General School News
MCCI Links to Learning
MCCI Links to Learning students from multicultural backgrounds are ready for a 20 km trek from Lake Illawarra to Killalea and back, in preparation for The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award - Australia trek in November.
MCCI’s Links to Learning Program is offered every year to Year 9 students from culturally diverse backgrounds. The students are introduced to a range of challenges – including the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award which requires them to learn a skill, improve their physical well being, volunteer in their community and experience a team adventure in a new environment.
Week 8: Wellbeing Week
In the lead up to “RUOK? DAY” on September 12, Miss Boyd and Miss Robinson ran Wellbeing Week at LIHS. Each day had a specific theme and activity to help us become more mindful of each other and the impact that has on our own ‘Mental Health’ and that of others. Here are some of the photographs from ‘Mindful Monday’, ‘Choose Kind’ Tuesday, ‘Weaving Wednesday’ and ‘RUOK? DAY’.
LIHS ‘Sculptures at Killalea’ success!
After a massive effort, Lake Illawarra High Schools’ Harbour Centre (Support Unit) entry, “East Coast Low (after Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’)” was announced the 2019 Schools Winner! The installation, a 3m x 1.8m weaving using recycled materials and natural fibres, was on display at Stocklands Shellharbour for the duration of the exhibition. The piece itself recontextualises Hokusai’s, The great wave off Kanagawa (c. 1830), with the repurposed materials affirming their consciousness of being environmentally aware. East Coast Low attempts to capture the beauty of Killalea, while reminding the audience of the drastic changes that pollution has on the natural landscape and environment.
Year 11 English Studies ‘Festival Promotion’ Event
On Wednesday of Week 8, Year 11 English Studies students were hard at work in the school Library. Students created their own music festivals and designed banners, brochures, and more. They set up stalls, put up decorations and did everything persuasively possible to convince teachers and members of staff to buy tickets to their festivals. LIHS staff members received $250 of fake money upon entering the Library and were encouraged to buy tickets to student festivals.
Congratulations to Allanah Duffy, Cody Mongta, and Chenoa Harrod for winning first place in ticket sales. They raise over $3000, selling over 30 tickets to staff. Other notable mentions were to Lachlan Oldroyd and Kelsey Vincent for winning best salesman and saleswoman. Tamarah Fitzgerald for most creative, Blayne Glennon and Nichole Welland for most creative idea. As well as Juanita Holmes and Jakob Lawrence for best decorated stall. A special well done to all of our English Studies students for their application and strong determination.
Miss McLoughlin
Black Swans Vocal group
A big thank you to Windang Public school for inviting our Black Swans vocal group over to their excellent NAIDOC Day celebrations, last week. Courtney Riggs and Brianna Davis-Lonesborough are pictured here with the principal of Windang Public School, Ms. Kocvska, Denise Willis AEO at Lake High, Ron Davison and Rachael Morgan with the brilliant Morgan sisters’ dancers from Oak Flats Public School. It was great to see Ms. Morgan again as she was instrumental in creating the choreography for the Black Swans song performed at the recent Southern Stars “Come Alive” arena spectacular.
Also some recent photos have just arrived from the Southern Stars team that highlight the spectacular effort of our Black Swan Vocal group and the brilliant indigenous dance group.
Also the programme for the event included an interview with Denise Willis and Ron Davison explaining how the song came together -
“ When we went to the Lake with our students to read the elders dreaming story on the black swans they felt a connection to their own country and had a sense of their ancestors being around when they looked out over the shimmering lake and timeless mountains at the Lake Black Swans off in the distance. They dipped their toes in the water, drew pictures, wrote words and soaked up the peacefulness of the moment. They felt a release from the everyday stresses of high school and the race of everyday life by just walking across the road. The land around them became so much more significant providing an insight into who they are especially as we read the dreaming story passed on from the elders. It explained the story of how the Black Swans got their feathers and it gave everyone a feeling of connection but it also gave the Black Swans a recognition that meant something to us all. It gave us an awareness of these beautiful swans and we now appreciate them all the more as not everyone knew how they got their black feathers before.
The song came from a few notes on the guitar played by the lake then sitting around in groups at many lunch-times writing rhymes but staying true to the authenticity of the elder’s story. The song was originally played on one guitar with vocal harmonies. The new orchestration has really added to the song and captured the depth and sense of connection to country. The deep sounds capture the feeling of spiritual connection to the land and the soaring soundscape creates an image of the Black Swans rising up out of the water to shake their wings. Storytelling through song, lyrics and dance is the best way to learn and indigenous people have proven that in the way they used (and use) it to sustain themselves and our beautiful continent for over 60000 years. Long may the storytelling tradition continue to make culture and spirit come alive!”
Project Based Learning
In 2019 Lake Illawarra High School started their journey of Project Based Learning. Teachers wanted to ensure students were given every opportunity to utilise 21st Century Learning techniques in all year groups. Project Based Learning is where students work on a project over an extended period of time –that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience.
Year 7 Geography K, 7 English L and the Harbour Centre students started this journey by identifying our driving question:
“What will our Lake look like in the future?”
Sustainability is a key topic in both the English and Geography syllabus. Living on the coast, LIHS students are passionate about looking after their natural environment to ensure future generations are able to enjoy all that the lake and ocean have to offer. The teachers started off by collecting rubbish from the shores of the Lake and bringing it into the classroom. Students were shocked that people just discarded rubbish like this on the shores of the lake.
Students were then visited by Lake Illawarra’s local Landcare representative. They learnt about how the lake is a unique ecological community for a variety of native plants and animals. Students were able to clarify why it is important to look after their local environment, what they can do to help and how they can promote sustainability with their peers.
Following their classroom learning, students were able to get outside and carry out fieldwork on the shores of the lake. Students took a variety of measurements and observations using their fieldwork kits- including salinity, temperatures and wind speeds. Additionally, students did observations of the main rubbish types including plastic, metal, paper, glass and other. Using their tally’s they graphed the results. Students discovered that plastic was the main type of rubbish found around the lake.
From this students decided to make products that reduced the amount of plastic found around the lake.
- 7 Geography K decided that they would design a reusable shopping bag as this would reduce the amount of plastic bags that were being used in the area. Students divided themselves into small groups and began the design process. Students wanted to not only have a visually appealing logo for their shopping bags, but logos that educated people about sustainability and the importance of looking after our planet. The designs that students came up with were outstanding! They incorporated recycling, the pros and cons of fossil fuels and the human impact on the planet. Feedback was an important part of the design process. Students took part in a ‘gallery walk’ and gave each other feedback on their designs. Both the Geography class and Harbour Centre students came up with some really helpful ideas about how to improve their projects. Following this, adjustment were made. Finally, students voted on the designs and the top 2 designs were sent to the manufacturers to make the bags.
- The Harbour Centre class identified that single use plastic and in particular drinking vessels largely contributed to the waste collected at the lake. They decided they wanted to reduce the amount of single use disposable coffee cups that are being used by the local community, so they came up with a solution to design a reusable coffee cup that would reduce the number of single use coffee cups used in our school and community. Students wanted to incorporate not only the Lake Illawarra High name but also drew inspiration from the local landscape as well as incorporating indigenous perspectives into their designs. They also conducted a survey of the staff to ensure the style, material and price of the coffee cup would be marketable. Once they had come up with their original design we completed a ‘gallery walk” with 7K and received and provided feedback on the designs they had all created. Once they had received their feedback it was back to the drawing board to improve their designs further with the feedback in mind. Once their final designs were complete students made a prototype of their cups and contacted several companies to get quotes to produce their products. With the assistance of Mr Hicks, Mr Meizer and Mr Wilson a winning design was chosen and the design was sent off to KeepCup to be produced. Watch this space as the Lake Illawarra High re-usable coffee cups will soon be available for purchase from the office.
- 7 English L, during their study on sustainability and our impact on the environment around us, felt passionate about creating awareness within our community. Students broke into groups to create board games with trivia questions, true and false cards featuring statistics and more. Their games are designed to be engaging and fun, but also educational with a focus on water pollution. Our plan was to store their board games in Lake Illawarra High School Library for future classes to play and, in turn, learn about the importance of protecting our lake and surrounding environment. Students held individual roles within their groups and completed a variety of tasks, such as creating the board game design, creating the box cover, a list of rules, a proposal explaining the purpose and target audience of the game, as well as exploring items to be included with the board itself. Our students also completed a gallery walk and provided their peers with constructive feedback before undergoing final designs. 7 English L originally completed their draft designs on paper, and for their final copy, they used digital media to compare the difference in quality. Our class is now in the printing process, so keep an eye out for their board games the next time you visit the school Library.
Tournament of Minds
Tournament of Minds has come to an end for 2019 and what a year it was! With two teams competing on Sunday the 1st of September at The University of Wollongong, Lake Illawarra performed extremely well on the day. Ms Nicholson and Ms Robinson were extremely proud to be part of such an exciting event.
This year the teams were allowed a sleep in and didn’t have to arrive until lunchtime. The teams registered and checked out the competition. With teams from across the South Coast, Lake Illawarra was excited to perform. The team worked collaboratively to showcase their talents to show how the Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz could be transformed into an Australian spectacular! They focused on the use of accents and humour- which had the audience in stiches with their witty dialogue. They were confident in their Spontaneous performance but it was top secret- they weren’t even allowed to tell the teachers about it until the end of the day!
After a great day watching students from across the region, both Primary Schools and High Schools, perform in challenges from social science to STEM, the students were ready to find out the results! Although our teams, didn’t place in the competition, they performed exceptionally well on the day and should be proud of their efforts.
A special thank you also goes out to the staff and parents who took time out of their weekends to come and support the teams! A big thank you to Mr Davison who guided and supported the teachers through the process! The students really appreciated this support!
As the competition comes to a close for this year, the students and teachers are more excited than ever to compete again next year. Well done Lake Illawarra Tournament of Minds team!
The Team
Year 7
Jordan Spence
Samira Massoud
Sophie Harris
Charlize Dell’Orefice
Year 10
Bailee Walsh
Mikayla Amos
Sadi Malakooti
Book Week Wrap Up
Well book week has come and gone and I lose no sleep in saying that it was one of our best yet.
The theme was “Reading is my Secret Power” and boy did the students show that this is the case.
The books were definitely the stars of the show throughout the week with our large volunteer base telling our patrons many brilliant tales and reading new and old favourites.
What was particularly exciting this year was that our students were keen to volunteer to read to the patrons and I have to say, they impressed. We had Bad Guys, Choose your own Adventures, and Doctor Seuss to name a few of the titles being displayed.
A new feature this year was weaving being integrated into our crafts station. Students were able to make their own bracelets and necklaces with the help of our very own Mary Grech and also Sandra Gould who volunteered her time on numerous occasions.
Also on offer this year was the drawing competition where students got to express their artistic sides by either drawing an existing character or creating their own hero. We currently have these entries displayed in the library and those that made it to the wall got to enjoy a Zooper Dooper as a prize.
The book giveaway was on again but I have to say, it did not last long. Students and staff members alike were seen on numerous occasions taking boxes of titles out the door. I can only express my apologies to those households that are now covered in books but it gives me great joy to know that our pre-loved books have made it to good homes.
Our cosplay dress up mufti was brilliant this year. We had characters from all genres feature and we were happy to give away lots of prizes. Rest assured that this will be a staple in years to come.
I would like to thank everyone that made book week possible this year. I would also like to thank all the students that participated in our festivities. I have been so pleased to see students reading more even after the week had concluded.
We are currently accumulating ideas and planning for next year so if you have any feedback or thoughts on how we can make book week even better, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.
All the best Lake Illawarra High School. Have a great holiday and we look forward to seeing you next Term
Cheers
Nairn the Librarian Man
