Program News
SEED, Performing Arts, Extended School Day
Programs at Northern Bay College
While students were very much involved in online learning and working closely with their teachers, some of our acclaimed programs SEED, Extended School Day and Performing Arts, which rely heavily upon face to face contact, had to think outside of the box to provide quality education.
SEED
SEED stands for Sports, Empowerment, Education and Development and involves students from Years 7 to Year 10 and has post graduates involved in school sports who are very much considered SEED students. The year also began with a new program called SEEDLINGS which would have seen Year 6 students access an introduction to SEED. Hopefully after remote learning this program will be reintroduced.
During this term, the SEED staff developed many online videos and activity programs but the magic of SEED is that exceptional specialist coaches work with our students. We need to thank Geelong Cats player Olivia Purcell and coach Nathan Brown, Jamie Monteith from the Geelong Soccer Club, Matt Johns from Geelong United Basketball and other organisations such as Melbourne Victory and Netball Australia, for providing online training videos.
You may have seen in the Geelong Advertiser that Richard Marles, Member for Corio contacted a number of organisations with a request for support to provide balls that could be used for training at home for four of our sports. We are very grateful to John Eren, Member for Lara accessing soccer balls from Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Vixens and Netball Victoria for their donation of netballs, Geelong Football club for all of the Sherrins they provided and Geelong Supercats for their contribution of basketballs.
The students were delighted and have been told that they can keep them as their own!
Here are some pictures of a few of our stars and a short video which Richard’s staff made for his Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/richardmarlesmp/videos/614395932497655
One other major piece of work that SEED is leading, is the use of Podcasts for our students. Since late last year, students have been driving a weekly podcast that cover a range of topics, not just sport. Each week student leaders meet with guests and discuss topics relevant to wellbeing, health, lifestyle and of course sport pathways.
During remote learning these sessions still took place with telephone interviews. Most recently the guest was AFL Umpire 'Razor' Ray Chamberlain. For another example of other types of podcast there is online commentary of a staff v student event. Facebook and Compass regularly have links to these Podcasts.
Ray Chamberlain Podcast
Staff v Students podcast
https://soundcloud.com/radionorthernbay/seed-ep09-staff-v-students
Extended School Day
Extended School Day (ESD) has now been operating at Northern Bay for almost five years. Four days per week children from all campuses are bussed to, or gather at, Goldsworthy Campus to access a range of lessons using the amazing facilities on campus. These activities are inspired by students requesting programs they would like to participate in and cover all kinds of sports and arts but also include science, literacy, STEM and other areas of interest.
The Challenge during COVID 19 was to still meet children’s expectations and provide some great learning experiences. Mrs Baulch put together the range of options for term 2 but the closure of schools meant a re-think. She was overwhelmed by the response from her facilitators wanting to continue to support the students with online activities.
https://xtraschoolprogram.weebly.com/
In the above ESD Link you can see the range of topics offered each day and during remote learning each week videos were posted through Google Classroom for students to access.
In Origami for example the students all had the materials delivered home and the video (much like how you tube or vimeo give guidance) showed step by step instructions. In some of the dance or singing programs or even yoga, the students just had to follow at their own time.
Here is a short Origami video that completes the final instructions.
We are indebted to everyone who took the time, energy and commitment to help the ESD program.
Performing Arts
Unlike the classroom teacher led timetable for remote learning, specialist support was not necessarily in real time. Mrs Baulch and the team created an astonishing online resources that could be accessed by any student from year 3 to 10. F-2 Classes took place though normal sessions on SEESAW.
The options provided on the site were only accessible through people with an NBC account so was not a public website.
To maximise the use of the site Mrs Baulch made an introductory video which can be shared and is a very informative 5 minutes which demonstrates one element of what staff commitment to support learning, student wellbeing and maintaining connection to school can look like. These efforts would have been replicated across the world but few would have been as comprehensive as this one. The video is well worth watching.
In another unique situation resulting from the pandemic response, the State School Spectacular students were in a bit of a confusing situation. State School Spectacular has been part of the Northern Bay College curriculum for almost 10 years now and for some Year 12 students this year would be their final opportunity to perform at the event which reaches thousands of viewers on TV and several thousand audience members over the two performances.
In normal years the mass dancers and choirs would come together regularly to rehearse. This year a video of all of the routines was circulated for the mass dancers and the students have had to ‘dance together’ remotely. Mrs Baulch streams the video from a central location and each student watches on their laptop and follows the routines. One really interesting thing that we found out was that internet speeds differ and synchronization was not always possible. However, it is incredible what our students achieved. This video shows what Mrs Baulch can see on her screen
Because at the moment regulations prevent cross campus activity the online rehearsals are still taking place.
What the future holds is still unclear. The event usually takes place in September but we have no insight into whether performance or crowds will be permitted by them. The performers are fully aware that their work may be in vain but let’s hope that 2020 State School Spectacular is still possible. It is an incredible experience for our young people.
The Performing Arts team