Other School News
2020 School Captains
Over the past few months, we undertook a selection process to appoint the 2020 Senior Student Leaders. Year 11 students were invited to submit a written application, outlining their reasons for wanting to be a school captain, and seeking support from their peers and teachers. Applicants were required to give a speech to staff and the Year 11 cohort. Finally, the thirteen candidates presented to an interview panel, consisting of Ms Simadri (Principal Team), Mr Bandara (Year 12 coordinator for 2020), Sally Maele and Angie Koeng (2019 School Captains), and I.
All candidates presented strongly, making it a very difficult decision for the panel. It was clear that the class of 2020 has already developed a strong culture of support and respect for each other, the school, and the wider community.
I am thrilled to announce the Student Leadership for 2020:
Arnetta Wijaya -School Captain
Baran Uysal - School Captain
Yvonne Hoang - Vice Captain
Chris Ly - Vice Captain
Talia Shipp - VCAL Captain
Nabil Muhammad Juman -
Sport and Wellbeing Captain
Brenda Heng - Creative Arts Captain
Chau Chen - International Captain
Please feel free to congratulate these students, and I am sure they can look to everyone’s full support through what shapes to being a very exciting 2020.
Mr Rodger Clark
Student Activities Leader
Therapy Dog
Hello everyone, my name is Percy and I am a Golden Retriever. I am 2.5 years old and my favourite activities are swimming and playing soccer. I will be your Therapy Dog at Westall Secondary College and I will be attending school on Tuesdays and Fridays. You will mostly find me in the Wellbeing Centre, working hard looking after young people like you. The things I don’t like are kicking, hitting, things thrown at me and very loud noises. So when you come to see me, please be gentle.
I am looking forward to meeting you all.
Percy
Westall SC Sports Roundup
ATHLETICS
On September 4th, over 30 students represented Westall Secondary College at the Kingston Athletics Carnival. All students represented Westall with amazing team spirit, posting many impressive results across the board. Most notably, Nane Moeroa, Jamel Mani, Kameti Jarso and Rachel Carnahan, all won their throwing events, qualifying them for the Regional Carnival on October 10th. Once again, these students performed admirably at Regionals, with Jamel taking home third for Javelin, Nane, second for discus and Kameti throwing 26m to win her Javelin event!
Kameti was then invited to the state carnival, which saw the best athletes in the state gather on October 18th. Kameti travelled to Lakeside stadium in St Kilda, both nervous and excited for the opportunity to compete on this stage. Kameti threw extremely well finishing 6th place overall. Well done Kameti, we’re all very proud of your efforts!
YEAR 7 AND 8 SWIMMING PROGRAM
Beginning in Week 2, all year 7 and 8 students have been engaging with a weekly swimming program at Noble Park Aquatic Centre. They have been travelling to and from the venue using public transport, accompanied by their teachers. Once there, students are split up into a range of ability groupings and learning vital life skills necessary for safety around water. These sessions have been enjoyable and it’s great to see the students' ability improving week by week.
VOLLEYBALL
Currently we have a number of teams eagerly training and preparing for various volleyball championships coming up later this term. Our Year 7 girls are in the last stages of preparation for their State Championships being held at Dandenong Basketball Stadium on November 15th. It was back in May that these girls won their Regional Final and now they are eagerly training and playing multiple practice matches as they finalise preparations for the State finals.
Westall has also entered 3 senior volleyball teams for the Victorian Junior Open to be held in early December. These teams are also busy training after school to ensure they are ready to take on the biggest and best volleyball teams in the state. Good luck to all teams!
Mr Hugh Robertson
Sports Coordinator
Bandfest
On the 30th of October, four students represented Westall in the SEVR Bandfest, held at Glen Eira Secondary College. The Bandfest is an event that takes place every year and brings students together from numerous schools. It gives us all an opportunity to take part in a junior band which consists of many instruments such as trumpets, trombones, alto saxophones, clarinets, flutes, bass clarinet, bass guitar, percussion, etc. Farhan Isa, Xiao Shao, Sunny Zhang and I were accompanied by Ms. McAlister.
When we arrived at Glen Eira SC, we were introduced to the people who were running the event as well as the other students. We then had to prepare our instruments and our music sheets and head into the theatre, which had many chairs and music stands for the 100+ students. Once we were situated in our seats, we were introduced to the conductor for the day.
Next, we started to play our first prepared piece, the Triumphant procession. We then had a break, which meant interacting with the other students. Afterwards, we continued on with our second piece, Can Can, followed by, yet another break. The next activity included the students using chopsticks as a form of percussion for the first of five movements of the Belah the Warrior Sun Woman, which was really fun. The last piece we did was the third movement, Kundu the Lizard Man which consisted of four groups, chanting, body percussion, boomwhackers as well as instruments. We had the chance to practice in our groups for 15 minutes before we all met up to perform the piece. At the end of the day, we went through all the pieces of music to record them and in the hopes of obtaining our own copy of the music.
This day was very educational as well as entertaining. It was great to see many other students just like us performing collectively as a group.
Monica Maroki 9A