Student Involvement & Academic News 

THEATRE ENHANCEMENT                            CLASS

At 4am by 

Jonathon Dorf

"What's it like to be awake when the rest of the world is asleep?"

 Meet an early morning jogger and a radio DJ whose show may have an audience of none. Join a modern Romeo and Juliet, the author of a most unusual letter, and many other teen characters as they search for connection in the magical hour. Through a series of connected scenes and monologues, join them on their journey as they discover whether the monster under the bed is real and collectively wonder... is anybody out there?

For many of the students, it was their first time being a part of a production. Watching them learn and build on their skills has been such an incredible journey. The junior production allowed students to challenge themselves as they worked on creating their own versions of the characters as well as learning to work in an ensemble and balance the demands of a production with day-to-day life.

 This culminated in two sold-out shows that received positive reviews and a great achievement by everyone involved - Natasha Marr.

KOORIE NEWS: INDIGENOUS PROGRAM

 'This Place’ ArtbusTV episode for Channel 31

The Indigenous Program has had the pleasure of participating in an episode of ‘This Place’ for Channel 31’s ArtbusTV. We chose Wonga (Arthurs Seat) as a place of cultural significance on the Mornington Peninsula and explored its considerable connection to our First Nations community and our DSC mob. 

We were thrilled that our old 2022 Koorie Captain, Hudson Fraser, joined us and we were able to interview him about the environment and historical significance of Wonga. He is now a Warreen Beek Ranger and educator at Living Culture.

We also interviewed the incredible artist Maree Clarke about her recent exhibition on Wonga ‘Remember Me’, and her amazing art career.

We had such a great time mastering lighting, and sound and being in front and behind the camera, learning how to create a tv episode. Thanks to Kylie Greer for thinking of us. What an incredible day!

Olivia Roeding

Marrung co-ordinator

DEBATING

Our debaters have been very successful this term. Our D grade team has finished their last debate for the year and came 6th overall in our region – well done! The C grade, B grade and A grade teams finished top of the ladder in our region, meaning that we had not one, not two, but THREE teams progress to state finals – our highest number ever! Such a great result is a testament to how hard the students have been working this year.

Unfortunately, our B and C-grade teams were eliminated in the next round, but they placed in the top 10% of debating teams in the state. However, our A-grade team (Bonnie, Charlie, Hugo, Natalia, and Poppy) won their elimination final against Haileybury and have progressed to the Octo-finals in Brighton, by successfully arguing against the topic “That politicians should be heavily penalised for breaking election promises”. This win places them squarely in the top 16 Year 12 debating teams in the entire state! We wish them the best of luck for their future rounds.  

LEAP CHALLENGE DAY

On August 31st, 2023 Years 7, 8, and 9 Dromana College LEAP students got together for their second Challenge Day of the year. The theme for this challenge day was “Think Global. Act Local” and the task was to use the technology design thinking process to approach the challenge. Students began theday by listening to a guest speaker, Pink TankScuba - a marine photographer, and journalist who spoke to the students about the wonders and challenges faced by the highly biodiverse environment in Port Phillip Bay. Check out her Instagram to see some of her photos and videos! Listening to Pink Tank allowed the students to learn and empathise with the issue they were about to tackle. 

Students were then provided with a design brief. They needed to plan, create, and present a prototype that addressed a need of Port Phillip Bay. The students worked in mixed groups (from Year 7, 8, and 9 LEAP classes) to achieve this goal and we were blown away with the results at the end of the day! Some groups created devices that could track and monitor endangered species, while others decided to create a sophisticated drainage filtration system to prevent pollution from entering our bay. One group created a beautiful man-made habitat for seahorses, andanother designed an ‘oil python’ to catch anddispose of oil spills to protect the little penguins who live in St Kilda. 

We are so impressed by the hard work and enthusiasm of these LEAP students. At the end of the day, our judges picked the top 3 most innovative designs but they found it extremely difficult as all designs and prototypes impressed them!

We would like to congratulate all students who participated in this challenge day, and we are looking forward to the next two for our 2024 LEAP students!