Clyde North Campus News

The Landscape of Learning

This edition of the newsletter is a blend of the campus activities during face to face teaching of VCE students and the return to remote learning. Whilst the landscape of learning has changed yet again, what remains as a most comforting constant is the passion, initiative and good old-fashioned humour of our staff and students. It is easy to find the negatives of the events over the last few weeks, but in actual fact, it is so much easier to find the positives. 

Stars, Stars and where is the red carpet……..Kolbe House?

Year 12 Kolbe students have decided not to wait for the Hollywood directors to call, they are their own stars who are featuring in lead roles not only in Kolbe House but in all aspects of the College including remote learning. 

As we prepare to return to remote learning, this brief period of face-to-face learning has provided the year 12s of Kolbe an opportunity to build their legacy. Whilst this year will be remembered by everyone, our legacy will also take on a perpetual light, as future Kolbe students are greeted everyday by the house banner for 2020, in addition to the ‘Kolbe seniors wall.’ Inherently, we can be reassured that we’ve left our mark, despite the uncertainties of this year. (Will Kolbe House Captain)

Hand Sanitisers – do they work? From our Environment Captain, Aaron.

The week before we had to return to remote schooling, our Biology class tested the effectiveness of hand sanitisers against bacteria. This was done by spreading Staph epidermis bacteria on an agar plate and placing a small paper disk with hand sanitiser to determine if it would inhibit the bacteria growth; other disks were also used to compare the results. 

• Quadrant A is a blank disk,
• Quadrant B is a disk coated with garlic juice
• Quadrant C is hand sanitiser
• Quadrant D is Penicillin.

The yellow substance is the bacteria. The effectiveness of the garlic juice or penicillin or hand sanitiser is evident if the white dot is not surrounded by the bacteria and left for a few days to see if the bacteria grew. It was expected that penicillin would work and it did. But we can definitely see that hand sanitiser (Quadrant C) does inhibit bacteria growth, so make sure to use hand sanitisers as it’s much better than not using them completely!

Pastoral period – Finding the diamonds in COVID-19

This week our Pastoral Period focused on taking some time to reflect on our shared experience of the COVID 19 Pandemic, the Lockdowns and Remote Learning. This experience is tough, trying, challenging, scary and confronting but amidst the ‘dumpster’ containing the not so good aspects of this experience, positives can be found. These are, the insights we are hoping to uncover and discover the Diamonds within the ‘COVID dumpster. 

Focusing on the diamonds, enables us to embrace the important things we are learning about ourselves, our family and friends and the world during the COVID pandemic experience. The pastoral session led by Learning advisors guided students in discussions around what have we learnt about managing change, self and social isolation, and self and family. Critical to this session was to ensure students felt empowered by the human spirit and their faith that everything will be ok, we will get through this as long as we communicate with each other and not be afraid to lean on one another for help and support. My thanks are extended to Mrs Clare Ziino for developing this wonderful program and to the House Leaders and Learning Advisors who led the session with great care and sensitivity for their students. Today we indeed found many diamonds. Please ask your son/daughter about the session and see how many diamonds you can find with them in your own experience.

I include this diagram of the process of transition as a relevant discussion point for families coping with the present COVID 19 environment. 

More Stars and Diamonds

This week a new student wellbeing page on SPACE was launched. Our wonderfully creative, clever and passionate students and staff rose to the challenge to design a platform that informs, activates physical and mental challenges and encourages collaboration, team building and fun. They succeeded. We wanted to be very direct and clear with our students that we want them to stay engaged, connected and continue to build healthy and positive relationships with their peers.  A huge thank you to Mr Brannan, Ms Stewart and our College Captains who were instrumental in developing this project. Parents and guardians, please visit the page on SPACE and join in the fun.

I wish you all a safe and productive week.

Julie Banda

Deputy Principal - Head of Clyde North Campus