In and around the classroom

Cultural Day

We had our inaugural Cultural day on Friday 26th August and it was a phenomenal success. Led by a small group of passionate students including: Palak, Bhumika, Anisolo, Josiah, Rose, Jacob, Lauren and Radhika, we celebrated our diversity through costume, cultural performances and food. 

Our first event in the celebrations was a fashion parade, where an array of colour and textures ranging from Sarees to Thawbs graced the runway, as our student’s styled it up. Our judges had a really difficult time deciding but the best cultural costume went to Santique Murray-Harradine.

Moving on to lunchtime, we were totally overwhelmed by the pride that the students and families had in sharing their cultural delicacies with each other. Ranging from Sri Lankin ribbon cake, to curries, to Vai Fala, we had enough food to feed the entire school.  Tania, Elsa and the VCAL students arranged all of the amazing offerings into an amazing self-serve buffet so that we could sample everything that our hearts desired meaning that many people sampled something new for the first time.The final event of the day was our cultural performances. Over an hour we saw a number of different acts including dance routines, songs in other languages and a fan routine. Our families who attended to watch their student’s perform were filled with pride to see their cultures represented before the whole school. As the sun sets on this years’ Cultural day there are so many people to thanks for the tireless efforts in supporting the organising committee, so a huge shout out to everyone that was involved. We are currently planning for our next one that will be held on Harmony Day in 2023.

RUOK Day

Homestead celebrated RUOK? Day over two days. The Wyndham Youth Services came down and spoke to our students during lunch time about the services they offer, offered tips on how to approach someone and ask ‘RUOK?’. A big thank you to Jas along with student leaders Lauren Hoang and Vinni Leong who ran a BBQ lunch, and to all staff and students who came down to support RUOK? Day!

The RUOK? Website have some great tips on how to check in with your friends and family. If you’re unsure, be sure to check out their website.

https://www.ruok.org.au/how-to-ask

Homestead also celebrated Wear it Purple Day. It was amazing to finally celebrate this after two years in remote learning. Students were encouraged to wear a splash of purple with their uniform to support the LGBTQIA+. The Rainbow Group also ran a bake sale to raise funds for Minus 18. A big thank you to the group who did a stellar job at baking!

Indigenous Artwork Project

Lucy Bridge has been working hard to turn her initial design into a masterpiece to showcase proudly. She has now taken her initial design and projected it onto the large canvas to ensure she captures the key elements and scale accurately. 

This process will continue over the next few weeks with the view to showcase the artwork at the upcoming art show in Term 4.

VCAL Excursion: Road to Zero

On Friday the 5th August the Senior and Intermediate VCAL classes attended an excursion to the Melbourne Museum to undertake activities to learn about Victorian Road Safety and the Road to Zero Campaign.

The activities we participated in were researching the 14-17 year old road user group (for example, pedestrians or cyclists) and created a call to action to reinforce  positive behaviours through the creation of a video advertisement campaign. We also examined a range of community health campaigns, including well-known TAC advertisements, and explored key factors such as audience, media type and evidence based research in creating positive behaviour to change outcomes.

As a group we gained an understanding of key legal and safety factors including teen road safety issues and to feel empowered to make safe road choices. We also learnt about the road to zero and also that P platers are more likely to have unsafe journeys along Victorian roads.  We learnt that you need to look like Graham, a weird looking thing to be able to survive a car crash.

Prior to the excursion we had been researching and analysing TAC advertisements to learn more about safety and how advertisements have had a huge impact on people's choices to drive. The advertisements we made on the day were sent to Mitch our VCAL Coordinator and have been provided as links if you wish to watch them:

Pod B2   SENIOR - Ani / Jacob / Bol

Pod B3    Intermediate - Dilloh / Elias / Steve / Desmond

Pod B4    Intermediate - Maya / Krrish / Zhoobin / Sean

Pod B5   SENIOR - Parys / Daniel / Felix

Some Road Safety Facts / Statistics

• Our bodies can only handle an impact of up to 30km/h without having any serious injury.
• The TAC was founded in 1989, during that year the Victorian road deaths peaked at an astounding 776, and as of 2021 the road deaths have dropped to a stagnant low of 237 since then

Homestead would like to thank the Melbourne Museum team, Mitch and Tania for this excursion. We learnt about all the risks of the road, for example drink driving, fatigue and how we can solve these issues on our roads.

Written By SENIOR VCAL: Logan / Parys / Daniel / Josh / Felix / Bol

National Science Week

The 13th to the 25th of August marked Science Week, an annual celebration of all things science and technology. National Science Week is celebrated across Australia and aims to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and its relevance in everyday life. Homestead celebrated Science Week with games and quizzes and a special event at Monday lunchtime. Teachers organised several different experiments in the science lab that students were able to come along and participate in.

All the science subjects were represented with activities and demonstrations from Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Psychology. The demonstrations on show included lighting our hands on fire using methane gas, the iodine clock reaction, edible bugs, mindfulness colouring, disappearing glass rods and reversible arrows.

A big thank you to all staff in the Science Domain – Christine, Emeline, Gurleen, Candice, Ana, Magdi, Tim and Taylor - for being involved in planning, running and promoting the events! It would not have been possible without your contribution and dedication to science teaching.

Thank you to all the students who came along and participated in the activities! We hope that you enjoyed the activities and had a memorable time enjoying all the things science has to offer.

WILSONS PROMONTORY OUTDOOR EDUCATION CAMP

On the 24th of August two year 10 Outdoor Ed. classes met at the front of the school with bags packed and ready to go on an adventure. We loaded our stuff in the trailer with Wayne telling us that we packed way too much stuff. The drive to Tidal river was long, but definitely a highlight as it was very scenic. When we got to the camp we set up our tents in the pouring rain. It took lots of teamwork and got pretty muddy. After setting up our tents we all went on a small hike up a mountain and to Squeaky Beach. It was still very windy and wet however we quickly forgot about inclement weather by looking at the ocean and waves smashing onto the rocks. We returned to camp and after some trial and error cooked our meals on our trangia’s. We went to bed fairly early with the hope that the weather would improve the next day. 

On the second day of the camp we split the group into two. The first group went for mindfulness on the beach and journal writing to complete their outdoor ed work. The second group planted trees with the assistance of the local Ranger. He told us stories about the history of the land we were on and also stories about the wombats who invaded some of the boys tents the night before. The Ranger told us that they close some of the park to give it a break from people and plant trees to give back to the land. After lunch the groups switched. Next item on the list was ‘the big hike’, it was meant to be big however the second half of the track was closed. We hiked up the mountain stopping to look at the amazing views and we were all very proud of the effort we put in and getting to the top of the mountain. 

The last day of camp was a sad but good day, home day. Packing up the tents, repacking bags and making sure the land was left exactly how we found it. Then we were off on the long drive home. It was nice to get back to school, unpack and head home.

-Elle Harding