Writing Flagship News

Epic Result

Congratulations to Year 9 student, Gabby Lim, who won the senior section of the Footpath Library Epic Story competition. She was awarded a Samsung Tablet at Senior School Assembly today.

Her winning piece, Rough Waters, follows.

The heavy smell of chlorine in the air grates against his nostrils and he exhales slowly. He feels like an intruder without her by his side, a sinner in a place of devout worship. It is so quiet, too quiet. There is an absence beside him on the pool bench; where should sit six feet of effortless grace and lithe movements, years’ worth of friendship and competitive remarks is empty space and silence and he is so, so very alone. In her place is the unwanted presence of emptiness, fangs bared; threatening to consume him, to devour him whole.

He remembers the day they found out – the white walls, clinical atmosphere, cracked ceilings and sympathetic looks. Remembers listening but being unable to comprehend the doctor’s diagnosis of terminal and degenerative and 6 months left to live and progressive loss of motor function and no cure and dying.

Some days it hurts more than others. A stranger on the street with blue eyes. A novel on display at the bookstore. The local pool before him now. He has been avoiding water; pools, lakes, the ocean – being near the water, let alone in it, feels wrong without her. The water was something they shared – memories of childhood, laughter, tears, of her grip him and a sense of dread wells up in his chest. He fears that without her, swimming will not be the same; that the connection he had to her will be gone, that he will forget, that without her it will all mean nothing.

If he loses the water, he loses what little he has left of her.

He closes his eyes. Inhales sharply. Resolutely, he steps forward to meet the water. It rushes forward to greet him, embraces him, and it feels like going home.

Gabby Lim, Year 9

Royal Commonwealth Society Awards Evening

In November, Year 11 students, Anneliese Croker, Caitlin Woods and Raza Bhuteja, attended the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) awards.

Through youth empowerment, education and advocacy, the Royal Commonwealth Society promotes the value of fellowship and the values of the Commonwealth Charter.

The students received Gold (Anneliese), Silver (Caitlin) and Bronze (Raza) international awards for their entries for the Queen’s Essay competition. There was a total of 13,500 entries from nearly every Commonwealth country.

Their proud parents listened to the President of the Victorian branch of the RCS, Lloyd Byrne, comment that they: “were astounded by the exceptional standard of entries”. The Victorian RCS also awarded Caitlin Woods the State Senior Runner-Up, and Anneliese received the State Senior Merit award.

Congratulations girls – I am very proud of your efforts and I hope that other students follow in your footsteps and enter this highly prestigious competition in 2017. The theme for 2017 is ‘A Commonwealth for Peace’ and asks young writers to explore peace at every level; from the personal to the political to the pan-Commonwealth. Please contact me if you are interested.

Kilvington Calling …

Recently, the Kilvington Kritics skyped Year 7 students at Global Jaya School (GJS), Jakarta. During the session, some very excited Australian and Indonesian students got to know each other and to ask questions such as: “do you have kangaroos in your street?”

Each school developed a book review site to share – so we have an international book club! Next year we hope to also include our partnership school in France.

Some thoughts about the project with GJS from the Year 7 students:

By participating in Kilvington Kritics I have learned many new things and gained many skills such as learning to write a book review. I found it very exciting to skype the students from Jaya because it meant that I could learn about their culture and also share their interests in reading books.

Miranda Abbott

In Kilvington Kritics we spent time on a Thursday afternoon writing and perfecting our Australian book reviews. Recently we skyped the children at the Indonesian Global Jaya School. We talked and exchanged book reviews and talked about life in Australia and Indonesia. This was really fun and enjoyable!

Caitlin Johnston

Thank you to our 2016 English Captains, Olivia Beauchamp and Aaron Kale, and to Ms Cora Alvarez, for their inspiration, tech skills, good humour in leading the Kritics.

Scribes and Scribblers

Freelance Journalist, Cheryl Critchley, has worked with the Scribes and Scribblers class during Early Commencement. Cheryl, who writes for The Age, Herald Sun and various online media, ran workshops about writing newspaper articles and developing opinion pieces. The students produced quality articles and shared original, fresh ideas. We are hoping to have some of their work published next year!

Marian Le Bas, Academic Dean of English

Australian Biology Olympiad

Earlier this year, students studying Units 3 and 4 Biology in Year 11 were given the opportunity to sit the Australian Biology Olympiad exam. This is a very prestigious award which demands a high level of Biological understanding and enriches students beyond the normal VCE Biology course. The students were required to attend after school preparation sessions once a fortnight in Terms 2 and 3, and then sit the exam in August.

We had some fantastic results. Achieving Distinction awards were:

Raza Bhuteja
James Churilov
Allison Doyle
Natasha Formoso
Alanna Owen

The following students achieved High Distinction. From 1500 students who took the exam, they achieved in the top 10%. The were also awarded a Silver Medal from the Australian Science Olympiad Exams, which means they were in the top 6% of all of the students that took part.

Peter Yu
Lachie Wotherspoon

Alice James, Academic Dean of Science

A Reminder....

2017 School Start Dates