Senior School – Term 2 Week 7

Student Digital Safety Forum for Parents/Guardians and Staff

Do you ever worry about your young person’s online behaviour and safety? 

Do you have a clear understanding of the legalities surrounding digital image production, sharing and requesting, for young people?

Would you like to know if other families have the same questions, experiences, challenges and concerns as you? 

As our young people continue to grow up and learn within a ‘technological age’, their digital safety remains a critical focus for staff at Christian College Geelong, as I am sure it does for you at home. As per my recent email, and as part of our strategy to partner genuinely and comprehensively with you in their nurturing, I warmly invite you to our upcoming Student Digital Safety Forum for Parents/Guardians, Staff and Victoria Police.

This important event will be held in the Christian College Middle School – Highton Library on Wednesday, June 14, from 5:45pm-7:15pm. All parents and guardians from Year 4 to Year 12 are invited to attend

From the Deputy Head of Campus

As we approach the final weeks of this term, a mix of excitement and weariness fills the air. We eagerly anticipate the upcoming holiday break—a time to reconnect with family, friends, and engage in activities that bring us joy. However, amidst our anticipation, it’s essential to acknowledge the fatigue experienced by staff, students, and parents alike due to final assessments and the colder, shorter, and darker days we are experiencing. Throughout the past two weeks at Senior School, our focus has been on fostering healthy relationships and reflecting on how we demonstrate care, courage, and respect. One crucial aspect of healthy relationships is the connection we have with ourselves. Reachout.com reminds us that our self-talk can either be positive or negative—it represents our inner voice, constantly commenting on our lives. When our self-talk is positive and empowering, it boosts our self-esteem and confidence. The good news is that we can practise and improve our self-talk. Reachout.com offers helpful tips, including the importance of noticing, challenging, changing, and surrounding ourselves with positivity.

In the realm of healthy relationships, we are delighted to witness the remarkable progress made by the Year 11 Presentation Ball participants. They have wholeheartedly embraced the challenges of learning dances and collaborating with their peers, including those they may not typically interact with. This inclusive and positive environment is now on the brink of reaching its pinnacle with the main event scheduled for next week. As a part of their upcoming evening, the Year 11 students, as highlighted in last week’s Vine article, are eager to initiate conversations about mental health and overall wellbeing among their peers and parents. Each night, a group of these students will deliver inspiring messages to their families, emphasising the importance of supporting and nurturing mentally healthy environments. We eagerly anticipate joining these students, their families, and friends in celebrating their achievements next week.

Senior School Subject Selection – Learning Pathways Night and More

To empower our students and their families to make well-informed decisions regarding their learning pathways, subject choices, and accredited courses of study, we have organised a series of valuable opportunities. These initiatives aim to familiarise students and families with the available options, processes, and potential outcomes available to them. We are excited to commence these events with a Learning Pathways Information Session, taking place online on Tuesday, June 20th at 6:30 PM.

During the Learning Pathways Information Session, we will provide essential information to students and families, shedding light on the revised VCE (ATAR), VCE VM (Vocational Major), Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC), VET courses, and School-Based Apprenticeship & Traineeships (SBATs). Our aim is to offer clear and concise explanations of how each of these pathways presents unique opportunities for students in their pursuit of future ambitions.

This session will prove immensely beneficial for families joining our Senior School community in 2024, serving as a comprehensive guide for our current Year 10 and 11 students and families as they consider their options while progressing into the next year level.

Little Research Update

In 2023, Elizabeth Little, English and History teacher at Senior School, was awarded an Australian Associate for Teaching English (AATE) Research Grant. Her research will support discussions around text selection in English and the importance of ensuring we provide not only rich literature for students to explore but a range of voices to support all students.

When selecting texts, it is important we consider a range of elements, such as content, writing style, author and how we believe a student will engage with the text. We want students to read widely and to be able to study texts, which help support our understandings of the world we live in and the role we play in this world.

Elizabeth will share her research with the English team and will be providing regular updates on her work through The Vine.

Villa Paloma – What’s Happening in Product Design

This semester’s Year 10 students have embraced the woodwork and metalwork strands of Product Design and come up with some terrific projects. It has been great to see the skills developing as students explore different designs and throw themselves into their work using hand and power tools.

The Year 11s are learning about sustainable product design and coming to terms with the folio requirements that are the major focus of Units 3 and 4. The Year 12s in turn, are approaching the end of the design phase and will begin production as soon as next week.

We are gearing up for the new Study Design that will come into effect in 2024 that will see a pivot towards computer aided design and a focus on solving global problems. While we will maintain the option of wood and metal-based, products, I think the new program has the potential to attract a broader range of students, open up new possibilities and produce more exciting product design and designers in the years to come.

The photos attached are of Year 10 plant stands.  Year 10s Eleanor Agg and Rose Gladki with their recycled timber charcuterie boards. Our new Festool sander which gets a smooth finish with 1500 grit pads and has excellent dust extraction. Year 11 Tasman Barr with his epoxy river charcuterie board featuring timber from an old fence at the Villa.

The GAT

On Thursday June 15, all students studying at least 1 Unit 3 VCE Subject will sit the GAT. There are several reasons why the GAT is compulsory for all VCE students (VM students need to only complete Part A, Literacy & Numeracy) across the state. 

1. The GAT is an insurance policy in case something happens during the exam period and a student is unable to sit an end of year exam e.g. they break their arm the night before. In a situation like this, VCAA will use the GAT to calculate a Derived Exam Score (DES) to ensure your ranking is protected. 
2. The GAT may be used to scale your SACs. Not all SACs are graded equally across all schools, so VCAA can use your GAT score to ensure your raw SAC score is adjusted fairly. 
3. The GAT is used to double check your exams scores. If your GAT predicts that you should have received a significantly higher score on your end-of-year exam than what you ended up with, the Chief Assessor will go back and re-mark your exam. Your exam score may go up, or stay the same, but it cannot go down as a result of this remarking.
4. Universities may offer places based on the GAT. According to Monash University, the GAT “can be used as a supplementary measure of applicants’ aptitude for the course, in conjunction with any other course admission requirements”.   

Source: acedvce.com

A Day at Melbourne Uni

Year 11 and 12 students are invited to experience a taste of university life this school holidays! Throughout the day students will take part in two areas of study workshops, sit in on a panel of current students to hear about their experiences, speak to staff one-on-one about your study interests, discover our broad range of student clubs and societies, and participate in student accommodation tours. 

9am – 2.30pm Wednesday 28 June,

University of Melbourne Parkville Campus 

Register to attend: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/nc8s 

Our World

The Our World Local Community class has been loving connecting with the awesome Year 5 and 6 students from Whittington Primary School. We visited Whittington Primary School for three weeks and worked on a collaborative project with our buddies, the focus of our sessions being the values of Whittington Primary School, respect, resilience, and responsibility. The final week of our program saw Whittington visiting CCG Senior School and the buddies worked together on a giant scavenger hunt, played games and had a great time together. It has been wonderful continuing our ongoing relationship with Whittington P.S. – the students collaborate and learn from one another, all whilst making new friends!

Careers Newsletter

Topics this week include:

Year 12 Students

• Employment – Australian Border Force and PwC Higher Apprenticeship Program
• Gap Year employment programs
• Early entry programs
• Compulsory university entry tests (law and teaching)
• Medicine and dentistry course – application process
• Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA)
• Monash University – Business Explorer Program

Year 10 & 11 Students

• National Youth Science Forum
• Monash University – Business Explorer Program
• The Santos Science Experience Program
• Camp Seek

All Students

• Study skills and resources
• Choosing STEM electives
• Dental science
• Careers in psychology

Career News, 8 June 2023

Canteen

Please note: Canteen at Middle and Senior School Campuses will not be open on the last day of Term 2, Friday June 23. Normal opening days resume in Week 1 of Term 3.

GISSA Cross Country Championships

For the first time since 2019 the GISSA Cross Country Championships were held recently, with our College XC team finishing a very creditable second overall on the day. The 80+ strong College team was made up of Year 7 to year 12 students from the Bellarine, Highton, and Senior Campuses. All team members ran beautifully on the day, covering the 3.5km or 4.5km distance, posting some great times and earning valuable points for the college.

We acknowledge the following students on their top 10 finish in their age group on the day – Olivia Clark 5th, Summer Morgan 7th, Nate Bradley 2nd, Thomas Stefanovski 4th, Lewis Reed 6th, Max Gear 6th, Suzanna Mavromihalis 1st, Ellie Morgan 5th, Maddy Grunberg 9th, Oscar Kattwinkle 1st, John McClure 2nd, Jai Bouvier 4th, Taj Beckworth 6th, Harper Costa 10th, Shelley Forkgen 3rd, Alexis Jane 6th, Jacob McKie 3rd, Daniel Scott 6th and Aaron Hanson 9th.

After some very close scoring across the various age sections and genders, the College won both the Senior Girls (16yo and Open age groups) and Senior Boys Shields, which was a fantastic outcome for these senior team members. Our College XC team was well led by Laura Hall and Jacob McKie, along with their Year 12 colleagues who ran for the school for the last time: Nicole Briscoe, Kirrily McConachy, Kade Leigh, Aaron Hanson, Ben Morse, Jonty Grills, and Isaac Boseley. We thank these students for the valuable contribution over the years for our XC team.

Some of our XC team members will be running at the State All Schools XC Championships on the 22nd July, and we wish these students all the best as they represent our college at this event.

Would you Like to go to Space…Camp?

The Astronaut Al Worden Endeavour Scholarship is an international education program which aims to reward aspiring STEM enthusiasts and future leaders with a hands-on astronaut training experience at the U.S. Space and Rocket Centre’s renowned Space Camp, located in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

Four students from Australia will be awarded a scholarship to the International Space Camp program taking place in Huntsville, Alabama in July 2024. The winning group of students (and one teacher) will make up ‘Mission Crew #13 - Team Australia’, and will join fellow groups from the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Chile, Singapore, United States and Poland to become ‘Team Endeavour’.

Successful applicants will receive an all-expenses paid enrolment and airfare to Space Camp, where for one-week students are immersed in the ultimate educational experience to illuminate real-world applications of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

All covered expenses include tuition, dormitory accommodation, meals throughout the week, and economy class round trip from Australia to Huntsville, Alabama. Travel will also include all transportation on the ground, as well as a day trip to Washington DC ahead of Space Camp commencement.

Calling all CC Eagles Members and Families

We are pleased to present an opportunity for you to be a part of CC Eagles/ Geelong United Basketball Club Fundraiser, with NBL1 tickets available for the following game through the club:

Round 10 – Hoop City Geelong United Supercats v Dandenong Rangers – Saturday June 17, 2023. Tip off: Women – 5:00pm, Men – 7:00pm (Ticket gets you in to both games at The Geelong Arena)

All PRE-ORDERED tickets will cost $10.00 with $5.00 being retained by our club.

On the night we want to see our members show up at the game in our CLUB COLOURS.

We hope that everyone embraces this opportunity to get our CC Eagles family together and support Hoop City Geelong United Supercats on the night.

Foundation Golf Day 2023

Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, we are delighted to announce the Christian College Foundation Golf Day tournament for 2023.

Save the date: Thursday November 9.

We are seeking prizes for this event – if you own a local business and are interested in creating partnership opportunities with Christian College, please contact Fiona Provan on 0400 477 467, or email f.provan@ccg.vic.edu.au