Achievements & Results
Term 2 House Program
Throughout Term 2 students across all houses were extensively involved in the House Art Program; mainly dictated by the House Chorals and House Art Competitions. Never before have students in all houses worked so hard to produce such an incredible array of performance. Everyday throughout the House Areas and T-Wing there were a plethora of students rehearsing, creating, making and motivating. The leadership teams worked exceptionally well together and each of the full house rehearsals were well planned and executed. On the day, the performances were of an outstanding nature and the final results closer than ever before.
House Art Results:
1st - Kororoit 25 points
2nd - Cottrell 23 points
3rd - Blackwood and Rothwell 22 points
Overall House Points
Kororoit - 441
Cottrell - 346
Rothwell - 325
Blackwood - 297
House Art Competition: Art Captain Reports
Kororoit: For the 2018 house art competition, Kororoit’s team created the piece based off the song “This Is Me”. Catherine T, Emily N, Ellie D, Nishat T, Anna X and Aiko V worked tirelessly on the piece for the 6 weeks prior to chorals.
Our painting depicts a body of water, escaping from the waves and reaching her way up towards the sky. We chose an element to represent the hidden power shown throughout the battle anthem, and decided to depict that strength as a body of water. The water is represented as an unbreakable force, as depicted by the dark ocean below, yet remains serene and strong, depicted by the fluidity of the body. This juxtaposition follows the subdued atmosphere at the beginning of the song which slowly ascends into battle cries as we sing further. As the body appears from dark waters against a dark background, however being in itself light and transparent, it creates a strong contrast and becomes a focal point for the audience. The background is portrayed as a galaxy with an aurora borealis that is also interpreted as sound waves which paints the sky and additionally creates brighter colours and metallic tones. The interpretation of sound waves was an attempt to represent our song visually and incorporate it within the painting. It is empowering, thus bright and contrasting to the darker background as well as, once again, depicting the ascending battle cries as the growing aurora borealis.
Cottrell: Our piece reflects the lyrics and underlying emotions conveyed in the arrangement of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. An initial listen to Take Me Home Country Road evokes a euphoric sensation, depicted in the animated, broad strokes defining the wheat field. However, we decided to probe into the multilayered depths of Denver’s masterpiece and explore its darker undertones - its earnest, longing vehemence – and reflect this in our painting. We portrayed the haunting stanza,
‘All my memories, gather round her
Modest lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky…’
By giving the impression that the countryside landscape is a fleeting memory, a evanescent outpour of longing and reminiscence, a shard of solace in a broken world, illustrated by the fragments of light against the ominously vacant background. The obscure background gives the surrounds of the painting a leaden, listless quality. The grandiose eruption of warm yellows and oranges, is like breath of fresh air, a burst of vigour, lifting the weighty oppression of the dark background has been, but only temporarily.
Nostalgia is a prominent theme in the arrangement. In the lyrics, Denver contemplates, in reference to West Virginia, ‘Life is old there, older than the trees’, as he recalls the contours of its landscape, stirred by its old charm and a need to rewind time. The girl in the artwork is reminiscing her home in the countryside, and savours the shrouding embrace of the fields. However she is seized by a dark realisation of the transience of her presence in the landscape, and that she is merely suspended in a recollection of her thoughts. Her desperate desire for the birds’ freedom, and her longing to cling onto the shreds of her memories is almost forlorn, resonating with the wistful timbre of the violins in the arrangement and mirroring Denver’s taunting nostalgia.
These stark contradictions in our artwork correlate with the emotive contrasts of Take Me Home Country Road. We aimed to capture the song’s sense of euphoria with synchronous yearning and despairing nostalgia.
Blackwood: Blackwood’s selected mass singing song was “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars
But we think that there are a few words that are missing from this song title: “I Love You, Just The Way You Are.” After seeing what all the other houses have painted, for our piece, we decided to take a more abstract and expressive approach than everyone else through taking it from a more impressionistic approach.
When we painted our artwork, we focused more on bringing out the theme of acceptance. No matter who you are, or what you look like, we all should learn how to accept each other, just the way we all are. Not everyone is indeed perfect (unless you’re Mr Axup of course).
The Eiffel tower is located in Paris; also known as the city of love or the city of lights. As generic as it may seem, not only does this tie in with our story, but this painting also helps bring out the passion and romantic feelings we intended to showcase. We placed emphasis of this through the symbolism of the roses in the background and the use of expressive colour.
Our subject matter is a male and female, both who lovingly accepted each other for who they are. This artwork does not only represent our Mass singing song, it also is a visual representation of our story we presented with our chorals performance.
We would like to give a quick thank you to the art team: Thea, Sarah, Tejal and Joy as well as the House captains: Isaac, Julia and Summer for making Blackwood Chorals possible. You’re all amazing, just the way you are guys. Thank You!
House Updates
Rothwell: We might not have gotten the final result that we wanted, but we managed to pull off one of the best Chorals performances that our house has ever thrown. It was pretty impressive to see all the effort and hard work that the other houses put into Chorals as well. But a massive shoutout goes to all of the Rothwellians and Rothwell teachers for getting through all of the homegroup rehearsals and mass singing practices. Thank you to all of the Rothwell leadership team, especially our House and Music Captains, and everyone else that was involved from props and house art to choreography and MCing to our different musical performances. Without all of your hard work, we could have never had such an enjoyable Chorals.
Our house art team spent many lunchtimes painting their canvas, with the artwork being influenced by the 70s disco era of the song September. While our Year 9s are still competing for house points in the Year 9 Sport Competition. The year isn’t over yet, so the mighty Rothwellians still have many opportunities to gain more house points!
Kororoit: The recently concluded House Chorals and House Art competition have added two to the ever-growing list of Kororoit’s first place wins. Regardless of the results, the effort the whole house gave was extremely astounding.
The participation of the entire house was highlighted by the powerful performance of our chosen mass song “This Is Me”. Our ensembles also came through with amazing performances, with the instrumental ensemble performing a rather classy rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” and the choir singing a breathtaking version of “From Now On” and “Come Alive”. Grammy-worthy performances by Nam H and Jesse K was our cherry on the top of this win.
Moreover, our House Art Team, which consisted of four gifted members led by our art captains Emily N and Catherine T, produced a perfect-scoring masterpiece based on the house song “This Is Me”. Winning Swimming, Athletics and Chorals was something the leadership team has dreamed of. We would like to thank the entire Kororoit House and Ms Nguyen for making this dream a reality.
Cottrell: Chorals, being one of the major house events for SCHS, brought out each and every Cottrellian’s fighting spirit. Despite the various setbacks, the house still managed to come together as one and give out a stellar performance. From the mass singing lessons to the cringeworthy dance moves, the whole preparation process towards chorals not only helped the whole house become closer as one, but it contributed to House Chorals in 2018, being one of the best Chorals yet. It was truly amazing to see the talent our student body has.
One of the highlights for Cottrell would definitely be the mass singing, where all of our voices came together in harmony and was just as moving as the previous performances. As House Captains, this ability to unify in tribulation is what impressed us the most, and even we were surprised by the brilliant quality of music that the House produced on that day. To see each and every Cottrell member improve, push through and showcase great pride in their performance was certainly a treat.
We would like to thank Anita D and Aardra K, our Music Captains for the great amount of effort and work that they put in, as well as Cynara B and Julia T, our Art Captains for working towards an amazing art piece produced for the House Art competition.
We also extend our congratulations to Kororoit and their leadership, for their extraordinary performance, and the worthy competition that they have presented thus far. All in all, Chorals was a great success and we sincerely thank all those in the Cottrell house for their hard work and commitment.
Blackwood: Throughout Term 2, Blackwood displayed unwavering might in all events. First of all, the House would like to congratulate the Year 9’s on their dominant run in the Intra-school Sport Competition, as they have achieved many victories and currently hold first place on the scoreboard. House Chorals set the stage for Blackwood's greatest performance yet. There, our tireless efforts in preparation and practice, including hours of time spent after school, finally came into fruition and shone until the very end. Special thanks go out to our music captains, Summer N and Julia J, for their inspiring dedication and utmost efforts. Furthermore, big thanks to our solos Sneha C and Summer N, the House Orchestra, Choir and Stage Crew!
The leadership team would also like to extend their gratitude for the massed singing pieces where the entire House sung booming renditions of If I Only Had A Brain and Just the Way You Are. The House Program raged on with ADT Week and we recognise our competitors in the Chalk Art, Theatre Sports and Masterchef contests who all attained great success.
This term, we have shown great heart, and against all odds, our passion and unity remains fierce. The leadership team would like to thank all Blackwood members for their ongoing spirit! To quote our chant, together we're stronger - we'll put up a fight!
Music News
High Notes! From The Music Department
In the Classroom, our year nine students have been working on their guitar performance and studying the Blues. This culminates with all of the students writing their Blues song and performing a 12-bar blues in their own Blues Band. In Year 10, our students were studying World Music: music from other cultures. They have been busy learning and performing folk songs from other cultures and learning how different musical cultures work, culminating in a composition that combines two or more cultures to from a new sound. VCE students have been very busy with their recital performances and performance SACs.
Our annual SCHS House Chorals was an amazing day in our School calendar. This year the competition was the closest ever as the standard of our School Musicians continues to improve across all four houses. The student choices of repertoire and the ensemble direction and organisation was a working highlight across the period of rehearsals. It was clear that all four houses were not only engaged in high level music making and competition, but the spirit of camaraderie and shared appreciation for other houses musical ability was evident. This is a real SCHS feature that even our guest Adjudicator, Mr Angus Grant was quick to notice and comment on. Our congratulations to all houses and especially the House leaders and organisers.
This has also been another eventful and satisfying term from music making here at Suzanne Cry High School from our School ensembles. We have had many wonderful events that you have read about in our publications ranging from our Instrumental Soiree and Winter Concert through to our Open Mic concerts including our LOTE week special, featuring singing in Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tagalog and we even had a recorder piece in Latin (not sure how that happened or what that was?!). In addition to this our students and music staff have been hard at work preparing for the Term 3 Musical, We Will Rock You, a Queen extravaganza! The musical will again our student Orchestra pounding out the hits from Freddie Mercury and the band. This is sure to be a highlight! Another feature for the term was the formation of our newest ensemble, Quaternarium an unaccompanied choir directed by Ms Wu, featuring a specialised style of part singing that our students have been enjoying. We hope to see you and your family at our next Music event!
Winter Concert
The concert kicked started with the brass ensemble playing ‘Gonna Fly Now’ from ‘Rocky’, led by Mr Connor Jenkinson, our Brass Teacher and our newest addition in the music team. Then the symphony orchestra played three pieces that are contrastingly from different genres under Ms Pamela Scott’s direction: ‘Surprise Symphony’ by Haydn, ‘Entrance of the Queen Sheba’ by Handel and ‘My Bonny Boy’ by Vaughan Williams.
The percussion ensemble, led by Mr Darcy Mulcahy then hyped up the concert by playing two bedazzled pieces: ’The final Countdown’ and ‘Uptown Funk’, followed by Mr Luke Hart’s guitar ensemble playing ‘Across the Universe’ by The Beatles. It celebrated the collaboration among 12 guitars, which is an instrument that is known by its solo quality.
The string orchestra performed on of the string instrument classic, ‘Spring’ from the ‘Four Seasons’ by Vivaldi.
The vocal section of the music program started with ‘Hymn to Freedom’ by Oscar Peterson, sung by the ‘Cantabile’ Choir. Mr Eddie Dorn’s piano playing and Mr Tony Paye’s addition of bass accompaniment jazzed up the piece. The newly formed ‘Quaternarium’ Chamber Choir, directed by Ms Emma Wu, made its premier appearance in front of the school. The choristers sang a complicated piece of French choral classic, ‘Il est bel et bon’ by Pierre Passereau. Their singing has reflected the vocal capacity of singing polyphonic music up to a high standard.
The concert was finished by the Concert Band. Under Ms Karen Morris’s baton, the band played ‘Lady Gaga Fugue’, ‘Funkathustra’ and a couple more upbeat, jazzy pieces. Several students had mini solo sessions and their craft and skill were truly impressive.
The concert showed a high standard of the music program of the school. It has reached a very high standard and has once again shown off the exceptional musical talents from SCHS.
- SCHS Music Department
Williamstown Literary Festival: Young Adas Short Story Prize
On the morning of Saturday 16th June, over two dozen members of the Suzanne Cory community descended upon the Williamstown Town Hall for the launch of the Williamstown Literary Festival. We were there to celebrate six of our students (and one teacher) who had been shortlisted for writing awards.
Imagine our excitement when it was announced that, of those six students, Alexander M received a special commendation and Catherine T won the Young Adas Short Story Competition. Catherine was invited to read an excerpt from her winning short story ‘Lina’. This story (along with the other entries from our current Year 11 students) was developed last year, as part of our creative writing unit. My colleague Helen Bradwell won the Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize.
Congratulations to all of our talented writers and thank you to all parents and family members who came along to the event. All of the shortlisted works have been published in the 2018 Ada Cambridge Anthology (available in our library).
- Ms Cindy Sullivan (English Faculty Leader)
Taekwondo Team - Interclub Tournament
16 members of our Taekwondo team participated in an interclub tournament on the 2nd of June against 8 other clubs. This was part of the preparation for the upcoming State team selection on the 21st of July to represent Victoria in this year’s National Taekwondo Championship in Bendigo. As such we went up against opponents whom were more experienced and trained, as athletes we will go up against at States will be tougher. Nevertheless, we managed to grab 16 medals. Below are list of students who competed in the tournament and their result. Well done Suzanne Cory!
Gold: Lindsay N, Yzabella D, Mayank A, Jennifer S, Andy N, Sean A, Sahil S
Silver: Usman S, Vivian N, Krish P, Tyson T
Bronze: Medha J, Tejal T, Shaneika D, Sunidhi M, Anthony M
- Mr. Sam Yang (Taekwondo Coach & P.E.)
Sport Results
Senior Baseball State Championships
Ably led by Janath, Preeth and Hazaifa, the senior boys baseball team participated at the Victorian State Championships at Cheltenham Baseball Club on May 29th, along with six other schools. The team had been practicing every lunchtime in the lead up to the tournament, and the effect was palpable. Behind great pitching from Neil (of Year 10), Preeth and Tanishq, the fielders worked together to limit the opposition’s total bases and run count, with a great display of calling, backing up plays and team support. Jesse kept first soundly covered, and Nam made his usual electric catches at second. Matt and Khoi tightly held any baserunners at third, and Luan, Jason, Jordan and Jacob showcased their strong arms in hurling back outfield flies. Leadoff hitters Hazaifa, Nam and Austin set the table nicely for the cleanup hitters Preeth and Jonathan to knock them home. The boys’ base stealing was particularly prolific, with their quick reading of play and hustle allowing them to take several extra bases. Janath pulled off an impressive Jackie Robinson-esque stealing of home.
In our pool, the boys came from behind to soundly defeat John Monash Science School 9-4 (hence earning the title of State Selective Entry School Baseball Champions!) and were able to hold off the big bats of Wodonga Secondary College in a 7-6 win. However, perennial state champions Mildura Senior College, replete with state representative players, saw us endure a heavy loss. We would like to thank the Mildura players and coaches for their friendliness, respect and outstanding sportsmanship, despite their easily outclassing much of the opposition at the titles. The students enjoyed the game and were able to make some contact, reach base, and hold Mildura to one 3-up, 3-down inning with some superb pitching from Neil. Thank you also to Janath’s parents for coming along to support us and bringing snakes, and to the event convener, Ian Hunter of Mornington Baseball Club, who has kindly donated two top class bats to the school!
- Ms Raquel Fenby (Baseball Teams Manager)
State Golf
A huge congratulation to Izak W (Yr 9) and Cameron T (Yr 11) who competed in the State golf competition in May. Both students have shown great potential to their golf and achieved great results in their respective age groups. A huge thank you to Mr. Henry Paye for volunteering to coach the boys across the 4 separate days during the year, he was able to share his golfing knowledge and encourage the students throughout their tournaments. After a bit of a shaky opening couple of holes, Izak fought back really well to card a round of 85 (+13) which placed him 48th out of 70 competitors. Overall a great effort given the difficult course and strong field of players. Cameron did really well today against another tough field and tough golf course finishing in 26th place out of 53 competitors with a score of 82 (+10).
WMR Cross Country
On Thursday 21st June 18 students braced the cold and went to Brimbank park for the Western Metro Cross Country. There was a massive turn out when we arrived with parents everywhere and hot coffees selling quick. Our students were all nervous and worried about the difficult course and wet grassy conditions. All students ran their hardest and for some they ran personal bests. A huge congratulations to Sophia A who finished 6th in he race and has qualified for the State competition early in Term 3. We had a few students finish well with Tra Mi G finishing 12th and Quan N 22nd. I hope the students continue to train and run again next year.
Wyndham Region Intermediate Badminton
Another great success for our badminton players! Both our intermediate boys and intermediate girls badminton teams have progressed to the Western Metro competition in Term 3. Here’s a brief report from our boys team captain, Alex M:
“Our intermediate badminton squad this year was a great success. Both the boys and girls are through to the next round. The team has shown great improvement since last year due to the after-school coaching and time Mr Lam has contributed. Everyone showed great spirit. Onto the next round!”
We wish these students well in Term 3.
Thank You To Mr. Law
Thanks Mr Law for your contribution to the sport program in your short time at Suzanne Cory High School. Mr Law has coached the senior table tennis teams and selected the intermediate table tennis teams for next terms competition. Mr Law also took the Lawn Bowls teams to their tournament early in the year. I have never seen the students so keen to play table tennis, I think they should go well in the Wyndham district. We wish you all the best at your new school.
Wyndham Region Senior Basketball
On an eventful Tuesday the senior boys basketball team arrived at eagle stadium full of confidence and hoping for a successful outcome. Unfortunately the team were hit with a reality check, losing all three games. While so, the team didn't let their heads down and fought to the end in each of the games, coming close in all three games. While the team was subject to contentious decisions and some unfortunate missed shots, we fought through these adversities, delivering the best performance possible. While the road has come to an end for the Year 12’s in the team, the Year 11’s have a chance for redemption next year.
- Janath F
On the 26th of June, a group of eight senior girls participated in the Wyndham district basketball finals. Our team, made of passionate girls with little experience, displayed great sportsmanship and enthusiasm during our two matches. Although we faced physically tough components from ‘The Grange’ in our first match, which we ultimately lost, the defensive structure from trainings reflected nicely and our offensive movement also showcased our team chemistry. This chemistry improved in our second match, which we drew in an incredibly close game.
All in all, the day was a great opportunity for us to enjoy physical activity alongside classmates and our coach, Miss Breed, who provided excellent advice and motivation.
- Diana Pena
