Teaching & Learning
SOC Music Department Welcomes Childhood Friend of John Lennon
The SOC Music Department is delighted to announce our first concert of 2023 will feature a guest appearance from a childhood friend of John Lennon.
Michael Hill was a close friend to John throughout their time together at Primary and Secondary schools in Liverpool, UK. In fact, Michael was just 14 when he introduced John to the music of Little Richard, courtesy of his parents’ record player. Michael moved to Melbourne in the 1970s and became captain of the industry in the world of international shipping. In his retirement, he penned the book John Lennon: The Boy Who Became A Legend and has been sharing his valuable knowledge of John’s early years with new generations of Beatles fans.
We’re thrilled to welcome Michael for our first concert of 2023: An Evening with the Beatles, featuring Lennon-McCartney compositions performed by the many talented students of South Oakleigh College. Michael will be interviewed ‘in conversation’ by our Performing Arts Prefects as part of the concert. Michael will also give a special presentation to our Instrumental Music students during the day as part of a special Instrumental Music incursion.
Students who would like to take part in the incursion are encouraged to sign up for the SOC Instrumental Music program.
An Evening with the Beatles will take place on Friday, February 24 2023, with tickets available through compass early in Term 1. The Music Department is thrilled to kick off 2023 in a big way and we’d love to see you there.
Aidan Prewett
Director of Music
Mockup Trials: Year 11 & Year 7 Collaboration
On 22 November 2022, Year 11 Legal Studies students and Year 7 Drama students collaborated to perform a scripted mock trial! The Year 11s put their knowledge of the law into action and the Year 7s used their performance skills to bring the script to life!
The mock trial involved Year 11 students as the accused (Tanish Trehan), the alleged victim (Sabrina Koltsidas) and some hard-working solicitors. The Year 7 students played the parts of judge (Agam Bhatia), judge’s associate (Nikhil Singh), tipstaff (Kallum Morris), barristers (Aryan Bhasin and Hector Rivas Turner), key witness (Myles Gordon), custodial officers (Hannah Jones and Fern Doyle) as well as the foreperson (Amber Harris) and members of the jury. With only a few simple props such as wigs and a gavel (acknowledging that these were for theatrical purposes only), our Theatre was temporarily transformed into the County Court of Victoria. The somewhat complex legal procedures involved were ably explained to us all by our narrator (Lorena Samoiu).
At the conclusion of the trial, after some heated deliberations, the jury came to a unanimous verdict of “guilty” on the charges of stalking. As a bonus, the “legal practitioners” were able to ask the “jury” about their deliberations (strictly forbidden in the real world). The members of the jury divulged that they were persuaded by a couple of key pieces of evidence, but also the very persuasive cross-examination.
What a fabulous collaboration across year levels and subject areas – well done to all the students who took part.
Jacinta Marlborough
Legal Studies Teacher
Monash Maker Faire 2022
The Monash Maker Faire was an event sponsored and coordinated by Monash Tech School – one of our OEP partners.
This event was held at Monash University in the Woodside Tech and Design Building.
Students from the Girls in STEM and Nasa Project Club built models and explored options to support Elon Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars.
OSPS and HPS students also contributed to the event to address the same project – Mission to Mars.
The day saw over ten thousand people passing through the doors. Students spent the bulk of their day deep in conversation with attendees about their respective projects.
The event was an amazing success as it demonstrated creativity and innovation from our students about how to tackle such a complex and challenging problem.
Steve Kuruc
Learning Specialist: STEM
In2Science Awards Night
SOC has had the privilege of being part of the In2Science program since 2019. This program invites university students to become mentors to improve understanding and engagement of science and STEM in secondary schools.
At SOC, a number of teachers engaged with the program to take advantage of the experience for their students. A notable mentor, Patrick Taylor from RMIT, worked closely with 4 of our Acc 9Sci students to teach them more about his PhD thesis on Nanotechnology. By the end of one term together, these students were extended in their understanding of the fundamentals and applications of Nanotechnology in everyday life.
Our strong participation in this program has led to SOC achieving another award over a host of other schools for our level of engagement in this space. In 2023, we will continue to apply for mentors to visit our school and extend our students further.
Steve Kuruc
Learning Specialist: STEM
Wheelers E-Books Platform
Dear students and staff,
“WHEELERS EBOOKS” is our official platform for digital books (eBooks) with FREE access for all, throughout the year including over the summer.
Simple instructions on how to borrow an eBook:
Click the following link - https://sosc.eplatform.co/ to access the ePlatform portal.
OR
Go to our school’s website https://www.sosc.vic.edu.au/ and click on “Quick Links” (top right corner) and then from the scroll-down menu click on “SOC Wheelers eBook”
OR
Download the “ePlatform by Wheelers Books” app via Playstore, Google Play, or Windows store for any device preferably using your google chrome browser.
- Click on the “ePlatform “by Wheelers eBook link
- Find Libraries and type in South Oakleigh College (bookmark it if needed)
- Click on our school
- Sign in (top righthand corner) by using your compass ID eg. JSM0001 and your password is the generic word: Library1 (I suggest you change this) (staff please see me for generic p/w)
- Search for books and Borrow
Enjoy!!
TIPS:
Your eBook is downloaded automatically in the background as soon as you start reading it, so you can then read the eBook when you are offline. If you have trouble loading the content, you may Clear Content by choosing Store Offline option from the menu, this will re-download the content from the server.
Once you have finished a book please return it so another library member can borrow it otherwise it will automatically be returned once it expires. (2 weeks)
Let me know if you have any issues with signing in. Contact me at: nancy.bastakos@education.vic.gov.au
Our Mobile Apps (IOS, Android, Windows)
Apps link: -- https://sosc.eplatform.co/help/apps/eplatform-app
Direct link to App Library: -- IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eplatform-by-wheelers/id912668852?mt=8- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eplatform.android.googleplay&hl=en-
Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/eplatform/9nblggh3z38k
You also may search 'ePlatform' in Play store or iOS store for further information.
Guide on Dyslexia function:
Kindly refer to the below link in regard to Dyslexia:
Nancy Bastakos
Library Manager
Sustainability Club: Report
Thank you to everyone in the College community for collecting bread tags throughout the year. The Sustainability Club bread tag initiative continues to be a very popular way for our staff and students to raise awareness about environmental issues, as well as kindness and gratitude.
During Term 4 as a College, we have collected more than 2.5 kilograms of bread tags, yet again!
The results were as follows:
In 4th place is Grevillea with only 6g of bread tags (come on Grevilleans – get collecting!);
In 3rd place is Banksia with 27g of bread tags;
In 2nd place is Acacia with 53g of bread tags; and
In 1st place once again is Waratah, with a whopping 2.47 KILOGRAMS of bread tags!!!!!!!
Points have been allocated towards the 2022 House Cup, accordingly.
A big shout out to the helpful students who have already sorted the tags into different colours before we sent them off to "Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs" - a charity that recycles the tags locally to make items such as bowls. The funds raised from sales of these items are used to make wheelchairs for those in need: https://ozbreadtagsforwheelchairs.org.au/
The competition will continue in 2023 - so PLEASE KEEP COLLECTING!
Why not ask your friends, family and neighbours to collect them over the holidays too? Just hang onto them until we return to school, then drop the tags into the colour-coded collection containers outside the House Leaders' office. This a reminder to please only collect plastic tags (the cardboard ones can be recycled or composted at home – or you can ask a staff member to pop them into the staff compost bin).
Sustainability Club
Lego Master Competition and LEGO Club
Firstly, a huge thank you to the families of Lauren Olver, Mai Pandjaputra, Sam Gleeson and Kashish Patel for donating LEGO to our school to be used in our LEGO Club, LEGO Competitions and STEM projects. The school is still accepting LEGO donations.
This Semester, the LEGO Club hosted our first annual ‘SOC LEGO Masters Competition’. Students had 40 minutes to ‘construct [their] favourite food’. Their LEGO builds were judged by student and staff votes via Forms, and the results were very close between first and second place.
A round of applause goes to Hayden Penfold for coming in first place, Ivan Na and Alex Robertson for coming in second place and Alex Howard and Mads Carey for coming in third place.
Agam Bhatia, Andrew Yeung, Lauren Golger, Leyansh Kamra, Oliver Forte and Osher Hidas also made some very cool creations.
Competition aside, LEGO Club ran all year on Thursday lunchtimes in C10, and our 30+ members enjoyed having a space to sit around and get creative.
Claire Yeung in Year 10 says:
“The couple of Lego Club sessions I’ve been to this year were so fun and everyone is so cool. I loved generally having a club to spend time at during lunch. I made a bunch of (LEGO) people and some (very real human) friends. A highlight of LEGO club: 100% the pineapple man in the Bunnings car.”
Sarah Crespo-Liu
LEGO Club Facilitator
Junior Interschool Debating
This year, our Junior Debating Teams (Years 7 and 8) met every Tuesday at lunchtime to argue the most contentious and relevant topics for the year.
In Term 4, our Junior Debating Teams took part in the Debating Association of Victoria’s school competition.
See a teacher reflection from the 13th of October below:
Today, round 1 of the Debating Competition was cancelled at the last minute due to the rain and schools travelling from far and wide. We got the memo via email a little bit late and were already on our way to Brentwood Secondary College.
Just as we were planning to return to school, the Fountain Gate Secondary College van pulled up. They also received the memo late!
Ms Matheson had the idea to conduct a mock debate between our teams and Fountain Gate’s teams, and luckily a lovely admin staff member from Brentwood let us in and supervised.
What could have been a negative experience then turned into a really positive experience with our students getting to mock debate before the actual competition rounds, and a bond was formed between our students and Fountain Gate’s students. As they say, “you can’t have a rainbow without the rain”.
Our Debating Competition teams consisted of Alexis Beaumont, Amelie Rousetty, Aryan Bhatia, Elvin Joseph Joby, Jonathan Blyth, Leyansh Kamra, Osher Hidas, Pranshu Mistry, Taylor Perry.
Special thanks to Lauren Golger, Leah Callow and Sienna Korng who often attended Debating Team meetings to support.
We debated against Huntingtower School, Wesley College and our friends from Fountain Gate Secondary College.
We argued topics such as ‘We should ban smoking and vaping in public places’, ‘That the Schools Spectacular is a waste of resources’ and ‘That we should cap the salary of professional sportspeople’.
All students showed massive improvements in their research skills, preparation skills and public speaking skills by the end of the 3 rounds.
Student Voice:
“It was nice to get to know how debating works and going to a different school and having that experience” – Leyansh Kamra
“I liked debating because I enjoy arguing and coming up with rebuttals” – Jonathan Blyth
“Debating was fun, even when we pulled a few negative hat-tricks” – Aryan Bhatia
Year 9-10 Interschool Debating Competition sign-ups are now open and will close in early February (this will be advertised at the start of next year). Please message Mr Nicholas Morlin, our Debating Coordinator for 2023, on Teams if you are interested.
Sarah Crespo-Liu & Jessie Matheson
Debating Facilitator
Year 8 English Headstart
Our Year 8 students got creative during Headstart this year, thanks to the fantastic planning by Mr Adam Myors.
Our classes read Eric by Shaun Tan, which is a short story about an exchange student named Eric and their host family’s adventures during Eric’s stay.
Students analysed the story and then used art and craft materials to make their own versions of Eric. The students then went around the school and took photos of their ‘Eric’ participating in many activities around the school, much like the illustrations in the original story.
Students enjoyed this task as a different way to engage with the story. Pictured is Ashlee, Alex, Ethan, Keitaro, Mikayla, Satoshi and Steven working hard on their Eric characters.
Student voice:
“I enjoyed these sessions because we got to do something different to writing in English” – Henry (Year 7)
Sarah Crespo-Liu
House Leader: Banksia
Year 9 English Headstart
Our Year 9 students delved into film analysis during Headstart, focusing on symbolism, themes, mood and characterisation in various Disney short films.
We watched La Luna, Bao, Lou, Lifted and Partly Clouded and discussed things like different generational expectations and the importance of foods to culture.
When we understood how filmmakers create mood, characterisation and symbolism, the students got to attempt to create their own short films and incorporate these text features. We built LEGO sets and characters and used a stop-motion app to do this.
Most students had positive feedback about this experience, though they did realise how long it takes to make stop-motion films!
Sarah Crespo-Liu
House Leader: Banksia
Duke of Edinburgh: Adventurous Journey
From the 23rd to the 25th of November students from the Duke of Edinburgh program headed out to complete their 3-day journey at Wilson’s Prom.
This was the final part of their program after completing 6 offsite navigation courses, developing a new skill such as a language or instrument and giving back to the school community by planting a garden out near the T-Block. Students were required to be self-sufficient during this time including setting up their camp for the week, cooking and planning each day’s route. Students had a great time interacting with nature, trying a range of new skills such as cooking on a Trangia and building connections with other students from the class.
It has been a privilege to work with these students this year and we had our most successful year to date with thirty-eight students completing the 26 weeks of log booking and hiking over 120,000 steps to complete their Bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh. Next year we also have some students attempting their Silver level which is planned to take 52 weeks and an additional day and night of camping and hiking at the end of the year.
Chris Blattman
Duke of Edinburgh Facilitator