Student News

Student Literacy | Holiday Reading & Reviews

We did it! We made it to the end of term!! It is only fitting that we present to you some reviews of books and films that we have indulged in over this term. At the start of Term 3, our Year 7s were busy creating a Movie or Book Review. In the unit of work, they explored the features of the text type. They also watched and analysed reviews on YouTube. Below is a montage of just some of the AMAZING work our students produced during remote learning. 

We can’t forget about our staff. Our staff are still going crazy for the Independent Reading Program. Throughout this term the staff are spending 20 mins a day with our Year 7 students and reading for enjoyment. After the 20 mins, our students and staff fill out their Reading Log. The staff have a Community Reading Log and can see what their peers are reading. We thought we would offer our community another opportunity to see what we read and what we recommend.

So, what are you waiting for? Take on our suggestions and add to your reading and viewing wish list for the holiday break. Happy Holidays!

Ms. Claire Hanley | Literacy Specialist

Year 8 Drama | Comedy & Slapstick Project

Inspired by the slapstick greats – Mr Bean, Lucille Ball and Jim Carrey... Our Year 8 students proved they have what it takes to make side splitting scenes!

Thanks to a partnership with Make A Scene, the students were provided with resources and inspiration to create their own comedy sketch. The premise was this: Your character is trying to complete a simple task – and something goes wrong. Your character must react in the most ridiculous way possible. Using conventions of absurdism and exaggerated movement, our students went all out with their creative responses. Enjoy some of the highlights!

Ms. Genelle Lentini | Performing Arts Leader

Year 9 Drama | Commedia Dell’Arte

Do you ever feel like the “before” scene in an infomercial...? Well, for these Year 9s it was certainly true! For their last lesson of the term they channelled their physical comedy skills to create a quick silly sketch: The Lazzo of Dropping Stuff.

Inspired by the theatrical style of Commedia Dell’Arte, these students created scenes with characters that bit off more than they can chew... with the classic physical gag of “dropping stuff”.

Ms. Genelle Lentini | Performing Arts Leader

Middle School Update | Term 3

Term 3 draws to a close and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our students, parents and guardians, Student Leaders, teachers and the Middle School Team for their collective effort in keeping us all learning and supporting each other during Remote Learning. I know that we all would like to be back to face-to-face learning and I hope that it is not long before this happens. The motivation of students is evident in their daily attendance, punctuality and report progress. In addition to this, I express my gratitude for the following initiatives that continued to keep us all connected throughout Term 3. Take care and have a lovely break.

Ms. Angela Field | Middle School Leader

Year 7 Friday Fun Trivia

This was such a successful afternoon, with positive competitive behaviour and high attendance. Our Year 7s were challenged by questions shared by their teachers in a variety of Domains. Thank you to Mr Shepherd, Ms Louden, Mrs Schuffelen, Ms Galli and Mrs Lentini for presenting their questions. Students who engaged in the dance challenge were awarded extra points and Mr Smith challenged all students to recall their knowledge about staff and events throughout the year. Our winners received e-vouchers. We congratulate our winners and are preparing a second Trivia even for Year 8 early in Term 4.

First Place Winner: Madison K (7E) 53 points 

Second Place: Jay K (7D) 48 points 

Third Place: Charlotte H (7A), Emma N (7A), Emma E (7B) 47 points

R U OK Day 

‘There’s more to say after R U OK?’, and this was the message for R U OK? Day 2020 (Thursday, September 10th). This year there is a focus on building confidence and increasing skills for students to know how to navigate a conversation with someone in their life who might be struggling. Middle School Students sent messages using ‘Padlet’ as a platform. It was nice to see all of the Home Groups contribute. Happy reading!

Movie Screenings 

Wellbeing Wednesdays are important during Remote Learning and Ms McMahon, in support of Student Leadership and SRC has orchestrated many events to support student wellbeing. The Movie Afternoons have been hosted by a number of teachers including Mr Mello and Ms Lentini. Many a laugh was had, as the students typed away in the chat function.

Middle School Leaders / SRC 

Our Middle School Leaders have continued their positive support for their peers through communication with students and a presentation at a staff meeting. Well done to Amineh Araujo Rodrigues and William Mann from Year 9 for addressing staff in the final weeks of the term. Your words were much appreciated, you were well prepared and spoke professionally. 

‘Be The Best That You Can Be’ Awards 

Many students, parents and guardians will be aware that we celebrate success at Wheelers Hill Secondary College by awarding students through ‘green posts’ on Compass. The ‘Be The Best You Can Be’ Awards are uploaded by teachers and reward the college values. These are completed on a weekly basis and the data are also used to generate awards at the end of each Semester. Check your Compass for your awards and challenge yourself to increase these throughout Term 4.

Year 8 English | Projects & Creative Responses

The year 8 students have been working enthusiastically and diligently on a whole range of reading and writing tasks. As part of their reading and viewing folio students used their informative and persuasive skills to create their own feature articles on a topic of their choice. They also responded creatively and thoughtfully to the short story ‘The Lottery’ with some original, imaginative and creative pieces. The following excerpts and work samples reflect our year 8 students’ excellent efforts.

Thank you to May P, Chloe B, Sireen K, Jasmine H, and Lillian K for sharing their work!

Ms. Claire Hanley | English Teacher

STEM Achievements | Term 3 Remote Learning

It has been such a crazy and exciting term with our students and teachers working so hard across the whole school! Luckily the students at Wheelers Hill SC have been able to continue to engage with a variety of STEM learning opportunities even in these tough times! See below for an insight into some of the amazing work of our students!

Year 7 Marine Team Virtual Excursion

Although we enjoy STEM experiences every week at WHSC the official theme of Science Week this year was - Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans and explores marine science and innovation to achieve long-term sustainability of our oceans. Our Year 7 Science students had the opportunity to participate in a virtual presentation by the Marine Team focused on this theme. The presentation covered a range of issues that we are facing around the conservation of our Oceans but provided and engaging and funny performance to really get us thinking. Students applied their learning about one of the key topics, ocean acidification, through an at home science experiment to see the effect of acidic environments on seashells, making eggshells disappear in vinegar. Overall a rich example of STEM learning!

Mr. Paul McGlynn | Science Domain Leader 

Year 10 Food Studies

The Year 10 Food Studies students created a Health Promotion Social Media Initiative relevant to dietary-related disease using a social network platform. Well done to Macey M, Katie P, and Laura S, whose work is featured above.

Ms. Sharon Sharpe | Food Technology Teacher 

Year 7 Digital Technology

Year 7 Students have been working hard on Code.org to develop their ability to program animations, interactive art, and games in Game Lab. Well done to Madison K, whose work is featured here!

Ms. Filia Kasiotis | Digital Technology Teacher 

Year 9 Forensics

The Year 9 Forensic Science classes have continued to rise to the challenge of remote learning, completing investigations and home experiments to practice their detective skills. We have learned how to analyse facial expressions, body language, heart rate and use of language to detect lies – students then had the chance to try out their sleuthing skills on their parents!

We have also undertaken handwriting analysis – families have provided samples to students to analyse, and our students have even tried their hand at forgery! Congratulations to our budding detectives and thank you to all the families who have supported our home investigations!

Ms. Gemma McMahon | Forensic Science Teacher 

"It is quite easy to tell the difference between my mum’s handwriting and my attempt at her handwriting, as they do not look similar at all. It was quite difficult writing the letters on the same slant and connecting them like she does and also putting the right amount of pressure on the writing."  - Alexis (Year 9)

"I was able to detect lies easily because I knew the answers to the questions, so once they were answered I could detect if it was a lie or not. Aside from that, my mum’s heart rate and respiration rate increased when she lied, which supported the detection. Before answering these two specific questions too, she hesitated a little, which showed she was deciding what a suitable answer would be. When she lied her facial expressions changed from contempt to happiness and a slight look of fear at times. These two facial expressions helped me detect that she was lying because I could tell when she smiled she thought it was helping her ‘get away with it’, along with a slight look of fear the second time because she was not as confident.

"The facial expressions helped me the most as I could see her thinking thoroughly about questions she decided to lie on before answering and because of the slight look of fear and smile she showed after lying. The breathing helped the least, as it did not change much throughout the test, except increasing slightly when mum lied.  

I was accurate with my test, I think I achieved taking the heart rate and respiration rate accordingly before and after the test, which supported my detection of lies…and truths." - Nicholas (Year 9)

Material Technology Subjects

Year 9 Interior Design students designed their own apartments on Room Styler! Using the design elements and principals they ensured their apartments were designed with its potential resident in mind. Below are examples from Krystal B's house interior!

Year 8 STEM Materials students used the Design process to develop their own environmentally friendly house and prototyped this from recycled materials. The Year 9 Material studies students took on the Pringle Design Challenge! Students have the task to design a container, using CAD software, that can keep a single pringle unharmed when posted in the mail. Their designs are getting 3D printed and sent to them!

Ms. Katia Takla | Material Technology Teacher

Year 9 Food Technology

Students were given the option regarding what application they used to present their research on an assigned countries Cuisine Chloe M created a MS Sway webpage: Check it out here!

Ms. Amey Schuffelen | Food Technology Teacher 

Year 7 Science

Our Year 7 students have been busy learning about classification, dichotomous keys and food webs. They have been amazing in creating representations using a variety of digital platforms. Well done team!

Mr. Nick Molan | Science Teacher

Drones, Droids and Directing

Although in Drones, Droids and Directing we haven’t yet worked out how to fly drones virtually through Microsoft Teams the students have been very busy using the Design Thinking Process to drone-based solutions to real world problems. We can’t wait for the second we are back on site so we can put these solution prototypes to the test!

Mr. Pedro Mello | STEM Learning Specialist 

Year 9 | STEM in Sport

Year 9 STEM in Sport – Injury prevention/rehabilitation  

The Year 9 STEM in Sport class has been researching and learning about types of injuries, as well as the prevention and rehabilitation of these injuries. The class completed an investigative research task in which they created a fact sheet they could give to a patient who had suffered a sprained ankle. The students then had an online practical demonstration from a physiotherapist and learnt how to correctly strap an ankle. Students were provided insight of the career path of a physiotherapist and had time to ask any questions.

Mr. Ryan Joyce | STEM in Sport Teacher 

What can cause a sprained ankle? What are some recovery strategies, and what are preventative measures to avoid recurrence?

"An indirect injury is sustained from an internal force which are often generated by muscles, but can include forces transferred from the outside such as falling onto your arm, but injuring your shoulder.  

Some main causes of a sprained ankle could include a certain motion, fall or landing that results with a twist or roll of the ankle, along with exercising on an uneven surface and coming into contact with another person during a sports activity. There are 3 different grades when it comes to ankle sprains, grade 1 and 2 are quite similar with little to no tearing of the ligament, mild to moderate pain and tenderness, swelling and bruising. A grade 3 sprain is when there is a complete tear of the affected ligament(s) with intense pain, severe swelling and bruising.   

Depending on the grade of the injury, the time frame of recovery would be anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months to fully heal. This would only be possible if you make sure to rest enough and take proper care using the RICE (rest, ice, compression & elevate) method throughout the first couple of weeks post-injury. To prevent the occurrence of an ankle sprain it would be best to use a tape or a brace as support when continuing with physical activity. " - Kalina S

What I learnt from the physiotherapist visit?

"In Year 9 STEM in Sport this semester the class is learning about how to strap an injured ankle with sports tape. We were lucky to have a physiotherapist named Josh come on to our online class and teach us about his job and how to take proper care of a sprained joint. Josh completed VCE PE at school and then studied one year of Health Sciences at university. He then went on to study another 4 years of physiotherapy at Monash University. He now works at the Alfred hospital in the rehabilitation, respiratory and orthopaedic centre. Josh mainly deals with patients that have trauma to their joints and bones. I learnt many things from Josh, some of them including that when you’re dealing with a patient with a sprained joint you have to get the patient to explain how the injury occurred and if they either heard a pop or crack when the incident happened. This information can help the physio determine if the injury is a fracture or a torn ligament and from there decide on the type of treatment you may need and how to strengthen the joint and muscles surrounding it." - Alexis G

How can I strap an ankle using rigid strapping tape? When will I use this in the future? 

• Step 1: Start with an anchor on the upper ankle / lower calf region.
• Step 2: Start from your anchor point and go down the anklebone, then underneath the bottom of the foot, then coming back up the other side and joining back up with your anchor, should look like a U shape. Repeat once more.
• Step 3: Repeat the Same motion but on the way up crossing over the front face of the foot and joining up back to the start. Repeat once more.
• Step 4: Seal it all off with another anchor at the top of the ankle.

"I will definitely be using this in the future as I play three sports that heavily rely on the ankle joint. I have previously injured my ankle on many occasions and have had to go to the physiotherapist. This strapping method is a quick and easy way to help support your ankle." - Zach T