Next Week @ TC

18/03/2022

Announcements for Next Week

• TC Nursery

• Tutoring

• Photo day catch up

• Student Parent Teacher Interviews this Friday

• Parenting Information Sessions

• Raise In School Mentoring Program

• Grad Hoodie Order - Closing Soon

• TCNEWS - Close the Gap Day

TC Nursery

Don’t forget every Friday our very own Nursery is open form 2-4pm selling TC’s very own produce (currently cash sales only - looking to expand to EFTPOS in term 2). This week on offer is rockmelon, purple king beans, garlic, potatoes, silverbeet, button squash, popping corn, seed packets, and of course a great selection of plants, compost, firewood and mulch.

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.

PHOTO DAY CATCH UP

The photo day catch up will take place on Monday 21st March. Students should go to the Sports Centre in the morning.

Student Parent Teacher Interviews this Friday

For those families that have booked in for the onsite Student Parent Teacher Interviews option this Friday, when you arrive we will have information available on where each member of staff is located. Please allow extra time on your arrival to find parking and to get to your first appointment.

Parenting Information Sessions

We are excited to be partnering with Eastern Parentzone, Anglicare Victoria to run a series of parenting information sessions. Our first session will run on Thursday 31st March from 6.30pm to 8.30pm on the topic of Teenage Resiliency. These sessions will give parents and carers the opportunity to build on their existing parenting strategies and for any questions or concerns to be answered. There is no cost involved. If you require further information, do not hesitate to contact Rita Fernandez at RFER@tc.vic.edu.au or 0439 114 740.
If you would like to attend, bookings can be made by clicking here

Raise In School Mentoring Program

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with the RAISE Foundation again in 2022 to deliver their “In School Mentoring Opportunity” aka ISMO program at TC. 
The TC Wellbeing team have been working with Raise since 2020 to implement their program and last year they were able to work with over 20 TC students. Now is the time to start recruiting students to be part of the 2022 program. 
The last two years have been tough on young people, and we are seeing more and more students with emerging mental health issues. We feel the Raise ISMO program is ideally placed to provide students with the ongoing social mentorship and emotional guidance they need right now.

What is the RAISE ISMO program?  
A qualified Program Counsellor will bring a group of fully trained, fully Child-Safe vetted mentors into the school for an hour each week to facilitate one-on-one mentoring with TC students. The mentoring will begin in term 2 and continue in term 3, concluding with a graduation celebration in late September. 

Who is the RAISE ISMO program for? 
It has been decided that we will offer the program to students in their 2nd and 3rd year of high school, so in TC speak FLE 1 & 2.

Who are the mentors? 
Mentors come from all walks of life, but they all have the same desire; to help young people lead their best possible lives. All of the mentors complete the RAISE best practice Mentor Training Course and complete a compulsory Working with Children Check, National Crime Check, and telephone interview. 

Who are the mentees? How are they selected? 
Parents and students can self-refer to the program by sending an email to atoy@tc.vic.edu.au. 
Students may also be invited to attend the ISMO program by teachers who feel they might benefit from having a neutral positive role model in their lives. If the student agrees to participate their parent/carer will be required to give consent for their child to attend the program.

When & where will the program run? 
The program has been scheduled for Thursdays during period 2 (from 10.40am to 11.50am) and will run from the rear of S-wing to ensure connection to the TC Wellbeing team. Unfortunately, this time cannot be changed and if students decide to participate, they need to be aware it will mean they regularly miss that session of class.   

More Info 
For more info on the Raise program and organisation - https://raise.org.au/ 
For more information on the program at TC please email Amanda Toyer – atoy@tc.vic.edu.au 

Grad Hoodie Order - closing soon

Due to popular demand a new order has been opened for the 2022 Grad Hoodies. If you would like to order please follow this link: https://shop.reformclothing.com/join/vz1445

It will be open until Friday the 25th March. We have a size range at the general office for students to try on the hoodies, varsity jackets and rugby jumpers.

As this is a new order, please make sure when you log in you are seeing the new order number in the web address vz1445 rather than the old one which will display 'order closed'. If this happens either change it in the web address, use a new email to log in, or an in private/incognito web browser. Please use the students name to create a log in, rather than parents names so it is easy to hand them out when they arrive!

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

Announcements from Last Week

• Student Parent Teacher Interviews - Book Now

• Cohort Based Assemblies this week, including Child Safe

• Rapid Antigen Tests available - next round

• TC School Review - an update

• Top Screen Opening

Student Parent Teacher Interviews - Book Now

Sessions:

• Student, parent, teacher interviews option 2 (in person option) – Friday 25th March

Information on how to book for Student Parent Teacher interviews can be found on the front page of Compass. This is now open and the spaces will go very quickly.

A reminder that no classes will run on the days of Student Parent Teacher interviews as all staff are involved all day with the interviews.

Cohort Based Assemblies This Week

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.

Rapid Antigen Tests Available - Next Round

We have now received our latest batch of RAT tests which can be collected from the General Office.

TC School Review - An Update

We have now completed 3 out of 4 days of our 4 yearly school review. Thank you to the parents to took part in the parent forum, which ran along with student panels and meetings with staff.

Our next step is that on the 4th day we look at all of the data collected and then make strategic goals and targets for the period of 2022 - 2025. This process will then probably take us until the end of the term before we will be able to share the findings with the community.

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.

Announcements from Previous Weeks

• Visitors on site (including parents)

• 2022 Panorama and Kinetic Bus Timetables

• Secondary School Vaccinations 2022

• Meet our new staff

• Reporting of Positive RAT or PCR Test

• Annual Privacy Statement

• Students riding to school and bike storage

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.

Bus Timetables

Please visit our transport page for the latest timetables for the Panorama Buses and Kinetic services. Direct link here.

Secondary School Vaccinations 2022

The Secondary School Vaccine Program offers free vaccines to Entry (Year7) and FLE (Year10) students. These vaccines provide protection against:

• Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) – one vaccine for entry students this will be held at TC on Wednesday 30 March 2022

• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – two doses for entry students – first dose will be held at TC on Wednesday, 30 March 2022 and second dose will be held on Tuesday, 4 October 2022.

• Meningococcal A,C,W,Y – one dose for year 10 students (consent cards will posted to families when they become available) – this vaccine will held at TC on Wednesday, 30 March 2022.

Parents/guardians of entry (Year 7) and FLE (Year 10) students the vaccine consent card was posted out to your home address in December 2021.  You need to read the information, complete and return the card regardless of whether your child is being vaccinated at school. If you require another vaccine consent card, please contact Donna in the Health centre (dsm@tc.vic.edu.au).

Manningham Council immunisation service may contact you about the Secondary School Vaccine Program. Schools are authorised to provide basic parent/guardian contact details to local councils for this purpose

To learn more about the Secondary School Vaccine Program, the vaccines, the diseases they protect against, or how you can prepare your child for vaccination, Immunisation in secondary schools - Better Health Channel

Additionally, the Commonwealth government is funding vaccinations for all children under 20 years who missed scheduled vaccines. If students have missed vaccines, either in childhood or adolescence, and require catch-up vaccines, they should speak with their immunisation provider. (ie. local council or GP).

Meet our new staff

Our new staff for 2022 are settling into life at TC, they had a segment during Connect TV so we could learn more about them.

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

Students Riding to School and Bike Storage

We have two bike rack spaces for students to secure their bikes when riding to and from school. 

The first is by the Administration entrance to A Wing and the second is along the side of S Wing nearest to the Permaculture and Animals spaces. 

All students with bikes must use these designated spaces for bike storage throughout the day.

We look forward to seeing as many students as possible riding bikes to school as we all look for different ways to reduce of environmental footprint.

Previous TC NEWS Articles

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