CAPTAIN'S CORNER

SENIOR CAPTAIN

As we reach the final few weeks of what has been a busy but speedy start to the first semester, a well-earned long weekend was the perfect break that many students needed. Some year levels returned to SACs and assessments, whilst the Year 7s and 9s returned to the gruelling assessment of NAPLAN. As for the Year 12s, we made our way into the city to watch Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard as part of our analytical text response unit for English. 

Meeting at Federation Square, near to 450 Year 12 students is a lot to behold. Other members of the public had asked me why our whole school had come to Fed Square on a Tuesday, and their reaction to finding out it was simply our Year 12 cohort was priceless.

Once inside, we were transported to the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ during our viewing of the film. Despite being incredibly different from the standard movie nowadays, Sunset Boulevard’s greyscale was forgotten about as we were captivated by its confronting characters and themes, as well as being curious to its relevance to the film industry today, despite Wilder’s focus being on the Hollywood film industry of the 1920-30s.

This was followed by a lecture on the context, themes, genres and characters of the film, where both students and teachers quickly scribbled down notes that sparked our curiosity and expanded on our initial impressions of the film. 

Overall, we gained some excellent insights into 1920-1930’s Hollywood, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to view the film in such a special cinema. It was an invaluable experience gaining knowledgeable insights from the lecturers into Wilder’s critique of the 1920-30’s Hollywood film industry. 

Alexander Rowe Hansen

Year 12 Student

EAST CAMPUS CAPTAIN

It’s that time again! This week, Year 7 and 9 students completed NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy), a nationwide assessment that covers Years 3 to 9. 

On Wednesday period 3, we had the first assessment, Writing. This was challenging since we did not know if it would be a persuasive or creative piece. This year it was Creative Writing and the prompt was ‘Out of Reach’. This was a challenging but great prompt that led to many great stories. At least we could type our pieces, I can’t imagine having to handwrite all of this, but we can cross that bridge in VCE. 

The following days, Thursday, Friday and Monday were the last three tests: Reading, Conventions of Language, and Numeracy. These tests are adaptive meaning they change depending on your response to the questions. Personally, I found the Reading test my favorite and found the questions interesting and informative. The Conventions of Language test consisted of two different parts, one being spelling and the next being grammar. I found this test to be the hardest for me. 

NAPLAN is always a monumental effort due to the sheer size of our school, however, thanks to the work of many staff such as Mr Quinn, Ms Barrow, Mr Machin, the tech team and everyone else it ran as smoothly as possible. 

A big congratulations to all the students who completed NAPLAN this year as we check another box in our schooling journey. Well done and good luck for the following year levels to complete it. 

Yael Lasnitzki

Year 9 Student