Senior School

Year 12s get 'in a spin' with electrons

On Wednesday, 23rd of August, our year 12 Physics students visited the Synchrotron at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Clayton. This full-day hands-on experience allowed students to explore the application of electromagnetic fields and special relativity, while investigating the properties of light and matter in ANSTO’s interactive learning centre utilising advanced equipment. 

The day included a tour of the Synchrotron, where students obtained a deeper understanding of how research using synchrotron light (produced from electrons being accelerated to 99.9% of the speed of light around a 216m track) delivers a wide range of benefits from heart scans, florescence, COVID testing, investigating how Phar Lap died, to uncovering secrets in Degas' paintings. 

Students conducted single and double-slit experiments with laser light, the photoelectric effect experiment and emission spectroscopy. Students are currently analysing the data they collected to create a scientific poster for their SAC. 

Tass Sgardelis 

Maths, Physics & Science teacher

Middle School Numeracy Learning Specialist

Programs around the Year 11 and 12 Vocational Major!

Year 12 Community Projects

The Year 12s have been busily planning, budgeting and implementing their community centred projects where they research and address community-based issues. Some issues that have been researched include, food insecurity, sustainability, eating disorders, and animal rights. Students were able to build garden beds and extend the greenhouse in response, and are raising awareness through a fundraiser early next term. It has been great to see students gain insight into community while creating solutions that use their applied learning skills.

Year 11 Community Volunteer Program

Every Friday, the Year 11 students have been engaging in a pilot program in the MC2 library to assist elderly people with the use of technology. Our students have been showing them access to different applications, setting up and sending emails and troubleshooting different technological issues. As a result, students have gained valuable experience listening and relational skills, as well as developing and learning from different members of the community. It has been so great to see students thrive in this setting and assist the elderly people in our community, as well as gaining valuable insights and perspectives. 

A special congratulations to Lochlan F., Clio Z. and Menali P. for their leadership and going above and beyond to assist many individuals during this time.

Year 12 Cooking with Purpose program

The Year 12 students have been planning and cooking for the Manningham community in a 3 weekly program. In partnership with Carenet in Templestowe village and the Rotary, students have understood issues around food insecurity and how many members in Manningham are suffering from the rising costs of living, as well as victims of family violence are often in need of food. 

They have planned, developed, budgeted and cooked different meals that have been cooked in big batches, ready to be distributed at the Carenet site. In doing so, they have gained valuable competencies in all their subjects; Literacy, Numeracy, Personal Development Skills and Work Related Skills and have developed their teamwork, leadership skills and not to mention their cooking skills. They have really been conscious of adding vegetables and herbs into the meals for nutrition and taste. Meals that they have cooked have included, Shepherds Pie, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Yellow Curry and Lasagna! 

The feedback from Carenet has been that clients are often requesting meals that have been cooked by our VM students, due to its nutritious and delicious content compared to the other meals they receive! We hope to continue this program as part of the Vocational Major program in 2024, and are excited for the skills the students can gain, as well as the positive impact to community wellbeing. 

Ramya Annavarapu

Senior School – Excellence in Teaching and Learning Leader

Year 10 Term report

Term 3 has been a jam-packed term for the year 10 cohort. The first 5 weeks were all about careers and subject selections. The students were exhausted after working hard to pick subjects that would be aligned with their career’s interests. For this reason an amazing team of year 10 girls designed and organised a DiSCovery class to revive, rejuvenate and re-connect. 

Students were invited to participate in the following activities:

• Just Dance, Hand therapy, games & the gratitude wall in the Senior Centre
• Games on the Tennis courts
• Soccer on the Oval
• Basketball on the outside courts
• Pump some iron at the Gym

We are proud of the girls for showing responsibility, initiative and teamwork to make this event a huge success. Congratulations and thank you to Yasmin, Nikita, Emily, Emma, Evangeline, Jenny, Georgia and Finlay.

Jeanine Innes

Year 10 Coordinator

The Year 10’s needed an opportunity to connect with each other and have a break from school work. This period helped all Year 10’s to have fun with new people and build stronger connections with their peers. The response from students was extremely positive and reflected that students really enjoyed themselves and wanted it to last longer.

Last Wednesday was so fun! I spent the lesson doing Just Dance with my friends, laughing and bonding the whole time. It was a great way to make new friends as everyone came together to have some fun and make a positive impact. There was milos and breakfast to enjoy while engaging in a variety of activities such as a mindfulness poster, colouring and art, nail polish, games, and sport etc. Overall, it was a great way to start the morning bonding with my peers.

- Yasmin, Nikita, Emily, Emma, Evangeline, Jenny, Georgia and Finlay

Our Year 10s provided some wonderful feedback.

I enjoyed making milk tea and coffee. i didnt enjoy coffee because it made me sick because i have caffine intolerence. i enjoyed doing my fingernails. thankyou for the event

Hey jeanine, last week was awesome because you deadlifted 200kg without breaking a sweat

What i liked about the last weeks of discovery classes is that we are free to go out to play on the fields if we did the work and i enjoyed it with my friends

Hello Jeanine! From the previous weeks discovery class, I enjoyed all the collaborative activities that made us take initiative to meet new people and learn things about them. I specifically favored the nail colouring activity the most, because my friends got to paint my nails and i got to paint there's. we had something to talk and giggle about every time we looked at our hands.

It was really fun last week getting to meet up with the other classes and all the senior centre activities were really fun. The arts activities were good and the nail painting was fun as well. I definitely think we should do it more often as it is a good opportunity to connect with other people.

What I enjoyed from last week: What I most enjoyed about last week's discovery lesson was the basket ball and the activites within the senior center, next time I'd like to do something like dodge ball

Hello Jeanine. Thank you so much for last week's Discovery activities. It was very fun and refreshing considering all the tasks and work we have for our subjects, and it was a great change of atmosphere for all of us to enjoy our time with friends and have a break. Thank you again

Hey Jeanine i really enjoyed last weeks discovery lesson as it served as a mental break for me because i had alot of tests that week and it was good to see all my friends and relax together.