Student News

Successful ~ Strong ~ Sisters

It takes a high level of commitment, determination, hard work and passion to be selected in the Australia Taekwondo team! Congratulations to Alicia and Ashlee Grigg on your achievements in Taekwondo!  

On the 19th of September, Alicia Grigg was selected to represent Australia in the 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, held in Hong Kong from the 30th of November to the 4th of December. Alicia will compete for the World Junior Female Champion against an estimated 65 countries. We congratulate her on this highly accomplished achievement and wish her every success! Alicia’s prime event will be the Individual Female Juniors (15-17 yo) and she has also been selected in the Mixed Pairs Junior (15-17 yo).

A huge congratulations to Ashlee, who came 3rd in the same section (15-17 yo), this was Ashlee’s first year in this Division, what an incredible achievement! Ashlee represented Australia in the same Championship (Cadet Division) in 2022, which was held in Korea.

All the very best!

Ms Guastella

Psychology, Health & Physical Education Teacher

Year 10 Chinese Immersion Day- A Journey into Culture, History, and Tradition

On 28th October, 70 of our Year 10 Chinese language students embarked on an exciting and immersive cultural journey as part of our Chinese Immersion Day excursion. This unique experience began with a visit to the Chinese Museum, where students explored the rich history of Chinese heritage in Australia and gained insights into ancient Chinese civilization. Guided through exhibits showcasing Chinese migrants' contributions and the development of Melbourne's Chinatown, students deepened their appreciation for Chinese history and its lasting influence within Australia.

Following the museum tour, students participated in a hands-on Chinese knotting workshop, a traditional art form symbolising unity and good fortune. They crafted their own beautiful knotted bracelets, which they proudly took home as souvenirs of their day.

In the afternoon, the group watched one of China's most acclaimed films of 2024, delving into themes that highlight Chinese educational values and family traditions. This provided an opportunity for students to compare and contrast the values highlighted in the film with those in the Australian educational context. This captivating movie sparked thoughtful discussion, helping students reflect on the cultural differences and shared values between Australia and China.

The day was a wonderful success, filled with learning, cultural exploration, and hands-on activities, leaving students with a lasting impression of Chinese heritage and traditions.

LOTE Faculty

Suzanne Cory High School

French - Compétition Berthe Mouchette

THE RESULTS ARE IN for the annual French Berthe Mouchette Competition!

Her are the fabulous results from our students:

Nomaan Quraishi (C5) earned a place as a finalist in the Yr11 category and Anjali Bijukumar (R2) in the Yr12 category (photo 1). Both received a ‘Brilliant’ final score, which means the judges awarded them 100%. They should be very proud of their efforts.

We are also extremely happy to announce that Simran Singh (R6) and Dheenah Mohamed Naleem (R4)  (photo 2) won 1st and 3rd place, state-wide, in the Year 9 category and are invited to celebrate their incredible achievements at the French Alliance in November. 

FELICITATIONS!

Magali Bourkel

Languages Pedagogic Coach 

Youth Wellbeing and Empowerment Workshop

On the 10th of October, a small group of Suzanne Cory students had the opportunity to work together and build connections in a wellbeing and empowerment workshop. The program aimed to create a safe environment at school for us to be able express ourselves and navigate this crucial time of developing our identities. We got to play some really fun icebreakers as well as engage in thought-provoking discussions that challenged our current beliefs, while still affirming a sense of self-confidence and resilience. It felt like the space was filled with such an open atmosphere of trust, compassion and respect, and overall, this workshop was such an amazing experience. We left the room with valuable insights and skills that we can carry forward in our personal and academic lives, as well as custom badges with words of affirmation that we got to create ourselves!

We owe a huge thank you to the facilitators of the workshop that made all of this possible, as well as Mr. Juricevich for all his effort that went into organising this with such care. We’d also like to thank Mr. Pav and Mr. Woon for supervising, and to everyone that attended for your enthusiastic participation and the part you played in making this such a positive experience.

- Ananya Punyamurtula (R8) and Keerthana Karthik (C5) <33

Select Entry Network Schools Cup

Each year, Year 10 students from Victoria’s four selective schools come together for our annual SENS Cup, which is a competition challenging each schools’ athletic, public speaking, critical thinking, and general knowledge abilities. Students competed in a wide variety of events against the other selective schools to determine which school would rein victorious this year. In total, eight events were held; two at each school, with a total of 100 students from each school being sent in 25 to each selective school.

This year, Suzanne Cory High School held Volleyball and Chess, Melbourne High School hosted the Talent Show and Netball, while Mac.Robertson High School had Debating and Table Tennis, while lastly, Nossal High School hosted Badminton and Trivia.

The final rankings are as follows:

1. Melbourne High School
2. Nossal High School
3. Suzanne Cory High School
4. Mac.Robertson High School

It was an enjoyable event for all of its participants, with many Suzanne Cory students showing dedication and enthusiasm. Such examples were seen at Melbourne High, as students in the Talent Show demonstrated their hard work by winning SCHS first place in the Talent Show with dance routines, a comedy sketch and a band, while the Netball students struggled more than three times to break a tie. Overall, the SENS Cup was a memorable experience, bringing students from across Victoria together with friendly competition.

For the very last time, your 2024 Year 10 SRCs:

Asliyah Amin, Leroy Chung, Marley Katakam, Avani Malali

Chess

During the last couple of weeks since the start of Term 4 our Chess Program has experienced MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS.

We were finally able to host the highly anticipated and successful School Chess Tournament where 40 players went head on in three different brackets, The Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Brackets. In the event, we ran games for every day of Week 2 this term to crown 3 champions.

The Champions were

• Arav Patel
• Shikariditya Choudhury
• Gian Abriam

Respectively, from the three separate brackets.

It was an extremely fun-filled and superb event with a variety of players with different skill sets going head on. It really fostered our School Spirit and really took our Chess Program to the next level.

A special thanks to our Student Volunteers: Shaeshan Sentilnath, Carlos Anonuevo and Sahnan Saini for helping host the event.

Additionally, our School also took part in 3 State Chess Tournaments this term, being the Northern Star Open Secondary Finals, the Northern Star Girl’s State Finals and the Chess Victoria State Finals.

We had an overall of 15 players from our School representing us at State level and putting on their best performance for the event.

After countless hours of continuous practice and improvement, we were able to achieve a couple major feats:

• We came third place in the Northern Star State Finals, beating 54 other schools, with Gian Abriam coming 6th in the State out of nearly 180 players.
• We came third place in the Northern Star Girl’s State Finals, despite only 2 of our female players representing us, with one of our players, Wyn Li came first place out of the female bracket.
• Finally, we were able to secure a top 5 victory at the Chess Victoria State Finals and truly represent our school at the State Level.

This Term has been an exciting and joy-filled experience for our Chess Community here at SCHS and will continue to improve as it develops.

Signing Off

• Meet Shah (Chess Program President)

Hey guys, so the school recently competed in the Chess Victoria Tournament at Brighton Grammar. The people who competed were Gian Abriam, Joey Citro, Aniketh Kopalle, Wyn Li Li and Melvin Tan. 

It definitely was a tough one, we started off pretty great, but slowly dropped off in the rankings around round 3-4ish, by which point it was clear that this was quite the difficult tournament. We were inherently at a slight disadvantage, having only 5 people with us there today compared to the 8-10 of the other schools (since the score of the school was based on the scores of the best 5 players). Despite that, we were really quite happy with our performance. We tried our absolute best, and did quite well considering and Melvin managed to win 7/8 of his games! A big thanks to Mr Juricevich for accompanying us and showing his unwavering support throughout the day. 

If any of you have an interest in chess, or just want to play, I highly recommend joining the chess club to participate in tournaments like these! They're a totally unique experience that's so worth it.

Thanks!

Aniketh Kopalle R9

Year 12