What's been

HAPPENING?

Junior Camp

This year the Junior Camp (Years 7, 8 and 9) was held at Iluka Retreat and Camp at Shoreham on the Mornington Peninsula. The programs offered at Iluka focus on developing a student’s love for the outdoors with fun, engaging and educational activities. Students participated in a range of activities including:

• Initiative games
• Tree Climbing
• Bush Cooking
• Raft building
• Stand Up Paddleboarding
• Beach walk
• Red Faces
• African drumming

SHAW Program

On Monday 7th - Wednesday 9th of March, Year 10-12 students participated in our annual Senior Health and Wellbeing (SHAW) program.  During the three days, students engaged in a variety of well-being activities and had the opportunity to listen to guest speakers and Alumni. 

The SHAW program provides information and support for students around their physical, social and emotional health.  It's also an occasion for students to feel engaged and connected to their peers, their learning and the wider VCASS community.

Guest Speaker Lorin Nicholson & VCASS Alumni Chat

Guitarist Lorin Nicholson's words about finding positivity and strength in challenges or adversity was an excellent way to commence SHAW week. It was also a reminder of the outreaching ripple effect that kindness towards others causes.

The alumni chat that afternoon with Miki Tsunoda, Toby Derrik and Enya Hu, provided students in every stream with valuable insight into not only their individual practices and skills but also more general advice about their respective industries. As each speaker was at a different stage in their career, it also provided us with a glimpse into how a career in performing or visual arts could look after VCASS. In particular, it was interesting to hear how each artist stayed motivated or got back into their craft after a lack of motivation.  The part that stuck with a lot of people was Enya’s story about getting all of her old drawings and seeing how far she’d come and how much work she had put into her passion over the years, as it was a reminder to just keep creating and working at what you enjoy.

Elevate Lecture

During SHAW week on the 8th of March, the Year 12 senior students had an opportunity to listen to Ben from Elevate Education.  In this session, he taught us tips on how to achieve excellence in our VCE exam preparations. 

These include:

• Giving ourselves adequate time to prepare
• Completing and correcting practice exams
• Identifying our weak points within a subject and understanding why and how to improve them
• Staying organised through the use of exam planners

Furthermore, we learned the importance of staying calm in order to effectively complete the exam.

These are very valuable for us as we will be able to incorporate these tips into our learning strategy allowing us to improve and become more organised in our study towards our upcoming VCE SACs and exams.

BATYR

One of the highlights of SHAW for the Year 10s was a workshop by BATYR. BATYR is an organisation promoting awareness of the importance of mental health run "by young people, for young people". We heard from brave and engaging speakers who intimately shared their mental health battles, one of whom had never done so before - VCASS had the honour of being their first school. The session ended with a 'snowball fight' of student's written reflections. The workshop certainly left students with hope and encouragement to reach out for support through tough times rather than "suffer in silence".

VCASS Olympics

One of the key highlights for the Year 11 students during the 2022 SHAW week, was the VCASS Olympics!  We all separated into groups and got planning for each of the upcoming events. Each group reflected back on our lockdown experiences by creating small skits about isolation. Each team worked together to create a dance, song and artwork and were judged on each round by our teacher mentors. It finally came down to our dance round where the Peoples People came out on top with their reigning routine to Taylor Swift's Shake it Off. 

The VCASS Olympics was a great way for us to get out and about in the sunshine, as well as spend time with friends across all streams. 

At the conclusion of our Olympic tournament, the rest of the senior cohort joined us at the park for an outdoor lunch. Thank you to the teachers and Phil for providing such an amazing spread of food! 

Overall the VCASS Olympics was an amazing contribution to the SHAW week, and we all look forward to seeing who will take the crown next year! 

The Final Day of Shaw

Our last day of SHAW. What a week we’d had, a time filled with reflection, fun activities, relaxation and inspirational. The last day kicked off with Jacob Thomas, a queer, non-binary, drag royalty that spoke about their own individual journey with the acceptance of their queerness and the importance of acceptance in our society today. They championed the youth, our youth here at VCASS and reassured and prompted us to take our future head-on. Bravely and unapologetically being ourselves regardless of our identity! Jacob closed out their inspiration and extremely funny and engaging talk with a good ol’ fashioned lip-sync battle (to I’m Every Woman - Chaka Khan) and being extremely matched with non other than VCASS’s own Thierry Mendoza!

Jacob was followed closely by Dylan's heartwarming recap of SHAW and everyone's amazing participation. One thing that is commendable is that Dylan managed to get great action shots considering everyone was always on the move or teetering with excitement! The video is a beautiful and unique archive of the week and something we can look back on to get inspiration for next year! (Thanks Dylan!)

SHAW closed with Mr Tutty’s amazing composition that got all of the year 12’s and 11’s singing and participating, giving some insight to the musicians' day with the AWESOME Mr Tutty. We thoroughly enjoyed the big signs that helped some of us lesser novice musicians follow along just as much as the well-versed ones. 

Another great SHAW week for the year, we predict that next year will be filled with even more fun.  

Kerrupon

Year 9 Kerrupon students embark on a walk across the Sandridge Bridge to discover each period of migration to Australia. Followed by a powerful tour of the Melbourne Immigration Museum to hear about the stories of displaced persons and migrants who now call Australia home. 

Art Exhibition

Year 9's visiting the Emu Sky exhibition at Science Gallery Melbourne, learning about ongoing First Nations art, science and culture. 

Musica Viva

We were delighted to host the Partridge Quartet + James Morley, current Future Makers with Musica Viva for a day of concerts ahead of their Melbourne Recital Centre performances. Students from all streams enjoyed the opportunity to hear professional level live music in the VCASS Recital Room at lunchtime!