AROUND THE COLLEGE
Term 2
Year 12 Biology
Yr12 Biology students completed three practical's last week for Unit 3, Outcome 2: Comparison and evaluation of Biological concepts, methodologies and methods and findings from three student practical activities.
Practical 1: How does light intensity affect the rate of photosynthesis.
Practical 2: Does temperature increase the rate of photosynthesis.
Practical 3: Does glucose concentration change the rate at which organisms undergo cellular respiration?
Students then sat a SAC analysing and answering questions based on the practical's.
WHC House Cross - Country
A successful afternoon was had by all students who participated in the annual House School Cross-Country Carnival held on Friday 13th May. The event was once again held in and around our aesthetic school environment. The majority of students had been able to familiarise themselves and gain some practice prior to the event as part of the school PE program. The students enjoyed the challenge of representing their house colors and competing against their peers.
A big thankyou goes out to all who participated and tried their best in the event whether they dawdled, walked, jogged, ran or sprinted the course. Also a huge thankyou goes to the marvellous effort from the staff who made a significant contribution to the afternoon in the various official capacities. Well done.
Congratulations to the Vines (GREEN) house who were the overall house winners from the event. Also a huge congratulations to the Age Group Champions who were successful in their age grouping. The top SIX finishers in each age group will go on to represent the Western Heights College in the Geelong Region Competition on Monday 30th May.
The results are as follows:
1st Vines (GREEN) House 425pts
2nd Barton (BLUE) House 362pts
Equal 3rd Minerva (Yellow) & Quamby (RED) House 335pts
Age Group Champions
Junior Boys: Tied - Oscar Rixon & Will Charles
Junior Girls: Ayisha Balogun
Intermediate Boys: Jack Unthank
Intermediate Girls: Caitlyn Charles
Senior Boys: Jack Maultby
Senior Girls: N/A
UNIT 3 PE BIOLAB VISIT
Year 8 Camp
Our Year 8 students are currently enjoying themselves on camp in the Strathbogie Ranges, Auscamp Charnwood Camp. We will look forward to reading the camp reports from participating students in our next newsletter. A big thank-you to Louise Van Dugteren (Year 8 Learning Community Leader) for her organisation and leadership with the camp and to all staff who attended and for supporting it to take place.
Inter & Senior AFL
Congratulations to our Year 9/10 Boys and Girls AFL teams who yesterday won through to the Western Metropolitan SSV finals after winning the Local SSV championships today. They will join our senior girls AFL team who last week progressed through to the next round after a victory over Surf Coast SC. Well done to our senior boys, who although undermanned due to illnesses played 2 games winning 1 and losing 1 in the Geelong Division of SSV AFL championships. Congratulations to all students and coaches on this success and to large number of parents and carers who supported our students in these competitions.
The day started off pretty much as soon as we hopped off the bus as our first game was at 10, we versed Belmont and our games were two 15 minute halves. It was our first game together as a team, with a couple girls who have never played before, and still we played really well together and shared the ball with everyone. We won 75-0, Belmont only got the ball in their forward line once and our defense won it back instantly. Then we played Bannockburn. We went really well using the craft we have been learning with Macca and Susie. We won this game as well with the same score as last game 75-0. Then we went onto the semi final against Grovedale, we knew they would be a good side considering they won in their pool. We let Grovedale move the ball pretty easily at times when it turned over, Macca picked up on this so at half time he gave us his feedback and the team took action on it instantly, so it wasn’t an issue in the second half. We played really well and only got one point scored against us 74-1. This means we were in the granny, we were all so excited for this opportunity. We were playing Bellarine. We knew we were up against a good side so we set up our structure more defensively, they were a really good side but the way we set up as soon as it went out of our 50 in went straight back in. The aim of this game was to win but to also get Annie to kick a goal. She ended up getting 3 in this game and we were all so happy. We also came through with the win 46-0. Overall the day was so much fun and as a team we worked really well, we encouraged each other and had lots of respect for the opposition, our coaches, teachers and the umpires, which made the day run smoothly. Now that we won each game we are off to the next round which is the Western Metropolitan round early next term in Melbourne and we are all so excited.
- Amber Towart Inter Girls AFL Team
Game 1
In the boys school footy we were lucky enough to win the round robin and advance to the next round. We got off to a great start by moving the ball well, getting it out of the center and getting back into defense to help out and share the ball.
Scores: 65-0
Game 2
In game 2 we got off to a bit of a rocky start. We weren't doing the things we know, we got a bit lazy and they started to catch up to us. Surf coast ended up kicking a goal in the last 2 minutes but we then switched back on and kicked 2 goals to win and advance into the semifinals.
Scores: 26-17
Game 3 {semifinal}
In the semi final we versus geelong high we had a hot start kicking 6 goals 3 points in the first half. Late in the second half our best forward player julian couch kicked a ripping goal on the boundary sending us to the grand final.
Scores: 84-0
Game 4 {Grand final}
In the grand final we got off to a cracking start kicking 3 goals 2 points dominating the contest winning the ball first doing the hard work and then being able to execute. In the second half we continued to keep the intensity up and finished with a great win.
Best on: Ryan Perkins
Scores: 32-1
- Ben Pennisi Inter Boys AFL
YEAR 10 MULTIMEDIA
Students in the multimedia class are working on their character designs this week.
Some are looking at colour schemes and the psychology behind different shapes and others have begun their concept art for their final design.
Cross country Participation
Students should be congratulated for their participation during our annual school Cross country event. Many chose to walk or run on the day and despite some sun showers, we saw some sunshine in the afternoon!
The following students worked as event photographers and should congratulated on their fantastic images:
Libby Hunter, Ramzy Barboussas, Lacey Hobbs, Alex Mostert, Amber Egan and Natasha Dabkowski, Kiannah Millar.
YEAR 10 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES CAMP
In week 2 of term 2, the year 10 environmental studies went on a hiking expedition in The Great Otways National Park. They walked about 8kms on the first day and made it into camp around 4.30pm. The walk was quite hard but everyone pushed through and made the most of how pretty all the views were. There were some hard hills and a bit of complaining but it was overall worth it for the view at the top of them. Everyone got set up at camp and went and made dinner. There was a lot of rain throughout the night and a couple of people’s tents got flooded so there wasn't a heap of sleeping. Everyone got up in the morning, packed up their tents and ate some breakfast. Soon after everyone was informed that due to a range of difficult factors, the decision was made to go home early. The whole camp was an awesome experience and great to see everyone giving it a shot.
VCE
Just a quick notice to say that all VCE students doing unit 1 and 3 subjects will undergo practice exams this year on Thursday 9th June to Wednesday 15th June.
As you would be aware, exams are a major part of VCE and can come rushing up in no time for the under prepared.
There is a lot of reasons why we are doing them this early, and especially after the last couple of years – I think its important for the students to get back into the swing as early as possible. Practice exams help:
1. Reduce anxiety: When you complete practice exams you are developing your confidence and familiarity with the tasks and therefore helping to reduce your anxiety.
2. Highlight the gaps in your knowledge: Doing practice exams will help you to determine what topics you know and what areas you need to concentrate on.
3. Space out your learning: Spacing out your learning over a few days improves overall retention.
4. Apply your knowledge: You are more likely to retain content if you apply your learning to actual questions.
5. Demystify the whole thing: Completing a practice exam will give you a sense for the layout, question style and overall expectations of the exam. It also allows you to practice managing your time.
So it is important for the students to try and prepare for these in some way prior to these dates. Most importantly, the results might not be included in their ATAR – but these five points make can help improve their marks when they have to do the external assessments in November.
Year 10
Weekly Focus for Week 5
Students are to be congratulated for the way they are going about their learning and general conduct in the year 10 community. Students are participating in sporting days, excursions and their varied classes. In the Technology areas I have seen varied and wonderful projects taking shape.
There are several upcoming events at year 10 in the next few weeks. Week 6 Tuesday 31/6 is a Wellbeing day with students participating in one of each of the Man Cave program or Girls Empowerment program. Students are to wear sports uniform and lunch is provided.
Year 10 students will have Exams for English and Math during their classes in week 8. Some additional subjects may have exams which teachers will be preparing their students for this experience.