PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
INTERNATIONAL ACCREDITATION
It is with enormous pride that I share with you the news that McKinnon Secondary College has been granted international accreditation through the Council of International Schools. In fact, we passed with flying colours.
What does this mean for the school?
Through the self-study process we undertook over the past 18 months, we have affirmed that we do a lot of things very well.
Through the many productive conversations that we had with staff, students and parents we were able to identify those areas where we need to improve. I am determined that a culture of continuous improvement be the foundation of the school moving into the future.
I am happy to report that we are already on that path and you may expect to hear from me as we hit targets with global awareness, sustainability, ethical awareness and student voice, among other things.
During the self-study period, I was truly heartened to see how all our stakeholders came together as a community.
Not only do we have teachers and support staff who are willing to go above and beyond in the service of our children but also the students themselves are aware of this and respond accordingly.
This is the way a school should work and I am so proud and honoured to be able to lead us through exciting and challenging times.
Congratulations one and all on achieving International Accreditation. It was truly a team effort.
DOUBLE STORY PORTABLE
I received notification last week that we were to receive another double story portable.
Only a small number of these impressive buildings are built each year for the Department of Education, and we are very fortunate to be receiving our second!!
I thank our local member Nick Staikos for his support with this achievement.
The portable will be installed late this year and be ready for use at the start of 2016.
MATHS COMPETITIONS 2015
McKinnon Secondary College has once again achieved exceptional results in the Maths competitions.
The year began with the University of Melbourne Maths Competition, (which is known for its difficulty and only a handful of awards are issued).
Lily Chen (Year 10) achieved an Outstanding Award in the Intermediate Division.
The Australian Maths Challenge Competition was extensive and was completed over a three week period. 15% of our students achieved High Distinctions. The top 2% of students competing were recognised at General Assembly.
In particular, well done to Serge Niculita, James Hardy and William Hardy.
Thank you also to Michael Killeen who took a team of students to the University of Melbourne Schools Olympics Day: Duc Minh Hoang, Moran Zhou, Cindy Chen, Angela Cheng and Daniel Ledda who all performed exceptionally well against the top schools in the state.
This was followed by the largest competition in Australasia, the Australian Maths competition conducted in over 35 countries.
Matt Peel achieved an amazing result (top 0.5% of the state), this constitutes more than one percent of students sitting the competition. 7% of students achieved High Distinctions (top 2% of the state), they are: Roger Hao, Vivienne Teo, Steven Le, Amit Ben-Harim, Yitian Yuan and Athena Sun.
The final competition was the Australian Intermediate Olympiad. This is an extremely difficult four hour paper and we eagerly await the results. The following students sat this competition: Andrew Xu, Josh Kah, Andy Zhan, Bob Jin, Patrick Brett, Hayden Aizicowitz, Amit Ben-Harim, Matt Peel and Daniel Queiros. Cindy Chen achieved a Distinction in last year’s event. Well done.
I congratulate all students who participate in the Maths competition over the year and applaud the efforts of our Maths Manager, Mr Manolas and his dedicated team of teachers.
MCKINNON VOCAL NIGHT
Congratulations to all students who performed at the Vocal Night last week.
The standard of performance was exceptional and it was indeed a very enjoyable event.
I thank all the parents, grandparents and students who were in attendance and in particular I thank Ms Blanka West for her dedication, passion and commitment.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT ATHLETICS
Congratulations to all the students who competed at the SMR Athletics Championships.
It was our most successful year ever with 13 first places, 11 second places and 7 third places, resulting with the school finishing second overall.
Good luck and congratulations to the following students who qualified to represent the school at the State Championships at Lakeside on Tuesday 20 October: Skyler Kah, Jesse Scholz, Xavier Verdnik, Grace Mackay, Will Sharp, Genevieve O’Brien, Charlotte Soteriou, Jemma Owen, Lucas Thompson, Josh Kah, Jason Clayton, Sophie Highnam, Sam Kristensen and Jackson Hannah.
Thank you to Ms Pemberton and Miss Carter for your work organising and supporting our Athletes.
WATER POLO SUCCESS
Congratulations to Tejan Keller for her success with water polo.
The National Championships were held in Perth during the second week of the school holidays and Tejan had been selected for the shield division.
The team won 1st place. A tremendous achievement. We wish Tejan continued success in this pursuit.
VCE MEDIA NIGHT
The annual VCE Media Night was held on Monday 12 October showcasing the best work from VCE Media. Another large audience of parents, teachers, past and present students enjoyed a diverse collection of short videos and photography. A huge thank you to filmmaker, Catherine Green for again offering her services to award our winners and providing each student with a professional critique of their work, and to Andrew Krause for his photography on the night. Congratulations to all students for producing such fantastic quality work.
Year 11 Audience Selection for ‘The One Shot Video Challenge’
- One Shot - Martin Duncan, Jeremy Jansen and Nevoh Fridberg
Year 12 Awards
- Audience Selection - The Little Bird - Isabella Salvatore
- Judge’s Winner - The Little Bird - Isabella Salvatore
- Judge’s Runner Up - Intertwined (The Sons of Daniel) - George Inglis
The videos can be seen on the McKinnon VCE Media Website.
PHILOSOPHY CLUB
The Philosophy Club at McKinnon has developed over the last seven years to allow students from all Junior and Senior levels the opportunity to engage philosophically every week during lunch times.
As an inclusive extension program for all social and cognitive abilities, students have had access to meeting and engaging one-on-one with individuals visiting our club who are experts in their fields, such as Dr Martin Boland, a chemist from Charles Darwin University, Dr Laurance Splitter, Professor of Philosophy in Education as well as our own John Liakakos with international experience in United States corporate engineering. Further, club participants are invited to attend off-site student Philosophy conferences, meet world renowned experts in the field such as Peter Singer and compete in State and National Philosothon events pitting their wits against other like-minded students who are skilled in the process of Community of Inquiry.
An exciting year for the Philosophy Club has seen two teams of eight students, plus a Junior and Senior Mentor, collaboratively achieve great progress in honing deeper thinking skills. The annual Victorian Philosothon took place on Wednesday, 16 September at the City Cite in Melbourne with Adam El-Horri as the Junior Club Captain and Mentor and Ellen Nicholls, Senior Mentor for the team: Max Abrahams, Chad Aizicowitz, Liam Atchison, Morris Bernstein, Izzy Blumberg, Gideon Stein, Jed Stein, and Avinash Thandaoori. Key-note speaker, Prof Laurance Splitter, addressed participating schools by presenting a dilemma within the realm of technology and progress. For the next four hours students grappled with topics pertaining to what it means to be human and environmental ethics. Congratulations to our keen thinkers for placing 3rd in the Victorian state event!
Astoundingly, with only a little more than a week’s rest, our philosophers were off to the Australasian Philosothon in Sydney over the school holidays. Their intellectually rigorous daily agendas included lectures on ‘Punishment’, by Dr Vanya Kovach Chair of the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations; ‘The Importance of Knowing How and Knowing That’ (https://blog.nus.edu.sg/philo/2012/11/04/knowing-how-and-knowing-that-in-the-zhuangzi-discipline-habits-and-spontaneity-by-karyn-lai-8-nov/) by Dr. Karyn Lai; The Existence of Numbers, by Prof Mark Colyvan, UNSW Dept of Philosophy; and ‘Freewill and Determinism: The Problem of Freewill in an Age of Science’, by Prof Philip Cam, UNSW Dept of Philosophy.
Our students had this to say about their experiences:
“Events that are surrounded by philosophy like the Philosothons, remind us to apply our skills in thinking and respectful inquiry in our normal lives to achieve the ultimate happy life”. - Adam El-Horri
“I enjoyed hearing students’ perspectives from all over Australia on Dr. Kovach’s presentation on Punishment, and how they articulated their thoughts different from each other”. - Chad Aizicowitz
“The Australasian Philosothon and Philosophy Camp was one of the most enlightening weekends of my life. I came out of it with some amazing new perspectives and new questions. The conversations we shared within our Communities of Inquiry brought about genuine curiosity and excitement, two aspects in education which I think are sometimes overlooked as being important in the classroom”. - Izzy Blumberg
“The Australasian Philosothon was a fantastic experience, as it helped me to think out loud and with other 13 year olds about dilemmas that should concern everyone who is curious about the world”. - Liam Atchison
Each individual student was judged, by professional academic philosophers, on the ability to use their Community of Inquiry skills as 'tools' to unpack the topic and deepen the inquiry. This year Z-scoring was used and each school's total score was averaged with the results of the others. It is notable that as the only government, non-selective participating school, McKinnon Secondary College placed 5th in the event among the other eleven schools. Quite an achievement to be celebrated!
A sincere Thank You to Professor Laurance Splitter for volunteering his time after school to engage our students with his expertise in ‘the existence of numbers’, I heard this was the topic of choice during breakfast on the day of the competition!
Thank you to Michelle Rocca for initiating and organizing the extension program with all its guest speakers, off-site events and camps and to Mark Fernandez’s dependable support in assisting to keep the kids safe while traveling interstate. I also appreciate the support of parents in sustaining the program with their trust in the organizing teachers.
I invite you to click the link below to hear what other students and heads of department are saying about our Philosophy Club as we look forward to further development and greater engagement in this extension program in the future.
NEW CALEDONIA
On Saturday 10 October, Mme Zimmermann, Mr King and fifteen Year 9 students (Orlando Buttie, Ryan O'Donnell, Helen Tran, Naomi Warren, Wilson Hu, Hugo Veselik, Braydon Ross, Daniel Ernest, James French, Helena Manoussios, Elinta Sen, Sophie Furman, Isabelle Khenkin, Mia Lopez and Lilli Soprano) left Australia and arrived four hours later in tropical French-speaking New Caledonia in the South Pacific.
Students discovered New Caledonian music, foods, market life and flora through a walk along the Anse Vata Beach, the famous Baie des Citrons and through the lively and colourful Noumea market.
During their trip, the students are enjoying a total of five 3-hour sessions of their intensive French language course at the Creipac Centre. They also learnt about the Kanak culture via the Museum of New Caledonia.
Students are loving the whole experience, and have found the course invaluable. They are certainly making the most of this educational experience, which has been as much academic as it has life lessons. One afternoon as the students were spending some time at the Baie des Citrons, they started playing poison ball with some local adolescents... immersion at its best!
The rest of the week, students will have a chance to go to the Amedee Island, spend a full day with their host family, as well as visit the Museum of WWII and the Noumea aquarium before returning to McKinnon.
We hope this experience will leave their minds and hearts filled with images, sounds and feelings instilling in them a love of learning languages, travelling and trying out new things.
I thank Mme Zimmermann for organising this event and Mme Zimmermann and Mr King for accompanying and guiding the students through this journey.
GOODBYE TO THE CLASS OF 2015
Students, staff and parents celebrate the end of compulsory schooling for our Year 12s this week.
I sincerely thank the staff at McKinnon who have shaped the next generation of graduates.
I appreciate your incredible efforts in providing the best learning for our students.
Many parents end their formal association with the school and I thank all of you for your support over the many years.
The special relationship between parents and staff is part of the McKinnon Magic.
I wish the Class of 2015 all the very best with their future endeavours and thank them for their service to McKinnon Secondary College.