WOW! What a start to Term 2.

The Merri House would firstly like to congratulate all students (and families) for the way in which they have embraced remote learning. Across the board we have been incredibly proud of the way in which our students have taken on this new challenge with patience, persistence, resilience and rigour. I always had faith in the Merri crew.

After all, our slogan is “we achieve success through unity and zest.” Our ability to adapt to new circumstances with an element of drive and zest has meant that we are finding ways to cope with this unexpected circumstance we find ourselves in.

In saying this, we are well aware that a number of our students and/or families may be struggling to cope, for various reasons, in this unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in. We know that there are families within our community who have little/no internet connection, have lost their jobs and are therefore facing the challenge of managing with a reduced income, are trying to juggle work and supporting their child through remote learning, not to mention the struggle of being socially isolated and not being able to connect with families and friends as much as we used to. Whilst we cannot necessarily remove these challenges and struggles for you the Merri staff (and more broadly the Warrnambool College Community) would like you to know that we are still here for you and our students. We have access to a number of services and relief systems that we can offer to support you. As hard as it might be, we strongly encourage you to contact Miss Hammond (House Leader) to discuss if there are any ways in which we can offer you support. Miss Hammond can be contacted via email or the school phone number.

One way to stay connected with the Merri house is by attending tute. Tute teachers are present on Google Classroom every morning, checking in with students, running a range of activities including discussing Big Life Boost activities (which can be accessed by all members of the community via the following link https://sites.google.com/wblcoll.vic.edu.au/biglifeboost/home?authuser=0

Whilst tute is not compulsory, we strongly encourage all students to make the effort to touch base with their tute teacher each morning. This is a great opportunity to not only ease into and prepare for the school day, but also to catch up with friends, check in with yourself and look after your own mental wellbeing, engage in fun activities and also ask your tute teacher any questions or talk about any problems you might be having with remote learning. Most importantly it is a way to stay connected with the Merri Community.

Last Wednesday, we ran our first remote inter-tute competition. While a couple of tutes could not make it, due to teacher absence and technical difficulties, for the teachers and students involved it was a big success. It was great way to bring back the competitive spirit and connect with other Merri tutes. M8 proved to be the most switched on when it came to general knowledge trivia. This week the challenge was a movie quote themed Kahoot and once again M8 came out on top.

A big congratulations to the Merri students nominated in the Moyne and Warrnambool Youth Awards - Stella Bridgewater, Chelsea Darkin and Scarlett Westhorpe. A great achievement. Good luck next Friday.

We wish you all the very best and hope to see you back on the school

campus healthy and well as soon as possible. In the meantime stay safe.

Chloe Hammond - Merri House Leader

Hello from Flagstaff,

Amidst this unprecedented time in our lives, we as a Flagstaff leadership team have been thoroughly encouraged by the enthusiasm and willingness of our students and their families to adapt towards online learning. We have also been very thankful for the support of the students' leaders, parents and staff in creating a supportive and engaging online environment. As a house we encourage all parents, students and staff to support the upcoming Logans and Merri house celebration days that will different but nonetheless fun to see.

Finally we congratulate all Flagstaff students nominated in the Moyne and Warrnambool Youth Awards, be very proud of your nomination for your efforts in the school and wider community. We are all very proud of you, these students include Ollie Annett, Jayda Page, Alana Bellman, Jasmine Prakash, Phoebe Reaburn, Milla Darmanin and Amarli Frankel.

Tom White, Zacc Struth & Steve Hall

What an incredible few weeks we have had in Hopkins House. We’ve been thrown in to an unprecedented situation and although there’s been some bumps in the road along the way, our amazingly resilient students have tackled it head on. In the face of adversity we have been able to achieve great things in and out of the ‘classroom’.

Hopkins leads the way in attendance throughout the Remote Learning period which is an amazing effort. Thanks to all of our students for doing such an amazing job and thanks to all of the staff and parents/guardians who have been supporting our students through this time.

Congratulations to Hopkins alumni Flynn Gurry, who has been nominated for a Warrnambool & Moyne Shire 2020 Youth Award. As well as current student Leader Charli Picken who has been nominated for her Cooperation, Reslilience and Passion – three of the many character strengths this amazing young person possesses. Good luck to Flynn and Charli as well as the other amazing nominees.

We have a whole House Assembly coming up next week via Google Meet, we encourage all students and their parents/guardians to join us to hear more about the amazing things our students and staff have been up to.

Take Care.

Hi Childarians,

Hoping that this email finds you in good health and good spirits.

While it has been a quiet and uneventful period for many, it has taught us a new appreciation of what is important and essential, as well as how lucky we truly are to live in a regional city by the sea.

Youth Achiever Awards: Congratulations to all of you who received nominations for the Warrnambool and Moyne Youth Achiever Awards which are to be held online next week. So many of our students have been nominated based on outstanding values demonstrated through co-curricular and extra-curricular activities such as active citizenship, sport, the arts, philanthropy and environment. Each of you who were nominated has been promoted briefly by Warrnambool City Council and shared on the College’s Facebook page. I am looking forward to the presentation which will take place online next Friday 8th of May 2020. Please see the Warrnambool Moyne and Youth Awards Facebook page to live stream the event from 7pm.

Childers Hair Raiser:

Daffodil Day will be next term, toward the end of August. We are looking to (hopefully) still have our hair raising event and while most of us are able to add significant lengths to our locks, partly because of the isolation, but more likely due to a lack of hairdressing opportunities available, we are asking students to consider keeping their hair long so they can donate it to cancer when we finally get out. Please remember we can’t donate dyed or semi-dyed hair.

Students won’t have to get their hair cut at school. If you intend to donate your hair, please let us know first. We can arrange for you to have the specific instructions so that the plaits can be delivered to school and then sent away as part of our event. 2019 saw our boys donate their hair for the first time. We are hoping that we will have enough students donate their hair to make double figures in 2020.

Need some community-based connection?

If you are looking for additional activities to do, former College Captain, Childers House Captain and Flagstaff Hill trainee Meg Reuel gives weekly updates on what you can accomplish or attend online in the local community. She has some great ideas and I would encourage you and your family to follow the Warrnambool Visitor Information Centre Facebook page.

Have a great isolation. Can’t wait until we all meet again. At the end of next week we will have been in isolation for as long as the whole summer holiday period! We anticipate many of you will be significantly taller upon your return to school.

Hope to see you soon,

Mr Dart and the Childers Team.

What a start to Term 2!!

Remote Learning, isolation from friends and loved ones, and not being able to play sport or gather together as we once did. Challenging times!!

Going into Term 2, we have had some bumps along the way, but our Logans' students are working hard to navigate the online world and continue with their learning the best way they can. We are very proud of the efforts you are making. This does sometimes mean doing things differently, sometimes making mistakes, but by working together we can achieve a great result for all of our Logans students.

We are starting each Monday with Vesey’s Vids (Named by our Logans Yr 12’s). It is nice to touch base with all our Logans students and for them to see a familiar face providing lots of encouragement and reminding them that we, as a staff, are all still here for them. Although we may not physically be together, we can be a resource for all our students as we were when onsite at school.

To encourage some fun and interaction, we have still been engaging in our Tutes each morning and Tutors have been running various activities and conversations to engage our Logan’s students. This week we had an Inter Tute Kahoot Music Challenge, to create some friendly competition within the Logans House.

Coming up on the 15th May, we will be having our Logans Bogan Dress-Up Day to raise awareness for our charity Warrnambool and District Foodshare, there will be activities throughout the week and we encourage everyone from Logans and all the Houses across the school to dress up and show off their inner Bogan for Warrnambool College to see. This is a day for all of Warrnambool College to be a little or a lot ‘Bogan’ for the day and raise our spirits through fun and laughter. What a great way to showcase our motto for Logans of “Live. Laugh. Learn”

Keep striving ahead with your learning and continue to be “Logans Legends”.

Despite the rush in organising our Belfast Day we did manage to raise over $1000 on the 13th of March. Thanks to all the students and families who supported Belfast and Oxfam on this day.

While we don’t see all of our Belfast students and staff every day we are making the most of a difficult situation. Our students are doing an amazing job at staying connected to their classes, teachers and peers. Our staff are doing the best they can at providing stimulating and meaningful work. My message to all of our students and families is do what works for your family and if something isn’t working for your family, let it go and move on. Don’t you or your children get stressed, get some fresh air, get outside and start again. Small wins are important. Look after yourselves and take care.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE, BE BELFAST

NEWSLETTER

Persistence, Resilience and Mutual Respect

Issue 3 · 01 May 2020

In this issue