Senior School

...THE YEAR IN SUMMARY - SENIOR SCHOOL

As 2018 comes to close it is a great opportunity to reflect on the year. This year has been a time of change and growth in the Senior School. The recent Valedictory Dinner was a fun, enjoyable celebration of the students who graduated this year. It was a pleasure to share with the students my final reflections and instructions to them as they are sent from St Andrews Christian College to the many different places and roles in society.

This year has seen us grow as a Senior School not only in numbers, but in the subject offerings we provide to students. It is exciting to see the passions of the students nurtured and to watch them grow socially, emotionally and spiritually in addition to their academics.

One of the things I enjoy about schools is that there is always beginning and end to the year, and an opportunity to start afresh at the start of the new school year. It is good to stop and reflect; to take stock of how the year went. I teach students a simple reflection exercise: What do we need keep doing? What do we need to stop doing? What do we need to start doing?

Have a conversation with your child(ren). Ask them those three questions about their school year. What could they change? What will help them to be better prepared to approach 2019? I look forward to the summer holidays and a chance to reflect and refresh, but also to the beginning of a new school year: filled with excitement and open possibilities about how God will use us here at St Andrews Christian College!

John Presant –

Head of Senior School

YEAR 10  “BABBLE” ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

The Year 10 Theatre Studies class have worked hard throughout Semester two to prepare for their Showcase evening, which was held on November 15th, in the Drama room. The students’ families and friends attended the evening and saw the class perform the Ensemble piece, entitled “Babble”, which explored a number of different philosophies developed by some of the great thinkers of history, and how they compare to each other, and to the Bible. In addition to the Ensemble work each student also performed a Monologue piece. The evening was a great success and paves the way for bigger and better performances in the future.

YEAR 10 TABLOID SPORTS DAY

On the 14th of November the Year 10s ran a Tabloid Sports day for the Year 4s as part of our Event Management Program. This was a great way to connect with the lower year levels and to gain a better understanding of how to manage an event.

Johnathan Koura 10B

In the lead up to the Tabloid Sports Day, it was interesting to learn how to coach younger ones and also how to plan and organise an engaging event.

Karin Siahay 10B

ICE SKATING/ ICE HOCKEY

Learning how to play ice hockey was super fun!! It helped develop our teamwork skills and overall bond as a year.

Rachel Song

When skating we were required to persevere and not give up, even after falling multiple times.

Theophanis Katsigiannis

YEAR 9 SAILING

As part of our Year 9 Program, the whole of year 9 went on a sailing day! After a quick induction on the fundamental tasks required to a sail boat we split into two groups, one sailing in keelboats and the others sailing in dinghies. Both groups had heaps of fun, not only learning how to perform the different tasks, but getting out of their comfort zones and working under pressure. Two groups capsized, however got straight back in their boats and enjoyed the rest of the day! What a fun time of teamwork and bonding.

Cailyn Holland

Year 9 Homeroom Teacher

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

 Year 9 Programming Challenge for Girls

The Programming Challenge for Girls (PC4G) is an annual international event to introduce Year 9 school girls to computer programming. PC4G is amazing opportunity to try out coding in a fun and engaging environment.

After a great success of our Year 9 girls in Programming Challenge for Girls at The University of Melbourne for the last two years, our school was invited to form a team and participate in 2018.

In February our students attended an introductory workshop and learned about the coding program ‘Alice’. The program is designed to increase logical and computational thinking skills and the fundamental principles of coding and programming.

On the 27th of November two St Andrews Year 9 students, Mandy Feng and Min Hyun, completed in the final challenge of Programing Challenge for Girls at The University of Melbourne. The emphasis of this year’s programming contest was based on collaboration and creativity.

We are so proud of our entrants, Mandy and Min, for their hard work and the exciting animations and narratives they have produced. Mandy and Min proved to be resourceful, creative and worked as a team.

Min Hyun reflects, “Last week Mandy Feng and I received an opportunity to compete in a coding competition held at Melbourne University. The prospect was rather overwhelming at first. Turns out we needn't have worried, as we both proved to be resourceful and creative at making code. Surprisingly we performed really well and genuinely enjoyed ourselves.”

Year 9 Hands on Engineering and IT         

Our Year 9 students were thrilled to be invited to participate in ‘Hands on Engineering and IT’ workshops at the University of Melbourne, on Thursday, 6 December.

The School Of Engineering had prepared a mix of activities and workshops for our students: Amazing Race Parkville Campus competition, Bridge Building, Aqualibrium and Virtual Reality workshops.

‘Hands on Engineering and IT’ was a wonderful opportunity for our Year 9 students to visit Melbourne University Parkville campus and learn about inspiring and thought-provoking engineering and technology concepts and issues.

Technological and digital skills are increasingly in demand. Many of tomorrow’s jobs are going to be totally new, and most of them will need digital know-how. Engineers contribute to all areas of society; whether they are working with infrastructure, buildings, machines, materials, chemical processes, software or electronics.  Since 2015, engineering jobs have grown by almost 50%.

We are delighted to offer our students such amazing opportunities. These two excursions to The University of Melbourne inspired and challenged our Year 9 students and were a great addition to our Senior School Head Start Program. 

Irena Yevlahova

Careers Coordinator

VALEDICTORY DINNER