Other School News

‘YISHU’ ARTS FESTIVAL 2023 

Another amazing year where we came together as a school community to celebrate and embrace the Arts! The crackle of gum leaves burning, smoke lingered in the air and thickened the entrance of the Sports Centre.

Excitement in the air as the students scrambled to sit down in readiness for the show. The sound of a barrel drum, gongs, cymbals and more drums sounds filled the space.

Who was it? The JDK LION DANCE group. The great yellow and black Lion began to move dominating the stage. It stood tall on hind legs and spat sponge balls in the crowd, drawing the audience with it’s incredible power and height. The crowd shrieked as the lion danced.  

Following this inspiring performance, our students took the stage with percussion, song, dance, piano and guitar. The grand finale song “I want it that way” by backstreet boys was a real crowd pleaser! Ms Geraldine, Ms Jarvis, Mr Tarwala, Ms Miller and Ms Kasiri stole the show. The students sang in unison! Everyone cheered, clapped and yes this marked the opening of the festival week.

Henna, Arts Blitz, Jimbo’s Photobooth, the Multicultural Buffet bought to you by Westall Cafe, ‘Colour your day’ Fashion Parade, Music Jam, daily art quizzes and quotes were amongst the many items activities that filled the week. The greatest highlight was the ‘Light and Sound show’ by Feel Good Events. 

LED furniture furnished the danceroom, the amazing colours filled the space. Sound, digital projections, smoke machines added to the final touches. The students lingered, took selfies embracing the ambience of the danceroom. The wonderful install crew who deserve an applause, and who bought to Westall this grand event is Veronika, Jiya, Jihan, Sofia and Leyna. 

The outdoor music jam really drew in a crowd, with Ysabel on the mic, Tynan on guitar and Mr Coco on the drums. The week was complete with the staff ‘Colour’ fashion parade in the quadrangle. Hot pink and orange, fiery red, sky blue and banana yellow costumes and wigs to match painted the walkway. 

I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank staff and student performers for bringing to us an amazing showcase of incredible talent!

A big thank you to the people behind the scenes: Andrew for bringing together all the audio and video. Rihan, assisting Andrew and Naseer for all his support.

I would like to personally thank the following staff, students and guests, as well as acknowledge their commitment and support: Willie Pepper and David Tournier from the Boonwurrung Foundation, Gina Michaels - Ascendent DC Studios and JDK Chinese Lion Dance.

Mr Coco, Ms McAlistair, School Captains - Joe BoneyJose, Niza Yong, Arts Captain - Thica Lim, Sofia Ho, Nikko, Jordan, Polina and Susannika, Larni, Isabelle Lette, Natasha Gani, George, Mr Tarwala, Mr Jarvis, Ms Bogonha, Ms Kasiri, Ms Miller. A big thank you to Mr Ji, thank you to Mr Lanarus for making this day happen! 

Here are more photos below from the event!

Ms Helen Ifandis 

Arts Coordinator

iCreate - Landscape, Architecture and Design 

Sally, Xinyue, Pim, Rita have been working on redeveloping the space outside B block. 

The students researched their own personal ideas based on flora and marine life. Large concrete ground has now been filled with contrasting colours of blue, pink, orange and red. 

You can enjoy the gigantic flowers that have now put life back into the space, and the smiling dancing octopus and outlined jellies invite you into the space to explore and interact with it.

Ms Helen Ifandis 

Arts Coordinator

Trivia Night Fundraiser 

Come and join us for a Trivia Night Extravaganza! A couple of months ago, one of our families lost their brand-new home in a fire. Alongside the building itself, they also lost all their possessions and are now having to rebuild their lives (and their home) from scratch!

Help us raise money for our Westall family with a night of compassion and competition!

TABLE GROUPS:

Please fill in this form with the names of the people on your table. This must be done whether you purchase a group ticket or an individual one.  Please include the phone number or email address of at least one group member for contact purposes. 

https://forms.office.com/r/jHZVDTp5tj

WHEN: Friday 17 November 2023 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

WHERE: Balook Learning Centre – Westall Secondary College

PRICE: $25pp or $200 for a table group of 8 people.

GTAC Biomedical sciences day at University of Melbourne!

On Wednesday the 4th of October, 6 students in Year 10 and 11 went to GTAC to participate in the Biomedical Science Day hosted by GTAC and University of Melbourne. We listened to our guest speaker Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka who is the head of school of biomedical sciences on her journey as a student to where she is at now. 

We also got the opportunity to listen to some actual students studying the course and answered all our questions about their experiences, workload, transition and subject selections. Some of workshops the students got to participate with a PhD mentor was based on using different microscopes and their PhD study. 

The students were looking at scanning electron microscope, culturing neurons, embryonic development of a zebrafish and regulating gene proteins and DNA. We also got to explore the University of Melbourne Campus and got a rare admission to see the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology where we got to see real dissected body parts! 

A big thank you to Ms Jessie Li for braving the rainy and cold weather to come with us! Here are some of the 1 day old image of a zebrafish that was moving and fluorescence rat neurons!

Ms Loan Luong-Nguyen 

STEM Learning Specialist 

Westall Secondary College students step inside the southern hemisphere’s largest biomedical precinct

Budding scientists embrace Biomedical Sciences Day at the University of Melbourne

Year 10 and 11 students from Westall Secondary College were among 120 students from across regional and rural Victoria to attend the Annual Biomedical Sciences Day at the University of Melbourne. Local students and their teacher Loan Luong-Nguyen had the exciting opportunity to experience life as a biomedical scientist at the event presented by the University of Melbourne’s School of Biomedical Sciences and the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC).

The University’s Head of School of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka, encouraged the students to think about the science behind what creates, sustains and threatens people’s lives in Australia and beyond. Professor Wilkinson-Berka spoke of the revolutionary work underway at the school, and the Gene Technology Access Centre— including biological processes to better understand human health, computational biology, 3D printing to replace bones, genomics: new tools for cancer treatments, and new vaccines to combat disease.

Professor Wilkinson-Berka encouraged students to apply to the Bachelor of Biomedicine after completing their VCE studies. “When you come to Melbourne, you don’t just come to the School of Biomedical Sciences,” she said, “You have access to the whole of the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct, a collaboration of hospitals and research institutes that are right on our doorstep, not to mention the diverse range of career opportunities upon completion of your studies.”

Students worked alongside researchers in the Gene Technology Access Centre Laboratories to photograph specimens using light, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopes, and had the opportunity to enter the images into their own Under the Microscope Coverslip Competition.

They also took a behind the scenes look at the University’s Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology and uncovered real tissue specimens and historical anatomical models, and a tour of the Digital Learning Hub which allowed students to experience how innovative digital technology is used to study the human body. The students thought using the VR equipment was really cool. Their teacher, Loan said the students were thrilled to be able to learn on the latest scientific equipment.

University students Isabella Gilchrist, 1st year Bachelor of Biomedicine, Karam Matloob, 2nd year Bachelor of Biomedicine, and Ryan Shen, 3rd year Bachelor of Biomedicine, spoke about their courses, the diverse research topics they are pursuing and life on campus and in Melbourne.

Westall Secondary College students also learned about Access Melbourne, a program that helps students from rural or regional areas gain entry to undergraduate courses at the university. Each year, 20 per cent of domestic undergraduate places are reserved for Access Melbourne applicants.

Information taken from University of Melbourne media release dated 11 October 2023

Written by  Michelle Kelso 

2024

College Captains Leadership Excursion 

On Thursday October 19, our incoming College Captains were invited by Clare O'Neil MP to attend the Australian Cyber Conference. They listened to keynote speaker Astronaut Chris Hadfield's incredible experience commanding the International Space Station. The students were lucky to end the event with a meet and greet.

One of the best pieces of advice Chris Hadfield shared was that fear can be overcome through competency. He spent four years training for 16 hours of spacewalking, including living months in a deep-sea habitat. We do not need to fear if we are prepared and ready. 

The captains spent the remainder of the day at the State Library Victoria, preparing and planning how best to represent our school community. We are very excited to see our captains in action following this year's captain team's hard work. 

Thank you to Ms Jenny Phillips for joining us and sharing your knowledge with our captains. 

Kristina Vasilakis

Student Activities Leader

Halloween at Westall! 

For its second year in a row, Westall Secondary College brought the spooky spirit to our school for Halloween 2023 with dress-ups, challenges and more!

Our teachers went all out with their dress-ups, and you, the students, had the chance to vote for the best-dressed teacher. It's no surprise that Mr. Graewolfe took the crown as the best-dressed teacher, with Miss. Kadian as our runner-up. Congratulations to both!

At lunchtime, students had a blast with various activities, including a Scavenger Hunt, spooky themed Maths and Wellbeing activities, and trying to guess the number of candies in the jar.

Speaking of the candy jar guessing challenge, Christian in Year 8 nailed it by guessing 134 candies, the closest to the actual number of 130. Emily from Year 11 was our runner-up with a guess of 125. Furthermore, students who successfully completed the Balook scavenger hunt had the chance to enter a random prize draw. The lucky winner of this prize draw was Farhanah from Year 7. Congratulations, Farhanah! 

Halloween 2023 was a day filled with fun, excitement, and some well-deserved recognition for our best-dressed teacher and clever candy guessers. Thanks to everyone who participated in making it a memorable day!