we want to remind you, that your child’s mental health and successful transition back into “normal covid” schooling is our priority and we want to continue to provide quality welfare support to our students. If you have any concerns at all about your child then please contact your child’s coordinator or myself and chaplain Gill Van Der Ende. We are available to parents via phone or text. Your child can also contact us directly by knocking on the door of our office. We are here to support you.

Regards,
John Nichol
Well-Being Leader

WELLBEING AND WELFARE SUPPORT SERVICES

Kids Helpline 
Counselling service for people aged between 5 and 25 
24 hours/7 days
1800 551 800
www.kidshelp.com.au
www.kidshelpline.com.au/young-adults 
(email, web chat)

Lifeline
Crisis support, suicide prevention and mental health support services 
24 hours/7 days 
13 11 14

Beyond Blue 
Information and support for all ages to promote optimal mental health. 
24 hours/7 days 
1300 224 636 
www.beyondblue.org.au 
(Chat online or email) 

E headspace 
Provide mental health support for young people aged 12–25
Phone: 
10pm – 1am 
Online counselling: 1pm – 1am 
1800 650 890 
https://headspace.org.au/eheadspace/ 
 
Yarra Ranges Youth Team 
Provide support and advice to young people 
9294 6716 or email youth@yarraranges.vic.gov.au 
 
Inspiro
Free youth, teen, young adult and family counselling
9738 8801 or visit https://www.inspiro.org.au/ for more information 
 
Parent line  
Support for Parents and carers with children from birth to 18 years 
8am–midnight/7 days 
13 22 89 

EDVOS 
Family violence service in Melbourne’s eastern metropolitan region 
Mon-Fri 9am-8pm 
Sat 9am-5pm (phone or email) 
03 9259 4200 
edvos@edvos.org.au 
https://www.edvos.org.au/ 

No To Violence 
Supports for men who use family violence 
Mon – Fri 8am-9pm 

Congratulations to the year 12 students who have completed their English exams. It is an incredible achievement and all English teachers who have been involved in your year 7-12 journey are very proud of you! 

Looking at what is happening in our classrooms, Year 10 students will experience the wonderful event of a 2-hour exam and we wish them the very best. At the junior levels, there is a wave of analysis sweeping through years 8 and 9 English where reading and analysing different forms of texts are major components of the outcomes ahead. Students have engaged with topical and provocative issues and learned (for the most part) to be objective thinkers, conscientious about the people and the world around them and finally – how to express these thoughts on paper. 

Recently, the ‘Engage’ element of our instructional model has been a priority for our faculty and some amazing activities have come from these moments at the beginning of the lesson to capture student interest. 

Ten students in the class were given ‘tone’ words in a covert manner, where they were asked to act out and respond in that way until another class member was able to guess their tone. A student who was handed the ‘Enthusiastic’ tone may have loved the role too much, achieving an Oscar winning performance. Luckily for most, another student was able to guess the tone word before the student became too ‘passionate’. It was a lovely way to start the class and an even better way to learn what to look for when it came to tone and tonal shifts in communication. 

Tyrone Ingham 
Head of English

With the end of the year in sight our students are busy finalising their assessment tasks. These have predominantly had a focus on data collection and analysis and it has been fantastic seeing the breadth of ideas and submissions from our students;  from the most popular streaming services to the amount of chocolate consumed by some years eights, our students are showing very impressive creativity and critical thinking skills. 

Additionally, to collecting assessments of students’ understanding and problem-solving skills in regards to statistics and probability from years 7-10, we are also collecting Progressive Achievement Data from our students during week 8, in the form of PAT testing. Students are encouraged to try their best, without placing any pressure on them to spend time revising at home as we are simply interested in gaining an understanding of where our students are at. This will be a valuable tool for teacher to use in order to inform their teaching in the classroom. 

We have had so many fabulous things to celebrate, and farewell, throughout this year; the forever evolving Numeracy program across years 7-9, the targeted learning program we had the pleasure of experiencing for a short time in year 7, the introduction of student centred learning goals in year 7, and in light of so many fabulous new learning tools discovered due to remote learning, we are also happy to wave the computer screens goodbye and enjoy high quality learning experiences in the classroom. 

For the final newsletter article in 2020 the Mathematics department would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas. Enjoy time spent with loved ones in any form and ask your children to do the Christmas shopping budgets for you. We look forward to sharing our journey again with you in 2021. 

Jade Hubben
Head of Mathematics

Our focus has been on supporting students to finalise their major assessments.  Earlier this semester, staff restructured many units with the aim of being able to provide more assistance in Term 4 when we would all be back at the College.  As a result, Humanities classes have worked on more complex assignments in recent weeks, but with lots of extra support in the classroom. 

Highlights have included: 

• Year 7 Geography students completed their Line Drawing / Map assignments. 
• Year 8 Geography students completed their SPICESS (geographical concepts) assignments. 
• Year 9 Sustainable World students selected global interconnection topics (relating to use of technology, communication, travel and tourism), conducted surveys and presented reports with their findings. 
• Senior Accounting, Business Management, History and Legal Studies students have been busy with revision tasks prior to exams. 

There were many emotional farewells as our Year 12 students completed their final classes, ahead of exams.  Year 12’s of 2020, we will miss every one of you so much!  We look forward to you all achieving the results you’ve worked so hard for in this incredible year. 

Juniors 
As we head into the final few weeks of Term 4 and the weather is getting warmer, students are reminded that they must bring their hat and drink bottle to all PE classes.  
Across all year levels in 7-9, students have been working through sport-based tournaments including Netball, AFL and Handball. It’s been great to see student’s competitive nature come out during lessons and seeing students develop and enhance their teamwork and communication skills after so long behind a screen during remote learning. 

The Year 7’s have been busy participating in their Netball SEPEP tournament over the last few weeks, the final week is here and the race for the top spot is on! The Year 8’s has also been busy working through a mini-AFL tournament of their own putting their best foot forward developing their kicking, handballing and defensive skills with their classmates. Finally, the Year 9 students will be beginning their Handball tournament next week and have been busy practising their skills in preparation throughout our End Zone games unit that wraps up this week. The results of all tournaments are going to be close and will be revealed in the final newsletter for the year. Best of luck to all classes as they battle it out.  

Advanced Sports Leadership  
Due to Covid-19 we have had a big delay celebrating our 2019 Sports Leadership Class achievements from last year. Students were finally able to be presented with their Advance Community Work Certificate for completing their Work Modules at Bimbadeen, Manchester and Kilsyth Primary Schools. Students also received their First Aid certificate and Pool Bronze Life-saving award. Congratulations to all students who were impeccable role models throughout 2019. 

Stephanie Todd 
KLA Health and Physical Education  

At the time of writing the Languages KLA at Mooroolbark College is in the process of finalising assessments for reporting. For example, in Year 8, German students are submitting their ‘My ideal school uniform’ Poster CAT. An early high-quality example is this one by Leah De Vincentis of 8C:

Apart from this, we are focusing on engaging our language learners for the rest of the year with a strong focus on cultural festivals such as the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, German Geography and Traditions as well as the history of the divided Germany and the Berlin Wall.

In the last installment of the Newsletter, some images of our high achievers were not included due to an issue beyond our control, so here we have a reminder of the previous article and the images that were left out:

The students of German at Mooroolbark College have really impressed their teachers with the way they have embraced learning German online. Thanks to technology, the students are able to listen to relevant audio files of the new work and they have been able to submit audio files back to us of themselves in an interview situation. This was no mean feat! The Year 7s did an interview about a fictitious missing pet and the Year 8s answered questions in an interview about their school subjects and their timetables. A couple of the outstanding pieces of work by Year 7 students, Aleisha Torriero and Michael Gore are below. Their posters were first seen on the school’s Facebook page.

Our teachers remain committed to helping students achieve the best grades possible and want to remind all concerned that if a CAT is showing up as not yet submitted, that we will only be too happy to assist any students who asks for help and we strongly encourage these students to come and see us.

Jonas Bahlo, Andrea Henderson, Yi Jiang

The last month in The Arts has been a busy one. In the classroom our students have been excelling whilst finishing off their final artworks for the semester. The stand of work being produced this year is super high and very impressive. Outside of the classroom, we haven’t let COVID get in the way of putting on some fantastic performance and showcase nights, highlighting the amazing work achieved in The Arts this year.  
 
MOOROOLBARK COLLEGE FILM FESTIVAL 
Now in its 8th year, the Mooroolbark College Film Festival has become a highly anticipated event each year. This year’s event was unique as it occurred online, streaming via our Facebook page. Close to 1000 views took in the amazing films our budding filmmakers created. 

A huge congratulations to all of category winners. 

• Best Year 11 film – Fatal Error by Taylor Oliver, Taylor Skyes and Tristan Torriero 
• Best Year 12 film – Ken by Matthew Bethell 
• Audience Award for Year 11 – Left Behind by James Basford, Dylan Mullin and Tyla Jo Tarrant 
• Audience Award for Year 12 – The Stages of Online Learning by Hannah Wildner 
  
  
  [Show thumbnails]

THE ARTS’ WEEK OF EXCELLENCE
In lieu of the Night of Excellence, throughout the week of 15th November, we held “The Arts’ Week of Excellence”. via our Facebook page where we were able to exhibit the excellent work created in The Arts this year from our students in Years 7 to 12. The work showcased excellence in Art, Ceramics, Digital Discovery, Dance, Drama, Media, Music, Photography, Studio Arts and VCD. The students that had their work exhibited should be very proud of what they created. 

Will the heavier skydiver land faster than the lighter one? Will a larger parachute reduce the speed at which a skydiver falls? Our Year 7’s have been investigating these questions this term. Working in small teams, students’ skydivers took many jumps from great heights and their times were recorded. Students wrote a scientific report on their findings and linked the data collected to their understanding of air resistance and gravity which was taught during remote learning. Year 7 will be finishing the year off by completing their own scientific investigation. We are looking forward to seeing the results! 

Year 8s are exploring how energy is transferred and transformed by experimenting. For their final CAT in Science this year they will investigate the potential energy that exists within rubber bands and calculate how much energy is stored within them by launching the bands from a ruler. The burning of Cheezel’s has taken place as they measured the amount of chemical energy stored within each one. The longer the Cheezel burned, the more kilojoules it contained. Students collated their data in their teams and presented their findings in a practical report.

Year 9s have now completed their own scientific investigations. During the last week of remote learning each student developed a question they would like answered. There was a large variety of questions asked, such as “Are other senses heightened when we lose our eye sight?” and “Which fruit is the best conductor of electricity?”. Over the past few weeks students wrote their own methodology, prepared their materials and performed their experiments at home. Each student presented their findings as a poster.  

Our senior students have now completed their coursework for the year and we wish them all the best with their exams. We will welcome back our Year 10 and 11 students for their Orientation classes shortly.  

Farewell and good luck to the class of 2020, we are so proud of you and hope you come back next year to visit! 

Skye Jennings 
Head of Science 

All students have returned to the workshops and projects are in full production mode. The Year 7’s are working on their Tangram’s and have been working so well that many are undertaking the extension task part of the project and shaping the Tangram to give it an individual look. 

The Year 9’s and 10’s have also been busy turning the ideas that they designed into reality. In storage solutions students are making their door stops and will shortly starting on their recycled timber trinket boxes. 

In Metalwork the forges have been running hot with students learning basic forging techniques to create their projects. Students are enthusiastically attempting these tasks and are keen to use their new skills on their designs. 

Congratulations to our Year 11 students for completing the year under difficult circumstances. We look forward to offering Year 12 studies in Food Technology, Product Design and Systems Engineering in 2021. 

Our Barkers Bakery Students have done it again. As part of their second CAT they started during remote learning they have created their own desserts including two or more complex processes resulting in some fantastic results. I was extremely impressed by their creativity, team work and technical skills. Well done. 

Alex, Courtney and Jess created ‘Death by Chocolate’ which included chocolate self-saucing pudding served with berries and their homemade vanilla ice-cream placed in a chocolate cup and served on an giant choc chip cookie. 
Sheridan and Ashlee created their ‘Winter Wonderland’ which included rum balls and chocolate dipped strawberries served in a white chocolate cup alongside their snowmen and fir trees. 
Mikayla made light and fluffy profiteroles filled with cream and drizzled with her strawberry coulis. She then decorated them with white chocolate and shards of her beautiful toffee.

Jaz and Sam went all out with their chocolate Caramel cake covered in butter icing and drizzled with chocolate ganache. They finished of their 3 tiered cake with strawberries and chocolate shards.  
Year 10 Foods students also successfully completed their second CAT which involved them designing and producing their own nutritious meals suitable for a Meal Kit. The results would make the most ardent gastronome’s mouth water. What an amazing effort.

I am so proud of our senior students resilience and endeavor in attempting the CAT’s and achieving some impressive results. 

During this month Year 9, 10 and 11 students have received their subject selection packages for 2021 during an assembly. Most of the students have made informed subject choices. Some students have the taken up the opportunity to review their subjects with their respective Pathways Advisor and then book in an appointment to see Mrs Roache to discuss the available options.  A reminder that students who complete the Course Confirmation process by 15th December 2020 will go into the draw to win a Lenova 11E Yoga valued at approx. $850.00.  

Year 12 students are currently undertaking their final VCE exams and we wish them the best of luck. VCE results and ATAR will be available to students at 7.00am, Wednesday 30 December. During the Change of Preference period students will be able to make an appointment with their Pathways Advisor via Microsoft TEAMS to attend the College for any assistance. The tertiary institutions will also be offering support to students via telephone, one on one consultations and live chat.   

Regards, 
Jenny Roache
Senior School Leader

As our Senior students begin to take a breath after exams and completing a very hectic 2020, Mooroolbark College would like to thank all of the Senior Student Leaders who have gone above and beyond their role this year to support our community. While normal events could not go ahead, there was still avenues for our leaders to assist others and organise small events that could be conducted remotely. This includes being involved in Student Leadership meetings via Teams and the amazing thank you video to the staff. We are grateful for your enthusiasm, endeavour and compassion in what was an interesting 2020! 

Aaron Halstead
Learning Specialist 

Well done to the students who have been working very hard over the last month to complete coursework and exams. We wish you good luck for the final part of the year! 

In past years, Mooroolbark College has hosted ‘Talk’s In’ sessions with the support of Foundation House. This program seeks to engage families of refugee background students in dialogue about education in Australia, and specifically, Mooroolbark College. We have previously covered topics such as: 

• What does school look like in Australia?  
•  
• Accessing Compass  
• School Teachers and Leaders  
• Assessment and Reporting  
• Transition and Pathways  

This year, we have been unable to continue with this program with parents on site. Looking forward to 2021, the EAL Team is keen to engage with families in person when possible. If you have any questions or suggestions for the EAL Team with regard to participating in the life of the college, please ring the Schools Interpreter Line: 

 
Dial 03 7005 3038 
Select the language you need following the prompts 
Ask to speak to Sarah Awi (on Monday and Tuesday), Charlie Chaturapornkul or Alisa Hammersley on 9727 8100.
 
Charlie Chaturapornkul 
EAL Coordinator  

What a month it has been for our ASPIRE students! The students have adapted well to being back in the classroom and have enjoyed participating in a variety of classroom activities. The ASPIRE program has a strong focus on building interpersonal skills and discovery through group work, as well as developing problem-solving skills and risk taking in learning. It has been great to see many classes utilising group work, often outside in the beautiful weather! The Year 8 class have participated in some great activities, including making human graphs outside with Ms Grey-Smith and doing a Heart dissection and other experiments with Mr Dunkley. The Year 7 class have been doing their Science Investigations with Mrs Raven and completing stem and leaf plots, pie graphs and line graphs as they learn about Statistics with Mrs Salmon. 
In what has been an interesting and challenging year, I want to congratulate the ASPIRE staff and students for their hard work and dedication to their teaching and learning. I look forward to further developing the program next year. Hopefully we can get some excursions planned! Keep an eye out for information regarding the testing day and program for any prospective students in 2021.  

Kara Salmon 
ASPIRE Coordinator and High Ability Practice Leader. 

As the year draws to a close, we’d like to reflect on some of the positive things that have come out of the last few months. Lockdown has certainly had its challenges, however, here in the Library, we feel that it’s provided us with the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with our books! 

During November, we’ve celebrated a number of events, including Remembrance Day, NAIDOC week, and the Australian Reading Hour. All of these events are important to commemorate and if you pop into the Library, you’ll be able to find some reading material that will help to broaden your knowledge about them.  

We know that many of you are starting to clean out your lockers, and maybe even your bedrooms, and we’d like to remind you to return any books or equipment that you may come across that you’ve borrowed from the library. If you have an overdue book, then it means that no one else is able to borrow it! 

The Library staff are working very diligently behind the scenes to process new arrivals to the Library but we’d like to remind you that we still have shelves full of classics and old favourites that are still waiting for you to read! Pop in and visit us in the last few weeks of school – we’re always happy to offer you some recommendations for reading over the Summer holidays!  

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram (@mooroolbarkc_library) to see what we’re recommending!  

 
Prue Bon, Evgenia Giles and Melanie Pauer
Library Team 

What a rollercoaster of a year, with November being no different for the Instrumental Music Program. We started with remote lessons, then moved to an outdoor environment and finished lessons in the classroom. The students were so happy to return to lessons back in the classroom. Students have been extremely resilient adapting to these challenging environments and teaching strategies. 

Over the last few weeks the students have been extremely creative busily preparing performance videos for the virtual end of year concert which will be online at the end of November.  Further details for this fantastic event will be emailed to parents soon via compass.