Around the School

Careers News

Please read the attached PDF from the Careers Team

Helen Doherty

Careers

InterGREAT news!

On the 28th February, the Year 9’s were lucky enough to have Tammy van Wisse come and speak to them as part of the InterGREAT program. Her presentation was very inspiring and a perfect example of how far perseverance can take us, which was our theme for the week.

Tammy shared with us her incredible marathon swimming feats, such as swimming the entire length of the Murray River and entering the Guinness Book of Records as the first person to swim across Bass Strait. Tammy’s story was truly inspirational and we loved hearing from her!

Tarni Cavanagh and Jasmine Lacy

Sustainability @ RSC

This year the Green Team have already achieved so much for sustainability at Ringwood Secondary College in a few short weeks.

Term 1 has seen the launch of the school compost bins. This project was funded by Maroondah City Council in the form of a small equipment grant in 2016 and has come into fruition this year with three 600L bins (on a rotation) and collection buckets in Food Technology rooms and the main staff room, with a view to expand the practice throughout the school in time. Student groups at recess and lunchtime have shown their enthusiasm for the project by using our folded newspaper pouches to collect their green waste and drop them at the compost bins. This project has been embraced by many, especially students who are engaged in the link between food preparation and composting, and those in The Green Team who have worked at maintaining the bins and learning how to care for our very hardworking worms.

Thank you to the Maroondah City Council for their generous grant to help us achieve this goal.

Special thanks to the staff who have supported this project and will continue to do so throughout the year, it goes a long way to teaching the students how to be sustainable in their own homes and not just as a special project at school.

After this term, I will be on maternity leave and I would like to publicly thank the Green Team, prefect Jayden Anthony and staff involved for their support of my ideas and for their willingness to try projects to take us strides closer to becoming a ResourceSmart School. I have thoroughly enjoyed this role and hope the team continues to enjoy leading the school in environmental matters throughout 2017. Keep an eye on our Instagram account @rscsustainability to keep updated on The Green Team activity.

Mrs Jacqui Godfrey

Sustainability Coordinator

House Activities Article – Year 10 and 9

It was an exciting first house activities session for all year 10 and 9 students, it was great to see everyone supporting their house with lots of energy. The fun activities included a 4-way tug of war, the hula-hoop challenge and tunnel ball. It was great to see everyone up on their feet and participating as well as having fun. Everyone who participated put in as much energy and enthusiasm as they could, making the first year 9/10 house activities event a great success. We also must also congratulate Freeman house as the overall winner, with Frazer house close behind.

We would also like to thank all the teachers and the leadership team for setting up and running all these fun games and making it as enjoyable as possible.

Middle School House Leaders

Library News – March 2107

Whilst we await re-entry to our refurbished library early next term, we are amazed at how well our temporary library is functioning.

Despite being significantly smaller in size, we have been able to accommodate all junior English classes for Reading Ladders as well as a small number of private study students. Library services to the broader school have remained unchanged. Our space is now fully air conditioned – a delight on hot days.

Our students have been wonderful adjusting to and embracing the challenges of working in a confined area.

Emily Collins & Deb Wilkins

Library Coordinators

Science

Science faculty has been very busy this term, organising excursions so selected students could listen to guest speakers talking about women in STEM occupations, and Psychology students attending brain research facilities in Parkville.

Environmental Science excursions

Year 12 Environmental Science students undertook an authentic science field work excursion to help scientists manage critically endangered species of mammals using capture and release techniques at Mt Rothwell in the Western Volcanic Plains region of Victoria.  Environmental Science students will also be conducting their own field work to determine the Species Diversity of Wombolano State forest in Ringwood next term. 

Students preparing baits for the trapping process.  The baits were made of peanut butter and oats

Students learning how to set the traps as dusk falls.  It was a long night ahead, but a brilliant experience.  Students weighed, checked for babies and health of each species caught as well as using monitoring devices to check for electronic chips.  All this data was collected and will be used by the staff at Mt Rothwell.

This Emu was one of the many species seen while spot lighting.  Students also got up close and personal to Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Southern Brown Bandicoot, Spotted Quolls, Barn Owls, rock wallabies, rats, Bettongs and Potoroos.  Everything being managed with in 11 km of electric fence to keep feral animals out.

New Microscopes for Senior students in Science

I would like to extend a big thank-you to Warwick Dellow and Olympus who approached me earlier in the year asking if we could use university level microscopes.  These were handed over to Ringwood Last week.  This is a handy asset for our senior school students and will allow us to dispose of some of our older pieces of equipment.

Science competition

We are also gearing up for the ICAS science competition in May.  If any students would like to participate in this competition, please email Mr Norman or ask your science teacher to forward your interest.

Jim Norman

Science

From the Chaplain -     RSC Car Show

Ever think you would see a 10+ Million dollar car once owned by a prominent Third Reich official at Ringwood Secondary College?  Well that was just one of many cars on offer last Saturday in the Ringwood Training building. What a day we had!

The sun came out to play along with many spectators keen to see the beautiful machines that turned up for the day.  We had approximately 50 cars show up along with some special guests like Dee Ryall and Michael Sukkar, all in support of the event.  It was an amazing day for all who turned up with so much on offer.

People mingled and discussed cars and found out interesting stories and history's behind the vehicles. A special note of thanks to the Ringwood MFB who turned up and got involved, which was great. Another thanks to the many staff and parents who showed their support by either bringing cars along, volunteering or coming to soak up the atmosphere.  

I must also mention our amazing sponsors who allowed the event to happen.  PENRITE, MOTHERS, UNIQUES CARS and WHEELS magazines all played a part in providing their products for those in attendance. 

If you attended the event feel free to send an email with feedback to rsccarshow@gmail.com or if you want to display a car at next years event you can also email the above address.  Thanks again and look forward to more excitement at the 2018 event!! 

Here are some pictures of just a few of the cars. More photos can be found on the Ringwood Training Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/rtvic/

Adam Bryant

Chaplain

Debating 

The Debating Association of Victoria commenced its Schools Debating Competition this week. Wednesday evening saw six of our Year 8 students participate in their very first debate. The topic they contested was ‘That Australia should adopt a new national flag’. Overcoming fears and thinking on their feet, the students were terrific.

Ringwood was represented by two teams; one negative team featuring Gemma Caldecoat, Tian Sang and Renee Egan, and one affirmative team featuring Tia Olsen, Charlotte Pratley and Holly Manuel. Both teams won their debate by a single point. It was also wonderful to see that several of our reserve debating students came out to support both teams on the night.

Caitlin May and Deb Wilkins