Success in the arts

Lunchtime Singing Recital

In the final days of term 1 we had the opportunity to hear what our school choir and singing students have been working on.

Wedding Singer Cast Announcement

A very excited, relieved and slightly nervous cast receive the casting news in the last week of term one.

Rehearsals begin in earnest this term, before the season in term three.

Congratulations!

Darren Lowe, Kirsten Boerema

Winning Grant

Thank You Bendigo Bank

Recently an application to the 2019 Maldon & District Community Bank Grant Program was made on behalf of the Castlemaine Secondary College Council Music Group / Library.

The Maldon & District Community Bank  advised that a grant of $4,400.00  had been approved for the CSC-Music Group 'Going Wireless with Headsets' project.  There was overwhelming demand for funding for this grants program - over $750,000 was requested.

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*Just a quick update.  Stewart Hassell, Matilda and Fiona attended the award night  and networked with many community members. Among those was Ross Egleton (Chairman of the board). Ross  highlighted that one of the key features of this grant application which ensured it's success was it's inclusiveness of benefiting not just Castlemaine but the region.  

Stewart was fantastic at explaining the significance of CSC gaining the wireless headsets and associated equipment but especially the technical aspects of the project and convincing all listeners that the grant had been given to the right group (and school) for the right reasons. 

Castlemaine Secondary acknowledges a community partner in Bendigo Bank. Supporting local business is a  local community bank to keep money and investment in the local community.   

The college would like to recognise Fiona and Matilda Craigen for the hours of work in the submission of  the grant application and for the assistance of staff member Stewart Hassell with his technical knowledge.

Matilda's 3 minute speech

Good evening.  My name is Matilda Craigen.  I am a Year 7 student at Castlemaine Secondary College and am lucky enough to have been elected as one of the four Year 7 school representative council members.

As a bit of background information (to highlight the importance of the grant we received) CSC is the government funded school which exists to serve children from all socio economic groups in the Mount Alexander Shire.  It is the main secondary school in the area taking 80% of year 7 students from the regions feeder schools.  CSC is known for having a strong music program.  All year 7 and 8 students take compulsory music classes.  A further 45% of year sevens do further music enrichment classes.  CSC also caters to train and educate many VET (Vocational Education and Training) students in the technical aspects of sound and lighting as a profession.  Whilst as students get older other subjects often take precedence, there continues to be a vast array of musical opportunities for all students, as participants and observers which enriches the community at large.

I am one of the lucky music enrichment students.  My mum Fiona, like many other parents wanted to support CSC when I began year 7 this year.  She joined the CSC Music Support Group which is a non political group of parents, carers and interested parties that exists to assist and support the music department in whatever way it can.  Usually this is in the form of fund raising, providing labour and grant writing.

This year the music department identified that they would benefit most from the purchase of wireless headsets.  Every year the music department’s biggest expense is hiring wireless headsets and associated technical equipment at a cost of approximately $3500 dollars. This is baseline technical equipment necessary for putting on any medium to large musical production but can be utilised in many other settings such as meetings, conferences and public events both at CSC and in the community.  On this last point it is envisaged that this is a resource that may be accessed by Not for Profit groups also burdened by small budget and little to no funding streams.

 The purpose of this dry background information is also to highlight that 100’s of secondary students,  both this year and into the future, their families, carers, supporters of the school and the community at large will benefit from this equipment.

 The CSC Music Support Group asked for ten thousand dollars for our ‘Going Wireless with Headsets’ grant application.  We got an amazing four thousand four hundred dollars.  The school, the music department, the music support group and CSC students are very thankful for this very generous grant from The Maldon and District Community Bank which will allow the department to inject $3500 into this year’s school annual musical ‘The Wedding Singer’ to which you are all invited because it is going to be that much better!  Thank you again to the bank for this grant and supporting your local state high school.

 Thank you.