Faculty News

Counselling

FIONA BAUDINETTE

Student Counsellor

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the subjective evaluation of our self-worth or value. It relates to our beliefs about self and our emotional state, and how we feel about these. It is our favourable or unfavourable attitude toward ourselves. Various factors contribute to self-esteem such as genetics, personality, life experience, thoughts, age, health, comparison of self to others, social circumstance and others' reaction toward us. Self-esteem is important as it is one of the determinants of success. It influences life choices and plays a significant role in motivation. High self-esteem helps us move through life with a positive attitude, whereas low self-esteem can prevent us from achieving goals and hinders our ability to reach true potential. Good (high) self-esteem is also important for mental health.

There are three types of self-esteem, low self-esteem, high self-esteem and inflated self-esteem. Those with low self-esteem consider themselves below average, they don’t have trust in their abilities and don’t value themselves. This can affect many aspects of life. High self-esteem or good self-esteem means we accept ourselves as we are. This gives us the confidence to deal with challenges as they arise. It also means we are able to be ourselves regardless of the judgement of others, we are open to learning new things and continue to improve as a person. This leads to positive outcomes in life. An inflated self-esteem is not as healthy, as these individuals think of themselves as better than others. This is negative self-esteem and it prevents people from forming healthy relationships. Those with inflated self-esteem are keen to be ahead of others and will hurt others in their pursuit of success. They lack the ability to listen to others and blame them for their lack of success. Underlying this is a fear of failure, as they equate success with happiness. 

Generally, therefore self-esteem is considered one of the determinants of excellence in life. If you feel your self-esteem is low or inflated, it would be worth speaking with a counsellor to make a change. Optimally, we need to be in a state of high self-esteem, most of the time. 

Careers

MICHELLE MASCARO

Careers Advisor

Senior School Careers Event – “Monash at Our School”

It was Year 11s turn to participate in the “At our School” careers series with the event “Monash at Our School” on Thursday, 1st of April. Despite the date, there were no fools present!

The “Monash at Our School” event involved, Anthony Harvey, from Monash University Student Recruitment, speaking to our Year 11 students about university life at the Monash Faculties and Undergraduate Degree course options available to them when they pursue their future tertiary studies, as well as pathway options available from other institutions. At the end of his presentation, Year 11s had the opportunity to ask further questions. It was very informative and interesting for our students to hear the multitude of opportunities that are available at Monash University. Many thanks to Anthony and Monash University for presenting “At our School” which gave our Year 11 students a taste of Monash, and the best that is yet to come in their post-secondary school pathways.

Tertiary Events these School holidays for you!

Senior students, you are encouraged and recommended to attend one or more of the tertiary events below these school holidays!  Attendance is beneficial for your career development journey.

Monash University Campus Tours

Students considering studying at Monash University, are invited to join a scheduled campus tour during these April school holidays. This is a great way to see and experience each of the campuses.  The tours commence at 10.00am and will run for approximately 1.5 hours. To register for one or more campus tours, visit Campus Tours. 

Deakin Campus Tours – April School Holidays

Deakin Campus Tours will allow students and their families to experience Deakin campuses, join a 45-minute tour with a current Deakin student, get a first-hand look at the facilities and have all your study questions answered. 

The April Term 1 school holidays events for each campus are: 

• Melbourne Burwood Campus
  9.00am, 10.30am, 12.00pm, 1.30pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm
  Thursday 8 April 
  Tuesday 13 April 
   
• Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus
  9.00am, 10.30am, 12.00pm, 1.30pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm 
  Friday 9 April 
  Thursday 15 April 
   
• Geelong Waterfront Campus 
  9.00am, 10.30am, 12.00pm, 1.30pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm
  Wednesday 14 April 
   
• Warrnambool Campus 
  9.00am, 10.30am, 12.00pm, 1.30pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm
  Wednesday 14 April

Tours will depart daily from 9.00am until 4.30pm in accordance with Deakin University and government guidelines. To register your attendance, visit Deakin Campus Tours.   

William Angliss Institute Experience Day – Online Bake Off

Witness a William Angliss Institute first. A student and teacher, compete in the ultimate cake decoration contest. This is a great event for those food lovers who enjoy watching a good competition. Students will have the opportunity to see one of William Angliss' students compete against a teacher. Participants will also be able to ask questions about the Angliss student life.

Date: Thursday 8 April 2021

Time: 11.30am – 12.30pm

Book a spot here. 

Middle Years Programme

MELISSA FITZGERALD 

IB MYP Coordinator

The OG Mother Tongue Committee

The Mother Tongue Committee had a very busy morning, Wednesday 24th of March, filming a video to celebrate the diversity of languages spoken at Oakleigh Grammar. Although not all languages have been represented (yet) we had Greek, Mandarin, Serbian, Punjabi, Arabic, Italian, Cambodian, Russian and Tamil speakers.

Stay tuned for the video which will be released in Term Two, until then please enjoy these snapshots of some of the committee members.

Well done to Marko, Elena, Leo and Ketrina for their marvellous costumes. 

If you would like to become involved, we would like to hold a cultural celebration in Term Two and start purchasing books for the library in a range of birth languages. 

What are the Approaches to Learning (ATL)?

Approaches to learning skills form an important component of the MYP. These skills help students to become life-long learners who have a strong foundation in communication, social, self-management, research and thinking. Each of these five skills have subskills that help students to become self-regulated learners who can: 

1. Reflect on their learning – Self-management
2. Understand the diversity of learning – Research, thinking, communication
3. Evaluate and provide evidence of their learning – Self-management
4. Meet MYP subject group aims – All five ATLs
5. Work cooperatively with their peers – Social skills
6. Prepare for further study and participation in the community – All five ATL skills
7. Demonstrate information and media literacy skills - Research

Students love to use creative thinking skills in my classrooms including visible thinking tools. Recently in Year 6, students used storyboards to visualise narrative structure and in Year 10 students used a fishbone diagram to research then rank information. Thank you to Duncan - Year 10, as well as Thomas, Cara, Sopho and Varshitha - Year 6.

Year 10 Personal Project Update

During our most recent meeting, we looked at how to construct an action plan starting with the end in mind. From then students looked at other key dates and how they would spread the required 25 hours across the life of the project.

All students are required to meet their supervisors before the Spring Break and write Section A of their report over the holidays. A template and samples of Section A can be found in the personal project handbook or on TEAMS.

Section A: Investigating

In the personal project, students should:

1. Define a clear goal and global context for the project, based on personal interests
2. Identify prior learning and subject-specific knowledge relevant to the project
3. Demonstrate research skills

Debating

LEIGH GRIDLEY

Debating Coordinator

It takes commitment, organisation, teamwork and bravery to debate for your school. Add to this a healthy helping of talent, good humour and ever-increasing self-confidence, and you have the 2021 Oakleigh Grammar Debate Team. It was a thrill and a privilege to take this group to Wesley College to compete against several other prestigious schools and impressive students. 

In the Year 9 competition, Catherine’s superbly constructed arguments, Gerry’s clear and engaging voice and Sotiris’ amazing command of the room gave away no clue that this was, for each of them, their very first inter-school debate. They argued that animal testing should be banned, beating their counterparts from Caulfield Grammar in a close one, with Catherine named Best Speaker. 

In the Year 10 competition, Jonathan and Mary overcame their initial nerves to perform strongly for their first time alongside their veteran third-speaker and captain Noah, who added another Best Speaker Award to his collection. Their topic, in support of compulsory national service, was a tricky one, but they also took the points against another strong Caulfield Grammar team. 

In the Year 11 competition, another “debate-utant”, Toni opened the debate in favour of universal free childcare with perfect preparation and professionalism, capping off her first debate with the Best Speaker Award, and was strongly supported by, Aimar and Finn to win comfortably against Huntingtower.

The Year 12 debate was very interesting, a high-quality and entertaining clash on the rise of “cancel culture”. Unfortunately, Mitchell, Peter and Alexander were pipped at the post by the negative team from Wesley College. A home ground advantage perhaps? Unlikely. But certainly, good motivation for next term’s rematch in the Secret Topic debates! 

Congratulations to all of our speakers. We’re immensely proud of you, and you certainly earned your celebratory late-night Macca’s run.

LOTE - Greek & Chinese

NATASHA SPANOS

Acting Head of LOTE

Last week, Oakleigh Grammar students celebrated Greek Week. Students in Junior and Middle School had the opportunity to participate in different activities throughout the week including Greek Dancing, and creating artwork using clay, paper mosaic and drawing.

On Friday 26th of March, a special assembly took place for our Junior School students. We celebrated the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution. The young students performed some amazing songs. Students from Year 7 read some very popular poems, and students from Year 6 put their dancing shoes on and presented some beautiful Greek dances. Bishop Ezekiel of Dervis, Chairman of the 2021 Victorian Bicentenary Committee - Tony Tsourdalakis, Chairman of the Board - Chris Damatopoulos and Principal Mark Robertson were very impressed with the outstanding performances of the students. Well done to all our students who proudly celebrated Greek Independence Day!

LYDIA LIU

Chinese Teacher

We are so excited to share the news that our Chinese learning students won 17 awards in the Education Perfect (EP) Languages Championships 2021. Our Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 Chinese classes participated in this global competition, which lasted for a week from March 16 to March 23. Students needed to answer questions correctly in order to win points. 

As a School, 146 hours were spent on EP. We answered 67,806 questions and we were ranked 10th for Chinese in Victoria, and 37th in the world out of 1,128 schools. What an achievement!

Congratulations to the following students: 

Emerald Award (5000 points): Sivmeng Te

Gold Award (3000 points): Louise Wang

Silver Award (2000 points): Mario Ross, 

Bronze Award (1000 points): Elena Draganic, Usamita Upadhyaya, Jayden Tan, Yesenia Khmelnitsky, Jeeya Fanda, Arkie Stathopoulos, Samhith Mikkilineni, Olivia Calder, 

Credit Award (500 points): Nilesh Sharma, Benjamin Evans, Daniel Karimi, Aziz Ghintala, Mitanshu Chaudhari, Minuga Kuruwita, 

This demonstrates our students have amazing potential and can achieve anything if they put their heart and mind into it. This is also a great reflection of our School theme for this year ‘I can, we will!'

Hellenic Culture

NATASHA SPANOS

Hellenic Culture Coordinator

The students of Oakleigh Grammar School proudly participated in different events for the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution.

On Sunday, 21st of March, the Senior School Captains, Vice Captains and Middle School Captains attended the official Doxology service which took place at the Church of St. Eustathios in South Melbourne. After the Doxology, the students went to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. There they paid tribute to the struggling heroes of the Greek Revolution, who 200 years ago sacrificed their lives for a free Greece. Principal, Mr Mark Robertson, and the Chairman of the Board, Mr Chris Damatopoulos, accompanied the students to this special event. Despite the rainy weather, the students celebrated Greek Independence Day by raising the flags of their two homelands and by proudly singing the National Anthems of Australia and Greece.

On Thursday, 25th of March, students had the opportunity to attend several different events. Senior School Captains and Vice Captains attended the Flag Raising Ceremony at Federation Square. The event was organised by the Association of Greek Language & Culture Schools in Victoria in conjunction with Thessaloniki Association 'The White Tower' and the Pan Macedonian Association of Melbourne & Victoria. Student Angelica Athanasakis spoke on behalf of Oakleigh Grammar. She mentioned that as a third-generation Greek-Australian, she is proud of her identity and to represent Oakleigh Grammar, at an event that recognised the celebration of 200 years to honour all the heroes who fought for Greece. 

A second group of students attended the Divine Liturgy and the Doxology that took place at the Greek Orthodox Church of St Anargiri in Oakleigh. The students proudly held the flags high, paying tribute to the heroes of 1821. The school choir also participated in the Liturgy.

Finally, students attended the official Doxology at the Church of St Eustathios and a ceremony at the Australian-Hellenic Memorial. Following the ceremony, students participated in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Shrine of Remembrance. Toni Stathopoulos laid a wreath on behalf of Oakleigh Grammar.

On Sunday, 28th of March, the Australian Greek Ex-servicemen's Association INC hosted its official commemorative service for the 200th anniversary of Greek Independence at the Holy Monastery Axion Estin in Northcote. Students attended the Doxology and the wreath-laying ceremony at the Greek Memorial. The School Captain Angelica Athanasakis laid a wreath on behalf of Oakleigh Grammar.

Congratulations to all students who participated in all these significant events and celebrated proudly the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution.

Student Representative Council

NATASHA SPANOS

SRC Coordinator

Friday 19th of March was the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. Operating since 2011, Bullying. No Way! delivers the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence annually for Australian schools which encourages all students to stand together against bullying and violence. Year 10 and Year 11 SRC members created a video explaining what is bullying and why it is important to take action against bullying! SRC members wanted to send a powerful message to our School Community that bullying and violence are not okay. On the same day, students were encouraged to get a wristband for a gold coin donation and wear it to show how important is to speak, even if your voice shakes.

On the last day of Term One, SRC members organised a casual day called “HoodieUp”, celebrating Autism World Day which is held annually on the 2nd of April. Our School Community had the opportunity to support the event by coming to School in casual clothes and wearing their favourite hoodie. But why a hoodie? Some autistic people experience sensory sensitivities and can become overloaded by stimuli in their environment. Wearing their hoodie up means they can block out bright lights and busy environments which helps calm them. Well done to all students and staff who participated in this worthwhile fundraiser supporting and embracing autistic people.

Science

ANGELA KORLOS

Head of Mathematics/Science

Emerging Sciences Victoria (ESV) Year 9 & 10 Extension Science Program

The following Year 9 & 10 students are studying ESV extension online courses which explore very specialised areas of science that are usually beyond the scope of normal science classes. 

Congratulations to the following students:

Below is a photograph of the ESV Team of students together with Mr Patel, the organiser of this excellent extension program.

Math

ANGELA KORLOS

Head of Mathematics/Science

APSMO Australasian Problem-Solving Mathematical Olympiads 

Congratulations to our selected Year 5 to 8 students who participated in their first Olympiad. The Olympiads consists of five separate contests held approximately one month apart between May and September. The aim is to encourage students to develop important problem-solving skills in an enjoyable environment. Although students are competing against other members of their class and teams from other schools, they are primarily competing against themselves. As each of the contests are a month apart, there is plenty of time for practice and improvement.

Can you answer these questions?

Year 5 and 6 Junior Olympiad: A standard die has six faces numbered 1 to 6. Three standard dice are rolled. How many different sums are possible for the three numbers on the top face of each die?

Year 7 and 8 Senior Olympiad: A piece of string is cut to be 75% of its original length. Then the string is again cut to be 75% of the new length, and so on, with each cut making the string 75% of its previous length. After 22 cuts, the string is 3cm long. How long was the string in centimetres after 20 cuts? Express your answer as a fraction in lowest terms.

Answers:

Junior Olympiad = 16

Senior Olympiad = 16/3 or 5 1/3