AROUND THE COLLEGE

Year 8

This term 8D have been cooking up a storm. They have enjoyed returning to the kitchens making dishes such as baked stuffed potatoes and apple pies.

Here are some pictures of their time cooking:

Baked stuffed potatoes by Jade Bernabe

Apple pies by Layla Burr, Tayla Perry, Delilah Howell-Sinclair

 and Alex Pearce

Ms Marriage | Year 8 LCL

Inter Boys Baseball Results

Pool Game 1 Western Heights - 0 V Oberon HS – 6

Home Runs: Nil

Pool Game 2 Western Heights - 3 V Nth Geelong SC – 3

Home Runs: Jack Willson, Esmaeil Heidari, Tom Evans

Pool Game 1 Western Heights - 8 V Belmont HS– 9

Home Runs: Jack Willson 2, Tom Evans 2, Esmaeil Heidari, Ryan Dennert, Judd Bailey, Jordi Seager

Congratulations to all team members who participated on the day. 

A wonderful team effort and all games were played in Great Spirit - we just need to practice those double plays.

Coach: Mr Beasley

WHC Lawn Bowls 2021

For many of the Western Heights College Lawn Bowls team members, 2020 is still in vivid memory as the bus was booked, bowls were polished and all were looking forward to competing in Werribee when the news that Covid 19 had stopped all school sport and the 2020 competition would not proceed. So on Thursday 11th March 2021 the Western Heights College Lawn Bowls team were fortunate to have “Wendy” from the Highton Bowls club assist the team to brush up on their bowling skills.

Then on Monday 15th March 12 students enthusiastically joined the bus to head to the Werribee Bowls Club to compete in the School Sport Victoria Western Metropolitan Lawn Bowls Triples competition. The morning sessions saw the Western Heights College students divided into four of the six different pools and playing a best of five end format. The afternoon session saw the top teams from each pool play off against each other in the quarter finals, semi-finals with the winners progressing to the final. Fortunately one of the Western Heights College Teams (3-Riza Sakhi Dad, Ali Muzafari, Ali Jamshidi) made it through to the quarter finals but were beaten by 1pt by Belmont High School.

Many thanks to all participants who conducted themselves in a respectful, humble and appropriate sporting manner despite many of the other opposing students in attendance who played regular competitive lawn bowls. All students have learnt that lawn bowls is an enjoyable skilful game that can be played by all ages.

WESTERN HEIGHTS COLLEGE TEAMS

(Team 1) Rahmat Ali Ahmed, Qudrat Ullah Rehman, Abbasi Rehman

(Team 2) Ollie Northam, Deccy Coles, Sam Hough

(Team 3) Ali Jamshidi, Ali Muzafari, Riza Sakhi Dad

(Team 4) Murtaza Sharifi, Hamid Nazari, Ali Ashgar Ali Ahmed

Emergencies: Jackson Drew, Drae Seager

POOL RESULTS

Pool Game Round One 

Western Heights (Team 1) - 1 V Geelong HS (Team 1) – 7

Western Heights (Team 2) - 7 V Geelong HS (Team 2) – 1

Western Heights (Team 3) - 4 V Maribyrnong SA (Team 3)– 4

Western Heights (Team 4) - 3 V Maribyrnong SA (Team 4)– 4

Pool Game Round Two 

Western Heights (Team 1) - 3 V Kings Park C (Team 1) – 3

Western Heights (Team 2) - 1 V Belmont HS (Team 2) – 5

Western Heights (Team 3) - 10 V Suzanne Cory C (Team 3) – 0

Western Heights (Team 4) - 6 V Suzanne Cory C (Team 4) – 6

Pool Game Round Three 

Western Heights (Team 1) - 2 V Belmont HS (Team 1) – 4

Western Heights (Team 2) - 7 V Kings Park C (Team 2) – 2

Western Heights (Team 3) - 4 V Belmont HS (Team 3) – 3

Western Heights (Team 4) - 5 V Geelong HS (Team 3) – 2

Quarter Finals

Western Heights (Team 3) - 3 V Belmont HS (Team 2) – 4

Mr Beasley | Coach 

Year 12 VCE

Last Friday, Year 12 VCE students attended a study skills seminar provided by the company Elevate. Elevate’s study skills seminars are designed to achieve behavioural change amongst students; to move from understanding what they need to do in their study to getting students to use and apply the skills they learn. The presenter Kal, was very engaging and being a university student himself, was able to really connect with our students.

Elevate also run free parent seminars for students completing VCE, covering topics such as motivation, creating a study environment at home and time management to mention just a few. Keep an eye on the WHC newsletter for these events. 

With Term 1 break coming up soon, it’s timely to have a conversation with your VCE student as to what their study plans for the holidays are. How much time will they put aside for revision? Do they need to do some reading/viewing ahead for Term 2? Do they need to do some catch up tasks? Don’t put off the conversation; good habits will serve them well for the year. 

Susan Harrington | Year 12 LCL

Year 10 Careers Ambassador Program

The Western Heights College Alumni Program’s first Careers Ambassador Program session brought in four alumni for a panel Q&A. The past students spoke about their career journeys and lessons learnt along the way, and shed light on the variety of jobs available in their respective fields and how students can get into those industries.

We look forward to welcoming the alumni back next term to work with the Year 10s in smaller groups.

Thank you to Year 10 student Katie Combridge, who wrote the reflection below and also took photos on the day:

On 16 March, past students Nicole Scott, Hugh Palmer, Deb Nash and Andrew Squire visited the school to talk to the Year 10s. Nicole Scott graduated in 2013, and now owns a business as a Youth Mental Health Worker. Hugh Palmer and Deb Nash graduated in 1974 and 1977, they own and direct Truffleduck, Geelong. Andrew Squire graduated in 1999, and is a detective at the Illicit Firearms Unit with Victoria Police.

One bit of advice that I took away from this session, what you study in school may not be what you do as a career. This encouraged me as a student and as a young person going into the world of work. There are so many opportunities in careers, so it is not bad to try different jobs and find the one that you feel comfortable as an employee in.

 Alumni Program Coordinator Jennifer Chiu | alumni@whc.vic.edu.au  

YEAR 11

To begin, I’d like to thank the year 11 students for the way they have started the year.  Their general attitude, willingness to support their friends and welcomed the seven new students has been pleasing and have made coming to work each day much easier for the year 11 staff. 

As we go into the term break, we have time to recharge our batteries and catch up on any work. Spending a little time each day on work summaries for VCE students, will begin a work habit that will be invaluable for year 12 – especially when exams come along.

Last week, we were lucky enough to have last year’s college DUX, Nathaniel Breise and year 11 DUX Tianna Prodonov speak to the VCE students on developing good habits, coping with stress in VCE and University life.   VCAL students also had alumni Jemma Goodall speak about pathways as well. We will be looking at including other sessions like this through out the year to ensure to help our students through the next few years of schooling.

Finally, HAPPY EASTER from the year 11 mentors Sarah Pitman, Amanda Dickson, Anna Hurley, Sandra Ritonja, David Foster and myself.

 Be safe and enjoy!

Brett Bullock | Year 11 LCL

YEAR 9 Learning Community

Who can believe that Term One is almost over? The Year 9 students have been working really hard to finalise any outstanding assessment tasks to ensure they achieve a best effort that represents their learning in each area of their current studies. Well done to all those students for the mature way they have approached their academic and practical studies which is important in laying down a solid foundation for the fast approaching senior years of the school. Well done to the students from Year 9 who participated in the recent inter school sports day. Also well done to the students who participated in the School Wide Positive Behaviours Forum organised by Ms O’Hare as well as the students who participated in the Achieve Fest Online Seminar which was organised by the Careers teacher Ms Loe. I suggest students attend to any laptop issues prior to the end of term in preparation for the Year 9 NAPLAN testing which will be held in Week Four next term. I wish all students and their families a very safe and happy Easter, ready and recharged for Term Two.

Mr Beasley | Year 9 LCL

Achieve Fest 2021

On 16th and 17th of March, our school was involved in the 2021 Online Achieve Fest. Fellow Year 9 students Tahlia Spitty, Lacey Hobbs, Macen Burr, Natasha Dabkowski, Chloe Baldock and I were given the opportunity to participate in the program. It went on for the first 4 sessions of the day. In Achieve Fest we got to learn new skills like: Innovation, Teamwork, Critical Thinking, Professional Ethics, Self-Management, Digital Literacy, Emotional Judgement, Communication, Global Citizenship and Problem Solving. We also did a lot of fun activities as well. Overall, it was an amazing experience and I would recommend other students to do it as well in the future.

Student: Harshit Bhatia

TERM 1 FINAL ASSEMBLY