High Resolves

High Resolves was a fun, educational program where all Year 8 students learnt about how to be global citizens.

We played some games where we learnt about how quickly we judge people according to their appearances and how they act, and others about learning about discrimination.

At the start we were put into groups with a mix of boys and girls from other classes who we didn’t really know very well. We watched a few videos and some were pretty powerful, about bullying and discrimination. We also had to do teamwork activities teaching us about how we are all human no matter our race, sexuality, gender and how much money we had. As a group we also made a t-shirt design with an anti-discrimination quote on it.

I learned a lot from High Resolves and now understand more about being a global citizen.

Sarah Fujii, Year 8

My Work Experience with the Defence Force

My work experience, Defence Force placement, has strengthened my passion to join the Defence Force, in particular, the Air Force. I am so happy to have been a part of a placement that endorses the idea of encouraging women to recruit in non-traditional roles.

While at the base I had the opportunity to take part in a number of activities, including: Weapons simulation, aircraft simulators, meeting the Air Force puppies and military working dogs, interacting with the pilots of the F/A 18F Super Hornet, a flight in the C17 Globe Master, an insight into military Physical training and high ropes water obstacle course, gaining knowledge about the Fire Fighting Section in the Air Force and also learning about the roles of a JBAC (Joint Battlefield Airspace Controller – Air Traffic Controller).

I would like to thank Mrs Snooks, Work Experience Coordinator, for taking on a very difficult challenge and being very brave for allowing a new kind of work experience which involved placing a student interstate.

May I also say what an amazing Principal we have for backing me up 100 percent, supporting my passion towards this interstate placement.

Thank you,

Jessie Lal, Year 10

VicSRC Conference 2015

On Wednesday, 22 April, Tyler Goodridge, Eily Walker, Jade Roberts and I attended the VicSRC Conference for 2015 which was held at Haileybury in Keysborough. Two other Frankston High School students, Sam Ilobuchi and Danai Harawa, helped run the day as they are part of the VicSRC Executive.

At the beginning of the day, we were put into separate groups which were determined by the colour on the survey question sheets which roughly made ten groups in total. Many schools participated in the conference this year, so it was a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and create new friendships. As the day progressed, we were asked to take part in different games and activities such as ‘labels’ where we were given a little slip that said who we had to act like. The card could have said, “A shy person with not many friends”. We were then asked a series of questions like “Would you be considered as a popular in your situation?” and we had to take one step forward if we agreed with the statement or backwards if we didn’t.

Towards the end of the day, we were put back into our school groups and asked to pick three cards that we thought needed to be addressed at our own school. From there, we then had to narrow it down to two, then one and then from there, come up with a few strategies on how to positively build on the chosen problem for Frankston High School. From this, we chose to work on ‘School Clusters’. This is where Frankston High school students will be able to work with other local schools around the area. We think that we should start addressing this due to believing that it we would be able to create more friendships and having an opportunity to collect more information about a wider range of issues we will be looking at.

Overall, the conference was a great chance to broaden our knowledge and start thinking about how we are able to change our future and to help and benefit others along the way.

Eilis Peters, Year 9

Sports Leadership Team

Hi, I am a year 7 student named Elly Howell and I am writing on behalf of the Sport Leadership team at Frankston High School.

Last week, the Sport Leadership team had a special opportunity to work, interact and play sport with the amazing children at The Nepean School in Frankston, a school for children with a physical disability and/or a complex health impairment. The aim of the day was to give these wonderful students a day to remember… a fun day, jam packed full of sport out in the playground. I believe that the aim of the day was definitely a success. It was a great and memorable afternoon, not only for the children at the Nepean School, but for us too. I loved every second of this amazing experience, especially seeing the smiles on all of the student faces, knowing we were the reason behind them.

When we first arrived, we learnt that The Nepean School was separated into a primary campus and a high school campus and therefore, the Sport Leadership team were divided between these two levels of schooling. I was placed with the primary aged children. During our time there, we had an opportunity to get to know some of the students through playing games with them that we had planned and prepared for earlier at school. The primary students were very excited to play basketball and the high school students had the opportunity to play basketball and football.

Without a doubt all of the primary aged students let nothing stop them from having an exceptional amount of fun while participating with an optimistic and enthusiastic attitude towards the game, as they dribbled the basketballs up and down the courts and shot for goals! As I mentioned earlier, their smiles said it all. They were infectious. I couldn’t help but feel happy and proudly smile too.

From this experience of spending time with such an inspiring group of people, despite any disabilities and impairments they may have, all of the students were positive, happy to be themselves and didn’t consider themselves to be any different from you and me or care if they were good or bad at what they were doing and just had fun. This is something I, and probably most people, could really do with applying to themselves. Stop worrying what others think of you and just enjoy life and take and make the most of the opportunities we are given along the way.

I can’t wait to hopefully go back one day and visit the students at The Nepean School with the Sports Leadership team.

Elly Howell, Sport Leader

World Challenge Sausage Sizzle

World Challenge Group 1 Raises $1,450 for India!

On Saturday 9 and 16 May, Group 1 from World Challenge held sausage sizzles at Seaford Woolworths to raise money towards helping out orphanages and small communities within Northern India. These days were well organized and planned by team members, Tim and Hannah. We worked in two and a half hour rotations in small groups and shared the load.

Throughout the day people were happy to make small donations and were intrigued to know more about what we are doing and where we are going in November; one lady even donated a total of $60!!! Between the two weekends, we met as a group to debrief about the first sizzle, making multiple improvements for the second weekend. We journeyed back to Woolworths in Seaford in hope of raising another $700.

It was a long but successful two weekends, and we managed to raise a total of over $1,450!! We were ecstatic and are already planning two more sausage sizzles for later on in the year. We are also working out how we will spend this money to help those in need in India.

None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Seaford Woolworths willingness and generosity, our parents who came down to help us, Maggie for donating the sausages and of course, Miss Costanzo and Mr Burt for guiding us. Thank you and well done to all those involved!

Emily Blaak and Aiden Smith

National Stage Band Championships

The Frankston High School Senior and Intermediate Stage Bands travelled to the National Stage Band Championships held in Mt Gambier from 1 - 3 May 2015. This is our 18th time attending this event which has now grown to one of the biggest, most successful and positive learning experiences our students could experience. With a record number of schools, bands, and 3,700 students, the event is a truly captivating and thrilling experience.

Both our bands competed with distinction. Our Senior Band were placed 8th, with Jordan Dearsley being awarded best guitarist in his division. Well done also to Brooke Massee - trumpet solo, Taylor Hay - saxophone solo, Beran Nikolic-Paterson trumpet solo.

Our Intermediate Stage Band placed 7th, with Shane Coulter being awarded best guitarist in his division. Well done to Emma Pacholi - saxophone solo, Devan Phillipson - piano solo, Zac Smith - saxophone solo and Joseph Rolleston - drum kit solo.

Well done to Cyrus Nikolic-Paterson for receiving from James Morrison the Blanchard Encouragement Award for developing young musician ($5,000).

A very successful experience for our Frankston High school musicians, who look forward to performing a concert with James Morrison later in the year.

A big thank you to Kim Starr, Bob Wijnchenk and Sally Bredin for their support and attendance on this amazing interstate trip.

Mr Leon De Bruin

City Life Cafe

City Life Article – LEAD Class Group 1

On Wednesday, 6 May, 11 of the Semester 1 LEAD students spent the day at City Life café in Frankston where we had the opportunity to help people less fortunate in the community. Before the day we decided to give a donation to the worthy cause by holding a bake sale. The fundraiser was a huge success as we raised a total of $216. When we arrived at the café we didn’t quite know what to expect so we sat down and talked about what City Life actually does before we interacted with the clients and started cooking in the kitchen. As the day went on, we not only got the opportunity to help with unpacking and organising the food, but we had the chance to prepare the pizza and the apple crumble for that night’s meal. Overall it was an eye opening experience and was a great way to get involved in the community. We would all like to thank Mrs. Bahramis for organising this amazing opportunity.

Maya Daniels and Georgia McCrae

City Life Article – LEAD Class Group 2

On Wednesday the 20th of May, our lead class group attended City Life to assist with their organisation and to socialise with their clients. To raise the money to attend City Life beforehand, we held a bake sale which was very successful; raising $304.

On the day of the excursion, we were greeted by the friendly staff and volunteers who work at City Life. Before we started, we learnt about poverty and homelessness, such as learning the difference between generational poverty and situational poverty. After we were informed about some safety and hygiene measures some of the group prepared the food while some socialised with the clients inside the café. Many people in the café were very easy to talk to, which was not what our group members had quite expected, and they loved playing games such as Uno with the LEAD class members. After lunch, our group visited an op shop, which is run by City Life, because the money the op shop makes goes to City Life’s charity of providing help for the people in need. Then all of the group helped to pack food which would be sent out to people in poverty or in need.

At the end of the day, it felt great to have made people who are less fortunate feel loved, happy and considered. Not only was it a good thing for the people at City Life, volunteering gave us the warm and fuzzy feeling of helping others out.

For more information about City Life please visit http://www.citylife.net.au/

Jackson McCarthy – Year 9 LEAD student

Gene Technology Access Centre

On Tuesday, 19 May, 15 Middle School students were selected to represent Frankston High School at the GTAC (Gene Technology Access Centre) building in the city.

The day began at 9:30am with an introduction to the program presented by Dr Rudolf de Boer about biosecurity.

Throughout the day, students participated in multiple activities where they identified mosquitoes, used modelling programs to predict the spread of mosquitoes under different conditions and used DNA sequences to identify what diseases they may have been carrying (turned out to be Ross River Virus). We then separated curds from whey to find out which cow had more protein in their milk to determine which should be selected in a breeding program.

After lunch we extracted DNA using electrophoresis from infected, and uninfected leaves to find out what virus was affecting the plants and advise on a strategy that the farmer could use.

The day was fun and educational from learning to use micropipettes, to separating whey protein, to being inspired by young scientists studying at Melbourne University who were our laboratory tutors.

Chaplaincy Dinner Celebrates Our Soweto Scholarship Program

It was a truly inspiring evening at Frankston High School's chaplaincy dinner recently. Chaplain Linda Hughes showcased the support work and community outreach undertaken by her department before Principal, Mr John Albiston, commended her for her dedication and vital work in student well-being.

John went on to introduce the evening's speakers on a subject he, and his team, clearly hold dear. This year's focus traced the origins and success of the school's Soweto scholarship program. This program has been in existence since 1999 and allows a girl from our sister school (Letsibogo High School in Soweto, South Africa) spend a year at Frankston High School.

Former principal, Mr Ken Rowe, spoke about his introduction of the scholarship scheme during his tenure, to worthy acclaim. He was followed by Assistant Principal, Ms Cathy Hogg, and former PFA President, Mrs Trudy Poole, both champions of the project, who have provided bed and board for most of the scholarship recipients at some point while they have been in Australia.

Hearing how all the girls have gone on to higher education and illustrious careers was testament to the success of the initiative and the impact their year at Frankston High School has had on their lives.

To round off the speakers, the current scholarship recipient, Jessica Rivombo, gave a moving speech 'from the heart' - without notes - which highlighted the profound effect the ‘Changing Lives - One Girl at a Time’ scheme has had on herself and her predecessors. Her impassioned account, obvious gratitude and personal radiance captivated the audience and rounded off a wonderful evening of food, fellowship and fundraising at Peninsula Golf Club.

Mrs Helen Beeby , (Parent)

Anzac Day Photos

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