Sydenham Campus Principal Message
Term 3
Term 3 has been vibrant, exciting and packed full of a wide range of educational opportunities for our students. To provide some examples of how diverse the program has been I mention the Chess Master who visited in week nine, our Vic Roads Safety sessions for Year 10’s this week and the beginning of our Language Other Than English activities. Read on for more specific activity details but you should know that this is only some of the many activities we have supported in term 3.
Year 8: Snow Day
An exciting day for the year 8 staff and students on Friday the 9th of August with a 5:30 AM arrival to the school. This gave us plenty of time to bus to Lake Mountain for a full day of fun in the Snow. The conditions were challenging with a blizzard the night before and heaps of snow on the mountain and on the roads. There were toboggan races, snow battles and hot chocolates in the cafeteria. In zero degrees and with snow continuing to fall throughout the day it was an amazing experience of our students. Having said that all staff and students were relieved when they returned to the warm, dry bus for the trip home. You may have guessed that a few students (and staff) fell asleep on the return journey. Thank you to our patient parents as they waited for their children to return well behind schedule after the unavoidable and unplanned delays.
Fuji Japanese Students and Staff Visit
The Principal of Fuji JHS Mr Watanabe, two teachers, Mr Ishitsuka and Ms Suzuki, and fifteen students arrived on Thursday August 15th. An action-packed 5 days was organised for our visitors, including a half day excursion to Melbourne Zoo and Eureka Tower. Thank you to our Copperfield families that volunteered to look after visiting students and teachers. Fuji JHS and Copperfield College take turns to visit each other, and have been doing this for the past twenty-six years, one of the longest and most successful ‘Sister-school’ relationships in Australia. At our campus assembly the Japanese students performed a cultural dance and in return our students performed some musical acts.
Grease Performance
Congratulations to everyone involved in the College Production of Grease. Over four evenings and various matinees there was always a full house. The efforts of production, backstage, set design and band, came together so that the student performers were able to deliver a truly spectacular show. The performance was located at the Bowrie Theatre and we had local businesses, neighbouring Primary Schools, current and past teaching staff and families in the community in attendance. The reviews were all positive and we cannot thank the production team enough for their work in organising and delivering this huge event. Our student performers whether they were dancers, singers and/or actors have demonstrated a commitment to their art. Furthermore, the interpersonal skills the students developed when working on the production will serve them well in their future and represents a breadth of experience we want for all of our Copperfield College students.
Wellbeing Survey
Eighteen hundred and thirty Copperfield College students completed the ACER Six Star Wellbeing Survey over the first two weeks of this term. The survey asked a number of questions of students in the areas of Mood, Resilience, Engagement, Communication, Relaxation and Positivity. Only College Wellbeing Team members will see individual responses from any student and the aggregated results will assist important whole-school work the College is doing in regards to Resilience. It is intended that we repeat this survey every year to help measure our progress towards our school goal of ‘Building Student Resilience’.
Digital Thumbprint
All students on our campus will have completed a session facilitated by Dom from Optus assisting students in understanding more about the benefits and pitfalls of their involvement in online activities. With different material presented to years 7 through to year 10, students have actively participated in these sessions and learnt about their responsibilities when using online applications.
HIgh Resolves - Year 8
Year 8s have completed sessions focussed on a ‘Just Society’. These are interactive sessions during which students work through complex ideas in collaborative groups and develop important citizenship capabilities.
Science Fair
Sydenham Campus hosted the third College Science Fair on Friday August 23 in the Gym. Student projects were based on the theme ‘Destination Moon’. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to display their imaginative as well as scientific skills in demonstrating how science can help us conquer space travel and live outside the earth.
Senior Division winners:
1st place: Kyle, Esha, Fared (SYD)
2nd place: Akima, Amber (SYD)
3rd Place: Year 10 KP
Anjali, Calvin, Chealsea, Kathrena and Kenny
Junior Division winners:
1st Place: Jacob and Abraham
Project: The Nasa crawler and rocket KP
2nd Place: Lorenzo , Justin (SYD Year 8)
3rd Place: Faith and Karen
Project: Life on Mars
Community vote: Martina, Kaitlyn and Ceyda (Year 10 SYD)
Robotics
On Saturday August 16th, the Sydenham Campus hosted a VEX Robotics Competition in the Gym. Copperfield College teams competed against other schools for the chance to qualify for national championships in Adelaide in December. Note our senior team has already qualified for these championships!
Student Led Presentations
Student Led Presentations are a highly regarded method of helping students take ownership over their learning. Our staff really enjoyed being able to celebrate student progress with our community. Thank you to parents and carers for your involvement and support of this mutually beneficial endeavour and thank you to our students who presented so well on the day.
Year 10s Ilbijerri Play
Indigenous actors and production team performed for our year 10s in week 7. The themes in the play were around racism, Hepatitis-C and indigenous culture. A representative from Hepatitis Australia spoke at the end with our College network Indigenous Australia representative.
Wear it purple day
The community at Sydenham embraced this national initiative and were preparing for this day well in advance. Students were able to wear purple on the day and donate. We raised approximately $400 for Minus 18, a community group that supports the LGBTQI+ network. To raise awareness of the issues facing the LGBTQI+ community we also ran lunchtime activities.
Mr Mark Nugent and Mr Lance Petherick
Campus Principals