Key Learning Areas

Tournament of Minds

Tournament of Minds has come to an end for 2018 and what a year it was! With two teams competing on Sunday the 26th of August at The University of Wollongong, Lake Illawarra performed extremely well on the day. Ms Nicholson and Ms Robinson were extremely proud to be part of such an exciting event.

Arriving bright and early, the teams registered and checked out the competition. With teams from across the South Coast, Lake Illawarra was excited to perform. The first team worked collaboratively to showcase their talents and understandings of the contribution of arts and music and travelled across the decades- with some pretty good dance moves! They were confident in their Spontaneous performance but it was top secret- they weren’t even allowed to tell the teachers about it until the end of the day!

The Language and Literature team was next up. After supporting the Arts team earlier in the day the group was keen to complete their challenge where they had to pitch a book to be made into a TV series. With a carefully planned and polished script and immaculate performance, the group showed the judges how well they understood the challenge, and their in-depth understanding of the importance of genre and performance techniques. They also completed their short term challenge, but kept the details a secret!

After a great day watching students from across the region, both Primary Schools and High Schools, perform in challenges from social science to STEM, the students were ready to find out the results! Although our teams, didn’t place in the competition, they performed exceptionally well on the day and should be proud of their efforts.

A special thank you also goes out to the staff and parents who took time out of their weekends to come and support the teams! A big thank you to Mr Davison who guided and supported the teachers through the process and Mrs Hartas who came down to cheer on the teams on the day! The students really appreciated this support!

As the competition comes to a close for this year, the students and teachers are more excited than ever to compete again next year. Well done Lake Illawarra Tournament of Minds teams!

The Arts Team

Shae Mann, Ella Riley, Josh Milham, Cameron Potter, Cooper May, Bailee Walsh, Holley Tramontano.

Language Literature Team

Seth Brown, Kyle McCaughey, Kalani Conroy-Allen, Aliyah Mills, Amber Sloan, Bella Mann, Blake Wenham

Art

Illustrator Dale Newman Visits Lake

Recently, Year 10 Visual Design were able to have a first hand look at the work of the successful, practising illustrator Dale Newman. Dale currently lives in the Illawarra and is famous for not only her illustrations of Primary school readers but also for other children’s story books, including her most recent book, an illustrated graphic novel called ‘Kid Glovz’, and other private commissions. She kindly donated a copy of ‘Kid Glovz’.

Students heard about how demanding her work is, but also how rewarding it is to see your artworks published and widely circulated.  They were able to see the original artworks created for ‘Kid and Bear’ and then, the same illustrations in book form. Dale demonstrated one of her illustration techniques and then guided students through the creation of their own expressive character.

After having completed an Illustration unit of work earlier in the year (using the same media and techniques as Dale), it was really interesting to see how the skills we learned and developed in class were being used to both earn an income and provide personal pleasure.

Dale’s visit was sponsored by the Illawarra South Coast branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and we are grateful for their support of our school!

Bstreetsmart

On Tuesday 28th August, 60 of our year 10 students, along with 26,000 others students from across NSW and the ACT, attended an excursion to Sydney’s Qudos Bank  Arena to experience  the annual road safety event, Bstreetsmart, a safety initiative designed to encourage young people to make safer choices as a driver and passenger in motor vehicles. This excursion forms part of the student’s PDHPE curriculum and directly links with their road safety assessment task.  Bstreetsmart gives young people, who are most at risk, a realistic look at the trauma caused by road crashes and provides them with information and strategies in an attempt to reduce serious injuries and deaths.

In the morning session, students were welcomed by the Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey, who outlined the importance of road safety education and the over-representation of young people in road crashes.  The students then witnessed a confronting and realistic car crash re-enactment, showcasing the emergency services roles and responsibilities and the true horror of being rescued and treated in serious car crashes. It followed the story of a P-Plate car crash and the tragic outcomes experienced by the driver and passengers. It also outlines the aftermath of the crash and the criminal proceedings and ramifications for the driver.  This was followed by real life stories from young car crash survivors, who have endured life changing injuries and trauma, which drives home the message that this can happen to anyone.

After the morning session, students had the opportunity  to visit a large number of interactive displays, teaching them about road safety issues, including; youthsafe, brain injury team synapse, drug health NSW, State Emergency Services, Road Safety Transport NSW, NSW Ambulance, Careflight, Westmead Hospital Trauma Team and Intensive Care, Fire & Rescue NSW and NSW Police. Each display offered an abundance of information and practical advice surrounding particular issues in road safety.

The event was a practical, informative, engaging and powerful experience for the students, who were mature, responsible, respectful and productive throughout the various sessions and displays.  A very worthwhile experience and a great day was had by all.

Food Technology

Year 10 Food Technology have been making and decorating a cake for the unit Food for Special Occasions.We were lucky enough to have a demonstration from a professional cake decorator Adrienne Hudson who gave suggestions and inspiration to make the cakes.Students were able to show skills in colour and design and the use of a variety of techniques.The pictures show the results and students were overall pleased with their efforts and of course were able to sample the finished product. Well done.

Mrs Cormack