Mooroolbark College Newsletter – September 2021

30th September 2021

Our latest Mooroolbark College Newsletter is here!

The Mooroolbark College newsletters are an important form of communication for our school community.

Each newsletter contains a great deal of information about what is happening in the College including upcoming events and celebration of student success.

Enjoy the read…

Upcoming Events

Apr

Wed

General Assembly (ANZAC Assembly)

Tickets

Apr 24 – Apr 25 all-day

Year 11 & 12 Art Gallery Excursion

Tickets

Apr 24 – Apr 25 all-day

Apr

Thu

ANZAC Day

Tickets

Apr 25 all-day

ANZAC DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

Apr 25 all-day

Senior Boys Netball

Apr 26 all-day

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

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Term 3 has certainly not ended the way we thought it would. We hoped for a term where we would all be learning on site and our students would enjoy a range of great learning experiences. However, whilst not on site, the excellence in teaching and learning continued.

Thank you to our parent and student population who have reached out over the term to offer support and to thank our staff at Mooroolbark College. It is when our community works together that we achieve excellence.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of interviewing students for the 2022 School Captain positions. It is always such a rewarding experience speaking to students who have shown commitment to the school by expressing their interest in becoming School Captain.

Congratulations to the 2022 School Captains – Hayley Knight and Jackson Addicott.

During the first few weeks of Term Four, interviews will be taking place for Senior House Captains, Middle School Captains, Arts Captains, Sports Captains, Library Captains and Social Justice Captains. I wish those students who have nominated for these positions, all the best with their interviews and I look forward to announcing the appointments early in Term 4.

I would like to recognise the work of students and staff which have ensured we continue to undertake so many planned and rewarding experiences during Term 4.

This is the second year course counselling and information nights have been remote. Whilst it would have been nice to speak in person, being remote has allowed many more parents to be part of the course counselling experience.

Last week’s RUOK week was a huge success. I’m hopeful that the work the Home Group teachers have done throughout the week resulted in more of our community receiving an ‘RUOK’ message. Our Year 12 students also received special messages from their teachers and an RUOK treat.

The Winter Concert went on as planned and I would like to congratulate all the students who took part in it. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the concert it is still available on line at http://fb.watch/805tFS73t7/. Thank you to the many people who viewed it on the night and provided such encouraging comments to the performing students.

Club 34 has been operating each Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes and has provided assistance and support to students with their studies from Years 7 to 12. Congratulations to the students who have been attending and seeking assistance with their work. This demonstrates our College goals of resilience and endeavour.

Thank you to Mr U’ren, who with the assistance of a dedicated group of staff and students, has been running the ‘Online Schoolyard’ this term. The atmosphere in the Online School Yard has been highly energetic and supportive of student wellbeing.

The library has been busy with the Premiers’ Reading Challenge, book week and now the Australia Reads promotion. The ‘Heroes versus Villains’ Home Group activities were highly successful and engaging and were appreciated equally by staff and students.

Over the past two weeks, information has been published on Compass and emailed regarding the vaccination program being rolled out by the Victorian State Government for secondary students. This information remains on Compass for parents and students to refer to over the coming weeks.

The General Achievement Test (GAT) for students studying a Unit 3 and 4 subject, has been rescheduled to Tuesday 5^th October. At this stage we do not know all the arrangements which will be in place, so it is essential that students, particularly in Year 11 and Year 12, regularly review Compass Newsfeeds and check their Mooroolbark College email during the upcoming school holidays.

The College’s Year 12 students will be continuing their VCE practice exams during the holidays. These have been posted home to all students and a structured remote supervision arrangement has been developed and communicated with students.

Arrangements for Term 4 teaching and learning for all year levels will also be communicated via Compass and College emails during the school holidays.

I wish everyone a safe and relaxing school holiday break.

Regards,

Ann Stratford
PRINCIPAL

VALE – MR JEV TELFORD

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We mourn the passing of our teacher, friend and colleague, Mr Jev Telford, who passed away last week. Mr Telford will be remembered for his contribution to Mooroolbark College having taught at the College for the past 32 years. Mr Telford worked across all year levels teaching English to thousands of Mooroolbark students. He led the English Department for many years in addition to holding many other leadership roles.

Mr Telford taught Year 11 and Year 12 English demonstrating a passion for supporting students to achieve their best. In addition, he loved teaching junior English, especially his Year 7 English classes.

Mr Telford was the Home Group Teacher of Red 8 since 2009. He was an enthusiastic member of Red House and could always be relied on to support Red House at all sporting carnivals and events. Over the last few years, Mr Telford enjoyed the time he spent on camps with Mooroolbark College students and he would often recount stories of the experiences he had getting to know students and staff during these tours.

You could always count on Mr Telford to perform at any College event, and during SRC Carnival days and assemblies he would often perform for the school. His musical talent was extraordinary. He was also our resident announcer at sporting carnivals and his wit and sense of humour always added to the atmosphere of the day.

Mr Telford, forever a wordsmith, was the author of the College’s vision statement, a place to inspire discover, to value and seize opportunity.

What we will miss most about Mr Telford is his genuine care and concern for others.

We extend our most sincere sympathies to Mr Telford’s family. His sons, Ben and Sam were students at Mooroolbark College.

STUDENT WELLBEING

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After another five weeks of lockdown (or is it 4?… or 6?…. So hard to keep track!), the College to celebrate RUOK Day on Thursday 9th September. As you know, one of our four core values is COMPASSION and we want all our students to develop into caring and compassionate people who seek to look after others.

Throughout that same week, we had presentations each day in homegroup that were designed to upskill students in how to be better listeners and supports to their friends and then encouraged every student to reach out to five others and check in that they were going OK. This culminated with a screen free day on RUOK Day (and no formal classes) on the Thursday and students were encouraged to do some things that would help them look after both their own physical and mental health.

The Year 12 students had a surprise RUOK day assembly where they were presented with a small gift and received individual messages of care and support form their teachers. It is important to us that all of our students feel cared for and valued by our college. And of course everyday should be RUOK Day…. And we reminded students of that too.

Below are some photos from the RUOK day Presentations that all students participated in.

And as always, we want to remind you that your child’s mental health is our priority and we want to continue to provide quality welfare support to our students, even during remote learning. 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.

John Nichol
Student Well-Being Coordinator

WELLBEING AND WELFARE SUPPORT SERVICES

24 Hour Emergency
Kids Helpline	Counselling service for people aged between 5 and 25	24 hours/7 days	1800 551 800 www.kidshelpline.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	www.lifeline.org.au 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 1300 368 333 or 9294 6905 www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Community/Youth 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	www.parentline.com.au 13 22 89 1300 30 1300
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	1300 766 491

ENGLISH

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For Jev

Jev Telford was a beloved member (and leader) of the English faculty.
As a teacher, he will be remembered for the hours that he spent helping students outside of class time; for the genuine care that he showed to every student he taught (especially those from R8); and for his entertaining commentary of the sports carnivals. He truly loved working at Mooroolbark College.

He will be remembered as a trusted colleague – someone who mentored many new teachers as they joined the team; someone who was excited to collaborate on new and engaging units of work; and someone who encouraged us to develop our craft to become the best teachers we could be.
As a friend, he will be remembered for his unwavering loyalty and kindness; for his unique outlook on life; and for his willingness to support us in whatever way he could.

He will be greatly missed by the Mooroolbark College community.

The last few weeks of remote learning have again reflected the strength of our Mooroolbark College community. Students across all year levels have demonstrated a commitment to achieving their best academic outcomes in English. We continue to enter new territory and make large impacts and inroads for our collective and individual success here at Mooroolbark College.

Through the year levels

Year 8
Students have been hard at work, studying Louis Sachar’s novel ‘Holes’ and diligently working on integrating quotes in academic writing. The skills developed here are paramount to their time in English over the next few years and into VCE. A larger focus of the faculty over the last couple of years involves the consideration and integration of authorial intent or ‘views and values’ of the authors/directors of the texts we study. Students have done incredibly well with thinking at a deeper level and urge them to continue this in all of their subjects.

Year 9
It has been a time for assessment and consolidation in Year 9 English, with students busy finishing off their remaining learning tasks as they close the chapter on James Moloney’s novel ‘A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove’. Despite the challenge of remote learning, students have engaged with topical and provocative issues explored in the text and will continue to integrate these skills in their oral presentations later this term. The images below showcase some of the great writing that resulted from studying the text. The first is an extract from a body paragraph and the second is their conclusion of the essay. Very insightful, work!

Year 10
Year 10 students rose to the challenge of writing their first comparative essay’s comparing coming of age classic ‘Stand by Me’ with the Verse Novel, By the River (both exploring themes of grief and the subtle beauty of rural towns). They exceeded all expectations with their time lapses and remote CAT conditions too.

While at first the protests of needing more time were abundant, their resilience was ‘abundant-er’, and a massive cohort were able to sit and submit their essays to an incredible standard. Students are now enjoying a reprieve from writing, researching resilient individuals, for their oral presentations later in the semester. Never before have Year 10 students been able to relate so much to the person they admire, having overcome adversity after adversity themselves. A lot to be proud of in the Year 10 team!

Years 11 and 12
The online context has proven to be a challenge for some but our current Year 11s and 12s undertaking their VCE studies and pushing through their scheduled SACs, it seems they have all truly developed an incredible level of determination, resilience, and perseverance. The ‘online SAC’ for English assessments became somewhat of an artform. The VCE teachers want to congratulate the students who were able to manage this throughout the lockdown and emphasise that doing your best right now is the only expectation.

The English department continues to gain momentum in Club 3/4, running remotely each Thursday from 12:45pm – 1:30pm. With the support of academic teaching staff and tutors, students have access to assistance where they might require help in certain areas. The English department hopes, that with regular attendance, students begin to establish and sustain a study regimen that will become part of the natural academic landscape at Mooroolbark College.

Neologism of the month…
A neologism, from Greek meaning ‘new speech/utterance’ is a relatively recent or isolated word or phrase that is emerging into common or frequent use.

June Neologism: ‘Awe walk’

Definition: Taking a walk outside and making an effort to look at the things around you.

“Awe walk” hasn’t been added to the Cambridge Dictionary yet – but they have noticed it’s been used quite a bit. The word “awe” means a feeling of respect. So, when someone says they will take an awe walk, it means they’ll notice – and feel grateful for – all the small things around them.

The word was actually coined by the authors of a recent psychological study, which found older people who took awe walks felt more positive and less stressed over time.

English encourages more awe walks!

English Recommendations:

Film: Enola Holmes
TV Show: Community
Novel: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Tyrone Ingham
English Key Learning Head

MATHEMATICS

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Another period of remote learning has demonstrated once again the amazing work and commitment of our students. For our Year 7 – 10 students the focus has been on measurement and geometry this term. Luckily there are plenty of objects and measurements around every house for students to work these challenges out from home.

Students have been exploring areas and angles using their names and their own hand made shapes. Students have also been showing off their design skills as they put together their own house and backyard plans based on particular measurement requirements.

Jade Hubben
Mathematics Key Learning Head

ASPIRE

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During remote learning our Year 7 Aspire class went on a virtual excursion to the zoo for Science with Mrs Raven. Let’s hear what Matilda and Cooper had to say about the experience!

Animals, what fascinating living things in nature! But have you ever looked closely at their behaviour and their features Last Tuesday 7A, Mrs Raven and I participated in a zoo excursion as part of what we are learning this term; adaptations of animals and classifying living things. However, this wasn’t your typical zoo excursion, it was virtual due to the pandemic.

In this zoo excursion, we learnt a lot about adaptations of animals, in particular Snow Leopards. First, we played a little bit of a guessing game where the host (one of the zookeepers) gave us clues about an animal and we had to try to make an educated guess of what animal it could be. Next, we looked at the skull of a Snow Leopard and listed all of the features we could see. Lastly, we watched a video of a Snow Leopard and its behaviours and listed all of its adaptations.

Overall, it was a great experience, it was very interesting, and I had lots of fun learning about the adaptations of animals.

By Matilda Sleeman 7A

A few weeks ago, as part of our Science studies, my class 7A went on a virtual excursion to the Melbourne Zoo. Although we couldn’t go in person it was still good to be able to do something different to break up our remote learning day and have it via Zoom. While we were there, the focus was on animal classification. We looked at how snow leopards survive in the wild and their adaptations to fit to their habitat. Did you know that over time they have grown a thick fur coat that helps them to survive in cold weather? In a video we got to see snow leopards in their natural habitat, they could jump very high and were very sneaky around their prey. We then also looked at the skull of a tiger. We saw that it had big teeth, so we classified it as a carnivore. It also had a big head, so we knew that it was a relatively big animal. It was then time to look at endangered animals. One of the endangered animals we looked at were stick insects. It was interesting to learn that at one point in time the Melbourne Zoo had the only two stick insects left in the world. They then went on to breed and now there are over tens of thousands living in the wild. So, it just goes to show that zoos aren’t there just to showcase the animals, but they are also help them survive and later thrive. When coming to the end of the session people were able to ask questions to the zookeepers. One of the questions I asked was “what is your favourite part about working at the zoo?”. One of the presenters responded with “that I get to spend time and make connections with all of the animals at the zoo.” Overall, the virtual excursion was a great way to begin learning about animal classification and I really enjoyed being a part of it.

Cooper King 7A

Student Interventions at Mooroolbark College

Have you heard about the amazing support and enrichment opportunities available at Mooroolbark College?

This term our school has been supporting our students in the following ways:

Running a virtual Club 3/4 which is attended by staff from a variety of areas.
Our Literacy and Numeracy tutors have been attending classes, working with small groups and running extra help sessions online (more detail about the Tutor Learning Initiative below!)
Our MYLNS (Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy Support) team have been working hard to support students, both in their scheduled class times and in extra help sessions.
The QuickSmart team have been working with students to continue developing their literacy skills, offering plenty of help outside of class time.
The Victorian High Ability Program ran again in Term 3 with students logging on to the sessions from home and completing the challenging English and Maths work provided.
The Year 7 Aspire class and selected students participated in a Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series event called “Fractured Fairy Tales” and recently attended an online excursion to the zoo.

Tutor Learning Initiative

The Mooroolbark Tutor Learning Initiative team have been actively engaged in a range of student improvement work and continue to adapt to the opportunities and challenges presented by the transition to remote and flexible learning.

To provide students further support during remote learning, additional classes are being held by our literacy tutors. The sessions, open to all Year 8 and 9 students, are intended to reinforce classroom instruction, outside of regularly scheduled classes.

The sessions provide an environment in which differentiated and targeted interventions reinforce the classroom teacher’s instruction, while the tutors provide further scaffolding tailored to each student’s point of learning need.

If you would like to participate in these additional tutoring sessions, please contact Mrs Salmon, Mrs Roberts or Mrs Williams.

“The workshops have helped me understand how to structure my essay using TEEL. Thank you so much for putting time and effort in to help us” – Georgia Hogan

“Participating in the Literacy workshops has helped improve my confidence when it comes to essay writing. The program helped me to understand the essay writing structure we call TEEL and how to incorporate that structure with my ideas”. – Rhianna Gray

If you would like more information about any of these programs please don’t hesitate to contact me at Kara.Salmon@mooroolbarkcollege.vic.edu.au

Kara Salmon
Student Achievement Leader

SCIENCE

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During August, we celebrated National Science Week. The theme was ‘Food: Different by Design’ and whilst we had a week full of activities planned at school we quickly flipped over to our remote version. We had a large number of students participate during the week and we would like to congratulate all of them and the following students who won a prize:

Will Watsford Year 11 R8
Aliyah Orwin Year 7 B5
Ashlee Jordan Year 7 B1
Ally Whitford Year 10 B7

We would also like to congratulate the following students for their ‘Endangered Animal’ cupcake submissions. A great effort!

Austin Leonard Year 8 Y1

Bruce Kube Year 7 Y5

Jesse Jackson Year 9 Y5

Students have also been busy in our remote classrooms and they are producing some excellent work. Our Year 7 students designed new animal species that could survive a great flood, worldwide volcanic eruption, meteor strike or ice age.

These are some examples:

The features on the special panda would help it survive, because it can swim underwater and fly, so if the panda is stuck it knows how to swim to get itself out of sticky situations. The special panda can also fly, so if the panda is in trouble they can fly to a higher ground to get itself out. Also, with the panda’s big fur coat it can keep itself warm during the storms.

They are an animal that can breathe under water and above ground so when a flood comes they would be swimming away with their webbed hands and feet. They are a carnivorous mammal that can survive without fresh water for up to 3 days. They are quite small animals, no bigger than a cat. They usually stay above ground for when it comes to sleep but if they need to go far they use the water (streams and rivers etc).

This animal would have lots of warm and fluffy fur on their body, they would have big sharp teeth to be able to catch foods like fish and penguins. They would have a tail that helps them to be able to swim more efficiently. They would have big beady eyes like an eagle to be able to see and have toxic poison that they would release from their mouth as a gas if a predator was to come up to them. That should rarely happen because they are at the top of the food chain and are the rulers or ‘king hunters’ of their time and land. Its name is ‘The King Apex Predator’ .

During one of their lessons last week, Year 8 students were challenged to create a labelled cell model using items found around the home in only 10 minutes.

In Year 11, Psychology students used the Gestalt Principles (principles of human perception) which are used to help interpret visual data to create logos of their own names.

Skye Jennings
Science Key Learning Head

EAL

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Throughout remote learning, our EAL students have demonstrated great resilience, and staff members are dedicated to supporting the students in all possible ways. In the past few weeks we have had:

Parent Forum in collaboration with Foundation House

The Mooroolbark College RESP (Refugee Education Support Program) team organized an online Parent Forum in early August to strengthen the Chin families’ engagement. In the zoom meeting, parents were informed of the key contact points and support at Mooroolbark College and Foundation House.

Year 7 Parent Information Session

To help students adapt to the remote learning setting, the EAL team arranged a Parent Info Session in Week 6. More than half of the Year 7 Chin families attended the session and learned how to use Compass and Teams to support their children’s learning in lockdown. Wellbeing tips were also shared in this session.

EAL Homework Club and Home Group

The EAL homework club was set at the beginning of this term. A stunning number of 14 students turned up at the homework club the day before the latest lockdown. We really look forward to continuing this program when we are all back to school. Student attendance in the EAL home group remains high in remote learning. It has been great to see them stay connected and interact with their teachers and peers every Tuesday morning.

Yi Jiang
EAL Coordinator

LIBRARY

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There are lots of studies that demonstrate just how important reading is; from helping to increase vocabulary, learning to spell, and understanding how sentences work, all the way through to the health benefits which include better empathy, less anxiety and an ability to self-regulate emotions.

The benefits of reading cannot be underestimated, particularly when we are stuck at home with the lure of a device or screen within reaching distance.

Here at the Library, we’d encourage you to continue to read while you’re at home; just 20 minutes a day will help make you a calmer and more balanced person! Read to your younger siblings, or your pets, or your parents as they cook dinner! Go to bed a little bit earlier and read to help you fall asleep! You’ll be amazed at how fantastic this activity is.

We know that you can’t access our physical books at the moment, but did you know that you can still borrow ebooks and audiobooks from our online platform, Wheelers ebooks? If you go to the ‘star’ on Compass, then click on ‘Wheelers ebooks’ right down the bottom, you’ll have access to thousands of electronic reading resources! If you’re not sure how to use Wheelers, you can contact our library staff (Miss Pauer and Ms Giles) directly through Teams or by emailing library.services@mooroolbarkcollege.vic.edu.au For every book that you borrow through Wheelers during the remote learning period, you’ll earn yourself a merit!

Your local library also offers some great options for reading while we are at home – check out the Eastern Region Library website (https://www.yourlibrary.com.au/) to access more ebooks and audiobooks, and also consider their click and collect option for physical books.

As always, the Library staff are here to help you make the best reading choices; if you’d like a recommendation, please just ask! We always have lots of new books hitting the shelves and Wheelers, and offering recommendations is one of our favourite things to do!

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is due to finish soon on September 17, so you’ve still got a little bit of time to log the books you’re reading. Remember that you get house points for every book that you finish, so even if you don’t complete the Challenge, you’ll still be helping out your house!

If you need any help with accessing the PRC platform, if you’ve forgotten your login details, or you just have a question, please contact Miss Pauer.

Remote Book Club

Book Club is still running every Tuesday lunchtime while we are remote learning! Join Ms Giles and other students to have a chat about books and reading, play games and just be social.

Please contact Ms Giles if you’d like to join Bookclub while remote. When we are back at school, feel free to just show up!

Book Returns

As we get closer to a return to school, this is our friendly reminder to return all physical library books as soon as you can! If you haven’t quite finished the book you’re reading, that’s ok, too – just pop in and have the borrow renewed! It’s important that you return your library books, because someone else might want to read it, too!

As an incentive to remember to return your books, you’ll be able to earn house points! For each Homegroup with no overdue books by the end of Term 4, there is a whopping 50 house points on offer!

Recommendations from Wheelers

Prue Bon
Library Coordinator

THE ARTS

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The Arts thankfully is an area where students can thrive in the remote learning environment. Many of our senior classes are working through their SATs and creating amazing work in their folios – from photography, film, art and illustrations. We are proud of our student’s resilience and flexibility they have shown during this challenging period.

We were very lucky to be treated to a virtual performance of our Winter Concert from our instrumental music students which premiered on the College Facebook page and via Youtube. We had at times over 100 viewers watching live and the video has since collected over 2,600 views, which is incredible. Students performed a variety of musical pieces and were very comfortable and confident with their pieces, showing the amazing progress our Instrumental Music program is making this year.

Next term, we are hoping to perform this year’s Production, The Addams Family, which students have been meeting and rehearsing from home. We are also looking forward to returning back on-site to complete our VCE units and returning our junior students back to practical activities at school.

Below is some of the amazing work our students have completed during remote learning. We, as their teachers, are very proud of their amazing talents and resilience shown during this time.

Jordan van Keulen
The Arts Key Learning Head

HUMANITIES

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Volcanoes, satellite imagery, exciting career options, incredible archaeological discoveries, managing the effects of climate change at key iconic sites. All these have been explored in Humanities classes recently, plus much more.

Humanities students have shown great resilience and endeavour while learning from home. There have been many outstanding assignments and class efforts over the last few weeks.

Highlights have included:

Great efforts to complete geographic line drawings, based on photos of the College and local area.
Year 7 students have completed detailed maps, using satellite imagery, online tools and aerial photos. A focus has been to demonstrate how a map can efficiently communicate spatial information in a different way to photos and drawings.
Amazing Australian places were the focus on a CAT assignment for Year 8 students. Two places were investigated and then analysed in terms of their key spatial features.
Year 8 Geography classes also worked in teams to identify and communicate advice for people living near mountain hazards, such as Mount Vesuvius.
Terrific Year 7 History Ancient Australia assignments, in which students studied iconic archaeological sites such as Lake Mungo, Gabarnmung Rock Shelter and the Burrup Peninsula rock art.
Year 10 People and the Planet students examined how climate change has affected places as diverse as the Macquarie Marshes, Joshua Tree National Park, Fox Glacier, Lord Howe Island and the Brahmaputra River.
Year 8 History students explored battle, armour, knights and medieval life.
Very well researched Careers assignments from World of Work students. Police officers, real estate agents, registered nurses, finance managers and paramedics were some of the topics undertaken.
Legal studies students have completed criminal law case studies.
Year 12 Business Management students examined Covid-19 and Qantas case studies.
Year 7 Geography students studied environmental resources and are now beginning research on water scarcity.
Improving bibliographies with Harvard citations has been a focus across subjects.

On behalf of the Humanities team, thank you for all your work during an often-challenging term. Please have a well-deserved break and we look forward to seeing you in Term 4!

Chris Hanneberry
Humanities Key Learning Head

TECHNOLOGY

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What a busy and challenging Term 3 we’ve had. I would like to congratulate all our students who have been attending on-line classes demonstrating great resilience. Our Year 7 students have continued with their studies completing their safety and hygiene test online. They have commenced work on their second CAT, the Designer Muffin Challenge, which involve conducting research and watching teacher online demonstrations and recording their observations.

Special Occassion Food students completed their ‘What’s My History’ CAT researching their family food history, producing and recording a product at home and producing a presentation. It was great to see some of our students extend themselves by recording their presentation.

Year 10 Food Studies and Barker’s Bakery students have worked hard completing and submitting their first CAT. Barker’s Bakery students have had the opportunity to watch live teacher demonstrations including recording their observations of deconstructed Lemon Meringue Tarts. They have reviewed food photography and have had a go at making and photographing their own work demonstrating their presentation and plating skills. Some of the cakes they produced were very impressive and students are to be congratulated on their efforts. Year 10 Food Studies students were tasked with the challenge of produce their pasta (without a pasta machine) as well as designing and make their own pasta sauce after watching a live teacher demonstration online.

Year 8 Textiles Product Design students have been continuing to develop their folios. This has included investigating sustainability, fair trade and recycling. They have been able to watch live teacher demonstrations of fabric design techniques including bleach fabric art, marbling using shaving cream, texta and rubbing alcohol design and tie-dying. They were given ideas on how they could achieve these techniques using resources they may have access to at home.

Our Year 9 Textile Design class have been continuing with their Collaboration Design Task and I have been impressed with their willingness to collaborate together online to complete their design work. This has involved researching and developing an inspiration page as well as producing working sketches and instructions ready for them to produce their upcycled products on our return.

Our department would like to wish our Year 12 Food Studies the very best of luck as they complete Unit 4 and begin to prepare for exams next term. It has been great to see their development over the year. They are to be congratulated on their resilience, endeavour, compassion and respect they have demonstrated throughout this year.

We would like to thank all the families who have supported us and their students and have encouraged them to have a go at some of the practical work.

The Year 7 Product Design research CAT required students to research a range of tools. Students had to draw each tool, label all the parts and write a description of what it is used for. This beautiful presentation is by Abbey Heemskerk.

Year 9 and 10 students have been given the opportunity to develop skills in areas that sometimes we don’t get time for in regular classes. These skills involve using software like Sketchup and TinkerCAD to model the ideas that they have created. Here is an example of a task to design a workspace that included somewhere for a laptop and tablet.

Our VCE students have also been completing the work that can be done from home. While this is not the practical work that that they would normally be completing at this time of the year, it is still part of the assessment that needs to submitted and is a part of the normal task.

Andrew Dingey
Technology Key Learning Head

HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION

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While Term 3 has been turbulent at times, I have been in awe witnessing the resilience and utter grit and determination of our whole college community. Term 3 has been bustling with challenges, new sport units and sunnier weather, which have helped to lift the moods of students and staff alike.

The Year 7 students have been completing their Gymnastics unit in the latter half of the term and should be so proud of their efforts. It all started with learning the basics, understanding what a static shape is, what a locomotion is and how to begin to piece these things together. If you’re reading this feeling confused and wondering what I am talking about then let the images do the talking…

Next came the partner balances, tricky if you don’t have a sibling, right? Never fear! We made use with walls and door frames. They’re ever so supportive.

Now, coming to the end of the unit students are going to be working in groups, combining all their knowledge and skills to create a routine together. Students have the option to add music, 3-5 static balances and a group shape. The HPE team are excited to see what the students can come up with.

The Year 8 students have also been busy. On September 1st we celebrated National Health and Physical Activity Day with a Step Challenge for all staff and students. I’d like to congratulate all the staff and students who participated and got active on the day. It was incredible to see everyone’s competitive natures come out… I think the weather may have also been the icing on the cake to get outside.

Our top 5 student winners who have each received merits and house points for participating were:

Austin Lenoard Y1 with 20,087 steps.

Emily Davison G2 with 15,802 steps.

Brooke Petrie Y8 with 12,585 steps.

Eloise Howland R2 with 8,521 steps.

Abby Heemskerk B9 with 5,960 steps.

And how could we forget the staff… The top 5 staff with the most steps who participated were:

Ms. Mattingley with 20,143 steps.

Ms. Evans with 18,038 steps.

Mrs Llewellyn with 17, 948 steps.

Mr. Nichol with 12,659 steps.

Ms. Hansen with 12,593 steps.

Here are a few examples of some activities you can try when working from home or even during remote learning. I challenge you and your family to use it as a bingo board and tick one or two off each day. Send in your photos to Miss Todd via Teams message for some extra merits!

Excellence in Remote Learning

At Mooroolbark College, we believe in highlighting the efforts of all students throughout remote learning. It has been so important to showcase just some of the incredible work that our students have been producing. We hope in Term 4 we can showcase this work at our Night of Excellence. It is a credit to the work our school community is putting in to ensure our students stay connected and engaged online. Until then, please enjoy some work samples below from students in Year 7 through to Year 12.

Mikaylah Sleeman G9 for her CAT 1 – National Physical Activity Guidelines Poster

Riley Ahern B2 for his timelapse of a PE boxing work out.

Fynn Koblar B7 for his anti-smoking advertisement campaign created using Canva.

The Year 12 Health students have also been busy linking their knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals with household items.

I’d like to wish all the senior students the best for the end of Term 3 and into their final weeks of school in Term 4.

Stephanie Todd
Health and Physical Education Key Learning Head