College News

Championship House - Columba

Columba House took off the prestigious Championship House trophy for 2018. They had not won this since 2008. In 2015 Columba was last on the table and in 2016 I set them the challenge to move off the bottom of the Ladder. They responded and in 2016 Columba came third. We continued to improve and came second in 2017.

This year we maintained our consistent participation and success record, placing no lower than 4th in any category.

Congratulations to all participants, and thanks to our House leaders, Elijah and Daniel.

As a reward, the house will participate in a celebration day on Wednesday 5  December.

Sonia McNally, Columba House Leader

Congratulations Adnan Shaikh - Recipient of 2018 Frank Facey Award 

Each year, a Dandenong real estate agency Frank Facey Industrial offers prizes to year 12 students in the greater Dandenong area who display qualities of hard work and resilience in their learning. To be eligible a student needs to be studying at least one Commerce-related subject of Business Management, Legal Studies, Accounting or Economics. Frank Facey Industrial see this as an opportunity to recognise students displaying commitment to their learning, and assist them in their next phase of their learning by awarding them a brand new MacBook Air, valued at over $1,800. This prize is intended to support them as they transition to university.

Previous winners of this award from St John’s includes Beatrice Oryem (2016) and Rivaldo Lay (2017), and St John’s is pleased to report another student of the College has been awarded this prestigious honour again in 2018.

After receiving over 60 nominations from schools across the Greater Dandenong region, St Mary’s student Adnan Shaikh was one of three recipients of the 2018 award. Adnan was presented with his MacBook at a presentation held at Frank Facey head office, supported by some of his family and teachers.

Adnan has consistently displayed all of the required behaviours towards his learning throughout this past year. He always completed required work tasks to an extremely high standard, and frequently took on additional learning opportunities to further his understanding of the material. This included staying back after class to clarify understanding, and completing of additional practice questions leading up to key assessments. Furthermore, Adnan also assisted other students in furthering their understanding of the material, showing true maturity and leadership in how he approached his studies. Adnan displayed these qualities consistently across all 3 of his Commerce subjects of Accounting, Business Management and Economics.

Adnan will use his new MacBook Air next year as he plans to pursue a career in Commerce. The entire St Mary’s and St John’s community congratulates Adnan on this deserving recognition of an excellent year of learning, and wish him all the very best for his promising future.

David Graham, Communication Coach

Beach Safety

On Wednesday 7 November the Year 8s of SJRC ventured down to the beach and the sunny suburb of Aspendale. Experts from Surf Life Saving Victoria were there greet our students and to put them through their paces. Whilst the previous day's deluge betrayed Aspendale's always sunny reputation and kept us out of the water for safety reasons, the land-based learning activities were highly engaging. Flag races, obstacle courses and faux rescues ensured our year 8s received the best, specialised, instruction on the day.  A special thanks from all to Mrs Laing for organising the day and the year 8s for their outstanding participation.

Paul Wintle, Personal and Social Wellbeing Leader

I learned about how everyone is a hero in different ways and

that I am my own hero. It was a fun experience to learn with the

beach safety teachers about these things. The activities we

played was also very enjoyable and overall it was a positive

atmosphere and we all had fun.

Terry Chomanyan, CO2

The beach excursion was quite good. Despite how we unfortunately couldn’t enter the water because of recent

weather and conditions, it was quite enjoyable. While continuously learning new safety skills, it was nice to

have something different than regular a class.

Tyson Spaull, DE7

SIS Arts and Technology Exhibition

Congratulations to the following students whose artworks were chosen to be part of the SIS Arts & Technology Exhibition held at the Frankston Arts Centre last week. The exhibition showcases works from all of the SIS schools. This year St John’s included works from the areas of Art, Media, Textiles and Visual Communication Design.

Daniel Starling Yr 12                                                        Bruno Massa Yr 8

Dilshan Ubeyanarayanage-Perera Yr 12                 Joni Giubantanga Yr 8

Neelam Singh Yr 12                                                          Blake DeFontaine Yr 8

Jennifer Yang Yr 12                                                          Martina Ducic Yr 9

Eriza Mateo Yr 12                                                               Sophie Farrell Yr12            Tiana Amoretti Yr 9                                                          Alliyah Mannop Yr 8

Portia DeAlwis Yr 9                                                          Noah Sequeira Leo Yr 9

Rita Karzona Yr 9                                                              Kevin Williams Yr 9

Stella Farajala Yr 9                                                           Diana Cuevas Yr 8

Donglei Tu Yr 9                                                                  Chloe McCartney

Andrea Heldt Yr 9                                                             Lisa Narrah Yr 9

Thanh Truong Yr 9                                                           Akuong Kyong Yr 9

Max Beasley Yr 9                                                              Justyna Komar Yr 7

Tayshaun DeSilva Yr 7                                                    Khanh Nguyen Yr 7

Jericho Terracampo Yr 7                                               Caitlyn Cross Yr 7

Andrea Peters Yr 9

Kavithma Piyadigamage Yr 8

Sukirtha Vijayakumar Yr 8

Tania Robinson, Arts and Engagement Leader

Commedia dell' Arte

On Tuesday 13 November, all the Year 8 Italian classes had a guest speaker, Rosa Campagnaro, from Make A Scene, who came in to teach us about Commedia dell’Arte. We all had a fun and interactive experience with Rosa teaching us about the many Commedia dell’Arte characters and their unique personalities. She taught us how we have many of these characters in modern day television shows such as The Simpsons, Modern Family and even Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She later showed us the beautiful masks of the characters such as Il Capitano, the history behind their making and how to get into character (facial expressions, body language etc.).

She then improvised a scene while acting as one of these characters. We had a great time (mainly laughing) with Rosa and learnt some interesting facts behind the story of Commedia dell’Arte.

Vanessa Sayers AQ1

Shared Stories

On Tuesday 20 November I, along with a number of other St John’s students attended the shared stories event. Multiple times throughout the presentation we were graced by the colleges choir. They performed songs that had cultural importance and displayed teamwork, creating a

memorable experience for all attending. We heard the some outstanding pieces of text written by students from schools all around Victoria along with artwork that displayed true skill and creativity.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and believe it was a great experience getting to see ideas generated on the topic ‘Living Simply’ by all the school communities.

Cameron Tran, AQ5

The Shared Stories Event at Star of the Sea was both a artistic and literature event, where I enjoyed many artworks there. I most enjoyed the poem of “Death and the Girl”, which I found rather interesting. I thought that the two covers was very interesting suiting how the them was. I felt like I learnt a lot from this event by looking at other people’s artworks and learning how to improve my own. This event was a long but enjoyable show that was filled with creativity.

Kevin Williams, LE4

I Can Network

On Friday 16 November, the Learning Diversity Faculty members including; Mr Thiik Giir, Miss Pamela Larkin, Mrs Michele Trusler and Ms Trish Maguire took the following students -Tofy Jorissen, Allan Vu, Nic Mc Gowan, Guy Agresta, Kevig Kewanian Gabby Kewanian, Chris Lombardo and Hannah Butterfield to the I CAN NETWORK -2018 Autism Expo at ANZ building in the Docklands.

In front of an audience of sixty people, Gabby Kewanian spoke about music and dance and played three songs on the keyboard. Tofy Jorissen spoke about his love and knowledge of Yugo cards and Guy Agresta gave an account of the Vietnam War which included quotes and pictures.

Kevig Kewanian and Tofy Jorissen held exhibitions about Trains and Anima and answered many questions from passing visitors over three hours.

The students participating were all participants of the St John’s ICAN NETWORK program. This program has occurred fortnightly during this semester and has included students from Years 7-10.

The ICAN 2018 Autism Expo was full of positive common regard for students and their family members whose passions and areas of interest were highlighted and demonstrated with enthusiasm and joy.

A wonderful opportunity showcasing the awe in Autism. Our students were wonderful and represented our College proudly.

Trish Macquire, Learning Support Coordinator