PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

TOP DESIGNS

I am delighted to inform you that the following VCE Visual Communication Design student, Roderick Hill (Class of 2017) will have his work from 2017 exhibited in this year’s Top Designs exhibition as part of the VCE Season of Excellence 2018

Congratulations Roderick!

TOP ACTS

Eleanor (Ellie) Mulcahy (Year 12) was invited to audition for Top Class, based on her VCE Dance result, in January.

Ellie performed her VCE solo and has been chosen to participate in Top Acts on the 1 March at the Melbourne Recital Hall.

Ellie started dancing when she was 7 years old and is still dancing and teaching at Dance Desires in Carnegie.

Congratulations Ellie!

TOP CLASS

Vitor Fanstone (Class of 2017) who plays electric bass has been selected to perform in Top Class MUSIC as part of the VCAA Season of Excellence 2018.

Congratulations Vitor!

Top Class is a series of concerts that presents work by VCE students from 2017 in VCE Drama, Theatre Studies, Music Investigation, Music Performance, Music Style and Composition, VET Music, Dance and VET Dance for the benefit of current VCE students, teachers and the general public. Top Class is part of the VCE Season of Excellence 2018 which also includes Top Designs, Top Arts, Top Screen and Top Acts.

Congratulations to our all three ex-students on their wonderful achievements!

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS

Nomination Forms for the School Council are now available from the General Office.  Included in this newsletter is a link you can access which explains our School Council Elections. Nominations are being called for 3 parent representatives and 2 Department representatives. Anyone with any queries regarding School Council Elections are welcome to contact me at school.

PARENT EVENINGS

Thanks to all the parents who have attended the Information Evenings held so far this year. Again a great opportunity to share stories, meet others in the same situation and reflect on our students’ journey. The support of our parent community is always very much appreciated and the Heads of Sub-school, Students Managers and teachers enjoy the strong partnerships that are built.

INTERGENERATIONAL CONVERSATION PROGRAM

We are very pleased to continue the Intergenerational Conversation program in German this year and welcomed nine senior native German participants to the first conversation last Monday. This program is well received by all participants, students and senior participants, and we appreciate the contribution that our volunteers make to the learning of our students.

BYTES PROGRAM

The BYTES program has commenced with 9UP (Year 9 Urban Project) for 2018. This project, regularly identified by students as a highlight of their year, sees students travel into the CBD on three days to investigate a key societal issue of their choosing. Past topics have included homelessness, sexism in the workplace and racism. Students will work to collect data and interview experts in the city to create an in-depth analysis of the issue. The project concludes with a presentation of their findings on 21 and 22 March to an audience of parents, teachers and peers.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

McKinnon is a full uniform school. We consider our students ambassadors for the College and expect all McKinnon students to wear their uniform with pride. All students in Year 7 to 12 are required to wear a blazer.

For terms 1 and 4 the blazer is optional – however it is the only outer garment permitted if the students want something warmer than their dress or shirt.

Adherence to school uniform rules is about respect for this community and its traditions and culture.

Again I thank parents for their support in implementing school policy. Any one experiencing difficulties may contact the relevant student manager, Assistant Principals or myself.

LIVING WITH SMARTPHONES

From Apple investors urging the company to investigate phone addiction, to Arianna Huffington flagging the societal losses of us all being buried in our phones, we have a right to be worried.

Smartphones have managed to illuminate, invade and transform almost every part of how we work and live our lives. On average, adults peek at their smartphones 150 times a day, the numbers being significantly larger in youths. Smartphones can act a little like a portable slot machine; feed it some of your time and in return you can skip the boring train ride, avoid that awkward silence, discover a great new cafe or get ahead on your emails. Like the slot machine apps are monopolising your time.

IT’S NOT THE SMARTPHONE. IT’S THE APPS

Smartphones themselves are just tremendously good at delivering software into our lives. We need to examine the apps if we want to understand the problem. App engineers have only two ways to get you using their app: they can steal time from other apps or they can steal time from your life; the precious time you spend looking at your friends and family in the eye, perfecting a skill, relaxing or studying. This is the time at risk.

We all wrestle with the persuasiveness of apps and this makes sense because behind each “app” are hundreds of engineers tracking millions of data points to improve how addictive and persuasive apps are to us.

These highly engineered experiences are hard to escape, like when the next video starts to autoplay, when we check the time and end up replying to an email or when we feel obligated to keep playing that game or keep that long-running “snap streak” alive.

Ultimately, we need to reflect on why we have a smartphone. Focus on whether or not we’re making an intentional choice to do this. And, has your enjoyment of the pastime been changed by your dependence on it?

Think about it. Every time you answer a notification you’re doing a little bit of work. Make sure the work you’re doing benefits you and not an app. Click on the link for a video presentation by Blake Seufert.