What's On @ MFG

Year 10 French Breakfast

In December 2016 the Year 10 French class sampled an array of French culinary delicacies at an end-of-year French breakfast. Students spoke French and enjoyed croissants, baguettes, brioches, French jams and spreads, pâté and a host of different French cheeses before being surprised with snails in garlic butter! Miam miam!

Arthur Reed Art Acquisition Recipient - Chloe Durran 

Other Winners:

2016 Principal Art Award Acquisition recipient​ - Chloe Collins

Niesha Hunter @ Earthwatch Student Challenge in SA

At the end of last year Niesha joined high school students from around Australia to participate in an Earthwatch Student Challenge, Ecosystems of the Murray River, in South Australia.  Niesha participated in scientific fieldwork which has motivated and inspired her to become an environmental leader and appreciate the ecological issues facing the planet.  Her fieldwork methods included pitfall traps, zoological surveys and remote cameras.

“From the 11th until the 17th of December I participated in the Earthwatch Student Challenge in South Australia. We got to set up and check traps, where we then collect data and helped scientists analyse the annual variation and trends in small mammals and reptiles. We also got to catch and analyse bats and assess tree health.  My favourite part of the whole experience was meeting like-minded people from all across Australia and getting to meet such amazing scientists. I would definitely recommend taking any opportunities you are given because you can learn so much!”

World Challenge - December 2016 - Cambodia & Vietnam

On behalf of the whole team (22 students and 2 staff)…

Megan Kaiser

Vietnam and Cambodia was a life changing experience!

We were privileged enough to travel through the beautiful temples of Angkor Wat, visit local communities, trek through a variety of terrain and immerse ourselves in new cultural environments. A major highlight of our expedition was volunteering at a Children’s Village in Cambodia. We were there for a total of five days, where we provided manual labour assistance and taught English to both the students and parents. Being able to play and interact with children was both inspiring and heartwarming.

Overall, having the opportunity to experience and engage in an exciting cultural environment was absolutely incredible.

Cait Reynolds

World Challenge.

Sounds pretty self explanatory, right?

World Challenge to me was more than the challenge itself. It was growth, leadership, support and love. It contained all sorts of amazing views, everything from sunsets over our campsites that would blow your mind, to laying back in the middle of the jungle, staring at all the stars in the sky that would just make us think to ourselves "how lucky are we".

It was an amazing experience, and I am sure any one of us lucky girls would gladly take part again if given the chance. We would like to thank everyone who helped support us through the 18 months of preparation. Thank you.

Reunion Island - My Exchange Experience

Sarah with some Sarda Garriga friends

My time in Reunion was incredible, an experience I will never forget. Although I was only there for a little less than two months I made so many new friends and so many unforgettable memories. I loved going to school especially because its so different to Matthew Flinders and just talking to new people, everyone was so lovely and being patient with me when I didn’t quite understand something which was very nice of them.  

My host family was just sensational, always helping me with my French, taking me all over the island, going shopping, to the movies and just being so sweet and caring. I consider them to be my second family. I cannot thank them enough.

During my stay I visited all kinds of stunning places like le Maïdo, le Bassin Bleu, Cascade Niagara (4 times), phenomenal restaurants (best food ever!) and Salazie is just breathtaking, I wish I had mountain ranges like that near me.

I am so thankful for staff of Sarda Garriga especially Monsieur Saïd who also kindly organised an interview with a journalist on my last day, Madame Cailleret, and Madame Pascalis for helping me with my French and making me feel more than welcome and as well as all the staff and teachers at Matthew Flinders, especially Monsieur Keast and Ms Crofts for making this all possible.

I would highly recommend going to Reunion for an exchange. I had the most amazing time and I really hope I am able to go back some time in the future

Welcome to Senior VCAL!

By Isla Connelly 12F

The Senior VCAL team are already busy with our first project of the new year. I’ve talked to Ms Kylie Howarth (Senior VCAL Literacy teacher) about what's happening in the classroom as well as what the MFG community should look out for in 2017.

What kind of things will Senior VCAL be doing this year?

Term one is centred around our participation in Relay For Life. This will be going across the term with lots of fundraising opportunities for students to participate in, helping to raise money for a great cause.  Over the next week or so, groups from our class will be going to home rooms to talk about some research we have completed around cancer and to explain a bit more about what Relay for Life is.  Our major fundraiser for this will be our huge bake sale on the 20th of March.

Term two will be focused on a school community project with more details to come. Towards the end of the term we will begin plans for our annual Pop-Up Market, which will be held in Term three on Parent Teacher interview day.

Given that people tend to say that VCAL is the easy option, what is your response to that?

VCAL is an alternative program for year 11 and 12 students who wish to head straight into the workforce instead of a tertiary education. It’s about gaining practical skills and experiences that prepare students to succeed in the workplace. It is definitely not the ‘easy option’, it is an alternate pathway to completing senior secondary school.

What can the rest of the MFG community look out for from our class?

There will be plenty of opportunities for the rest of the school to show their support this year, with fundraising activities and our bake sale for Relay for Life in term one to our pop- up market in term three.

Over the next few weeks all of our class will begin to head out to SBAs, VET programs and work placements on Wednesdays 1pm to 5pm and Friday's 9am to 5pm. We have students doing a variety of courses such as Childcare and Patisserie. Many students had to go out and organise their work placements themselves, which has been quite a challenge for some.

We would appreciate every single bit of support from the MFG community and we look forward to a great year.

Bake sale: 30th March

Relay for life: 1st - 2nd April (First weekend of the holidays)

Pop- Up Market: 22nd August (Parent-Teacher Interviews)

Year 7 ALP

A Rose By Any Other Name …….

The Year 7 Accelerated Learners have been investigating the history, development and use of the compass rose in our unit on Mapping.

Here are some interesting fun facts that they discovered:

• North, south, east and west are known as CARDINAL POINTS
• The main points in between these are ORDINAL POINTS
• It is called a compass rose because of the ornate embellishments that often appear on the compass
• A good way to remember where the points are located is to use the following mnemonic – Never Eat Soggy Weetbix
• There are 32 points on a standard compass, so there actually is more than

The students then went out into the yard armed with colorful pieces of chalk and created their own compass roses along the footpath running north to south near Latrobe Terrace.

MFG Swimming Carnival Tuesday 14th Feb 2017.

Students are expected at school at the start of the day to have their period 1 rolls marked before walking down to Kardinia Pool. They will be returning back to school for presentations and will be dismissed at 3.11pm.

Being that it is Valentines Day the house captains have decided to make the dress up theme ‘Love is in the air’.

If students intend to dress up then we would recommend wearing bathers under their costume so that they can compete and earn points for their house. They should also try to match costumes to their house colour.

Students have been warned that body paint, streamers, coloured zinc, and balloons are not permitted.

We hope all students attend this wonderful sporting event even if their intentions are not to swim.

Trials are conducted in the morning with the main carnival beginning around 12pm. Best of luck to all competitors on the day.

Mr Lehmann.

Leader of Sport.