Next Week @TC

04/11/2022

• Become a Homestay for International Students

• 2023 School Captains

• An update on the 2023 subject selection process

• Bicycles/Lawn Mowers and Old Broken Computers sought for 2023 Systems Engineering

• TCNEWS - Earth Week Review

Become a Homestay for International Students

2023 School Captains

We have now completed our process of appointing our 2023 School Captains! This process, led by our outgoing captains supported by our Principal, saw the greatest number of applicants that we have every seen, along with an incredibly high quality. It is amazing to be able to hear about the great work that our students do both inside and outside of school. Congratulations to the three successful candidates, Finn, Chloe and Bonnie-Mai. We shall be hearing from them over the next few weeks.

An Update on 2023 Subject Selection

Please take a moment to read the FAQs of subject selection as we move towards head start.

Bicycles/Lawn Mowers and Old Broken Computers sought for 2023 Systems Engineering

The 2023 Systems Engineering Class are looking for old push bikes, lawn mowers and broken computers to pull apart and use in their learning next year. If you have items you would like to donate please contact Thomas Kennedy on 0434 492 978 or YKEN@tc.vic.edu.au. Donations can be dropped off to Jeremy in SWING.

Earth Week

The Last Community Integrated Learning theme for this year was 'Earth'. During Week 4 (October 24-28), TC celebrated Earth Week with a range of class-based and whole-school activities focusing on sustainability, climate action, energy and waste reduction. CIL organiser Ryan Griffith explains that the theme aimed to "focus our attention on this era-defining issue through action-based learning that will hopefully empower our community to make a positive difference to our environment." 

Throughout the week, there were a plethora of activities, many of which stemmed from the ideas of students who were awarded grants to lead earth-themed activities. Congrats to August Jellis (sustainable food exploration project), Carstens Beyers (micro-bat boxes), and all the students in MAP Occupations (native bird boxes) for their excellent project ideas. 

Also very excitingly, TC received some grants! In the coming year, these grants will help TC go solar, and build a wheelchair-accessible sensory bird aviary and a brand new permaculture project that will be open to the TC community in hopes to reduce the use of everyday plastics.

Here, I spoke to some of the staff and students involved in the activities held throughout the week. Read on. 

Videos For Change:

Ryan: Students could win cash prizes and sustainable picnics for their Connect groups by submitting high-impact one-minute videos on the theme. Videos for Change is an annual global competition and every entry into our TC comp automatically gets entered into the national and global comps. 

There will also be a people's choice award, where students can watch all the fantastic videos and vote for their favourite. Winners will be announced shortly.

Bike 'n Blend - Science

Science hosted an exciting Bike 'n Blend incursion during lunch, where students made delicious and healthy smoothies using nothing but leg power!

Micro-Bat Boxes 

Anna: The micro-bat boxes are boxes where micro-bats can live. You don't ever really see them, but microbats are everywhere and are very important to our ecology. They are very small bats (about the width of your thumb) that need tree hollows to live. However, like most animals that need tree hollows to live, their habitats are becoming scarce. Microbats eat between 500 to 1000 mosquitos every night, so they are a really important part of our ecology. I suggested the idea as one of the ideas we were brainstorming as a Connect group because I love camping, and I am a scout, and scout properties around Victoria also promote the bat-boxes, particularly on the properties. The Connect group liked the idea and so applied for a grant for materials. We will put some of the bat boxes around Templestowe College and donate others to places in the community that would benefit from a decreased mosquito population. These bat boxes connect with Earth Week because they contribute to the natural ecology of Templestowe. I'm really proud of our Connect group who took the time to submit an application. We're very grateful to Ryan and the Connect team for their support and we are enjoying learning the skills required to make the bat-boxes come together.

Food Exploration Project - Emily & August 

Native Bird Boxes - MAP

FLE Maths project 

Rachael: The project focused on collecting student data around Earth week-related topics to develop an understanding of FLE student behaviours, awareness, purchases and choices. In small groups, they could choose their own topics, develop questions and an appropriate range of answers and have all students answer their survey. With the data, the next step was to collate and graph their results. Each year we have a data project in FLE. However, with the Earth Week theme, we decided to make this the focus. Students came up with lots of great topics like water use, public transport, new vs recycled clothes, make-up recycling, plastic vs paper straws and more!.

Solutions Waste Project & Intermediate VCAL

Explored waste and recycling

Energy Expert Residency

Ryan: We were also very lucky to host our first Energy Expert Residency. Lucinda Flynn, a registered Energy Auditor, spent the whole week in and around the school working with classes, staff, and teams to learn about energy efficiency, identify solutions to our local energy and waste challenges, and create an action plan for ongoing improvement in this space. 

Solar Oven Making - Backyard Studies

Food Tech

Students learnt about preserving, jam making, alternative high-nutrition flours such as coconut flour and cooking in season with free range low intensity farming meat.

And more!

It's also exciting to announce next year's Community Integrated Learning-themed weeks. The connect team would like to thank all the students, families, and staff who contributed their ideas and thoughts via the surveys.

Here are the themes for 2023:
Term 1: A breath of fresh air (nature, outdoors, play and mental health)
Term 2: Living Culture (indigenous culture, global culture and what is culture?)
Term 3: You, Me, We (identity, personal belonging and pathways)
Term 4: Give back (contributing to our communities)

It has been awesome to see how this year's CIL's have impacted our community. Congrats to the whole connect team!

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Last Week’s Announcements

• Student Community Leadership Applications

• Interactions with our neighbours

• Amended Hub Opening Hours

• VCE Unit 1 & 2 Exams Timetable

• We need toilet rolls and more…

• TC Closed on Monday

• TC Dress Code Update - Process Update

• Grad Final Day Photos and Assembly

• Parenting Session on Consent from Nillumbik

Student Community Leadership Applications

Community Leader Applications have been extended to close FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4th.
This is a great opportunity for students to be apart of the College Community and do incredible things for themselves and peers at TC!
Interested students should send their application to Steph Marcanio via teams or email at SMAR@tc.vic.edu.au by completing the word document on the community teams page. Gook luck to everyone applying!

Interactions with our Neighbours

A friendly reminder to the College community to look after our TC neighbours by being respectful of their properties and gardens before, during and after school times. Please make sure to only park in permitted streets in the area and be mindful of excessive noise while waiting to be picked up.

Amended Hub Opening Hours

The Hub is open from 7:30am every morning until 4:30 pm Monday to Thursday. On Friday we close at 3:30pm.

VCE Unit 1 & 2 Exam Timetable

Please find below the VCE Unit 2 Exam timetable for our students. Please click on it to enlarge. Staff and students have been speaking about this in their classes.

We Need Toilet Rolls 🧻🧻🧻 and more...

Dear TC Community,
The Working with Animals Program is trying to add some new forms of enrichment to their animals lives. To do this we need large numbers of empty; egg cartons, toilet rolls, paper towel rolls and tissue boxes. Please collect these up and send them in to school. There will be a donations tub at the front office. Please only put in clean and unsquashed items.
Thanks so much for your support

TC Dress Code Update - Process Update

The following information is as information for you. No action is needed by families. We are currently in the process on updating our dress code, as we do each year. At the moment we are asking for student feedback (through Microsoft Teams) around updating the following part of our dress code:

“Your choice of clothing must meet the following:

Physical Activity and Sport classes: When sport or physical activity is taking place outside, Staff and students are required to wear a top with short or long sleeves. Students should wear comfortable clothing that allows Sports shorts, track pants or leggings should be worn to enable movement. Shoes need to be appropriate for exercise.

Drama Subjects: For all drama subjects, staff and students are required to wear clothing which will allow comfortable and confident physical activity by the wearer and should otherwise follow the guidelines set by the PE dress code.

Footwear: In the interest of safety, the wearing of substantial footwear is a requirement. Thongs and similar items of footwear are not to be worn at school. Sandals must be securely attached to the foot. This includes for students taking part in the employability skills program who should wear footwear for the role being carried out as directed in the OHS Training.

Safety: In all subjects, appropriate shoes, personal protective clothing, and equipment must be used as required. These include the Art Hub area, Design Technology area, Permaculture, Animals, Science and Food Technology. Staff may indicate safety requirements for other areas, and these should be adhered to.

Sun Smart: All schools have a duty of care to protect students from foreseeable risks. As UV rays are proven to be a risk schools must take all steps in order to protect students from this risk.”

We will continue to focus our dress code on what the research says should and, more importantly, what shouldn’t be in dress codes. We continue to work within the parameters and guidance set out by the Department of Education and Safe Schools to ensure that our community continues to remain inclusive. We are aiming to release the slightly updated dress code in a few weeks.

Grad Final Day Photos and Assembly

An email has been sent to all Grad families with the link to the Photos and Assembly. If you did not receive this, please let us know by emailing connect@tc.vic.edu.au

Parenting Session on Consent from Nillumbik

Nillumbik Youth are running a free parenting session called Naked Truths #Consent. The session will be facilitated by Body Safety Australia and will provide participants with key tips and strategies to empower their young person in understanding and enacting consent.

Previous Week’s Announcements

• VCE Exams have started

• Times of the day process update

• Updated policies

• Changes to COVID Isolating Guidelines

• 2023 Times of the Day

• Term 3 Newsletter Release

• Final Dates for VCE CATCH Up Classes

• Term 4 Key Dates

• Beginning of 2023 Arrangements

VCE Exams Have begun

The VCE Exam timetable can be found on the VCAA website by clicking here. Our internal Unit 2 exams do not start until the Unit 4 exams have finished.

Good luck to all of our ATAR pathway VCE Students taking their exams!

Times of the Day for 2023 Process - An Update

A quick update: We have now worked through the information gained from students, and are now talking to the bus company to see what is possible. We only wanted to release the information on this once rather than lots of little parts that could change, and are hoping to do this in the next two weeks. For more information, please refer to last weeks information, accessible below. There are no changes to TC opening hours and only a minor change to the times of classes running.

Updated Policies

Term 4 is our policy update time! We are required to let the community know which have been updated. In the past few weeks, we have updated the following policies, they can be found on Our Policies webpage and on the following links:

• Mobile Phone Policy

• Statement of Values and School Philosophy Policy

• Student Drivers Policy

• Camps and Excursions Policy

Changes to COVID Isolating Guidelines

The latest changes to COVID guidelines are now in place. The information below has been copied and pasted from a Department of Education release that was sent to us. Schools will no longer be reporting positive cases to the community.

“It is strongly recommended that students:

• who test positive to COVID-19 stay home and isolate for 5 days

• should not attend school after 5 days if still symptomatic

• who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school

• advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result

Where students become symptomatic at school they should:

• be collected by their parents/carers

• undergo testing for COVID-19”

2023 Times of the Day

This week we started our consultation with students over changes to the times of the day. Whilst we look at student feedback, here is some information below.

Why change?

There has been a statewide change in teachers working conditions as negotiated by the Department of Education. As part of this, teachers now have a reduced time teaching face to face in front of students. More information on this can be found through googling “VGSA2022”.

This has required a change to our structure in order to accommodate this.

What hasn’t changed?

• Our understanding that learning is does not only happen when a student is sat in a classroom. That all of the time here at TC is a learning opportunity. We will still have many other opportunities for learning, rather than just the time sat in a classroom.

• We know that we are not here to just fill students with information

• We have a bigger responsibility than just achieving exam results, study scores

• Our school opening hours

• The hours that staff are onsite

• Our finish time

• Our Teachers willingness to work, support and interact with students outside of “classroom” time

• Early finish time on Wednesday so that students can gain additional qualifications at TAFE, clubs can run onsite, students can access facilities, students have time for extra study or to access our tutors, or for some of our younger students to be able to recover from the high cognitive loads of Monday and Tuesday

• Slightly earlier finish time on Friday, recognising that the adolescent brain is done by this time in the week.

• Prioritising one program over another

• Keeping a simple 1 week timetable in which students of all ages have a consistent recess and lunchtime, and all classes have 3 periods per weeks

• Having a timetable in which all students can access all the opportunities through the school.

• We have avoided Teachers sharing classes (except in exceptional circumstances)

What has changed?

• A reduction of our 90 minute periods to 70 minutes

• An introduction of a 30 minute period 0 starting at 8:40. More on what will be available in this time to follow.

• Period 1 starting a bit later that this year. This fits in with the research around the adolescent brain.

• More clubs and activities running throughout the day. There will be greater transparency around where and when these are running.

• More opportunities for students to be able to work in small study groups

• Connect has seen a small increase in time from 25 minutes to 30 minutes. This will take place on the same days as this year.

• More opportunities for students to be able to use the resources at the school in a more self directed manner as they continue to develop their skills of independence and self regulating learning, whilst being supported by staff

• A planned increase in camps experiences available, and immersive day learning experiences

Our Next Steps

We are currently collating the feedback that we have received from students.

This feedback allows us to look at what students see as the potential problems and benefits that arise from the new timetable in order to look at what we put in place to minimise or manage risks, and enhance benefits.

We will then release the information to parents. This process will happen very quickly.

TC NEWs takes a short break at the start of this term, we look forward to bringing you more exciting articles in the Term 4 weeks to come.

Term 3 Newsletter realease

Congratulations to our community for an amazing Term 3. Our newsletter is jam packed with events and activities in and outside the classroom in a true display of diversity, leadership, participation and learning! Enjoy it now: TC - Newsletter, Issue 3, 2022

Final Dates for VCE CATCH Up Classes

The final dates to make up any VCE classes missed are:

• Friday 11th November for Unit 1/2 classes

VCE catch-up sessions that are held weekly in the HUB at the following times:

• Monday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

• Tuesday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

• Thursday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

A reminder that students must achieve an attendance rate of 85% for each of their VCE classes in line with DET requirements. Any questions regarding this process please contact Katrina Katz - Assistant Principal - KKAT@tc.vic.edu.au

Term 4 key dates

• Wednesday 26th October – Wednesday 16th November – Unit 4 VCE Exams Run

• Thursday 17th November – Wednesday 23rd November – Unit 2 VCE Exams Run

• Thursday 24th November – Virtual Final Assembly

• Friday 25th November – Staff Professional Practice Day. No classes running onsite

• Monday 28th November – Friday 2nd December – Head Start Week 1 (ALL STUDENTS)

• Monday 5th – Friday 9th December – Head Start Week 2 (NON-VCE STUDENTS - FLE & PRE)

• Monday 12th - Friday 16th December - Activity Week

• Tuesday 13th December – 2023 Entry Orientation Day (Non VCE Students Onsite)

• Wednesday 14th – Thursday 15th December – Staff First Aid Training taking place + Peer support training. Activities running for others onsite

• Friday 16th December - Staff PD Day (no students onsite)

• Monday 19th December – TC TLC Day 1

• Tuesday 20th December – TC TLC Day 2 (Early Finish) (Last day of the Year)

Beginning of 2023 Arrangements

Currently we have the following arrangements for the beginning of 2023:

• Friday 27th January - Staff Professional Development Day. No students on site. General Office opens after 11am

• Monday 30th January - Staff Professional Development Day. No students on site.

• Tuesday 31st January - 2023 Entry Students begin. VCE students return TBC.

• Wednesday 1st February - all students are onsite.

Previous TCNEWS Articles

Elite Dance Showcase Review

Last Friday Night, the award-winning Elite dance team dazzled us with their dance moves to raise money for their Nationals comp next year! Held in the PAC, there were all kinds of performances. From lyrical to hip hop there was a dance for everyone. Also, if you're a fan of amazing music (Beyoncé, Madonna, Lana Del Rey and Amy Winehouse) you would've definitely had a good time.

At the Nationals competition next year, held by Dance Life Unite, the elite team will verse schools all around Australia for a national title. The event is held at 'Big Top' in Luna Park, Sydney. It's a great opportunity for students to see what’s out there and experience competing against different states.

Emma Tierney runs the Elite Program every Friday afternoon with guest teacher Tonille, who teaches hip-hop. For the dancers, the group performances were already learnt by heart since they had already performed them earlier in the year at competitions and other showcases, but with the guidance of Emma and Tonille, they had only had a month to choreograph and learn their solos, duos and trios!

If you've ever wondered where the gorgeous costumes are from, the team hire them from the Edge performers school in Eltham. The school has a wide range of options in its stunning costume wardrobe. Emma also teaches at the Edge and is able to go down and choose costumes that she thinks would be a perfect fit for each routine.

For dancer Sam Boscariol, the highlight of the night was the "final bows, hearing the audience cheer and clap and hearing about how much they loved the show. Also the nice compliments from the audience members after the show."

Congrats to all students and staff involved in the fantastic performance!

My personal favourites were:
Burlesque - Group performance
Break my Soul/Vogue - Daniel
Easy to Love - Charlise
Glam - Ash & Jamie
Step Up - Group performance

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist