Student Achievements 

2022 Athletics Team Report

Eastern Metropolitan Region Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to all students who represented the College in the EMR Track & Field Championships. It was very pleasing to see the outstanding level of competition and skill displayed by our students. Due to the fantastic effort of all the athletes, Wheelers Hill finished in the top 10 schools for Eastern Metropolitan Region. An amazing effort!

Individual competitor results include:

Cooper Bertram           Gold Medal         14Yr 100m Hurdles

                                          Gold Medal         14Yr 100m

                                          Gold Medal         14Yr 200m

                                          Gold Medal         14Yr 400m

Eric Trinkle                    Gold Medal          20Yr 1500m

                                          Silver Medal        20Yr 3000m

Jasmine Hamilton       Gold Medal          16Yr High Jump

                                          Silver Medal        16Yr 400m

                                          Bronze Medal      16Yr 200m

                                          Bronze Medal      16Yr Long Jump

                                          5th place               16Yr 100m

Tilly Ferrier                    Silver Medal         13Yr Triple Jump

Joseph Arhuere            Silver Medal        13Yr Triple Jump

                                          Bronze Medal      13Yr 100m

                                          Bronze Medal      13Yr 200m

Tom McPherson          Silver Medal         13Yr Shot Put

                                          5th place               13Yr High Jump

Max Bucci                      Silver Medal         13Yr Javelin

Samantha Mangan     Bronze Medal       15Yr 800m

                                          4th place                15Yr 400m                                

Catherine Gualtieri     Bronze Medal        20Yr Long Jump

                                          4th place                 20Yr Triple Jump

Bianca Jorgic                Bronze Medal        16Yr Discus

                                          6th place                 16Yr Triple Jump

Tayla Steele                  Silver Medal            17Yr 4x100m relay

Matilda Davies

Patricia Didomenico

Sophie Bertram

Leilea Cocker                     4th place            13Yr 800m

Lochie Agius                      4th place            16Yr Triple Jump

Isaiah Peka                         4th place            15Yr High Jump

Sophie Bertam                  4th place            17Yr 100m Hurdles

                                               6th place            17Yr Triple Jump

Isabella Corso                   4th place            14Yr Triple Jump

Ben Weinert                       4th place            15Yr Javelin

Shakaya VanDerMatten 4th place            16Yr Javelin

Tj Cunningham                 4th place            16Yr Discus

                                               5th place            16Yr Shot Put

Olivia Tavella                      5th place            20Yr 4x100m relay

Catherine Gualtieri

Logan McKenzie

Maddie Collins

Patricia Didomenico       6th place            17Yr Long Jump

Charli Paterson                6th place            14Yr Shot Put

                                              9th place            14Yr Discus

Lochie Everetts                6th place            15Yr 200m

                                              8th place            15Yr 100m

Lochie Everetts                6th place            15Yr 4x100m relay

Elai Butcher

Isaiah Peka

Lachie Naylor

Jack Gaal                            6th place            20Yr 4x100m relay

Jake Edwards

Lachlan Palmer

Jack Craig

Hannah Wright                8th place            16Yr 800m

Tijana Pejic                       8th place            14Yr Javelin

Jake Edwards                   8th place            20Yr 800m

Jeriah Papatua                 9th place            14Yr 1500m

                                             11th place          14Yr 800m

Mia Burridge                    9th place            13Yr 1500m

Lachlan Johnston           9th place            17Yr 800m

Jack Craig                         10th place          20Yr 800m

Jeriah Papatua                11th place          14Yr 800m

Makayla Larkin               11th place          15Yr 1500m

Drew Taylor                     12th place          14Yr 800m

Kalani Cust                      13th place          15Yr 1500m

We wish Cooper Bertram, Eric Trinkle and Jasmine Hamilton the best of luck for the upcoming SSV State Athletics Championships.

English and Literacy News  

As I sit here and write this article, the rain is pounding my office window and the sky is white with cloud cover. Thank goodness I chose this one to be our Spooky Season piece about all the wild and wonderful Gothic texts we read and study at Wheelers Hill Secondary College! 

Our hard-working library staff has put together this amazing array of Gothic novels, from classics to graphic novels and everything in between. Please ask Jane or Tracey if they can help you out with finding something gripping and suspenseful! 

To further reinforce our Gothic-themed article, our Year 9 English students have been writing creatively about some of the texts they’ve been analysing in class. Below is a creative response to Edward Scissorhands which seeks to encompass the loss and madness that is archetypical of a Gothic piece: 

To my dearest Edward, 

If you are reading this letter, I have passed. This will include all the things I meant to say but did not get the chance to. As I had never had children of my own, you were the equivalent; someone I was able to take care of and help through unknowing times. I have always been someone who was always driven to make the newest invention or create something absurd it sometimes made me insane. It took away the time I had very little left of. 

From my youth I always had a wondering mind. Constantly had my nose in a book and was joint at the hip to my father who at the time worked at a machinery factory. I was very curious and fascinated to what it could do or what it could do with minor tweaks. When I was 15 years of age, I was able to get my first job where my father worked. I learned how to handle metal and many other materials, which led me to creating my own factory later on. With experience in my first job, I was able to finish high school and enter college gaining a degree in engineering. It was when I was in my 20s where I had produced the spencher, an obstacle of machinery to make baked goods faster and more efficiently. Personally, I was never a cook or baker, this construction was perfect for me. How did you think I always had cookies?  

To be frank I have never had a friend, partner or a stable household. That was one of many reasons I created you Edward. Apart from creating machinery, I wanted to invent the unimaginable. Of course, I had to add some sort of aspect of metalwork that is why I bestowed scissor hands upon you. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I would create such a kind, compassionate and wholehearted person. Everything I designed had its complications but with you, you turned out exactly as imaged. I have never been so proud of not only my capabilities but also the way you came to life. 

Having never experienced the outside world I became very closed off and secluded in life. When I was much younger I was apart of society, but I was not very social. I did not know how to be. My mother abandoned me at age 7 when she found someone better than my father who could provide for her and give her an exhilarating life, something I would see her day dreaming about. Then my father passed from a heart attack when I was 19 years of age. I never had anyone to rely on except myself. I know my days are numbered as have not been feeling too well myself. I was planning for our future; I wanted us to move out into the world where I can continue my experiments with other scientists and where you could portray something close to a normal life. I wanted to give you the life I never got to have. One with family, friends people to rely on when things became south. Love. A partner, a family of your own is what I wish for your future. 

You will forever be my best invention. With such life and compassion in you, just express yourself and be you even when other will not accept you. I am very proud of the person you have become and hope you can manage through life without me by your side. Even in the afterlife, I will keep the times I would read you a story from one of my most treasured books to which you would sit and listen near and dear to my heart. Thank you Edward and good luck. 

Sincerely, Inventor.  

We have been blessed with new additions to our English staff this semester and I’d like to formally introduce Krista Rainsford, Jordan Halkidis, Phyllis Chee and Jessica Zhu to our wider community. They have all found their feet very quickly and are enjoying teaching a range of students from Years 7 to 9. We are benefitting from their expertise, collaboration, fresh ideas and enthusiasm to continue building on all the gains we’ve made in English and Literacy at the College.  

Our Year 12 English and EAL students are nearing their final exams; in fact, the English exam is exactly two weeks away as I finish this article! Kellie Goebel, Fei Hu and I have been so impressed with the improvement our students have been making with their practice essays and we encourage them to keep writing, planning, brainstorming and sending them through to us for feedback. 

Motivational Mondays will continue for the Year 11s after the 12s finish formal classes and enter their dedicated study period before their first exam. We encourage our 12s to make appointments to see their teachers to confer about their writing and different ways to improve before Wednesday 26 October. 

I’m sure the Wheelers Hill Secondary College community will join with me in wishing these students all the very best for the final stretch of their VCE experience. We are very proud of you all! 

Felicity Graham-Prowse 

Literacy Learning Specialist and English Learning Area Leader