Across Campus

LANGUAGES

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the Education Perfect Languages Championships. This global competition, run by Education Perfect, took place between 7 and 14 March.

We were 12th in Victoria for our school category of 251-500 students, out of 96 schools and 223rd overall globally out of 2,532, schools which is an amazing achievement!

Along with a certificate, the students below have earned themselves a gift card.

Top student overall: Indiana Donnelly (9 French and Italian) She earned 6,834 points, placing her in the top 1.5 % of competitors from around the world!

Top Yr 7 student: Zimin Zhang (7 silver French)

Top 3 students from Academy in each language:

French: Indiana Donnelly (9), Rose Thanh Truc Hoang (8), Elise Dabbs (10)

Japanese: Mailys Nguyen (8), Melody Zhang (9), Mònica Di Paolo (8)

Italian: Indiana Donnelly (9), Charlotte Roach (9), Joaquina Fitzpatrick (10)

Certificates were distributed at the end of term assembly. The students who received certificates are listed below. 

The Languages students at Academy who took part are to be commended on their efforts.

Ms Natalie Dickson, Languages Learning Leader 

Italian Language Assistant

Dear all,

My name is Marta, I am 27 years old, and I will be the Italian language assistant for this school year. I am from a tiny town in the North-West of Italy, just 20 km away from Turin, a city that is famous, among other things, for the Fiat factory, Juventus F.C., Gianduiotti chocolate and the cinema museum. It is a city surrounded by the Alps and it was the first capital of Italy! However, in the last two years I lived in Venice where I undertook my master’s degree in Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University. It is a great pleasure to be here at the school and I am looking forward to getting to know it better. 

Regards, 

Marta Battistella

ENGLISH

Supporting your child’s English, English Language, and Literature studies

Your child’s development as a reader, writer, and thinker is an iterative process that can feel empowering and at times frustrating. Like all learning, improvement can be small or large, immediate or deferred. This sometimes makes students feel they are not making progress. However, there are lots of ways you can support your child to improve their confidence and capacity as an English learner. 

Read and/or view the prescribed texts alongside your child. 

This is a great opportunity to generate dialogue between you and your child about what they are learning. You can help your child develop their reading comprehension skills by asking questions about the plot, the characters, and the ideas the text presents. Challenge your child by asking them to explain the fears and motivations of the characters or discuss with them what you both think the writer or filmmaker is suggesting about people, society, and the world. 

Encourage daily reading habits. Research suggests that reading for pleasure 

has positive implications for a student’s academic performance and indeed their stress levels and mental health. We encourage students to read for 30 minutes every day (start with smaller increments if your child is not a habitual reader). You might even like to read together. Consult the McAuley Resource Centre online resource or The Children's Book Council of Australia[CBCA]for age-appropriate book suggestions. 

Reading can take many forms. 

Audiobooks (a fun way to pass the time in the car), graphic novels, newspapers, online news, and non-fiction texts about your child’s interests (a sport star’s autobiography, for example) are all legitimate forms of reading that can benefit your child. The McAuley Resource Centre and your local library have plenty of texts for borrowing. 

Enrich your child’s English studies with companion texts. 

Comparing and contrasting one text with another is a fantastic way to develop your child’s reading and thinking skills. For example, Year 9 English students will study Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and could extend their understanding of its ideas by comparing it with the novel or film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Suggest your child ask their English teacher for relevant texts.

Creative writing and journaling are good ways to help young writers develop their skills. Your child might like to enter writing competitions like the ones listed on the State Library of Victoria website. 

Encourage frequent reflection on feedback. 

Whilst grades and scores have their place, discussing with your child their strengths and areas for improvement helps them understand that they are learning through their successes and failures and are not expected to have ‘mastered’ the business of reading and writing. Your child should be able to articulate clearly what their next steps for learning are and if not, encourage them to discuss their learning with their teacher. 

We appreciate your support in this shared responsibility of developing your child’s literacy skills and we hope you find some of these suggestions helpful.

Happy reading!

Mr Andrew McLeod English Learning Leader

DEBATING

DAV Debating Competition

On Monday night, our Academy Debating teams competed in Round 3 of the DAV Debating Competition at St Bernard’s College in Essendon. The B and C grade teams debated a secret topic. This means the students have only one hour to prepare for their given topic. The students showed great courage and worked collaboratively to develop their arguments. 

All three Academy teams won their debates. The D teams argued that the government should prioritise funding sports over the arts. One of our teams won their debate against Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School, while the other was narrowly defeated by St Bernard’s College.  An excellent effort by all of our teams!

Ms Sherine Baydoun Public Speaking Coordinator

MRC

Audiobooks are a great way to experience another form of reading and are available through the MRC. We subscribe to the Borrow Box platform and have fantastic books loaded and ready to be heard. There are plenty of benefits to regularly listening to audiobooks, including: Increasing reading accuracy by 52% Increasing reading speed, expanding vocabulary and improving fluency. Teaching pronunciation and improving comprehension. 

How to set up BorrowBox

• Download the BorrowBox App. (App store or google play) 

• Select library: Academy of Mary Immaculate 

• Activate using ID/barcode (use student ID number) 

• PIN/Password (use your school password)

• Agree to terms and conditions 

• You can now browse and select audiobooks 

If you haven’t tried an audiobook, give it a go. 

Knitting Club is now on every Friday in the Fiction Library. All year levels welcome. Come along and learn a new hobby. 

Ms Cathy Bennett & Ms Anne Girolami McAuley Resource Centre Co-Learning Leaders