End of Term 2

Classroom News

Legal Studies

On Thursday 18 August, Year 11 Legal Studies students had an enjoyable day in the city visiting the NSW Supreme Court and NSW State Parliament House. We arrived at the Supreme Court at 9am, to be greeted by the Court Registrar. She showed us to the Banco Court room, where the ceremonies take place for graduating law students and barristers. It is also used as a Court of Criminal Appeal.

After explaining the role of the court to students, the girls were excited to see a murder trial. We attempted to see the trial of a man who murdered his girlfriend, however, it did not go ahead. Afterwards, we​ decided to visit the old Supreme Court and watched an hour of the Xie case, which is in it's fourth hearing due to hung juries. After a lunch break in Martin Place we all enjoyed a tour of State Parliament House.

 

Mrs Julia Kostalas - Legal Studies

STEM Roadshow

On Wednesday 20 July Years 9 & 10 were involved in the STEM Roadshow. This is an exciting venture that Wollongong University present to schools. STEM is the acronym for Science Technology Engineering and Maths.

The students were able to watch demonstrations and then participate in hands on activities including a simulated racing car experience, launching rockets, flying drones, finding the DNA of a strawberry and building bridges looking at load bearing to name a few. Each session ran for approximately three hours. This was really great experience for our students and I would like to thank Dr Bob Wheway and his staff for visiting our school and sharing this with us.

 

Mrs Caroline McTeigue - Head Teacher TAS/VET

Special Education

Week 5 Coffee shop

Over 30 parents and carers attended our parent coffee shop for the students of Special Education. This parent luncheon occurs  week 5 of each term. Parents are served by the students of the Special Education Centre and get to meet and share ideas or concerns they may be experiencing in the lives of their children. The guest speakers were from Coastlink and outlined to parents and caregivers the after school programs that they run and how their children can access these services.

 

Henry of the Week

Henry of the Week for weeks 4 and 5 were Oliver Lee and Jarrod Thomas respectively. Congratulations to these great students.

Week 5 Reward BBQ

The week 5 reward bbq was a great success with all students making it and enjoying a bbq lunch and an afternoon filled with games and laughter. The reward bbq is the pinnacle for our positive rewards system that the centre runs. Congratulation to all and keep working hard for the next reward bbq in week 10.

Young Achievers Year 7

Caitlyn, Bethwyn and Sasha, with the class's collaborative art work exploring symmetry and tessellation. 

Year 7 YAP Technology Class

 

This semester the Year 7 YAP Technology class are creating Stop Motion Animations. The students’ design brief is - In groups of three or four, create a 30 second stop motion animation on a topic of your choosing. Students need to include

  • A clear theme for the animation
  • An opening scene title with the name of the movie
  • Credits for the animation
  • At least two different camera angles
  • A range of different techniques.

At this point in time students are at the research stage of the project. As part of this process students have evaluated a number of existing animations using PMI charts. Students have ventured outside the classroom to experiment with camera shots and angles. As a result, they have developed an understanding of how cameras work and what emotions and experiences different camera shots and angles can capture.

 

The next stage of the unit is the development stage. The groups will start planning their animations by developing the plot, storyboards and a flipbook to demonstrate what their animation will look like before production.

 

Students will then start taking hundreds of photos (Stop Motion Animation is made up of hundreds of photos) which will then be edited to create a smooth running animation using Movie Maker.

The whole class has been working extremely well and I am looking forward to seeing their final results at the end of the semester.