Sustainability news, exhibition review and meet our French Language Assistant...
Sustainability News
For those of you who missed our ‘Solar Win’ front page of the Castlemaine Mail (Friday 10 August), we are thrilled to announce that CSC has won a solar system worth over $20,000. This work was led by Nioka Mellick-Cooper, with support from CSC students and parents involved in the sustainability group. We applaud this outstanding achievement as well as her enthusiasm and vision. This is a huge step forward. Well done everyone involved!
Amy Ferguson has also been busy. On behalf of the SRC, she applied for a $600 Landcare Youth grant, and was successful, meaning that on Wednesday 22nd August, she and a team of SRC students were able to begin planting a native garden near the Performers' Precinct.
Behind the scenes, the SRC have been working alongside students, parent volunteers, staff and the school council to address the issue of waste at school. This focus is part of a larger school ResourceSmart audit. As we work towards a 5-star rating, we will be investigating our current waste, energy use, biodiversity and water use, creating actions that will enable all students within the school to see positive sustainable differences over time. See future newsletters for further updates on our ResourceSmart journey.
On Tuesday 21st August, Jane Sanderson and a group of students from year 8-12 participated in a full day Energy Workshop, also run by ResourceSmart. We were all inspired to see how we could reduce our energy use and excited by the possibilities of implementing changes across the school through the sustainability group. We see the benefits as three-fold (at least) impacting: student and staff ownership of the school, our understanding of ourselves as citizens who can make a difference, as well as reducing power bills. We also learned how to use simple devices to measure electrical equipment, light and temperature. ResourceSmart kindly donated a variety of measurement tools to use when we conduct our own energy audit.
Jane Sanderson
Exhibition Review
On Friday the 24th of August our art class went down to Melbourne on an excursion to see the MoMA exhibition being put on by the NGV, as the 2018 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition. The Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, is located in New York City consists of a wide variety of artworks from the past 150 years. The NGV, in partnership with MoMA is presenting over 200 artworks stretching over the past 130 years.
The exhibition had artworks from many famous and talented artists that are household names, such as Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Seeing artworks in real life that we are constantly taught about, shown in every form and talked about was pretty surreal. The whole planning and layout of the exhibition was done in a coherent and aesthetic way that made the exhibition experience interesting and enjoyable. The experience of seeing an artwork in person was a very different experience than just seeing it on a screen, in a book or on a t-shirt. The feeling was very different and see something that was actually touched by the incredible artist themselves made the experience much more personal. There were numerous artworks that awed me and intrigued me, but with that said there were still artworks that were very underwhelming, solely because I often don’t enjoy modern artworks, and it can be confronting. Despite that I was able to appreciate the time, thought and effort put into every work.
One of my favourite artworks was Drowning Girl by Roy Lichtenstein. This artwork was painted in 1963 in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas. It is known as Roy Lichtenstein’s most famous artwork and is often described as a “masterpiece of melodrama”. Lichtenstein is known for his works that resemble comic strips. Lichtenstein was a Pop artist, and like many Pop artists he used appropriation as inspiration and as a feature of his artworks. Drowning Girl depicts a distressed and crying girl drowning in the rough sea. The image is derived from a DC Comics panel, and inspired by Hokusai’s The Great Wave. It is done in a classic comic art style, with thick black outlines, blocks of colour and small dots called Ben-Day dots..
Overall, the MoMA exhibition was very enjoyable and interesting, and I enjoyed seeing many incredible artworks. Iliah Carolan
Meet our French Language Assistant in this exclusive interview !
Who and what is a language assistant ?
The Victorian Government values Languages teaching and learning in our schools and helps by employing a number of individuals in schools who are native speakers and come from a country where that language is spoken. In our case this year we have a French Language Assistant, called Marie, who works at our school 3 days a week and in another local school one day a week. Marie comes from the south of France and has been studying psychology prior to working with us in our French classes. She organises games and activities to assist students with their French, she talks with students in groups or one on one and boosts teachers language skills by being around speaking French. Marie has been an invaluable addition to the Languages Learning Area this year.
Some students have interviewed Marie as presented below in French and English.
Linc, Phillip and Josh of Year 11 French Interview the French Assistant, Marie, about France and her time here in Australia.
- Qu’est-ce que tu aimes en Australie ? What do you like about Australia ?
« Premièrement, J’aime la multiculture présente en Australie. Il y a toutes les nationalités c’est une expérience incroyable ! J’aime également les différents paysages, la nature et les couches de soleil me fascinent »
Firstly, I like the multiculturalism here in Australia. There are all nationalities and it’s an incredible experience. I also like the different countryside, nature and the sunsets.
- Quels types d’animaux y-a-t-il en France ? What type of animals are there in France ?
« On trouve plusieurs types d’animaux en France comme : Les sangliers, les loups, les renards, les ours, les fouines les hérissons et pleins d’autres espèces. »
There are several types of animalsin France like : wild boars, wolves, foxes, bears, martens and others.
- Est-ce qu’il y a des choses qui te manquent ? Do you miss anything ?
« La première personne qui me manque le plus, c’est bien évidement ma mère. Puis ma famille, mes amis aussi et enfin le fromage mon meilleur ami ! »
The main person I miss is my mum. Then my family, my friends and my best friend, French cheese !
- Qu’est-ce que tu fais pendant ton temps libre ? What do you do in your free time ?
« Pendant mon temps libre je lis, j’écris beaucoup mes idées de projets futurs, je regarde des films, je vois mes amis à Melbourne, et enfin je voyage durant les vacances »
During my free time I read, I write a lot of plans for the future, I watch films, see my friends in Melbourne and travel on the holidays.
- Quelles sont tes intentions pour le futur ? What do you plan to do in the future ?
<< Mes intentions pour le futur sont d’enseigner la Pleine conscience à l’étranger et de réaliser mes projets >>
I intend to teach minduflness overseas and to carry out my dreams for the future.