Around the College
Year 9 City Investigation Project
After a day of extensive preparation at Nazareth, the Year 9s have spent two full days in the city of Melbourne. The first day was spent completing an orientation activity designed to familiarise themselves with all areas of the Melbourne CBD as well as to become more accustomed to navigating the city by foot and by public transport. On Thursday 24 October the students were given the responsibility of getting themselves into the city. In their groups they then headed off to various locations to complete the research necessary for their investigation projects. A nasty and windy 34°C made life a little unpleasant but everyone battled through bravely.
A kind member of the public was generous enough to contact the school about a positive experience she had with some of our students. Please see below:
To whom it may concern, l just want to let you know that three of your students travelling on the Cranbourne line train offered their seats to both me and my partner. I think they are a credit to their school uniform and must be upholding the values of the school, and no doubt their parents; too. Unfortunately l didn't ask them their names or what year they were in but l would guess year 11 or 12. We boarded the train at Parliament which was meant to arrive at 14:49 but was late. I guess there is no way of finding out who they were but again l just want to thank you for being what l can only assume is a great school instilling great values in your students.
Kind regards,
Paula
Their final day in the city will be on Thursday 31 October.
Mr Chris Seel
Year 9 City Investigation Project Coordinator
Year 9 RE CSYMA/Youth Ministry Liturgies
Monday 21 October saw the culmination of a term's work when the Year 9 RE classes conducted reflection liturgies for the Year 7s. Year 9 students were given a 75 minute period to present their liturgies using the CSYMA structure and a chosen theme. This involved icebreaker games and activities to get to know each other, a sharing of a scriptural theme with explanations and metaphors and finally an activity where the Year 7s were invited to respond to the theme and put it into practice in their lives.
It is always interesting and rewarding to see the fun ways students work with other students. This is one of the great benefits of Youth Ministry offerings at Nazareth College; many of Year 9s surprised themselves with how much they enjoyed the event. Furthermore, the skills learnt over the last term will enable the current Year 9s to undertake Youth Ministry in the coming years as their RE elective. The subject stream culminates in Youth Academy in Years 11 and 12, with success being rewarded with a certificate from Australian Catholic University and an extra 5 ATAR points for any ACU undergraduate course in the future.
God bless.
Mr Peter Nathan
Learning Area Leader - Religion
LitSTEM Expo
On Thursday 24 October, Nazareth College hosted the inaugural LitSTEM Expo. The Expo showcased some of the STEM work that has been done at the schools involved in the LitSTEM Collective. The LitSTEM Collective consists of Nazareth College, St Elizabeth’s Primary School, St Gerard’s Primary School, Resurrection Primary School, St Justin’s Primary School, St Simon’s Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School and St Mark’s Primary School. This partnership, sponsored by Catholic Education Melbourne, allows students to engage in 21st Century learning out of the regular classroom environment and interact in a hands-on manner with people they would not usually work with, be it their peer groups or the Primary School students. The teachers involved with the LitSTEM partnership also exchange knowledge and ideas with each other and participate in shared Professional Learning Days.
The LitSTEM Collective aims to focus on STEM learning and expressing that learning through Literacy. The Expo showcased this learning and emphasised how exciting and engaging such learning can be for students of all ages. The collaborations between the Primary school and Secondary school students have also enriched the learning that has occurred. Not only did the students learn from each other, the staff learned from the whole experience as well!
The Expo was a great success. The venue was buzzing with excitement. Students created displays and answered questions about their projects. There was a wide variety of presentations, including aquaponics, circular fashion, sustainable gardens, resources, bee hotels, chicken coops, conservation, apps and aeroplane design. Congratulations to the students awarded prizes by the judges. First prize went to St Elizabeth’s for their sustainable garden project, second prize went to St Joseph’s project on solving the energy crisis and third prize went to St Mark’s for their project on stopping plastic pollution.
A big thank you to all the students and staff who made the day happen. A special thank you to Mrs Barbara Murphy who in addition to working with Nazareth and St Joseph’s students on stimulating projects, made sure that there was plenty of food to be nibbled on at the event.
We look forward to the next Expo in 2020!
Ms Claire Nailon
Learning Area Leader - English and Literacy
Author visit – Laurel English Writing Workshops
Year 8 students of Laurel English were given the great opportunity to meet Mark Smith, an Australian author. He ran a detailed workshop for the class in which he enthusiastically demonstrated how to develop a great character and their backstory, through the implementation of different scenarios and using their reactions to portray the nature of our character. He began by exhibiting the faces of several people without context and got us to decide which of the avatars we were to write about. There was a wide variety, and I chose a picture of a girl who seemed sad. Mark ordered us to write up a simple backstory for them in five sentences and then expand on that by putting our character in the scenario known as 'The Café Test'. In five sentences also, we were to describe our character’s experience in a café, emphasising the small details such as where they sat, their expressions, their emotions, etc. Furthermore, we had to describe the café itself, this time though, we only had three sentences to spare. By this stage, we had some sort of a profile for our character, and we needed an ‘inciting incident’ to help start off the problem for our story. He gave us two sentences to write this up. To finish everything up, we had to somehow reduce the 15 sentences we wrote in total, into a paragraph of only eight sentences.
This experience was one I’ll never forget, and I can’t thank Mark Smith enough for opening my eyes to a whole new way of putting characters from my imagination onto paper. His specific explanations and eager attitude made his workshop something very special. He’s a very fun person to be around and I hope I get to meet him again some day
Michael Nicolaou
8 Laurel English
The Year 8 students of Laurel English were given the honour and privilege to meet an inspiring, funny and brilliant author by the name of Mark Smith, who was hosting a writing workshop. He began the symposium by describing how every book, movie and adaptation always followed the same formula: beginning, inciting incident, rising action, climax, solution, ending. After explaining this formula, he revealed a picture containing photos of people that were old, young, tall, small or of a different race. He explained to us that we were to write a backstory on one of the people that were shown on the screen in two minutes. The person I chose was an old lady, because I thought I could make a fascinating story with her, there were a limitless amount of storylines that I could choose from for this woman, and instead of going for my favourite type of genre, dystopian, I chose to go with the horror genre of writing.
After a hasty two minutes of us frantically writing up our backstory, Mark asked us to use our character and put him/her in a cafe and describe how our character would act, such as where they sat, how they ordered their food from the waitress, how they passed the time while their food was being delivered based on their backstory. After this, we were told to describe the cafe itself, for instance, its atmosphere and what the people around our character did. Then, Mark gave us around five minutes to write out our inciting incident, and while my Old Lady was going crazy, muttering to herself, she was oblivious to the muttering directed at herself from her neighbours sitting at their coffee tables, staring and pointing at her.
After our inciting incident, we were to write our killer line in two sentences and 2 minutes. When the time was up, Mark Smith went around the room and we all read out our killer lines. When everyone had voted who had the best killer line, Mark told me that I had won and handed me his signed book. This workshop was an amazing learning experience; it was interesting and informative to hear from an actual author and my peers’ brilliant questions about creative writing. I thank Mark Smith for this opportunity and his brilliant works.
Adrian Tyrone
8 Laurel English
SIS Book in a Day
On Thursday 17 October the Nazareth SIS Book in a Day team attended a presentation afternoon at St John’s College, Dandenong. This was to congratulate each school team that competed in the 2019 competition with many awards. This year Nazareth received an award for the ‘Most Intriguing Blurb,’ backing up last year’s win in this section. We were also nominated for ‘Best use of Illustrations’ and ‘Most Moving Passage of Text.’ We are very proud as all the hard work we put into the competition paid off. Writing an illustrated novella in a day with a team of like-minded peers is an amazing experience; students from many Victorian schools came together and shared their passion for writing in an imaginative and competitive event. Seeing everyone’s work displayed on the big screen, hearing amazing passages of text read aloud and taking in the incredible illustrations projected in full colour was a wonderful way for all of us to celebrate our individual talents and teamwork.
Gabriella Brusco and Alessia Alifano
Year 8
Stringybark Festival
The Stringybark Festival was an enjoyable experience. Individuals varying in age came together to express their passion for the environment. Nazareth College’s Environmental Club had a stall promoting the use of reusable and eco-friendly products. Bags and baskets made from single-use plastic, containers made from banana leaves, wooden cutlery and bamboo toothbrushes were some of the many items on display. Our goal was to provide ideas for sustainable living, but we had many families wanting to learn more about our College as well! There was a memorable moment where an elderly lady, passionate about the welfare of the Earth, provided some insight into her motivation. She confidently stated that 'although my actions won’t affect my life, I’m hoping it can have a positive impact on yours'. This was truly inspiring. The overall experience was amazing, and to be able to witness the dedication of everyone attending the event was particularly moving.
Gabriella Brusco and Alessia Alifano
Year 8
Sunday 20th of October was the day of the Stringybark Festival, an event dedicated to sustainability and the environment. I was one of the few lucky students who were given the opportunity to work at our school’s own stall, portraying how we can recycle and reuse household items to give them a new life, rather than throwing them away and contributing to the growing problem that is landfill. We displayed a variety of things, from functional baskets and bags made from plastic bags to using leftover toilet rolls as a biodegradable pot to plant things in. There were heaps of meetings and preparation involved and it all came together to form a great day full of laughs and love for the environment.
Michael Nicolaou
Year 8
Once again the Nazareth team hit the road for the Stringybark Festival in Rowville, where sustainability was the theme of the day.
It was fabulous to work with some of our students and learn so much about what we can do to help the environment. They were great ambassadors for our College.
We sincerely thank Emma, Michael, Alessia, and Gabriella for spending the day with us to showcase our College, and to the staff who assisted both behind the scenes or on the day.
Our next stop is St Justin's Fair on the Hill on Saturday 9 November. Hope to see you there.
Mrs Helene Diamantopoulos
Development Officer
Italian Poetry
Alessandra Pop in Year 8 was awarded 2nd place in the Year 8 Italian Section of the Swinburne Junior Italian Poetry Competition. We congratulate her for this great achievement.
Here is Alessandra's reflection:
We all studied very hard for the poetry competition and I was fortunate enough to win second place, we were all very nervous before saying our poems but it was a big relief when we finally did. I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity to participate.
Ms Jo Lenihan
Learning Area Leader - Languages
Schoolpix photo order
Students who took part in SIS Sporting teams, Performing Arts Ensembles and Activities, International students and students in other extra-curricular groups were photographed on the last day of Term 3. These photos are now ready for ordering. Students received a blue personalised card for online ordering, however, the codes on the green order form attached can be used by anyone who has misplaced their own blue card. All orders submitted by November 3 will be delivered to the school free of charge. After November 3, a $7.95 delivery fee will apply. Please contact Ms Mish Mackay at mackm@nazareth.vic.edu.au if you have any queries.
Resource Centre News
It has been wonderful to oversee the changes that have been implemented in the Resource Centre over the past two terms. Our maintenance team, carpet layers, painters and electricians have all worked hard to bring our dream to fruition. Phase two of the refurbishment was brought about last Thursday with the arrival of new couches and ottomans for the Reading Lounge and a new booth to complete the set in the rear of the Resource Centre. The new year will bring with it new tabletops, a refurbished second lounge area in Study Area 2 and beautiful new seating for the whole of the space.
As the year winds up, students in Years 7 to 9 are reminded that they have the opportunity to earn House points through their wide reading. At this stage at least 12 students have read over 1 million words each, with several students surpassing 3 million words! Points are awarded to students who register the word count of each novel and a short review to the Nazareth My Reading webpage. It will be an exciting finish to the year as Houses vie to win the House Reading Cup, last year won by Mannix House!
Ms Lisa Douglass and Ms Mish Mackay
Resource Centre Co-managers