Secondary Life

Year 11 Formal

Bindy Albury - Head of Burrows House 

The Year 11 Formal took place last Friday at the Karralyka Centre in Ringwood. Each year this event is a chance for the students to share community, celebrate with friends, dance, and have a great time. This year the students were particularly enthusiastic on the dance floor! 

Given the VCE years are very busy and have many challenges, to be able to come together, enjoy one another's company, eat yummy food and make precious memories, is a blessing and a tank-filler for the year ahead.

Some highlights of the evening included: encouragement awards created by students for one another; Karralyka staff feedback about how friendly, polite and respectful our students are; some rockin' dance moves; and so much tasty food that there were leftovers!!! 

Students created the music playlist for the night and the second last song was a praise and worship song. To see so many young people on the dance floor, hands raised, praising God together with joy and excitement was the pinnacle of the night for the staff. 

Praise God for these young people and their willingness to follow Jesus together!

Donvale Drama

Nic Frame - Head of Performing Arts

It’s been a busy and exciting start to the term for senior Drama classes. Our Year 10 and VCE classes travelled to the Melbourne Recital Centre to watch Top Acts Drama and Theatre Studies concerts. 

Showcasing outstanding work from 2023 performing arts students from across the state, the concerts including Donvale’s own Joel Molyneux. Joel presented his self-devised solo ‘The Court Attendant’, and his entertaining, sophisticated performance, incorporating both song and dance, was definitely a crowd favourite. 

It was wonderful for our current students to be inspired by such diverse, high-scoring VCE work, and we wish Joel all the best as he continues his studies at Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance. 

We also visited Chapel Off Chapel Theatre in Prahran to view the New Zealand theatre company A Slightly Isolated Dog’s production of The Trojan War. Hilarious, interactive and energetic, the show was completely engaging. 

Back at Donvale, our classes were joined by members of the company, Jonathan Price and Andrew Paterson, who led a physical theatre workshop that explored their playmaking processes. Jonathan and Andrew then provided insights into the show itself, which students will find tremendously helpful as they analyse the production as part of their VCE coursework. 

iFLY Excursion

Nat Ayton - Speacialist Maths Teacher & Head of Cuthbert House

Last Friday I took a class of Year 12 Specialist Maths students to an indoor sky diving centre! Not only was it a unique feeling having winds of up to 200 km/h keep you suspended from the floor, but it was a chance for the students to see and apply some of the maths we are learning in a practical way.

Concepts like terminal velocity, drag coefficient and gravitational acceleration in the wind tunnel, met aspects of calculus and vectors in the plain; all covered in the Year 12 course.

Many students who do Specialist Maths will go on to ply their trade in the STEM world and this experience gives them a little taste of what could be possible in the future. It will also provide a context for our upcoming SAC (assessment task). 

If you’re looking for a unique experience to help solidify some complex Maths and Physics concepts, I would highly recommend a trip to iFLY.

Year 10 Camp

Stephen Holland - Risk and Compliance Manager

The Year 10 kayaking camp was a great experience for all who participated, as they rowed down the Murray River from Yarrawonga to Cobram. We could not have asked for better weather. For four days, there was almost not a cloud in the sky and the temperature each day was between 21 and 24 degrees, which was perfect.

The staff and students rowed around 70 km over the 4 days, sometimes doing up to 27 km in a day. There were plenty of breaks on the sides of the river at the many beach-like areas. After arriving at the camping site, everyone would put up their tent, set up beds, light a fire and engage in activities such as swimming, playing cards and fishing. Our Wellbeing team spoke to each group during their time on the theme of belonging.

The food supplied was fantastic! We had roast lamb with mashed potato and veggies one night, butter chicken another night and a vegetarian stir fry on the final night. They were all very tasty and satisfying.

Each group had a guide from our camp provider Halls, who led the group and made sure we stopped in the right place each night. I have it on good authority the guides are all very keen to go on DCC camps as our students are so great to work with.

I commend all the staff who were on the river with students for the entire camp. They went above and beyond to care for the students and ensure they had a rewarding, blessed and safe time. I was so fortunate to have been on the camp and gained an understanding of the effort and planning it takes to provide experiences like this for our students.

DCC Debating 

Meg Davies - Head of English

The DCC debating team spent most of Year 8 losing their competitions. However, with persistence and by learning from their own and others’ mistakes, they were able to grow through the experience.

Last Wednesday night, that perseverance and maturing approach to debating was evident in both Year 9 teams, resulting in both teams winning. 

Congratulations to the following students:

Leila Griffiths (Debating Captain), Tiffany Guo, Dora Pan, Elise Ridgeway and newcomers, Carlina Ayton and Luke Neill.

Best speaker honours were awarded to Leila Griffiths and Dora Pan!