WHAT'S ON @ SCSC
College Captains
On Monday (21.10.2019) the Class of 2019 finished classes for the year and was farewelled at a whole school assembly. Tuesday saw the students dressed up in costumes for their Celebration Day and enjoying a breakfast cooked for them by their teachers. It’s been such a pleasure to see these students grow over the time they’ve been at Surf Coast. They have all had ups and downs over the years but have come together, this year, in particular, to support each other and develop some really strong relationships. We’re so proud of this group of students. Some have already moved onto the next phase of their lives, with apprenticeships begun and full-time employment commenced, while others are now at the business end of preparing for their VCE exams, which began on Wednesday (30.10.2019). It’s been wonderful to see so many members of the Class of 2019 studying at school and catching up with their teachers for support in the lead up to these exams.
As we farewell the Class of 2019, we begin to look forward to 2020 and to plan for the next school year. We have seen the culmination of the College Captain and Vice Captain application process, with those students who put their hands up writing applications, making speeches to both the staff and the Year 11s and also being interviewed by members of the College Principal Team and this year’s College Captains. The standard of applicants this year was extremely high and coming to a final decision was very difficult. All those students who applied should be very proud of themselves – putting yourself forward as a potential leader is a really brave step and each of the applicants should be commended.
Our 2020 College Captains are Charlotte Cook, Laila McCristal and Lily Watterson, and our 2020 Vice Captains are Kayla Hardy, Zakhele Stevens and Liam Wray.
House Captains 2020
Congratulations to the following students, who've been appointed as House Captains for 2020:
Bells: Jai Cooper and Max Neal
Birdrock: Coco Cummins and Grace Devlin
Roadknight: Jade McHugh and Alana Vescio
Zeally: Charlotte Foss and Georgie Hamilton
These students, along with the Captains and Vice Captains, will comprise our Senior Leadership Team for 2020. Congratulations to everyone who put their hand up and applied for a leadership position. It's a big step and regardless of the outcome, everyone who applied deserves to be congratulated.
Torquay College Wellbeing Day
Phoenix Lugg and Georgie Hamilton went to Torquay College on Friday the 1st of November for their Wellbeing Day. Despite the heat, the girls ran a dance session for the Grade 6’s where they created a choreographed dance routine.
Ocean Minds
Last week four Surf Coast Secondary College students, Flynn, Mia, Oli and Seb, participated in a whole day of training with Rachel from Ocean Mind. The students learned valuable mentoring and surf coaching skills to prepare them for work with some of the more vulnerable students who will be transitioning from Torquay College to SCSC next year.
The goal of the program is for SCSC students to act as mentors, connecting with the younger students by sharing their passion for surfing. These relationships will act as an important safety net for students who are feeling nervous about starting secondary school, helping them to build the self-confidence necessary to tackle the next stage of their educational journey.
Year 9 VET Indonesian
On Friday 1st of November 2019, our Year 9 VET Applied Languages (Indonesian) class went into town to complete a speaking assessment task.
The task required students to play both roles of a boss training a new employee and a trainee beginning at a new workplace all in Bahasa Indonesia! As always, our students were well prepared, organised and represented our school proudly.
A huge thank you to Chung Vinh Phat Asian Grocer for allowing us to use their venue as a real-life environment for our students to complete their assessment. Chung Vinh Phat Asian Grocer is always more than happy to have us each year even when we buy all their Beng-Beng bars. We are already looking forward to our next visit.
Our next stop was Pondok Nasi Bakar for an authentic Indonesian lunch. If you haven’t tried this restaurant yet you need to check it out! Students were able to interact with restaurant staff and order their meals with ease. The food was enak sekali! We had a fabulous day together and completed a challenging assessment task at the same time.
Well done Year 9 VET Indonesian students.
Salam,
Bu. Luci
Year 8 Boys Baseball
On Wednesday 30th October we travelled to Saints Baseball Club in Waurn Ponds for Baseball. Throughout the day there were many highlights including Charlie’s home run hit, Kaedin’s strikeouts, Eric’s pitching and Kye’s catching. Unfortunately despite winning 2 games and drawing 1, we lost to Grovedale in the final 9-0.
DigiTech
This Term our 5 Year 8 DigiTech classes went on an excursion to the Geelong Tech School. The students participated in a different ‘tech tasters’ to learn about the design process and using new technology. This was the start of their CAT, related to using technology to solve problems within the local community.
Check Mate:
Students used CAD software to create their own 3D printed chess piece.
Tinker Time:
Students learnt how to use the HummingBird robotics kit to create an automated adventure golf course.
It was a great opportunity to expose students to the Tech School and the Gordon Tafe to show future pathways and how much technology has evolved in a short period of time. The canteen was a hit as well! Below are some comments from students.
Taj: It was super fun, I loved the programing and making the 3D model on the computer and seeing it turn into a real-life object!
Maya: It was very interesting to see what technology can do and it was really fun, as the staff at the Tech school were super supportive and nice. I learnt about how to calculate different angles to make sure it all works in the final product.
Year 7 Boys and Girls Tennis
Year 7 Tennis was held on a brisk Friday the 25th of October at the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club in Belmont. The format of the day was two matches consisting of 3 doubles rubbers and finals. Our doubles teams for the girls included; Maici ‘Maria Sharapova’ Kenny, Juliet ‘Barty’ Muscroft, Lexi ‘Wozniacki’ Hughson, Lani ‘Kournikova’ Dukker, Alysha ‘Azarenka’ Rozec and Asabi Boo ‘Osaka’ Cummins. For the boy’s doubles, teams included; Emjay ‘Wawrinka’ Blakeney, Valentino ‘Seppi’ Cuffetelli, Alexander ‘Baghdatis’ Gatt, Cohen ‘Berdych’ Hamill, Gus ‘Monfils’ Maibaum and Vander ‘Del Potro’ Withers.
The girls first match was against Grovedale and some excellent tennis saw us come away with two wins and a loss from our three rubbers winning the match overall. The boys faced a tough assignment first up against Oberon with all three matches going down to the wire. Unfortunately, the boys came up just short in two matches while winning one meaning an overall loss first up. The second girl's match was played against Oberon and again, tight tennis ensued with Oberon once again just getting the better of us winning two games to our one. The boys second game was against Newcomb and keen to avenge our first match result, the boys put on a tennis clinic winning all three games well. A short break for lunch as results was tallied and we were all thrilled to learn both teams had made the Semi-Finals. What ensued was 6 games of tennis spaced out over the breadth of the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club. The Girls played Matthew Flinders and the boys Geelong High. While team coach Tom ‘Doic’ Dunn tried his best to keep up with proceedings on all six courts unfortunately individual rubber results were lost in the process and although each game was a tightly contested and highly skilled affair we were eventually beaten in both matches.
However, spirits were high and it was fantastic to see the sportsmanship and great representation of SCSC values on display, especially as the majority of matches played were self-umpired by the students. Pictured are players from both teams.
Canvas is Coming
This is the third in a series of articles that I am sharing to get you all excited about our new Learning Management System (LMS), CANVAS, that will be launched for students at the start of 2020, and parents will have access in term two.
On Wednesday October 30th, Mr Brown and I logged in a test group of students to get their feedback on the system and to enable us to see things from a students’ perspective. The students all agreed that the way that assignments were submitted and feedback is received is an improvement from how things have been happening via Compass currently.
One other feature that the students liked was the calendar. Now this may not sound exciting, but the calendar gives students, and teachers, an overview of what is happening in all of their classes across a week or month. A sample image shows you how multiple subjects assessments and events are shown in different colours on the calendar. Once a task has been submitted, it gets crossed off. We feel that the calendar will enable students to have a clearer view of what is happening in their subjects and to keep track of their commitments and due dates.
Students can also add their own reminders or events in, such as study times, sports commitments, work commitments.
We look forward to showing you more of Canvas across this term before we begin using the platform for all classes in 2020.
Library News
We have had a very busy week in the Library with 4 local kindergartens visiting us and the Coastal Environmental Centre. We had 13 classes over 7 days run by selected Year 8 and 9 students. Both the kindy children and our students loved being involved in learning about our local sea creatures with Trish and Paddy and listening to books and singing songs about them in the Library. Each child went home with a jellyfish and colourful rainbow fish which they made during their visit.
Don’t forget to return or renew your library book after 4 weeks. We have lots of very overdue books at the moment. Please check your family account to see if you have been charged for a replacement.
VCAA Exam Timetable
How to Support Your Loved Ones During Their Exams
We are at the pointy end of the year for our Year 12 students and their stress levels are definitely high.
Here are some ways that families can help support their loved ones to get through the last few weeks of school and the exam period.
Help them to look after themselves.
- Ensure they are eating well, getting enough sleep, making time to exercise and relax.
- Although it is an important and busy time of year it is still important to make sure they have a good life balance - which includes some downtime.
- Our brains work best when they are given time to recharge!
Keep it in perspective.
- It’s great to encourage your loved ones to do their best, but if they don’t achieve the marks they want it is NOT the end of the world.
- Yes, it is an important year for getting an ATAR but as parents, who can remember their end of year mark or specific grades for subjects?
- Remember there are always many different pathways to achieve success in life.
Maintain a sense of family connectedness
- Listen to how your loved ones are feeling.
- Praise them for effort and celebrate their successes.
- Remember everyone’s successes look different.
- Be there for them for whatever they need – be that helping them study, cooking their favourite meal, letting them off the hook for household chores.
- Talk about exam nerves and normalise feeling this way
Help them challenge negative thoughts and stay positive
- When we have thoughts such as “it’s too hard”, “I can’t do it”, “I’m going to fail” we respond by procrastinating or quitting
- Help your loved ones notice they are having unhelpful thoughts
Ask questions such as:
- What is the evidence for/against this thought?
- What would you say to a friend?
- Is it really that bad? What else could happen?
- Is this way of thinking helpful to you? is it helping you achieve your goals?
Remind yourself they will get through it and they will return to their old selves once the stress has passed.
Good Luck to all the SCSC Year 12 Students! I know they will do their best!
Shelley Hayles
School Psychologist
Year 11 Exam Timetable
