Teaching & Learning

End Of Term 4: 

Teaching and Learning 

What’s Up SOC

After 26 episodes and 180 minutes of footage, the “What’s up Soc” podcast for 2024 has come to a close. 

A big thank you goes out to all the students and staff who contributed.

Congratulations to the podcast team for a successful first year, Stacey Maskas, Ella Hayes, Genna Windsor, Greg Acciarito, Antosha Babiy, and Athanasius Tuavia.

On behalf of all the Theatre and Media Crew, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday break and see you all back fresh and ready to go in 2025.

Philip Clark

Theatre Manager 

Step Up Program 

During their last lesson before the Step-Up program, Year 7 Japanese students from Mr Hua and Ms Tynan’s class were split into one of two activities for the afternoon. One group completed an end of term favourite, water calligraphy, by practising their Japanese handwriting using our specially made paper and water instead of ink. The other group competed in a revision game for the prize of one packet of strawberry Pocky, putting their knowledge of the year’s content to the test. 

Bonnie Tynan 

Japanese Head of Learning 

Diwali 

Diwali, the Hindu ‘festival of lights,’ is celebrated in South Asian countries such as India and Nepal, as well as by the diaspora of these communities in countries like Australia. 

At school early this term, we decorated the whole foyer with paper lanterns that we folded and glued LED tealights, artificial marigolds and fairy lights. The most fun part was making a rangoli with roses in the downstairs foyer.  

Thank you to Abigail, Advika, Alexis, Cate, Salena and Ruby for helping to make the paper lantern decorations. 

Thank you to Arsh, Eliza, Ishaan J, Isabelle, Jacob, Mika, Stephanie and Uotani for helping to prepare the sweets. 

At lunchtime, the student helpers gave out Motichoor Ladoo and Rasgulla to the community, which was a chance for some people to try things they had never tried before. We also played cultural music from a playlist that we curated for Diwali. 

Welcome New Students 

A huge welcome to Abbey, Joe, Paniz and Yang who started with us this term. 

Abbey is interested in teaching kindergarten in the future, Paniz is interested in going into the medical field, Joe loves making music and Yang is interested in Mathematics and pursuing Mathematics at university. 

Good luck to our Year 12s 

Good luck to Kamila and Minh who have worked hard all year and have officially graduated from Year 12! 

Global Prefects for 2025 

Congratulations to our Global Prefects for 2025, Aku Chapagain and Hiro Hajinikitas! We wish you luck with all of your responsibilities next year. 

Homestays for International Students Needed 

We are seeking homestay families living in our local school community for students traveling here from overseas in 2025. These home-stays would be long-term, with homestay providers receiving a weekly payment of $400.

Homestays are more than just a room to sleep, they offer the safety, security and welcoming environment of a real family.

Homestay families go through strict screening and monitoring processes by the Department of Education. New homestay providers would participate in an interview with school representatives, as well as home visits by a school representative. 

Every member of a homestay household over the age of 18 years of age would also need to obtain a Working with Children’s Check card.

If you would be interested in becoming a homestay provider for our school, please send your expression of interest to sarah.crespo-liu@education.vic.gov.au  

Sara Crespo - Liu

International Student Co Ordinator 

The Green Team – Collection of bread tags

Throughout the year, SOC students and staff have been bringing bread tags for recycling. These tags have been collected by the The Green Team and weighed, sorted by colour then shipped to the organization ‘Aussie bread tags for wheelchairs.

The bread tags are recycled locally and the proceeds from sales used to raise funds to buy wheelchairs for vulnerable people, mainly in South Africa.

To date, ‘Aussie bread tags for wheelchairs’ have purchased 114 wheelchairs and The Green Team is proud to not only assist the environment by removing plastic but also delighted to support the purchase of wheelchairs for disadvantaged people.

The Green Team (Sustainability club) – shrub planting

On a warm spring day during term 4 members of the "The Green Team" planted a variety of shrubs along the walk to the DLC centre.

Students were engaged with every aspect of the panting: digging the space, separating the roots of pot-bound plants, fertilizing the hole, planting the shrub, then watering the plant. We look forward to watching our shrubs grow over the coming months.

This planting will not only beautify our school but will help mitigate some of the destructive effects of rising temperatures and climate change.

Alison Jones. 

Sustainability Co-ordinator: The Green Team 

Wheelers ePlatform

South Oakleigh College is committed to providing students with various and unique learning opportunities, which is why we are pleased to remind you once again that Wheelers ePlatform, is South Oakleigh’s digital library. It provides our students free access to eBooks and audiobooks throughout the year and during (summer) school holidays. 

The benefits of ePlatform: With ePlatform, your child has 24/7 access to eBooks and Audiobooks for free. This is a wonderful extension of our physical school library and allows titles to be checked out at home, over the weekend or during school breaks without worrying about losing books because they automatically return at the end of the loan period. Students of all ages can benefit from ePlatform's reading and comprehension tools.  A service like this can benefit struggling or reluctant readers, learning-challenged students, second-language learners and the visually impaired as well as gifted readers alike. 

• Unique reader customisation with Settings wizard, across all devices 
• Introduce students to books above their reading level 
• Help busy kids find time to read 
• Professionally curated collection with age restrictions set by school staff 
• Increase vocabulary and improve pronunciation and comprehension  
• User friendly for all types of readers & listeners (e.g. reluctant, dyslexic) 

How to access: Ensure your child has Wheeler’s ePlatform app on their device which can be downloaded for free from the Apple Store, Google Play Store, or the platform can easily be accessed via the school website in the ‘student’ dropdown menu, top left-hand corner. Click on the link below. https://www.sosc.vic.edu.au/   Students have their own unique login to access the platform using their Compass user ID: ie NBA0001 and the initially generic password Library1. Please contact us directly should your child have any trouble logging in. 

Nancy Bastakos

Library Manager