Next Week @ TC

01/04/2022

Announcements for Next Week

• Water works in Cypress Ave

• Free Department of Education and Training Holiday Camp

• Community Assemblies

• Outdoor Movie Night - Entry and FLE1 Students

• End of Term Arrangements/Return to Term 2 Arrangements

• Update to RAT Testing Requirements

• TCNEWS - Dog Therapy Program

WATER WORKS IN CYPRESS AVE

Water works will be carried out in Cypress Avenue from Wednesday 6 April and take around 3-5 weeks. These works will be carried out between 7am-5pm.

We are not sure what impact this will have on traffic, if any, to and from the school. Please beware that you may need extra time to complete your journey.

Free Department of Education and Training Holiday Camp

Dear Parents and Carers
During the past 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many students have missed out on the opportunity to experience outdoor activities in an organised, social and supportive environment.
The Victorian Government is committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of all children and young people, and is offering the chance for eligible students to attend a free camp program as part of the Positive Start in 2022 initiative, during the 2022 school holiday periods.

Please read and follow the instructions to register by clicking here.

Community Assemblies

We are planning on holding Community Assemblies next week during Connect to celebrate the term that has passed. We are looking forward to bringing our communities together for this positive end to the Term.

Outdoor Movie Night - Entry and FLE1 Students

A reminder that we have our outdoor movie night for our Entry and FLE1 students on Thursday 7th April as part of our Connection to Community activities running throughout the school. Consent for students to attend needs to be given through Compass.

End of Term Arrangements/Return to Term 2 Arrangements

• Our last day of term is Friday 8th April. Classes will run as normal on this day and finish at the normal time.

• Our first day of term 2 will be Tuesday 26th April. Classes will run as normal on this day.

  For those looking ahead, the last day of term 2 is Friday 24th June.

Update to RAT Testing Requirements

We have received the following update from the Department of Education and Training which we have copied and pasted:

Students and staff who tested positive and completed their 7-day isolation period are not required to participate in the RAT screening for 8 weeks after their release from isolation. In addition, if a staff or student have recovered from COVID-19, they aren’t required to get tested or isolate/quarantine if re-exposed to a case within 8 weeks of ending their isolation period. This period was previously 30 days.  

After 8 weeks, they must follow the relevant advice depending on the type of contact you are.

Dog Therapy Program

This week at TC, students involved in the Dog Therapy program had their second session! This is the second year the TC Dog Therapy Program has been running. The program runs Tuesdays from 7.30 am to 8.30 am in S6. Currently, there are ten students and nine adorable dogs enrolled. To be able to participate in the program, a three-week assessment of the student and the dog was held to ensure they were suitable for the program. Amanda, TC's Mental Health Practitioner facilitates the program and Brad from Therapy Animals Australia runs the program with his assistant Kate.

The well-being team started talking to Brad initially in 2017 about how to integrate his organisation into TC. Originally they had planned to start the program in 2020 but, unfortunately, due to covid, they weren't able to. Last year they managed to get about 3/4 the way through the program before Covid interrupted their plans. This year, the team are hoping to have an uninterrupted run of the program in 2022!

Brad, who runs the program, is a VIT registered teacher. In these sessions, Brad teaches the students different training techniques, dog behaviours and how that can relate to human behaviours and helps them develop a special bond with their dogs. The program is always evolving based on the needs of the students and their dogs. The team are hoping to run two programs this year but, it is costly. If anyone would like to sponsor the program to ensure it can run again this year, they're welcome to send Amanda Toyer an email.

Brad also ran a few sessions in our community integrated learning week, mind, body and spirit working in the classroom to inform students about the program.

To learn more about the Dog Therapy Program: https://therapyanimals.org.au/paws-in-schools/
If you would like to contact Amanda Toyer: atoy@tc.vic.edu.au

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Announcements from last week

• TC Nursery - seeking packaging to recycle

• 2022 Snow Camp - Expressions of Interest Now Open

TC Nursery - seeking packaging to recycle

TC Farm are collecting your...berry/tomato punnets, egg cartons, chicken feed sacks, plastic bottle tops (for entrepreneurship) and used planting pots. Please bring them down to the TC Market space on Friday afternoons and while you are there you can get some delicious produce and garden products. Thank you!

2022 Snow Camp - Expressions of Interest Now Open

We are now seeking expressions of interest from Students for one of our most sought after camps. To accommodate numbers we have two dates booked for this camp which is open to all students of all abilities to apply for. These are:

Camp 1 : Mon 25 July - Fri 29 July
Camp 2 : Mon 1 Aug - Fri 5 Aug

Approximate cost: $1000 - $1200.

To express interest, please click on this link. You will need to log in with a students account to do this. Students can find this link on their community page in Microsoft Teams.

Once expressions of interest have been submitted, a selection process will occur as spaces on the camps are limited. Those chosen to attend will need to pay a $250 deposit to confirm their place.

Announcements from Previous Weeks

• Tutoring

• Cohort Based Assemblies, including Child Safe

• Top Screen Opening

• Visitors on site (including parents)

• Reporting of Positive RAT or PCR Test

• Annual Privacy Statement

Tutoring

TC offers group tutoring, where students can ‘drop in’ to sessions and work collaboratively with others. Students should bring work that they are seeking help or extension with and staff and student tutors can offer support in a group setting. Sessions are not one-on-one.

Subjects on Offer

• VCE English

• VCE English Language

• VCE Health and Human Development

• VCE Legal Studies

• VCE Literature

• ALL Mathematics

• VCE Physical Education

• VCE Physics

• VCE Product Design

• VCE Psychology

If you would like to reach out to a tutor about help or advice, they are all available through teams chat and always welcome new students to join their study groups.

Information on Maths Club sessions - students from all ages are encouraged to come, with a particular emphasis on Pre to 3/4, as we provide tips and experiences relevant to the specific Maths pathways offered in VCE. In this space, we have members of the Maths teaching staff, student employees who have excelled or demonstrated a passion for Mathematics, as well as external tutors volunteering their time to support our young people.

During Friday’s SPT conferences our tutors will be available for students who want to come into school to get some extra support with their studies. They will be working in the Study Room in the Hub onsite between 8:30am and 2:30pm. All students are welcome to come along and catch up on any work that needs to be completed or get some extra assistance. Students can drop in and stay for as long as they need.

Please note English tutoring with Helen begins in Week 10.

Cohort Based Assemblies

We have been running our annual Child Safe Student Assemblies this week for students based upon cohort age. Topics covered included school policies around:

• Harassment/bullying

• Drugs, smoking and alcohol, including vaping

• Child safe procedures such as mandatory reporting, doors always being open and students/staff being connected on social media

• Who students can go to for supports

Information was given to all students around the dangers of vaping as this is becoming more of an issue around Australia. An email is being sent to all families with some resources around this so that everyone can support students around this emerging health danger.

We also spoke to students around some of the dangerous behaviours occurring at Doncaster Shopping Town recently. The local Principals have been working with the security team as it appears that students from outside of our school have been targeting the space on a Friday afterschool and on the weekend to carry out anti social behaviours, and we wanted our students to be aware and careful when there.

The assembly was carried out as per our Child Safe program here @ TC. It was a student friendly version of covering the following policies:

• TC Child Safe Policies

• TC Statement of Values

• TC Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking Policy

• Student Wellbeing and engagement policy

• TC Bullying Prevention Policy

These policies have all been updated and approved by external auditors for our recent school review.

Top Screen Opening

Last night was the opening night of Top Screen where 2022 graduate Erin Kim's animation was selected from over 300 entries to be apart of the Season's of Excellence. Whilst this is a huge achievement in itself, Erin was also awarded The Top Screen Jury Prize. This award is voted on by industry professionals and recognises the students creativity, technical precision, individual style and aesthetic. Huge congratulations to Erin! If you are interested you can now watch her film on YouTube.

Visitors on Site (including parents)

A reminder that visitors on site need to sign in at reception as part of our Child Safe Policy. This includes those parents wanting to visit S Wing. Our visitor policy can be found here. This does not apply when parents are in their cars dropping off and picking up.

Reporting of Positive RAT (oR PCR) Test

If your child reports a positive RAT test result, please let the school know by emailing connect@tc.vic.edu.au and follow the instruction below (this has been copied and pasted from the DET information sent to us):

“If staff or students receive a positive test result at any time, they must report this through the Department of Health system (Rapid antigen tests | Coronavirus Victoria) or via the coronavirus hotline at 1800 675 398.

Students (or their parents) must also report a positive result to their school, either through the VicEd COVID portal or by phone or written notification; this is so the school can support them, record that they will be absent while in 7-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms.

All students and staff who return a positive result from a rapid antigen test should also follow the latest advice at https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/rapid-antigen-tests.

Students who report a positive result must isolate for seven days and not attend school during that period.

Where a student is a household contact of a positive case (that is, they have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility) they must inform the school and isolate for seven days and not attend school during that period.

Annual Privacy Statement Reminder

Annual privacy reminder for 2022

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in nine community languages: Amharic, Arabic, Dari, Gujarati, Mandarin, Somali, Sudanese, Turkish, Urdu ,Vietnamese

Previous TC NEWS Articles

Sex Ed at TC

This year TC has developed a new Sex Ed program! In previous years TC students had four lessons on Sex Ed in Entry classes. After that, the only students who had access to quality in-depth sex education were students enrolled in the Health elective. These new classes aim to "prioritise delivering an age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education program for students in the Flexible Learning Environment and to ensure the classes are fun, interesting, informative and respectful". The new Sex-Ed program is being delivered during English classes as they are the classes most likely to align with students' ages. Currently, two of our amazing Wellbeing staff, Amanda and Amy are doing classes all day on Tuesdays. Ashlee, one of our extraordinary health teachers is doing classes all day on Fridays! So far, FLE 1 have had two lessons this term. The first was Puberty & Changes and the second was Sex & Technology. FLE2 have had one lesson focused on Identity as a sexual being. FLE3 have also had one lesson and the focus was Intimacy & Desire.

The idea of a new Sex-Ed program spawned from, student Kiannah Dower. "I started the program after watching the new season of Sex Education on Netflix (ironic, I know). However, watching it made me realise how much TC was lacking in Sex Ed. So many students talk about how the only class covering it was entry health, and that many missed the classes; or how TC has started talking about consent but what about physical aspects? So at the end of last year, I asked a class of students what they thought needed to be discussed and taught in a sex-ed class. I had a meeting with Amanda, the school's Mental Health Practitioner and talked about a whole page of notes that covered everything from STIs to pure intimacy, pregnancy and same-gender sexual partners. I said to her "Schools NEED these programs yet, for some reason, they're not being taught. Students want this program to be started, so let's start it!". After that meeting, a team of teachers and students were formed. I created a student survey with Eve Macri that was sent out to TC students and the responses helped guide us with what to cover for each year level, in each class".

TC's Mental Health Practitioner, Amanda believes this new program "shows that TC respects and values student voice and that reaching out and asking for something will be treated with respect and given significant consideration" and that "comprehensive, whole-school sexuality education, that provides consistent and accurate information to all young Victorians from an early age and is respectful of diversity, can contribute to positive behaviour change. Young people can make good decisions about their sexual health if education policies, programs and services are available to help them". In the future, she would love for the "program to become a permanent part of the curriculum so students will have at least four sessions of sex ed each year from entry all the way up to FLE3 - If we could achieve this I feel we would have given them the best start to understanding themselves as sexual beings and how to have healthy, happy and successful relationships in adulthood".

Congratulations to all of the students and staff involved in this amazing program!

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Close the Gap

This week at TC, Zoya's Sociology 3/4 class organised a dress-up day to raise money and awareness for Close the Gap Day 2022. On Thursday, to show allyship and solidarity, students and staff at TC wore yellow and made a gold coin donation. The Nation Close the Gap day aims to “close the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health gap. We want to do this by implementing a human rights-based approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.” All together the class raised $150 for the cause.

This issue is extremely important as it highlights health inequality prevalent in our society. “In 2007, the Council of Australian Governments set measurable targets to track and assess developments in the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. These targets include achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation and halving the mortality rate gap for children under five years old within a decade.”

The fundraiser was led by the Sociology 3/4 class, Lindsay Gerhardt who “made and put up posters but other students submitted the forms for the fundraiser to Sally and collected the money. Sucheta, Nina, Brianna, Darcy, Ava, August, Wesley, Finn, Lelaina and I were the group who put it together.” The TC community can get involved by learning more about Close the Gap as well as getting involved in other organisations run by Indigenous Australians.

Quotes about Close the Gap come from Close the Gap | ANTaR, a great resource to learn more.

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

International Women’s Day

This week at TC, we celebrated International Women's Day! This is an annual global holiday held on the 8th March. The day celebrates "women's achievements, raises awareness about women's equality, lobbies for accelerated gender parity and fundraises for female-focused charities". Throughout the week, TC students and staff have gotten involved in all sorts of activities to honour the day!

Monday: During Lunchtime, there was a screening of Ms Represented with Annabel Crabb (Episode 2). "One hundred years after Australia elected its very first female parliamentarian, Annabel Crabb presents Ms Represented, a raw and honest account of politics from the female perspective." The show is a must-watch and is available on ABC iview for free.

Tuesday: TC's weekly History Club met to discuss inspiring women, groups and sisters throughout history over tea and biscuits. A game of "Who am I?" was also played. Some of the notable women and sisters mentioned were the "Night Witches" a group of all-female military aviators during World War Two, "Black Mambas" a female ranger unit that protects wildlife in South Africa and Angela Vorobeva who at 86 years old became the oldest woman to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa!

Wednesday: Students dressed for success as their dream job for a gold coin donation! The goal was to raise money for Dress for Success "a global not-for-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life". 

Thursday: The Share the Dignity Fundraiser was held! The charity "distributes sanitary items to those in need and works to end period poverty in Australia". The fundraising team, led by Zoya collected personal hygiene products including, sanitary products, hairbrushes, toothpaste and more!

A heartfelt congratulations to all of the TC Community who got involved in International Women's Day this week and made donations to female-focused charities!

• Ms Represented: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/ms-represented-with-annabel-crabb

• Dress for Success: https://dressforsuccess.org/

• Share the Dignity: https://www.sharethedignity.org.au/home

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

TC Nursery

At TC we are incredibly lucky to have our very own Nursery! The TC Nursery evolved from students learning to propagate plants, and grow edible plants in the Backyard Permaculture elective. They use various methods to produce organic fruit and veg, such as growing them from saved seeds, cuttings and dividing plants. The Backyard Permaculture elective also teaches students about the industrial food system and what we can do in our home gardens to produce food and increase food security.

Some students apart of the Permaculture subjects are employed as "Urban Farmhands". In this role, they take control of stocking and selling everything in the nursery. The students work in pairs and are responsible for their respective departments (Landscape Supplies, Produce & Nursery).

As a result of all of the organic produce they have grown, the Nursery sells garlic, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, beetroots, radishes, lettuce, eggplant, capsicums, chillies, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and corn. The Nursery team are eagerly awaiting the ripening of our rockmelons, watermelons feijoa and kiwi fruit. They have already harvested all the fruit trees, which include: mulberries, apricots, pears, cherries, peaches and almonds. Make sure to keep an eye out for them! As well as all of the produce, the Nursery will be offering eggs from their joyful chookies, firewood, woodchip mulch and the best compost in Melbourne. The compost is rich and powers the growth in the TC garden!

The space is still an ongoing project. In the future, Rhiain Barr is hoping they can "build an earthen floor in the centre of the rotunda (where a shallow hole exists) and build earthen walls to enclose the space a little. We're propagating a lot of plants at the moment and we hope to fill the space with greenery this year. Once we've got the nursery running smoothly it may expand to include Entrepreneurship students selling items, or baristas selling coffee. Long-term, we'd love to give food to Jo and the canteen staff to prepare ready-made meals for families to purchase on their way home".

The Nursery is going through a lot of new changes. The community may have noticed, the new sign that was created by, student Adha Hawkins. "The 3-metre long sign (at the time it was blank of course) was dropped off at my house in the middle of a long lockdown last year. I bought some outdoor paint online and then formulated a design. After drawing the design with a pencil, I (with some help from my parents) started painting the sign. Eventually, after many hours I finished off the sign, and it got picked up". The price list has also just been installed, which should give everybody in the TC community a better idea of what's on offer!

Students and everyone in the TC community are welcome to stop by on Friday from 2:15 pm - 4:00 pm to check it out. If any students are interested in applying for an Urban Farmhand position, make sure to keep an eye on the newsletter and community pages for job vacancies!

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

TC Animals Expo

Yesterday at TC, the Animal Expo was held at the rear of S-Wing. The event had a great turnout and took two weeks to plan. The Animal Expo was an awesome opportunity for the TC community to gain an insight into the amazing animals program that the school offers. There was a volunteer team of approximately forty-five students helping on the day and over forty animals were able to be actively engaging with attendees, many were also in tanks and enclosures. My favourite part of the Expo was the "Throw a Wet Sponge at your Teacher for $1". All of the donations from the day will be going towards the Animals Program!

Student Volunteers had set up at many stations throughout the program and held guided tours. There were stations for goats and alpaca, who were haltered and available for guests to feed treats to. Also stations for rabbits, pigs, native fish, guinea pigs, snakes, dragons and many more! On the day there were also two very special guests, a former TC student who brought her horse onto the oval for a riding/equestrian demonstration and a wildlife demonstrator (Black Snake) who brought a dingo, an owl, a bettong, several snakes, and a crocodile named "fluffy"!

The Expo was a great experience for the students involved in the Animals Program. I was able to have the opportunity to talk to some of the student volunteers.

How were you involved in the Animal Expo?

Megan: "I had a few jobs in the Expo but, for most of the night, I was wandering around collecting donations for our program and talking to the guests as they wondered though"

Scarlett: "I was helping with the rabbits. We currently have 4 in the program, Cottontail, Sylvia, Ollie and Clover."

Bee: "I work in the rainbowfish section of the fish program, which is what I was helping with at the Expo. Overall it was an amazing experience and I hope it can happen again in 2023!"

How was your experience volunteering at the Animal Expo?

Megan: "It was a lot of fun and there was a massive turnout and it was so cool to show the community our amazing program!"

Scarlett: "I enjoyed talking to the guests and telling them about how amazing the animals and the program we have at TC. It was also amazing to see the students band together to share their vast knowledge with all the guests that came."

Bee: "The animals expo was an amazing experience, I love talking about something I’m so passionate about to people who have next to no knowledge about the fish at TC."

TC Animals Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/tc_animals/

Special Thanks to Bee, Scarlett and Megan

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Community Integrated Learning - Mind, Body and Spirit

This year TC is introducing Community Integrated Learning Weeks. The goal is to have a year full of community, togetherness, and creativity! Each term Templestowe College will hold a special Community Integrated Learning themed week. For this terms theme "Body, Mind, Spirit" students will be exploring all things related to the body, how we think and feel, mental health, movement, and brain science. Over the next three terms, aspects of the themes (Global Citizenship, Our Place on Country, Earth Week) will be discussed in their classes and during Community events, build shared experiences and a strong sense of belonging and connectedness.

The week's feature event is the Swimming Carnival on Tuesday, February 22nd. This day will be filled with community events, live music, games, yoga, circus skills, BBQ, water slides, visits from Headspace and Manningham Youth and of course, swimming races! It is going to be a great day and all students are expected to attend and enjoy activities that appeal to them. There will also be a range of other events offered for the Body, Mind, Spirit festival including film screenings, seminars, before school and lunchtime activities. 

The VCAL students are running a BBQ to raise funds for Laps For Life. Snags are available ($3 each) a vegan option is also available. On the day, there will also be an auction to throw water on a teacher of your choosing. Guessing competitions will be running as well (guess how many sausages we sell and guess how many laps TC swims). Each of these will cost a gold coin for your guess and the winners of the competitions will get a $30 gift voucher for either Village or Rebel Sport. Students and staff will also have the opportunity to swim laps on the day to raise money for Laps For Life. The charity works with youth on suicide prevention and aims to improve the mental health of young people. All funds raised will go to the charity. Students need to make sure to come with lots of spare change to help raise money for Laps For Life!

TC's resident circus practitioner Stephanie will be running circus workshops during the pool party on Tuesday and Friday during recess. She has a degree in Circus Arts and has performed all over the world. She also specialises in Icarian Games and Tightwire! On Tuesday, there will be 30 spots available per workshop (there will be more spots available for free play)

Schedule for the Day: 
9:00am - 9:30am Juggling
9:30am - 10:00am Spinning Plates
10:00am - 10:30am Poi
10:30am - 11:00am Hula Hoops
11:00am - 11:30am either Juggling or Poi
11:30am - 1:00am Free Play

In the light of the Body, Mind, Spirit Festival, English teachers Michael Allan and Michelle Parker are launching a podcast! Their podcast centres all-around student voice and sharing some of the conversations they're having with a wider audience. The aim of the podcast is "to keep our English classes more connected so that we can share ideas between the multiple classes and electives that we have running. We wanted to give students more agency over their work and ideas, so we thought that having a podcast would be an engaging way where people could record their thoughts and have them heard by other classes". Students and Staff will be able to find the podcast on TC Stream and Community Teams pages.

During the week other events and activities include Lit Club for book lovers run by Natasha Bossong. The Animals committee are having an open night on Thursday, February 24th. Featuring guest presenters with horses, native animals, and all sorts of furry creatures, this is a night not to be missed, booking is essential through the link on Compass. Happy Sad Man screening, a very special opportunity to meet and chat with acclaimed Director Genevieve Bailey and see her award-winning film on Wednesday 6:30-8:30 pm. The event is free but bookings are essential via Compass. 

There are a lot more exciting things happening next week. Make sure to check out the festival flyers at the top of this weeks Next Week @TC.

Happy Sad Man Trailer: https://vimeo.com/294254156 

Do you have a hobby, profession, or passion for things like yoga, dance, movement, or body, mind, spirit related interests? Would you be interested in offering an activity at our swimming carnival or during the Body, Mind, Spirit festival week Feb 21-25? If so, please get in touch with RGR@tc.vic.edu.au *Volunteers would need to meet current COVID and Working with Children requirements.

Term 2 festival theme is Global Citizenship in Week 6. Got any ideas? Shoot them through to RGR@tc.vic.edu.au

Special Thanks to Ryan Griffith (Director of Community Integrated Learning)

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Valentines Day Fundraiser

This year for Valentine's Day, a group of TC students have been raising money and awareness for Food Bank Australia! This charity is a not-for-profit, non-denominational and federated organisation operating in every state and territory in Australia. Their goal is to provide good quality food for all Australians. Food Bank works with 2,950 frontline charities and 2,890 school breakfast programs to get over 87.9 million meals out to Australians suffering from food insecurity every year.

This week on Thursday and Friday, the group of students were outside of the Hub selling Ferrero Rochers to students and staff. Donators were able to get chocolate delivered to siblings, friends, other staff members or even themselves! During classes on Valentine's Day (Monday), the chocolates will be hand-delivered with a personalised card to the recipients. Student Volunteer Archana decided to get involved in the cause because she believes "sending someone chocolate on Valentine's Day can brighten their day and we should spread love to all no matter what. Food Bank is also a great organisation with an even greater cause."

To find out more about Food Bank Australia, click here: https://www.foodbank.org.au/hunger-in-australia/who-we-are/?state=vic

Thanks to all of the organisers, volunteers and donators!

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist