Newsletter, Term 1, 2022

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Congratulations on everyone for such a great term! From reading through the newsletter below it is obvious to see that there has been an abundance of activities taking place throughout the community so far this year. The range of activities taking place is also amazing, with something for everyone!

A highlight for myself was the first ever Community Integrated Learning week, in the form of the Body Mind Spirit week, which saw all of our community focus on a similar theme both inside and outside of the classroom. I am really excited to see how this initiative develops over the year with the different themes that have been strategically selected for each term.

A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed towards the term, in any way, shape or form. Every member of our community, be they a student, member of staff, parent, carer or community member has an important part to play in it being what it is.

Looking forward having now completed our school review process, which has helped to shape our strategic direction for the next four years, we will release more information over the year on what “TC:The Next Level” will look like as we continue to build on the levels of student agency within the school with learning and welllbeing combined as our key focus.

Peter Ellis
Principal

Check out our Animals Instagram page @tc_animals 📷 and Facebook page Templestowe College Animals Program | Facebook

Animal Industry Skills

Animal industry skills is a yearlong subject new to Templestowe college this year, so far in class we have learnt a whole range of information about the animal industry. With hands on activities and theory-based knowledge, ais is the perfect combination of theory and prac with animals that all students can engage in. It is a great opportunity for students to receive a deeper understanding and gain a lot if knowledge about the animal industry including animal care, health, and their wellbeing. One of our latest activities included small groups of students working together to survey our school community about how they restrain their pets at home. Students in ais are working on improving the knowledge of our peers when it comes down to animal safety and are trying to make a better impact on the safety of our pets when being restrained in a vehicle.

Another area of learning we conducted in ais, involved working with live animals. In this activity we safely put rabbits and dogs in different restraining techniques we were taught. We also learnt some interesting knowledge on why, where and when these different restraining techniques will be used in the animal industry. Students receive a better understanding on why specific techniques are being used in the industry, we receive a better understanding of safety with animals, having this knowledge will benefit us in the future with possibly working in the industry or just in general with our pets.

Community Integrated Learning Week

Our first community integrated learning week for the year was Mind Body Spirit Week, when we focused in and out of the classroom on all things related to the body, how we think and feel, mental health, movement, and brain science.

The week's feature event was the Pool Party on Tuesday, February 22nd. The day was filled with community events, live music, games, yoga, circus skills, BBQ, water slides, visits from Headspace and Manningham Youth and of course, swimming races! You could even get your portrait drawn or photographed by art staff and students. Congratulations to GOLD Community who took home the community cup scoring the most points for the day in the swimming events.

VCAL students ran a BBQ to raise funds for Laps For Life. Students and staff had the opportunity to swim laps went into the running to win a $30 gift voucher for either Village or Rebel Sport. Another avenue to raise money that was very popular was to donate to see Peter Ellis have a bucket of iced water thrown over his head! It was the penultimate event for the day and very funny to watch! Laps For Life works with youth on suicide prevention and aims to improve the mental health of young people. Total funds raised were $705, well done VCAL.

TC's resident circus practitioner Stephanie ran circus workshops during the pool party and 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!

In the light of the Body, Mind, Spirit Festival, English teachers Michael Allan and Michelle Parker launched 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". Listen to it here on soundcloud!

During the week other events and activities included Lit Club for book lovers run by Natasha Bossong. The Animals committee are ran an open night on Thursday, featuring guest presenters with horses, native animals, and all sorts of furry creatures. There was a screening of Happy Sad Man with a very special opportunity to meet and chat with acclaimed Director Genevieve Bailey and watch her award-winning film. On Thursday lunch a huge range of activities took place including Community dodge ball, calligraphy with the international program, stress ball and terrarium making with Manningham Youth Services and a stage dive session with Morena Walsh.

In the classroom all faculty areas got involved, MAP students did tree planting while learning how to care for the environment, our ESDP basketball program did a demo promoting a health lifestyle, Drama and Music did a collaboration to connect their passions, music also did a vision board workshop with parent volunteer Lisa Jane Hussey. Biology used playdoh to make 3D brain diagrams, food tech worked to understand the benefits of good food and in connect groups created a gratitude wall, did games and three part corpse drawings!

It was also the opening of the first TC Nursery, as our permaculture program expands it is an exciting venture that we are selling our own produce and garden essentials. Open every Friday 2-4pm you can buy a huge range of fresh produce, mulch and compost, native plants and succulents and fresh flowers as well. Visit every Friday for weekend supplies and talk to our knowledgeable team of students and staff.

The Mind, Body and Spirit festival was a true collaboration of the TC community and a testament to what we can achieve together, we look forward to the next instalment in Term 2: Global Citizenship. If you have any ideas shoot them through to Ryan on RGR@tc.vic.edu.au

Movie Night for Entry and FLE 1 Students

Connect TV

Production Manager Kat and Producer Eve share their thoughts on the start of Connect TV this year.

Kat: “As someone who joined the Connect TV team at the start of the last term, it has been a great opportunity with a great group of people. This year we really aim to make Connect TV relatable, enjoyable and accessible for all TC students.”

Eve: “Working on Connect TV in term one was a very fun experience, and it was great working with our new student-led team. We are all very excited for our next episode centred around Global Citizenship!”

We owe a very big thank you to Bendigo Bank (Doncaster East & Templestowe Village) who have offered to sponsor TC’s Connect TV with a $5000 grant to put towards buying new camera gear for the show. Our show is student led with a viewership of over 1230 students, 130 staff members, and their families. Connect TV features amazing stories about TC events, youth culture, current issues locally and around the world, music, art, student achievements and school opportunities.

Fareshare Community Kitchen

Peer Support

Term 1 saw a dedicated team of FLE leaders working with Entry Connect groups each week to build connections and social strategies as part of our Peer Support program. The program empowers young leaders to find their own unique style of leadership whilst also helping Entry students find their feet and build friendships across age groups. Thanks to all the leaders, the Entry students, Entry Connect Mentors, and Meg Bailey for her help in training the leaders and structuring the sessions.

Entry Camp

Entry camp involved 129 students and ran from 16th-18th of Feb at the YMCA Anglesea campgrounds.
Highlights of Entry Camp as told by Entry students are below:

My favourite memory of Entry camp is…

‘I learnt how to ride a bike’ – Cyrus Golshiryan
‘In mountain biking, I learnt how to ride a bike’ – Daniel Golshiryan
‘The raft falling apart in the river’ – Josh Devereux
‘Going on the giant swing’ – Ivy Cunningham
‘Midnight feast’ – Malik Chong
‘When me and my friends won Gaga Ball’ – Rishi Ahmed
‘When I stacked it 4 times’ – Daniel Dyson
‘Raft building and mountain biking’ – Lotus Hannessen
‘Canoeing with Raj’ – Sascha Griffith

I laughed the hardest when….

‘Swimming to shore after our raft was destroyed’ – Dexter Dovey Cribbes
‘Someone was throwing a plate, they dropped it and it broke’ – Isla Treweek
‘I accidently jumped into the volleyball net and it sling-shotted me back’ – Jahla Goyma
‘Naomi left her ‘fashion’ glasses in the garden and thought she lost them’ – Paige Miles
‘Eibhlin made best-friends with a bin, and when we thought the kangaroo was chasing us’ ­– India Guavin
‘Listening to the screams on the giant swing’ – Srishti Sharma
‘I had my moments…’– Sullivan Brown
‘Me and my friends laughing at the dinner table’ – Pema Khedup
‘When Indie was running down the corridor with a goat mask on’ – Zoe Frankel
‘That kid screaming about chicken strips at 2am’ – Jacob Luka
‘When Angus smashed his half pipe in initiatives/team building after failing 10 times’ – Olivia Hasslinger
‘I was steered into a cobweb while canoeing’ – Cordy Phillips-Reid

On Wednesdays we wear PINK

On Wednesdays we wear pink! This is a great way to build school community and togetherness whilst at the same time raising awareness for breast cancer. Approximately 55 Australians are diagnosed with breast cancer each and every day. @TC we endeavour to wear pink on Wednesdays to strike up a conversation and help promote awareness.

Canteen Menu Term 2

Click here to see our new menu for Term 2! And as always don’t forget to follow us on Instagram - Templestowe College Canteen (@templestowe_college_canteen) • Instagram photos and videos

Jane Gilmore Incursion

During week 9, the fears and ideas class as well as the English language and literature students attended a Jane Gilmore incursion, Jane Gilmore is a freelance journalist and author who focus predominantly on discourse analysis of both Gendered violence and the general issues that are considered ‘women’s issues’. She was very inspiring and open about her vast knowledge. One of the most interesting things was her depiction of sub judice contempt and how it directly effects the reporting around crime, it stops any reporting that could form biases for jury participants. As students it was inspiring to see her perspective around the media as both an industry and a medium of information communication.

TC Street Podcast

As part of Mind, Body and Spirit Week the English team released a brand new podcast called TC Street. It features some awesome thoughts and voices from heaps of different students at TC!

Hear students answer the BIG questions about MIND-BODY-SPIRIT.
What's your favourite body part?
What is spirituality to you?
What would you do if your head was swapped with your friend's head?

An English Team and TC students co-creation

Outdoor elective

Mount Baw Baw reflection

On week three term one the outdoor recreation class featuring year 8 to 10’s went on a camp to mount Baw Baw to hike on the Australian alpine walking/hiking track then riding down the Thompson River on lilo's the one-week trip was primarily to teach students about leadership skills and taking initiative. 

Group a started off at the northeast entrance to the alpine track and hiked 4.5km out of the 22km to Mount Saint Gwanier while group b stopped about a kilometer down the track at rock shelter. The leadership roles went into play immediately group a’s ten students were split into 2’s and 3’s. Each group had one role to do. This included hygiene, environment, cooking, clean up, the next day we hiked about 8 kilometers to mushroom rocks, a massive array of rocks covered in moss and reaching heights of 12-20 meters. 

The third and last hiking day was the longest hike yet, about 10 km. It was extremely hard for some of the students that were suffering from blisters on their heels and shoulders. The whole hike was a steep downhill descent which did not help anybody. The group wanted to stop multiple times which ended up with group b overtaking us which some of us were not happy about over the three days we were hiking two of those the teachers chose leaders to lead the group their primary role is to support the welfare of the team and direct the other groups what to do, they also have the power to tell us where to have lunch and when to stop and have a break. 

We got to the end of track and got picked up by the bus and went to cooper's creek where we would spend the next two and final nights, when we got there, we sorted out all our P.F.Ds and wetsuits ready for the next day. Day four we got up early and got all our gear onto the Ute and drove to the Thompson River train station there we got into our gear, and we got told that the river was too low to raft on, so we went on lilo's which are like inflatable mattress we spent about five hours on the river only stopping for a bucket lunch on the shoreline. 

While going down the Thomson rapids we saw old mining shafts that we were told were extremely dangerous, we also saw lots of wildlife including water dragons, snakes, birds, dragon flies and other insects. We ended up back at cooper's creek (which is on the Thompson River) and deflated the lilo's and folded them up and took our wetsuits of which would be taken back to Rubicon outdoor education center which was the company running our camp. 

On the last day we took our time to pack up our tents and then drove to Nayook to clean and wash all the gear that we used while hiking and going down the river, then had wraps for lunch and said goodbye to the Rubicon coordinators and drove back to templestowe campus. 

Chase Clissold 

Physical Education

The Unit 1/2 Physical Education Students had the pleasure of meeting Peter from Disability Services and Recreation Victoria. The students listened to his story and had the chance to play wheelchair basketball. Peter contracted Polio soon after birth in Nigeria and became paraplegic. We heard of his hardship whilst growing up, which involved crawling 3km to school, being isolated at school for being different and having no walking supports for most of his childhood. Peter inspired us all as he over came his challenges to become an x-paraolympian, wheelchair basketball professional and now coach and captain of Hawthorn Wheelchair Football. TC students were given an insight on the daily struggles someone in a wheelchair faces as well as the importance of inclusion in all things we do. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed Peter's speech as well as playing wheelchair basketball.

On the 1st of April the PE 1/2 students went on a thrilling adventure to the Templestowe Bowls Club. Here we were met with three volunteers from the club and Paul from Bowls Victoria to help teach us the skills involved in lawn bowls. It was a perfect morning, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping as the students got a masterclass in how to complete the perfect bowl. The competitive nature of PE students was on full display as the students battled it out to determine who was the best bowler on the day. Thank you to Templestowe Bowls Club for having us and the students for their enthusiasm on the day.

Eastern Metropolitan Regional Swimming

Our swimmers enjoyed a great T1 with many successes in the pool and nine students are heading to the states in T2. We wish theym all the best!

ESDP T1 WRAP

The ESDP Basketball Program had a busy term one with some great results.

Rowville hosted their annual tournaments, so our Junior, Intermediates and Senior teams all got a chance to compete against some of the best basketball schools. The boys’ teams had great wins over Rowville and our Intermediate and Senior girls also had wins.

Berwick Secondary College also invited us to attend their annual tournaments with both our Junior and Senior teams competing. The Senior boys had significant wins over the Berwick teams and our Senior girls also came away undefeated on the day.

Early next term we will be competing in the Basketball Victoria 3x3 tournaments, and the Victorian College Championships also begin next term.

Students in the basketball program will also have individual meetings with the coaches to set some goals for the remainder of 2022.

All things considered its been a great start to 2022 for the basketball program.

Sociology

On Tuesday all the Sociology student went on an excursion to the Immigration Museum. The museum showcases stories of immigration, identity and belonging. The 3/4 class saw the ‘Identity: yours, mine, ours’ exhibition that explored how our culture, beliefs, family and language affect our identity and our sense of belonging in Australia. It ties in personal stories using multimedia forms like images, objects and spoken word that creates an interactive experience where visitors can connect with others. This is part of our area of study on ethnicity where we look at the migrant experience in Australia. It was very engaging while delivering important information about Australia and how everyone experiences this country differently. - Lelaina Armstrong (3/4 Sociology Student)

As a sociology Cohort, we were lucky enough to be taken around the Indigenous exhibition at the Melbourne museum by Aunty V - an Indigenous women who taught us about different Australian flora - how they were traditionally eaten and used to make fabrics, tools and everyday items.

Aunty V gave us an assortment of plants to taste - explaining how these might be cooked and eaten. She also taught us how to make rope out of long leaves, using a traditional, ancient twisting technique. It was an honour to be taught this technique directly by Aunty V, we had so much fun learning these methods of creating tools using the lands natural resources around us. It gave me a new found appreciation for the value of the natural world around us - which we often take for granted - but which is rich in resources and abundant in its use.

Through this experience we were introduced to material culture (physical aspects of Indigenous culture) - like how important the land is as a natural resource for creating so many artefacts, and how the land is so foundational to every day living in Indigenous culture.

It was a wonderful day out, we learnt so much and I'm incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to receive ancient knowledge and methods from Aunty V. - Sucheta Perira (3/4 Sociology Student)

Museum Excursion

Sociology students from unit 1 participated in an excursion to the immigration and Melbourne Museum. The focus for the excursions was for unit 1 to explore different experiences of youth from both different generations and cultures.

“My time at the museum was simply splendid. it was really quite a lovely experiencing seeing the different perspectives of youth. I found it reassuring and comforting,  to know that other have been through similar experiences to me. Everything was really aesthetically pleasing and it was a beautiful sight. It was super interesting learning about different cultures and how there is a common thread of experience within the different cultures.”
Archana Pereira

Social Justice Club

In week 7 of term the Humanities Team, with the help of our newly formed Social Justice Club, ran a series of events to celebrate International Women’s Day (8th March). We had a screening of ‘Ms Represented’ on Monday and on Tuesday History Club ran a session focusing on powerful women who changed History. We also held two successful fundraisers. The first was a dress-up day with the theme of future careers. For a gold coin donation, students dressed up and raised over $150 for ‘Dress for Success’, a charity which 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. On Thursday that week, we ran a dignity drive – collecting sanitary and hygiene products – for ‘Share the Dignity’, an Australian charity that provides these products for those experiencing financial hardship or homelessness. We ran this in conjunction with a screening of ‘Period: End of Sentence’ and collected ten bags of products! Social Justice Club students helped with the collections and helped raise awareness around the school with a series of posters. Thank you to everyone who got involved during the week and made it such a success!

We have been happy to welcome some new international students to TC.  With border closure in 2020 we have not had any new arrivals, so it has been a wonderful to have new faces to welcome into the program and TC.  We have had 18 students who graduated in the last 2 years, and we currently (including new kids) have 23 international students.  Many of them are still unable to return home because of long quarantine periods in their home countries.

Lunar New Year & Nowruz

Lunar New year fell on the 1st of Feb and it is celebrated for 15 days.  The international student were able to celebrate this time with some dumplings, wish is a traditional dish eaten during this time. 

Nowruz or Iranian New Year was celebrated on 21 March 2022.  We acknowledged the Persian new year with new students Aylin and Aynaz.

Alex Dai turns 18

We traditionally celebrate the 18th birthday of our international students. On 31 March we had a pizza party with Alex and friends! Happy Birthday Alex

After two years of COVID isolation, MAP students were able to return to farm camp, where they live and work Mon-Fri

20 MAP students and 3 staff visited Granden Park farm, a 320 acre property near Chiltern, Vic, that specialises in Suffolk sheep, but also has horses, cows, goats, chickens, guinea fowl, 3 working dogs and 4 chihuahuas. The major work jobs included gathering and splitting firewood, building nesting boxes for endangered wildlife, filling wire gabions with rocks to prevent erosion, and tagging and foot-bathing sheep.

Students cooked for the whole group, rotating in groups of 5. We ate pizza, fried rice, toasties, fruit salad, pasta, sandwiches, baked potatoes, pancakes, and nachos. In addition, there was lots of time spent around the campfire, playing games, chatting, playing with Lizzie and Annie (the farm kids) and their guinea pigs and dogs. We also climbed nearby Mt Pilot and then did it again at 5am one morning to watch the sunrise. One hot afternoon we got to cool off in the rock pools at Woolshed Falls.

We will remember the farm fondly for the sheep tag fashion and our friend Pablo.

MAP Students Camp 1

FLE Maths Pathways

In FLE Maths Pathways classes we have been developing our confidence with problem solving through playing games and doing puzzles, as well as developing number skills using BODMAS, fractions, decimals and percentages, with scientific notation as an extension. Students also continued to work through Maths Pathways modules, developing their skills across a wide range of mathematical concepts.

The Learning Task focussed on working independently and in groups to decode puzzles using ancient number systems. Students then compared the metric and imperial number systems through a range of fraction tasks, drawing conclusions about which was an easier system to use nowadays?

Next term we will be launching into our measurement unit and students will be designing their own luxury backyard pools. What amazing designs will they come up with?

TC Busking Adventure

Warrandyte Festival

Entry Science

Entry Science students have spent two weeks on an engineering challenge – to design, build and test a cup prototype to keep boiling water as hot as possible for 10 minutes. A trolley of materials were provided and students had to consider which materials to use and how to apply them to a standard coffee cup and lid. After prototype 1 was tested and everyone’s results and cups were displayed, students had an opportunity to rethink and fine tune their design before spending time on making prototype 2. A second round of testing and calculations allowed each class to determine the top 3 most insulated cups, and how they had achieved this. Each group submitted a report including their brainstorming ideas, best design option, labelled diagram, table of results, graph of results and written analysis. Congratulations to all students on their focus and efforts in Keeping it hot.

Solutions Using Science

This term we have bee exploring the question ‘Should we build a colony on Mars?’ in Solutions Using Science. This has involved a lot of multidisciplinary unpacking of concepts and ideas. Firstly, why would we want or need to send people to Mars? Who would want to go and who would get chosen? How would they get there and once there how would they live? Biology, psychology, chemistry, physics, earth and space sciences all covered in just one big question!

However, we spent most of our time this term learning about the chemistry of rocket fuel and how to increase the rate of chemical reactions for more explosive power. Students then designed their own methods for increasing the reaction rate of the chemical reaction that occurs when you mix vinegar with bicarb soda.

In the last part of the term we explored the forces acting on rockets and how these forces change over the course of the flight. We experiment with horizontal balloon rockets and vertical paper and water rockets and finally created story boards showing the vectors of forces acting on our rockets as they flew into space, carrying their soon-to-be Martian passengers. Part of this included classes attempting to lift 12 paper clips to ceiling using just a balloon rocket. This is a NASA challenge designed to introduce students to the idea of thrust vs weight and how this affects the maximum mass a rocket can lift. Solutions D managed 5, Solutions A upped it to 6 and Solutions E achieved 12. Check out some of our experiments on video!

Next term our topic is ‘Feeding the World’ and we will learn about what our bodies need, what is in food, where our food comes from and how we can ensure nutritious and adequate food is available to a growing global population.

Earth and Beyond

Emu Sky and Melbourne Museum Excursion - 23 March

Students visited the new Science Gallery at Melbourne University and were guided by traditional custodians of the land through the Emu Sky exhibition. They were introduced to the story of the dark spaces in the sky that represent the Emu and signify to the Aboriginal landholders when it was the time for collecting emu eggs (without chicks). Examples of cultural and artistic objects were part of the visit. Students participants in a true/false quiz based on information in the exhibit and 2 lucky participants received a poster. A set of posters was donated to the school Backyard studies unit and identifies the original Koori names for many local species of plants.

The next part of the excursion (after a brief stop for lunch in Argyle Square) was an IMAX movie on the story of Earth looking at the geological processes that have formed Earth. Here is Finn's reflection.

“The bus ride over was good; surprisingly fast and not awfully cramped. The emu sky showcase was fun and interesting and the people were niceI went to domino's for the second time in my life and the value for money was about expected; not awful also went to 7-11 for the first time and I got a Slurpee, the limited edition sour grapefruit flavour was enjoyable. The I-Max show was very interesting, I particularly enjoyed the showcase of Iceland's geothermal springs. The museum showcase was also interesting, I liked seeing the rock samples, insects and the big fish. The bus ride back was enjoyable, I spent a lot of the time reading my book.”

The final part of the excursion was the Dynamic Earth exhibit were students explored the various rocks and minerals and some lucky students got a sneak peak at the NEW triceratops. Many thanks to Anita Petridis (support teacher) and Amy Stirling (In2Science mentor) who came along to help out.

Zoology and Ecology

In Zoology and Ecology we started right at the beginning of life on the planet and explored the rise and fall of biodiversity over history’s numerous extinctions. We learnt about classification of the living world and then dived into learning more about current species on our planet and the diverse adaptations they have evolved to have, based on their success in different environmental niches. For their first learning task student compared two different animals that share a common adaptation, and were encouraged to comment on how the adaptation makes them successful.

We went on a few very local excursions to visit the TC animals, observing their traits and learnt from resident expert, Claire, how the different fish have different personalities!  We also did a quadrat population sampling activity of the back paddock, looking for evidence (of the brown, squishy kind) of the alpacas, goats and sheep that live there and analysing our data using Excel spreadsheets.

Next term we will be learning about different reproductive systems of animals, symbiotic relationships in nature and some environmental threats and conservation management strategies to look after vulnerable species. We will also go on an excursion to visit LaTrobe University's Zoology Department to learn to identify animals from their bone structure.

Environmental Science

In Unit 3 Environmental Science this term students have been learning about why it is important to maintain biodiversity. They learnt sampling techniques and some ways to analyse water quality. We conducted a range of tests on the very bright green duck pond water and looked at ways we could improve the quality of the water. We also conducted water sampling and macroinvertebrate classification at Blackburn Lake Sanctuary, using the data to decide which location had better water quality. Back at school we were also asked to do some soil testing by the TC Farm staff, to help determine if the soil provides sufficient nutrients for our resident livestock. This was not an easy task as the soil was very hard and we had interference from Molly the naughty goat and an anxious alpaca! We have sent the samples off to a lab and look forward to seeing the results.

The focus of student assessment was an independent research project focussed on vulnerable Australian species. Students chose a wide variety of endemic animals and unpacked the role they play in the ecosystem, what threats they face and the best management strategies for restoring their numbers in the wild. I tell you, our wildlife would be in good hands if this lot were in charge!

Backyard Permaculture

This term in the TC Farm we have made great progress harvesting our summer produce and preparing and sowing the next round of seeds. It has been particularly exciting to pick our first rockmelons (or cantaloupes if you prefer), which were planted during Headstart. They were worth the wait; juicy and delicious! We have also been managing our farm animals that we share with the Animals program, our sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks.

At the start of term students learnt about the 12 principles of permaculture and started working on their individual Passion Projects, which range from repairing parts of the farm to creating artwork and researching areas of interest.

In addition, they each manage a garden plot in a small group, in which they have planted an assortment of autumn delights such as potato, lettuce, beans and beetroot, and are a part of a larger working group, either Farm (Rhiain) or Market Garden (Meg and Petra).

RIP Rover the sheep
Old and beloved sheep Rover was peacefully put to sleep in late Term 1 after becoming very thin and sore with arthritis.

Welcome Catherine! Catherine has joined the Permaculture team from Montmorency South PS, having run a Stephanie Alexander garden there. Passionate about all things permaculture, she'll be working with our gardening group and building a few cob structures around the school as well! Welcome to TC!

TC Market Launch
Early in the term we saw the gates (with artwork by student, Adah) go up and open for the first TC Market. Our newly employed TC Farmhands were there to welcome customers and practice their cash handling and customer service, as well as help whip the rest of the farm into shape.

The Friday markets (open 2-4pm) have been a huge success, with popularity growing by the week. At the markets you can find all of our seasonal produce as well as chopped wood, organic compost, native plants and succulents, and students have enjoyed playing around with presentation, sustainable packaging, weighing and costing. Next term we are introducing items made by students in our Entrepreneurship classes so come and have a look at the arts and crafts on offer.

Volunteering is back in the Farm!

If you are parent or grandparent and would like to help us out on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 12:30 please email Petra at plea@tc.vic.edu.au

Baking

It has been a busy term in the Baking kitchen, students have been learning about the processes used in making baked goods including yeasted doughs; investigating into the history and the art of the croissant; decorating; the art of chocolate and much more!

Excursion to Egons Bakery

On the 21st and 24th of February the Baking classes went on an excursion to Egons Bakery in Macedon square. Gary, the owner, spoke about the family bakery that began around 50 years ago, the art of baking, tempering chocolate and much more. The students enjoyed the discussion, had lots of questions and enjoyed some of Egons delicious baked goods. We are so thankful for Gary’s generosity; each student walked away with two donuts in a bag! Smiles all round!

Cafe Culture

Both Cafe culture classes really enjoyed their informative time at Riddick.
We were welcomed by George the owner who kindly gave up his time to chat and have a Q and A with the students.
It was really interesting to hear about how the Cafe was named and where the famous mural came from.
Students enjoyed an array of drinks as well breakfast and lunch items. The students asked questions around employment as the hospitality industry is a great part time job when studying!
Walking tours are a great opportunity for students to be familiar with the school neighbourhood as well as connect with other peers and staff members.

VCAL students have had a busy Term 1. It has been great to be able to get out into the community and attend excursions and to have people on site again.

We’ve been working hard to gain our Safe@work certificates so that we can go out on work placements. Some of us have been lucky enough to find a placement already and others have lined up a school-based apprenticeship meaning we are doing our apprenticeship and gaining our VCAL certificate simultaneously. We were also lucky to have the Young Workers Resource Centre come out to school to talk to us about our rights and responsibilities in the workplace and provide us with information around where to seek help should we need it.

Throughout the term, the Intermediate and Senior students have been updating their resumes and adding to them, gaining both certificates in Safe Food Handling and Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate.

VCAL were an integral part of the swimming carnival making sure no one went hungry by cooking a sausage sizzle. This was just one of the activities we ran on the day to raise money for Laps For Life, a charity aiming to raise money to support Reach Out in assisting children experiencing mental health difficulties. We also had a lap lane going where students and staff participated all day, swimming laps to raise money. Other students ran money raising guessing games and Peter Ellis was a great sport, allowing us to auction off a chance to tip a bucket of water on him. In the end, we raised over $700.00 so thank you to everyone who helped make that possible.

The Seniors have been focusing on road safety for their integrated project. We’ve had some great fun attending the Grand Prix to observe the safety measures in place and participate in what was on offer both on and off the track. We let out some frustrations and had a lot of fun on the dodgem cars, had a go at beating the record for pit changes (2 seconds, and no we didn’t even get close), saw some robots, an F1 car made from Lego and participated in some virtual reality flight simulators.

Student Achievements - VCE Excellence

Top Arts

An annual favourite on the NGV exhibition calendar, Top Arts showcases the exceptional work of students who have completed Art or Studio Arts as part of their Victorian Certificate of Education in an extraordinary past year. Comprising work selected from applicants across Victoria, the exhibition encompasses a range of media, including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, digital and mixed media. The exhibition includes reflections on identity, time, home, social issues, and our connection to the natural world.

This year’s exhibitors were selected based on key criteria including conceptual development, technical excellence, aesthetic considerations, awareness of past and contemporary art practices, individuality, and innovation.

This exhibition highlights the NGV’s strong commitment to arts education, as well as its role as a platform for young people to express their diverse ideas, attitudes, and beliefs.

Top Arts celebrates the outstanding abilities and the diverse concerns of our newest emerging talents and in 2022 Templestowe College students Miki Flett and Holy O’Brien were successful applicants who presented their final artwork in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Miki’s digital artwork, Bricks, bins & backstreets portrays a desperate attachment to people, places & memories. ‘Through a literal depiction of large, crippled hands grasping onto an ordinary backstreet building, the concept reflects how something as mundane as a brick building hidden by narrow streets, can be held onto, sentimentally.’

Holly’s gouache paintings explore the same themes surrounding identity and personal experiences. ‘I wanted to create works that contain symbolic imagery and bright colours as a form of self-expression. Through both works, I have represented my personal life experiences and how these experiences shape who I am as an individual.’

As Miki’s and Holly’s Studio Arts teacher I am honoured to have been invited to attend the opening night to celebrate this special event alongside my students. I am proud of their achievements and wish them well in their future endeavours.

Demi Nicolaidis

Top Designs

Top Designs 2022  Melbourne Museum exhibition showcases 83 works created by students who completed VCE Media, Product Design and Technology, Systems Engineering, Theatre Studies and Visual Communication Design, as well as a range of VCE VET studies including Creative and Digital Media, Furnishing, Integrated Technologies and Music Industry (Sound Production).

The exhibition serves to inspire current and future VCE and VCE VET students, as they explore works ranging from furniture, fashion, film and graphic design, to engineering, web design, sound design and more.

Holly O’Brien is also represented in Top Design for her Media work, the graphic novel Outsiders. Last but definitely not least Amelie Thompson is also exhibited with her unique textiles product design in VCE Product Design and Technology she completed with Distance Education.

To see and read more on Top Designs visit their Facebook page: Top Designs at Melbourne Museum | Facebook

ART EDUCATION VICTORIA - KICKSTART PROGRAM

MIKI FLETT: STUDENT PRESENTER

2021 graduate and Studio Arts student Miki Flett was invited by Art Education Victoria to present her journey and experiences of the VCE Studio Arts course and to discuss the ways in which she managed to successfully achieve a high scoring folio. Miki was one of three studio arts students who presented at the ‘Kickstart’ annual event to educators and current VCE students, speaking about the challenges she faced during the year and the pivotal moments that led her to success. During the day we heard from AEV executive officer, Lena Cirillo and NGV curator and education officer David Menzies who joined us and were instrumental in assisting student presenters respond to questions from the audience during the Q and A. I was honoured to have been a part of this event, having taught Miki in art elective classes and most recently from PRE VCE level to Unit 3 and 4.

Below is the artist statement by Miki and a brief biography. You can follow Art Education Victoria on their Instagram page or Facebook.

https://www.instagram.com/artedvic/?hl=en

Demi Nicolaidis

Artist Statement:

Throughout my last units, I have explored the theme of “small world” refined into two final artworks. My core focus was set on crafting an environment or scene attached to sentiment. My inspiration, drawn on my perspective during 2020, when my mundane routine, and the monotonous nature of lock-down gave me a much more appreciated outlook on my everyday life and the people around me. As stated in my EP (Exploration Proposal) “I would like to achieve a sentimentally dreamy, yet eerie mood by utilising a range of elements and principles that collectively comprise the aesthetic qualities I aim for.” My intentions were to apply supernatural themes to abstract the messages of my artworks. The theme of “small world” refers to the restrictions that lock-down presented to me, making my surroundings feel small, while settled in the world that I had at the time.

 Biography:

Miki studied VCE Studio Arts and graduated at Templestowe College. This year, she will extend her artistic inspiration through travel, and will be continuing her studies in Visual Arts at Box Hill, aspiring to apply her artistic practices to visual storytelling. Miki’s illustrations and artistic processes are drawn from connections to home, and other environments attached to sentiment. Her finalised illustrations and portfolio will be displayed at the NGV Ian Potter Gallery, for Top Arts 2022.

Instagram

A great way to follow the visual arts @TC is to follow us on Instagram! TC Visual Arts (@tcvisualart) • Instagram photos and videos here is a snippet of posts below

Studio Arts Excursion

National Gallery of Victoria

It was amazing to finally be able to walk through an art exhibition to experience and view artworks in a gallery and last term all PRE VCE and Unit 1 Studio Arts students enjoyed a day at the National Gallery of Victoria, viewing the Top Arts exhibition as well as ‘Who Are You: Australian Portraiture’ exhibition and a trip to surrounding public art spaces such as Hozier Lane to view the street art. The excursion included Top Arts A+ folio viewing where students were able to see first hand the work of exhibiting Top Arts students from across Victoria, and amongst those were our very own Holly O’ Brien and Miki Flett. Students gained an early insight into the work involved when writing about and visually documenting the studio process and studio practice for Studio Arts and felt empowered and excited with the prospect of implementing such strategies into their own individual folios.

‘Who Are You’: Australian Portraiture exhibition tied in with the recent learning task and outcome for the attending students, having just completed a series of portraits in term 1. This exhibition reflected the way artists throughout history and in contemporary times have communicated themes around identity and culture. It was great to see a range of artforms that showed aesthetics varying from realism to pure abstraction. There were many favourites in this exhibition, yet Ron Mueck’s sculptures were the most talked about. The day ended with a ‘treasure hunt’, where students were asked to photographically document public art, seeking to discover the miniature silo art installations and a walk to Hozier Lane for the graffiti and street art.

Demi Nicolaidis

Studio Arts - Pre VCE and Unit 1

Visual Arts Elective - Portraiture

Visual Communication and Design

Sex Ed at TC

Let’s talk about sex baby! This term saw the introduction of a formal, comprehensive, age-based sexuality education program at TC for the FLE1, FLE2 and FLE3 cohorts. The curriculum was designed by Health & PE teacher Ashlee Williams and delivered by Ashlee, Amanda Toyer and Amy Jess with some support from the Educational Support team. This term we covered the following topics: Puberty and Changes, Sex & Technology, Identity as a Sexual Being and Intimacy & Desire. A Sex Ed program has been discussed over the years but thanks to the relentlessness of FLE4 student Kiannah Dower last year, we have been able to slot sex ed into our program. Next term we will be delivering the program to all of our Montessori students and we are hoping to bring the program to the FLE4 and Grad cohort in Term 3. The feedback we have received so far has been overwhelmingly positive and the discussions have been interesting, fun and insightful.

International Women’s Day

TC celebrated International women’s day all week with a lunchtime movie screening, history club, dress for success and Share the Dignity fundraiser. To read more read Bonnie’s TCNEWS article here.

International transgender day of visibility at TC

March 31st is International transgender day of visibility. The day is all about celebrating and acknowledging trans people, the hardships they have endured, and their contributions to society.  Manningham Youth Services and Headspace Hawthorn came to TC to hang out and run some activities.

Every week TC journalist Bonnie-Mai Smith provides the community with a insight to life at TC. 📰
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