Middle School Term 2 week 5

 All students are to wear full College uniform on the day, including blazer. If students are wearing the ‘original/old’ uniform, they are to wear full winter uniform. Students in the new ‘mix and match’ wardrobe, can wear their preferred items, however please note that jumpers and cardigans will be removed for the shots. We appreciate that for this year, and in the coming year, there will be a ‘variety’ of uniforms in the class photos. 

Students who have a Physical Education class on the day are asked to bring their PE gear in a separate bag.

Students are asked to present themselves in line with our College uniform policy. Some key reminders include shoulder length hair being tied back, hair cut neatly, boys to be clean shaven, blue or maroon ribbons only, no make-up, small gold or silver, sleeper/stud single or double piercings…and big smiles! 

A note on glasses – All students who wear glasses will receive individual portraits with glasses on. Like you, we know that all of our students look perfect just the way they are. However, to enable the photographers to provide the best possible quality shot, your young person may be asked to briefly remove their glasses.

Due to their current participation in the Farm and Transformation programs, students in 9H and 9M will have their photos taken in Term 3 –  Monday, July 25.

Thank you in anticipation for your support in helping your young person present themselves brilliantly on this, and every day.

Visual Arts:

Year 5 to Year 7 students are exploring the art of drawing, painting and collage. From what our facial expressions say about our emotions, to the possibilities of what lives under the sea, to imaginative artworks about sport, food, and lifestyle the students are challenging themselves to develop a visual representation of each of these things. They are exploring mediums such as oil pastels, water colour, pencils and more to help them create original artworks.

Lori Ruplal and Felicity Van Kan

Media Arts:

This term our Year 7 Media Arts students will plan, write, film and edit a short film. They may choose any topic to create an entertaining or documentary style short film using a variety of media such as photographs, videos and audio. Students will then collate a sequence from their filming and sound recordings, and use software to edit, mix and arrange their digital materials into their short film. Students are currently in the planning and filming stages of their work, and I look forward to seeing what the students create later this term.

Year 9 students are exploring genre and starting to make their own independent film in a genre of their choice. They are using the symbolic and technical codes to help them create an authentic original film that would be engaging for their audience through scripting and storyboarding.

Lori Ruplal, Bree Redden and Felicity Van Kan

Visual Communication Design:

Year 8 students are immersing themselves in Industrial Design processes. They have explored a variety of sustainable materials used in manufacturing products and completed a series of technical drawings including observational drawing, orthogonal drawing, perspective drawing and rendering. This week they will be creating a specification sheet for a product of their choice, focusing on sustainable materials.

Year 9 students have been learning a series of skill building workshops to prepare for making their design portfolio later in the term. They have been exploring both manual and digital design processes as they build their understanding of the three areas of design; communication, industrial and environmental design.

Lori Ruplal and Felicity Van Kan

Product Design Materials:

Greea McKeegan, a Year 8 student, has planned and built a wall hanging of a mountainous scene backlit by LED lighting. The design brief for this year level is to make an eco-lamp.  This is a creative approach to her task and the result is great!

Htee Moo Hser Morris also took creative license with her intricately cut lamp in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright.  She hand-drew each panel and then drew the designs into a CAD program. She then cut each panel on the laser cutter and assembled it with translucent diffusers lit by LED lights.

David Kehler

Systems Engineering:

Year 7 students have been working very hard to fine tune the engineering and programming of their Rescue Robots to allow them to autonomously navigate complex courses and interact with various elements. Starting from scratch in term one, the students’ designs are all unique and reflect their individual design concepts. At this stage, students are pushing to attempt the clear all challenges put in front of them before the term ends. It has been great to work alongside such a committed group of young programmers and engineers.

Year 8 students continue to raise the bar as great advances have been made with their EV3 RoboCup Junior Soccer designs. The demanding engineering constraints and challenging programming solutions have pushed this group of students, but they have refused to let up.  Often spending hours working through a single problem, these young engineers are beginning to see the results they were after. It will be great to see some of these teams represent Christian College at the upcoming RoboCup Junior Geelong Regional event in two weeks as they face off against local area schools.

Coming in for a single term of Systems Engineering, Year 9 students have hit the ground running. Spearheading the push for more complex engineering and programming solutions, this group of students has accomplished so much in such a short time. With an autonomous crane and several autonomous soccer builds in production, it will be a treat to see the results after three more weeks of refinement. Each year the bar is raised, and the Year 9 students are often at the forefront, inspiring younger students with their chosen pursuits. It has been a highly productive term and I look forward to seeing the results of their hard work.

Danon O’Kelly and Felicity Van Kan

Despite all the obstacles they have faced, it’s encouraging to see our Year 9 cohort return to school this year with a positive, can-do attitude. In my role as Acting Year 9 Coordinator, I have experienced students demonstrating resilience, kindness, compassion, inclusion, love, empathy, patience, understanding, humility, support, trust, friendship and the list goes on. I am thankful each day for the young people in our care, and they are not just any young people, they are your young people.

Raising teenagers can be hard, raising teenagers through a pandemic, well, that’s something else. I often think that we as educators often get the best out of your young people each day, we are the lucky ones. They are in our care from 8:45am until 3:40pm and during this time they are off their mobile phones, they have regular snack breaks and clean up after themselves and they engage and converse with each other, building skills that will assist them in so many areas of their lives in the future.

When your young person gets home, they might grunt, or groan, or in some cases, not even respond at all, but I want to assure you, this is not who they are in the classroom, this is not who they are as we spend time with them at Middle School Campus. Perhaps the grunting and groaning is all they have left after engaging and conversing all day long with their teachers and importantly, their peers.

There is so much to celebrate in Year 9! Here is a snapshot of some of what is happening in Year 9 this term. We have students experiencing their long-awaited Farm and Transformation experience. Our amazing Prefects and student leaders are taking up new opportunities every week to encourage students and support student-led initiatives. Our Mentors are working with the Year 5s and creating opportunities to build connection and community. We have a number of Year 9 students stepping into umpiring roles for our Year 7 Inter School sport program each Wednesday afternoon, another opportunity to lead and also build connections with other students at Middle School. Our GEOS camp has taken place this week at Wilsons Prom. Lastly, each week this term, we are focusing on reconnection as a cohort, and we have been participating in some healthy competition with a Homeroom Challenge. This has been a highlight to see students laughing and enjoying being together, something we have missed so much over the last few years.

We continue to pray that every young person will experience a sense of belonging and purpose as they come to school each day and we look forward to sharing many more positive stories and experiences with you this year.

Our Eagles finished second in all four age levels that are awarded shields – ‘Junior Female’ and ‘Junior Male’ Sections, which featured mostly students from Year 7 to Year 9, as well as the ‘Senior Female’ and ‘Senior Male’ sections, which featured mostly students Year 10 to Year 12.  

Our College was particularly close in the senior sections where we finished just 9 points behind Kardinia in the Senior Male Section and only 25 points behind Kardinia in the Senior Female Section. 

The overall results were as follows: Kardinia (1st), CCG Eagles (2nd), Saint Ignatius (3rd), Geelong Lutheran College (4th), Covenant College (5th), Iona College (6th), Clonard College (7th) and Geelong Baptist College (8th). 

Our College Sport Faculty would like to thank each member of our track and field team for their efforts at these championships, especially those students who stepped up to compete in events after another student had to withdraw because of illness or injury. Some notable performances on the day included Jasmin King (Yr8) winning all five of her events; Jacob McKie (Yr11) setting a new GISSA record for the 1500m open boys; Nyah Brown, Luka Mathe, Bianca Pocklington and Jorja Kirsopp-Cole (all Yr12) winning their 4x100m relay for the 6th straight year. Couple this with the open boys 4x100m relay winning team of Harry Leigh, Ethan Grills, Oscar Murdoch and Aaron Hanson it was a great way to finish the track program for the college. 

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of our Year 12 students, not only for their performances this year, but the outstanding commitment they have showed to our College Athletics Program for their entire journey at Christian College. 

While it would have been fitting to cap off their time in our program with another medal at the GISSA Athletics, this group of students will leave a legacy for their peers to follow that will last far longer than any individual or team triumph they might have achieved in any one year. 

The high standards they have displayed – not only in their athletic performances on the track but the way they have upheld our college values off the track – will stand as a shining example for our next cohorts.  

Our Sport Faculty would like to sincerely thank the following students for all they have done for our CCG Eagles Athletics Program during their journey through the college: Captains Nyah Brown and Ethan Grills, Luka Mathe, Bianca Pocklington, Bethany Dean, Jorja Kirsopp-Cole, Oscar Murdoch, Tom Beckworth, Elliot MacDonald, Harry Leigh, Oliver Connan, Joshua Ward and Henry Gerdtz.