Newsletter, Term 3, 2022

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As term three draws to an end, it is a great opportunity to reflect on the great things that have happened here @ TC and look ahead at what is to come in terms 4 and 2023.

Our term three Community Integrated Learning week was an amazing week with the theme of Our Place on Country. A highlight for me was attending the smoking ceremony onsite here @ TC and the huge turnout from our community given that this was a voluntary event. The indigenous games were also one of the many highlights. I encourage you to look through the activities that took place, which we will look to build on further in 2023.

A large amount of time this term has been spent planning the implementation of our new strategic plan titled “TC: The Next Level”. We have the three specific goals of:

• Improving student learning

• Improving student engagement

• Improving student wellbeing

Within these three goals, we have several key improvement strategies. In term four, we shall be launching the new strategic plan with our community as we make everyone aware of what we will be working on in 2023 - 2025. This will be based around our school purpose of “to challenge the status quo, so that everyone is empowered to learn”.

The course planning process is also a highlight for the school community through term 3. It is often forgotten that our process in which students can select 100% of their course is unique to TC, and is one that we have refined over the past ten years to be able to use the resources available to the school to meet the learning needs of our students. Thank you to all of our families that engaged with the process to support students to make good choices ahead of 2023.

As we head into the holiday, I wish everyone a safe break. For those VCE Scored pathway students who have upcoming exams, I would encourage you to start your routine early in the holiday involving study and past papers so that you can best prepare yourselves for your exams. For all of our other students, I hope you can get some rest ahead of a busy and exciting term four.

School Captains Update

Our School Captains have been working on legacy projects throughout the year, here are their updates

Maiya Mclean

An extension to my legacy is the creation of the Indigenous Further Learning Page that students will be able to access via their Community Teams pages. I was inspired by the First Nations Peoples' connection to the land, and wanted to incorporate it into my project. I hope TC's community can work together to make the page a place for learning about Indigenous culture and history.

While we, as students and people, are learning, studying and living on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, we recognise the Traditional Custodians’ continued connection to the land and waters, their unique ability to care for Country, their deep spiritual connection with Country, and ensure to respect and uphold these values when learning, working and living on Country. 

The Indigenous Further Learning page celebrates the indigenous voices of our community who have an abundance of knowledge and wisdom that we can learn so much from. We are grateful to use this page to provide easy access to all these resources.

Always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.

Maiya has also been working on a recycling program - you can read about it here.

Kyra Teichtahl

Over the course of this year, myself and the other captains have been working on Legacy projects that will (hopefully) continue on after we have left the positions and graduated from TC. For my legacy, I chose to develop a project that would reignite the community spirit spark within the school. I prompted and worked alongside the community leaders to create individual community chants that are unique to each community, that we taught at our assemblies.

I then worked with Sally Holloway and Abbas Khan to turn the community chants into community chant banners which were printed up really nicely onto weatherproof material, and we put them up at the front of each community section during Athletics day. Myself and the other TC leaders also prompted a short dance session on the Athletics track where we danced to the Nutbush, Macarena, and Gangnam Style which was a lovely way to bring up energy levels and engage the TC community.

The purpose of my legacy project was to bring back the sense of community spirit and rivalry that had disappeared after lockdown, and I wanted to do this in a fun and engaging way. I can’t wait to see how much this project will continue to develop next year and how the 2023 leaders will continue to increase the energy, spirit, and rivalry that TC is know for.

Madeleine Ng

Grads VS. Staff Competitions

With term 3 being an assessment-heavy term, we wanted the Grads to have fun and create a competitive rivalry. Each week, we had a different sport where both teams would play each other. The games ranged from dodgeball to Mario Kart and the most popular volleyball. The Staff brought tough competition, but the Grads also brought their A-game. This term, we had nine rounds of games that happened every Monday at lunchtime. It was really great to see all the Staff and Grads have some friendly competition while playing these sports. At times, the scoreboard was tough, and we didn’t know who would win. With the term ending, we had to break the tie by playing volleyball which also resulted in a tie. Then we tried again with doge ball, which also ended up in a tie. The competition is just too good. But we won’t stop there. The Staff and the Grads really want to win, and we all don’t want to leave it as a tie. Next term, something will be decided as a ‘last game’ to determine the winner.

When we get a winner, a trophy will be presented to the winning team by the losing team at the 2023 Graduation Assembly!!!

Keep an eye out for which team wins. Well done to both teams!

VicSRC Congress

As a first-year member of the school council, it is highly recommended that any new council members attend a governance training session. During my session, I met other student members from different councils around Melbourne!  From the roles and responsibilities of council members, case studies and examples of other schools’ best practices, I learnt all things school council. Also, in attendance was a person who works for the Victorian Student Representative Council (VICSRC). VICSRC is an organisation created by students to be a voice for students at the highest levels of decision-making in Victorian education. I was also informed of their annual Congress "which brings together secondary students from across Victoria to unpack ideas and solve issues in the education system. As voted by students, the top ideas become the focus of VicSRC's advocacy for the next 12 months, spearheaded by the VicSRC Student Executive Advisory Committee." As soon as I learned about it, I knew I had to go.

I started talking with Jeremy and Kat about making Congress an excursion for me and two other students (three is the maximum allowed per school). After finding out about Congress, school captains Madie and Kyra also wanted to go! Two weeks before Congress, our brainstorming sessions began. We had the option to pitch an idea to the audience at Congress and a few teams meeting calls later, we ended up with community integrated learning (CIL)! At school, we've seen how CIL has increased our community engagement and think how awesome it would be if all schools implemented a similar model. 

Last Friday, after arriving at Wurun Senior Campus, we were greeted by some of VICSRC's student ambassadors and cute show bags, which included a t-shirt, reusable mugs and pins! It was genuinely incredible meeting students who were just as passionate about student voice. Then, it was pitch time. Within the hour, over 40 students pitched their ideas to the crowd. When it was our turn, walking up, I almost tripped on the microphone cord, but the show had to go on. The three of us delivered a great speech on how CIL benefits the school community. Sadly, when it came to voting time, our pitch wasn't selected, but I'm super proud of all of us for giving it a go!

After we devoured our provided lunches (falafel wraps and bread rolls), we split off into different action groups. We discussed the selected issues and looked at how to solve and improve them! I found it really interesting to hear the experiences of other students from other schools and compare them to mine. For example, the idea of a sex education program designed with the help of students is something we've already established, see here TC - 25/03/2022. My favourite part of the day had to be networking. Speaking with my group leader, Sienna, I gained insight into how she finds student leadership opportunities and some tips for developing student initiatives. Overall, it was a fun and informative day, I would definitely recommend students interested in leadership and student voice keep an eye out for Congress next year.

By Bonnie-Mai Smith 
TC Journalist
Read Bonnie’s full article here: TC - 09/09/2022

Victorian State School Spectacular

🎬 TC is proud to be apart of the 2022 Victorian State Schools Spectacular with 4 students working behind the scenes in this huge event.

⭐Daniel, Audio
⭐Dexter, Vision
⭐Jack, Stage Management
⭐Lindsay, Stage Management

Read all about the VSSS in TCNEWS: TC - 16/09/2022

Animals Trivia Night

Last Friday, was TC's annual animals' trivia night! This year, over $5,000 was raised to help improve TC's animal enclosures. Held in S-Wing, the event was completely sold out with over 170 attendees. The wide range of guests included staff, parents, current students, past students, past staff, friends and family. There were also some awesome team names such as 'The Peter Ellis Fan Club', 'Duncan’s Favourites', 'Village People' and the Kung Fu Pandas.

The many rounds of trivia were filled with questions about sports, general knowledge, guessing the suburb based on the emojis, entertainment and more. Each table brought along a wide range of snacks and many of them wore team costumes. To boost competitive spirit, at the end of each question round, groups would correct the score sheets of their neighbours. Defending their title, 'Eurotrash' was definitely the team to beat but ended up reigning supreme for the second year, taking home the coveted cup and hamper provided by Barry Plant!

Even if trivia wasn't your thing, there was a series of games such as a paper aeroplane contest and a heads and tails competition. A silent auction was also held and made up of items donated by some generous members of the TC Community. There were a bunch of vouchers and gift cards up for grabs, but the major raffle prize was the 'big 4-burner BBQ 'Jumbuck Stardom II 4 Burner BBQ' donated by Bunnings. 

Behind the event was the awesome team of students and staff. Students dedicated one lunchtime a week to planning and preparing. They created a list of roles for the event, organised the invitations and helped with the financing during the months leading up. On the day of the event, the volunteers helped set everything up and worked throughout the night to ensure it was helping to run smoothly. To keep the little ones entertained, student volunteers also ran a movie and colouring in.

Throughout the night, Kate Meehan's enjoyed "watching the last few moments of the silent auction, as Duncan [was] counting down the clock and seeing all of the keen bidders desperately trying to win their item in a fierce bidding war". Another fun part for her was when the student team "finished helping set up, we had a little bit of down-time before the guests arrived. We ordered pizza and sang karaoke." 

A huge congrats to all past and present TC staff, students and community members who organised, donated and participated in the successful event!

Trivia Night will be running again next year so keep an eye out for info on Compass and social media!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcanimals
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tc_animals/

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Mango Drive

Community Integrated learning Week - Our Place on Country

The CIL weeks at TC continue to be a huge success. Our whole community gets involved to deliver meaningful learning across a range of topics - this term: Our Place on Country. Staff had several PDs to help them prepare and to add to their existing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander culture, experience and impact on community. Deakin University-based Dja Dja Wurrung academic Dr Al Fricker led a PD on the 8 Ways of Indigenous pedagogy and staff also had the opportunity to embark on guided walk of local sites with renowned local historian Jim Poulter (Reconciliation Manningham).

Throughout the week each learning area took on board new projects to participate in, maths put the 8 ways of learning into action sharing culture through symbols, science led their annual science photography competition highlighting the theme, English looked at poetry at Finn’s reserve, students were inspired by the history connected to Finn’s reserve, all the people that have walked the land, their lives and experience and their connection on country through the local fish of the area. Similarly the Music Stage and Beyond class also took a song-writing trip to Finn’s exploring how the natural world can be a source of inspiration and how songs can be way of telling the story of a place.

Food technology explored indigenous cooking using the pizza oven to cook damper, made wattle seed ANZAC biscuits and cook kangaroo loin. They also collaborated with William Angliss TAFE to explore their Rain Garden which is an Indigenous species garden in the city. Computing and Games Design classes used Minecraft to explore a range of communal goals such as farming and shelter building. Experienced students were treated as Elders directing new players on what to do and how to survive. Aspects of sustainable farming and working with natural resources were explored. Art explored the Hermannsburg Potters who are based in Western Aranda country at Ntaria, they create vibrant handmade terracotta pots using hand coil and pinch technique. These unique artworks encompass collective and individually lived histories of the artists’ distinct country. Art elective classes then worked on their own versions of pinch pots, telling a personal story. Media students were inspired by a viewing of Bob Randall, a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional owner of Uluru, telling his story of place on country, media students have explored indigenous stories of place on country and reflected on their own stories, brainstormed ideas, storyboarded visuals, filmed, drawn and photographed their interpretations and edited together a narrative.

We were privileged to watch a Welcome to Country and cleansing ceremony with Wurundjeri artist Mandy Nicholson and Djirri Djirri. Entry students then were able to participate in a Q & A with Mandy Nicholson to learn more about Indigenous culture.

These were just some of the great activities for Our Place on Country, read more in the TCNEWS article here.

Athletics and Indigenous Games

Rain, hail or shine, the wonderful staff and students turned up for the Athletics carnival/Indigenous Games Day ready for an awesome time and oozing with community spirit. Although it was wet and cold, students took up the opportunity to participate in track and field events as well as Indigenous activities run by Wanyarra. In very TC fashion there was a tug of rope competition and an impromptu flash mob, with everyone dancing the nutbush and macarena on the track. Thank you to everyone who came, helped and participated in a fun community day.

2022 TC Snow Camps.

Two (2) camps.  Two (2) weeks.  Mt Buller.  60 students.  10 staff. 

Our snow camps provide students with a range of experiences.  For some, this simply may have been seeing snow for the first time, whilst for others it was having the opportunities to continue refining skiing and snowboarding skills across steeper and more difficult terrain.     

Improvements in confidence and ability were evident as the week progressed. 

Unfortunately, both camp weeks were subject to poor weather.  Camp #1 saw some of the heaviest and worst rainfall, as quoted by some in attendance, that they have ever experienced on the mountain.  Camp #2 had extreme winds which were strong enough to shut the entire mountain down for a whole day mid-week.       

Despite this, it was pleasing to both hear and see students either persevering through, or adapting to, the conditions on the mountain.  The positive attitudes and willingness to maximise their time on the slopes - or participate in hikes and/or snow-play competitions must be acknowledged.     

A big thank you to all staff involved in the preparation of both camps as well as to the staff and students who attended.   

Look forward to seeing what the 2023 season will bring

Entry English Poetry Excursion

In July three of the Entry English classes walked down to Finn's Reserve to look at and learn about how the local indigenous peoples used the area for aquaculture. Students looked at where the eel runs used to be along with fish farms and fresh water clam farms. Students also learnt that the suspension bridge sits over the ancient songline that crossed the Yarra here. The indigenous peoples used songlines like we use maps. Student them found a place that they could be alone with their thoughts in nature and wrote some poetry that was inspired by where they were or what they were thinking about. Thankfully the rain held off and our young poets returned to school armed with a better understanding of our local area and their connection to it.

Melbourne Writers Festival

Last Thursday some members from my Fears and Ideas class and I got to visit the Melbourne writers festival and hear from some amazing young adult authors. A personal highlight of mine was hearing from Tobias Madden about his book that combines two of his favourite interests theatre and gaming, as well as his personal experiences growing up queer in a country town. I even got to ask him a question at the end of the interview. My question was “What do you think a younger version of yourself would think of your book?”. We also got to listen to some other great writers and their works including Rhiannon Wilde, Vanessa Len and C.S Pacat. Overall, it was a spectacular excursion and I’m sure many aspiring authors in our class would have had some great takeaways from it.

SYWTBAW

For the class "So You Want to be a Writer," our teacher, Dom, tasked each student with making their own creative piece, mostly centered around writing, to put into a collective creation called a zine. Zines are self-made, self-published works that can feature anything you want, and we made ours around the central theme of 'What Makes You Smile?' The idea was to then make a few copies of the zine and take them to a small store in the city called 'Sticky Institute' and ask if we can donate them. The Nicholas Building had a really distinctly old feel to it, including the smell. The Sticky Institute was on the 8th floor with its own room, and the walls were shelved and filled with unique zines. We placed three copies of our zine in the" free to take" section.

By Tiarnach O’Connor

Debating Club

Debating Club kicked off with the inaugural school debate, the topic was 'PRIVATE SCHOOLS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED'. The room was packed with an engaged supportive audience who loved the arguments and speeches presented. Congratulations to the Negative team who won (somewhat controversially!)

Debating Club meets every Monday lunchtime to prepare. Internal school debates will continue to run in Term 4 with the hopes of entering the DAV interschool competition in 2023.

Outdoor Education visit to NGV

First week back at TC in term 3 started off eventfully with senior outdoor education students proving their independence, meeting in Federation square before 9am to go on our first tour. We spent the morning with the Koorie Heritage Trust who provided stirring anecdotes of Naarm before Melbourne. Always an emotionally retching experience when hearing of the dominative mindset that brought term Terra Nullius to our land accompanying our colonial history. Perhaps the most memorable of the teachings was the fact that Birrarung ‘the Yarra’ was once a teaming biodiverse body of water with a waterfall that helped support the life of fresh and saltwater fish alike, until our dominative colonial mindset thought it would be best to blow it up for ships to pass through.

The day by and large was spent learning and looking at artefacts significant to the culture and lived resources of First Nations peoples. At the NGV we were educated on artworks that gave a visual representation of the colonial history we had been learning for the morning and throughout the year. This program was tailored to the VCE 3 & 4 curriculum and was a fantastic introduction into media representations of our colonial history.

Alpine Camp - OES Unit 4

The Alpine Camp for senior Outdoor Education students was one that pushed us all to the brink of our comfort zones. Most of us not having any experience on skis. Most of us -myself included- having never camped in the snow and some of us, never even having seen snow at all. Day 1, in the snow and rain we hiked four kilometres either walking or on skis to our location for the night. We set up tents in the rain and fortunately had a hut and fire to warm up, relax and cook in. The ensuing week was fraught with challenges, this adversity then led to fortitude, whether it be hiking up to the summit battered with icy rain, trying and improving on skis throughout our trip or camping and living in rather harrowing conditions for two nights without complaint. To say I’m proud of our group is an understatement.

On Thursday we mixed it up and went to Mt Buller, again, the kids enjoyed the experience more than I ever thought they would. They took the challenge of downhill skiing for the first time extremely well and everyone was able to complete a few runs by the end of the day. Reflecting on our time at the end of the day I was overjoyed to be hearing the students contrasting the two mountain environments with such succinct and scrutinising detail, the curriculum was almost teaching itself...

By Ryley Norris

Outdoor Climb and Kayak

On the second last Friday of term 3. All students undertaking Outdoor Education studies had the opportunity to explore their own backyard. We are extremely fortunate to have nature on our doorstep, from our in house permaculture garden to the multitude of paths and parks leading to the Yarra. The idea was to celebrate the year of content that’s been delivered and expose students to their own backyards in ways they haven’t been before. With enjoyable experience comes a vested interest to sustain the environment that gave the experience. Reiterating our teachings and those of the traditional custodians of this country since time immemorial, care for the land and it will care for you in return. We managed to retrieve, two full bags of rubbish, four tennis balls, a fishing net, lures and floaters, a pellet, a paddle and a tyre. An example of conservation and regenerative action that we endeavour to firmly instil into our outdoors programs moving forward.
After paddling the Yarra we bussed to Whipstick Gully where we spent the afternoon rockclimbing and abseiling. The two activities of white water rafting and rock climbing/abseiling are not for the faint of heart, particularly the latter. We are so proud of our team, everyone gave it there best shot, everyone got to the top, then made their way back down. There were times when students were stuck, when they were shaking in fear or exhaustion but their peers supported them, told them where to go. The climbers showed fortitude and perseverance, showcasing the beauty of Outdoor Education and how it can be a metaphor for life. Strength and resilience through adversity are powerful tools, with these traits and the support and camaraderie of our community and peers, we can achieve anything.

By Ryley Norris

Division Athletics

Congratulations to Alex Rowlands winning gold in the Open Male Athletics Division! 🥇

ESDP Term 3 UPDATE

Term 3 was hectic for the ESDP Basketball program with all our teams competing in the Champions Cup Basketball Tournament, the major tournament for the year conducted by Basketball Victoria.

First to compete were our Intermediate age Boys and Girls who both failed to advance to the elite 8 of the competition.

Next up were the Junior Boys and Girls, with the girls having an outstanding first round where they qualified for the Elite 8. The boys however were knocked out in the first round.

Final group to compete were the Senior Boys and Girls. The boys were minus a couple of our key players, Amos Harvey, and Nik Ellul, who were away competing for Victoria at the National Schools tournament in Bendigo. In what was a very tough draw the boys narrowly missed qualifying for the Elite 8. The girls had a fantastic day advancing undefeated to the Elite 8.

At the Elite 8 of the Champions Cup the junior girls went close to qualifying for the Grand Final however failed to advance. The Senior Girls once again went undefeated and have now qualified for the Grand Final of the competition to be held the first Sunday of the school holidays (September 18th) at 5.30pm at the State Basketball Centre, their opposition will be Rowville Secondary College.

Our Year 8 equivalent students also competed in the School Sport Victoria regional round robin series which once again saw the girls advance undefeated to the next round and the boys narrowly losing the semi final to Forest Hill Secondary College.

There were some noticeable individual performances during the term with Nik Ellul, Amos Harvey and Lilly Amor all competing for Victoria at the National School Tournament in Bendigo.

Dyani Ananiev who spent four years in the ESDP program also had a successful Big V Basketball Season taking out the MVP and Youth Player of the Year award.

Students Maddy Potts, Lily Carmody, Lilly Amor, Chantal Vitale, Amos Harvey, and Nik Ellul also had opportunity during the term to practise with the WNBL and NBL teams from Melbourne, a fantastic opportunity for them to experience what it takes to make professional basketball.

Kyral Castle

Entry Humanities and Pre VCE History visited Kryal Castle to further their knowledge and understanding of Medieval Europe. We got to do leather making, medieval dancing, archery, apothecary, manorial court and a re-enactment of the battle of Hastings! In apothecary we made band-aids out of herbs, in leather making we made personalised book marks and keyrings and the battle of Hastings was very fun as we go to fight we swords (safely of course)! A great outing we highly recommend it when studying humanities!

Legal Studies

Legal Studies this term have been creating their own political campaigns.

"I enjoyed doing my speech in class as well as researching adequately for policies and incorporating my special interests like public transport and urban planning."

"I liked this learning task and I think that I did well with creating policies that are important to me. I think I could have been better at putting timelines on when each step for each policy would be completed by so that it would be planned out and maybe seem more realistic"

"I believe I was a well-prepared, approachable and involved candidate. I had completed my pamphlet and looked over the design to make sure it was creative, light and informative so that people would be interested and would take the information in. Next time, I would be sure that I had all three of my policies prepared and well written before I start making my pamphlet, I would also be sure that I fixed the layout so that it would print correctly in the future. I was sure to research all of my policies and compare different points of view on all of the topics"

"I think that I did quite well, I heavily researched and based my policies on what I believed the class would benefit from. I made an engaging pamphlet, which did unfortunately have some spelling errors but I put a lot of effort into it. In the end, I think my hard work reflected on the position I was elected into."

welcoming our new international students

In term 2&3 we welcomed 5 new students from all over the world

Celebrating birthdays

We have mini celebrations during the year for students who turn 18 years old.  Turning 18 is not a universally celebrated benchmark so it’s nice to let the international students know this is a milestone here in Australia.

MAP Theatre Tour

For 1 term each year in MAP's Literacy course, students work on a drama performance. They begin with a brief literary outline, in this case the traditional fairy tales of Europe. In small groups - across 3 classes - the students then role-play, workshop and develop sketches based on the original material. This year, having had 2 Covid years without touring our shows, the kids wanted to specifically focus on "fun". So we twisted the fairy tales, changing good guys to villains, swapping genders, combining stories and generally messing around. We ended up with 13 different short performances, linked by a narrator, in a show called “UNTRUE CRIME”.

Within this, Hansel & Gretel became Uber Eats drivers, Rapunzel let down her long golden toenails, the Prince ignored Cinderella and fell in love with the Footman, Sleeping Beauty fell asleep where Goldilocks normally would, Puss-in-Boots was on the hunt for an X-Box up the beanstalk that Jack grew, the Pea under the mattress fled so he wasn’t turned into pea soup, Beauty was busy getting a manicure instead of saving the Beast, and the Wolf was busy saving Little Red by being killed by her Grandmother. Who apparently was annoyed by Red’s constant unannounced visits with baskets of bread.

After 7 weeks of preparation, including costumes, props and backgrounds - 57 students boarded 3 buses and we took off around Victoria. We visited 2 different schools on most days, and stayed at a different school camp every night. We travelled to Yea, Mansfield, Lake Nillahcootie, Nagambie, Rushworth, Tooborac, Gisborne, Daylesford, Cottles Bridge, Healesville, Yarra Junction and Mitcham, finishing with a big parent show at the PAC on Friday 26th.

There was a great variety of schools and locations – at Mansfield we were in a gym and nobody was ever “off-stage”; at Tooborac we performed to the entire school cohort – all 15 of them! At some places we had a proper stage, at others we were in class rooms and libraries. Some days we had to leap up and rush to an early show, and dash on to perform a second. Often it was arrive and “You’re on-stage in 10 minutes!” The tightest was “on-stage in 1!”

By the end of tour, 8 kids had headed home with variations of the flu. No Covid! As well as developing theatre and audience skills, students also learned food budgeting, interpersonal negotiations, filling each others on-stage roles, how to attach and detach a trailer, and how to push a bus out of a bog! Fun for one and all.

FLE Maths

In FLE Maths this term students have been learning about concepts in algebra such as forming expressions with pronumerals, solving equations and plotting linear equations. They completed a project around an amusement park theme, applying all of these concepts in a variety of applied 'real-life' scenarios.

Over the past week we have been having some fun measuring speed and plotting distance-time graphs. In addition to this, students have been continuing to work through Maths Pathways modules at their own pace.

Next term our focus will be on data and graphing and we plan to have some fun collecting and analysing our own data.

Stage Dive

Every Monday Stage Dive sessions rock the PAC at lunch with crowds sheltering from the weather outside!

Rockfest

TC muso’s have entered Rockfest again this year, make sure you watch their clips on YouTube - the more views the more prizes the bands and school can win. Clips were recorded in our recording studios and at last term’s concert lines in the sand.

Melbourne International Jazz Festival Workshop

Melb International Jazz Festival workshop with Flora Carbo, Helen Svoboda, and Kyrie Anderson.

Students explored improvisation in a group context by singing, playing single notes, and working with musical parameters to create an improvised musical piece. Some great discussions about life as a professional musician also!

Stage and beyond writers workshop at Finns Reserve

Congratulations to our BIG SCIENCE participants

UN Forum Planet Ocean: Protecting the World’s Oceans, Seas and Marine Resources

This term 3 teams from TC went to an interschool ‘mock United Nations’ forum to discuss issues affecting our oceans. Students worked closely with Michelle Parker, Cassidy Trousdale and Meg Bailey to research their country and their stance on the issue. Officially this was a Year 10-12 event but some schools pulled out and so we asked if younger students could attend. Our participants ranged from Entry through to FLE 3 and everyone confidently held their own in the forum.

On the day students presented a 3-minute address to the other countries and then worked through a realistic process to discuss what different countries should be doing to protect the oceans and support each other.

Our countries were:

• Japan – Samara Ramani, Dexter Dovey Cribbes and Zara Malik

• Brazil – Kate Dickenson, Maverik Grassby, Jelto Koehn

• Kiribati – Olivia Kwei, Tya Robinson and Millyca Robinson

Some comments from students….

“Japan and Norway went toe to toe over whaling for about an hour!”

“It was really fun.”

“We were the only Year 7s there. Everyone else was 16-18 years old!”

“My suggestions were amendments were accepted which I was really pleased about.”

“We learnt a lot about other countries and issues affecting the oceans.”

Solutions Using Science

This semester Solutions Using Science attempted to help solve the worlds energy needs. The first half of the term saw students looking at the efficiency and renewability of various electrical generating devices. Students were able to work with windmills and solar panels, to help them better understand how electricity is generated. The second half of the term was focused on looking at biofuels. Students learnt about the challenges of finding ways of making biofuel production a viable option for our society’s energy needs. They designed and conducted experiments to extract and compare yield of starch extracted from different varieties of rice (a source of biomass for biofuel production) and were challenged to think about the pros and cons of using food stock for fuel. Maybe ocean algae farms will be the energy source of the future!

Zoology and Ecology

This term we have been learning about the theory of evolution and natural selection and exploring different types of adaptations that enable species to thrive and pass on their genes to the next generation.  Students role played being animals with different adaptations and undertook challenges to see who would survive. We have also been learning about innate and learnt behaviours and Claire, our resident animals specialist, explained the various personalities of the TC fish and how they can be trained.

In recent weeks we have started learning about sampling and estimating animal populations. We conducted a quadrat study of the TC Farm, using scat counting to estimate the populations of goats, sheep and alpacas, assisted by some some curious fury onlookers!

Psychology Sleep Incursion

Our 3-4 Psychology Classes have been learning about the importance of sleep and the impacts of sleep deprivation. We were fortunate to have the Turner Institute, run by Monash University’s Healthy Sleep Clinic visit us to demonstrate how researchers record and use sleep data.

Volunteer students were wired up to a portable sleep monitoring device, and the class observed their brain waves patterns as the drifted into sleep in real time. Students also had the opportunity to experience a CPAP machine, a device used to treat sleep apnoea well as some glasses that can assist resetting the body’s sleep wake clock.

Biology Unit 2 Healesville Sanctuary Excursion

VCE Unit 2 Biology spent the day at Healesville Sanctuary as part of their work on inheritance and diversity.

At Healesville I learnt about the different structural, behavioural and physiological adaptations of the emu and how the things around them affect their habitat, community ecology and the predators that hunt them. I enjoyed watching the bilby to identify what behaviours they presented. I also enjoyed walking around at the end and looking at all the animals. – Chantal

Healesville Sanctuary was a really lovely experience. I really enjoyed having the time to look around the sanctuary by ourselves and it was super fun to visit all the marsupials, especially spotting all of the nocturnal ones in the night section. I thought the way we observed the platypuses was really cool and I learned how to do an ethogram. I was surprised at how small the platypus was, and also how active she was even as a nocturnal animal. The workshop with one of the park rangers was very informative and I learned a lot about the platypus and the emu. There are so many things that are so fascinating about each animal that we are yet to learn and I found it fun to be a part of observing and collecting data as a student and as a community. I'm really glad I went as I had a lot of fun.  – Echo

At Healesville sanctuary I learnt all about platypuses and their structural, behavioural and physiological adaptions. For example, a structural adaption that platypus have is a sensitive bill that carries sensory cells that can detect tiny electrical fields produced by yabbies in the water that they can then hunt. A behavioural adaption that I learnt they have is that when it is breeding season they swim in pairs and circle one another, nose to tail. A physiological adaption platypus have is producing venom that is injected from spurs which act on the nervous system that slows down the pulse of their competition during breeding season. – Zoe

What I most enjoyed at Healesville Sanctuary was freely wandering through the sanctuary, observing all the animals. I learnt about the many adaptions of our indigenous animals, and our impacts on their lives. -Asha

Biology Unit 4 Melbourne Zoo Excursion

‘The excursion genuinely helped with the content on the SAC’ – Emily Allen

‘It was very interesting and fun I liked the reptiles’. – Moritz Corponi

‘The zoo keepers were very informative and helped further our knowledge on primate evolution’ – Ruby Dunne

‘Looking at different primate skulls was very interesting…and so were the frogs’. – Grace Gooley

‘It was fantastic learning about the primates and seeing the orangutan exhibit. The orangutan was curiously watching us draw’. – Paige Claringbold

‘It was fun walking around looking at all the animals in the rain’. -Reda Kotob

‘They need to get the platypus a friend.’ Audrey Wallace

‘Having the opportunity to explore the zoo was my favourite part of the day.’ Riley Bowen

‘I enjoyed observing the lemurs in the trees, they were super cute and it was fascinating to see them move about’. – Evvie Bell

‘The orangutan was my favourite exhibit. They were highly interactive and were just as interested in us, as we were in them’. Brodie Schaefer-Vesely

Earth and Beyond

Students in Earth and Beyond made exoplanets and then marketing posters to visit them!

VCE Environmental Science

The focus of Unit 4 Environmental Science is understanding the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and sustainable energy use. We conducted investigations using our school’s STELR wind kits and solar panels and even got a guided tour of Bruce’s Tesla electric car (Bruce is TC’s Science lab technician). An unexpected highlight of the car tour was learning that you can pre program the seats to 'fart' when a passenger sits down! We also welcomed a guest speaker solar consultant, Warwick Johnson from Sunwiz, who explained market drivers of clean energy as well as pros and cons.

To celebrate National Tree Planting Day we planted some native plants in the school yard and reflected on the atmospheric carbon they will lock away as they grow.

Robotics

Monday 5th August Youthfest VEX robotics tournament was attended by 50 teams and over 300 students. The IQ (junior)tournament saw another TC team qualify for the national competition with two V5(senior) teams already qualifying through the August 13 competition. TC entered 10 teams into both competitions on Monday the 5th and the S-wing was a buzz with energy as schools became temporary allies and competitors during the event. The judges from Ford and Boeing commented on the high standard of engineering and effort displayed in the engineering notebooks and were pleased with the group efforts across the board in the interview stages. TC won the Teamwork , Design, tournament champions and robot skills awards as well as finishing first in both competitions. One of the Templestowe teams, 1002T not only ranked number 1 in Australia for their robot skills, they ranked 18th globally out of over 10000 teams. Thank you to our volunteers for making this event possible.

Baking and Photography Collab

Photography and Baking students collaborated on Tuesday to produce outstanding photographs of beautifully decorated cupcakes. Freshly baked in the PAC kitchen, the cupcakes were artfully draped with chocolate, cookies, and other tasty additions whilst the photography students constructed a studio lighting setup to photograph the gorgeous creations worthy of a famous cookbook. Photographs will be shared on the TC Art insta and exhibited in the end of year Art show. The cupcakes are believed to have been eaten immediately following the shoot before the lights had cooled.

If you have a business interested in photography students shooting products or producing marketing materials please contact David Payne: DPAY@tc.vic.edu.au or Travis Burroughs: TBUR@tc.vic.edu.au

Café Culture Excursion

Ember dinning is located in the heart of Warrandyte they have been there for 3 years.

Students were treated to the Feed me menu which consisted of many courses. Some of the yummy dishes included flatbread with whipped ricotta and honey, salmon ceviche, crispy chicken with saffron rice, crispy olives, homemade chips and cookies and cream parfait. Owner s Catherine and chef Tom were available to ask questions and Tom chatted about the industry a d life working at Ember dining.

Natural Fibres Weaving Workshop

As part of Community Integrated Learning week Backyard Permaculture hosted a grass weaving workshop.

Backyard Permaculture

The focus of Backyard Permaculture this semester has been on student Passion Projects. Students have shown great creativity, tenacity, resilience and teamwork in planning and seeing their various projects develop. Projects included cultivating feature gardens, making bird houses, whittling, landscaping, and artwork, and students were encouraged to reflect on the permaculture principles they demonstrated in their work.

We also worked on general landscaping projects such as establishing a new orchard, creating paths and fences and general weeding. We prepared and tested soil and planted out new season fruits and veggies, and looked after our lovely chooks, pigs and sheep.

For the 'Our Place on Country' CIL Week we hosted a natural fibre string making workshop in the Farm, which was super fun and very productive.

The market has continued to grow in popularity, with regular customers coming along on Fridays for mulch, firewood, cut flowers, fresh eggs, bags of 'leafy greens' and other seasonal produce.

Well down everyone for your hard work!

Systems Engineering

Over the course of 2022, systems engineering students have been hard at work developing, testing and creating projects of their choosing. One of these projects, an autonomous flying plane aimed at detecting fires using a in-built smoke sensor. The plane is designed to fly over areas of fire prone bushland alerting emergency services if a high quantity of smoke is detected. Aiming as forewarning for emergency services if a bushfire is about to start.

By Nathan Valmorbida, 3/4 systems engineering student

Senior VCAL

Senior VCAL is built on the theme of independent learning and application of skills. With this in mind and a few guiding principles, students have been able to create and construct some beautiful structures and little homes. All of which built from recycled materials and designed with the expressed purpose of positively contributing to the biodiversity of our TC community. The grand structure above the staircase leading out to our oval is a Pergola, which will soon have some Wisteria's climbing on it to eventually cascade into a gorgeous purple walkway. Students made Bee houses and Butterfly hotels all contributing to the safety and longevity of the little critters that help pollinate and sustain our permaculture garden and broader environment.

RYDA: Road Saftey education

As our VCAL cohort continue to progress throughout the stages of life, it remains our duty to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to support their safety, well-being and success in all their endeavours. As such, we placed a major focus on this year’s curriculum on road safety, almost all of our students are driving in some capacity whether supported or solo. We thought it was essential to present them with the facts, independent research, presentations and excursions that all aim to support driving longevity and the safety of young people on our roads. The video’s are a visual guide to how long it takes a car to stop when travelling at 40, 50 and 60kmh. The final video (disclaimer, some viewers may not like what they see) showing the impact if someone were to be hit at 60kmh. These practical demonstrations were deeply impactful and shocking enough to engrain speed safety and awareness into the minds of our students, consolidated throughout the day by various theoretical workshops.  

Intermediate VCAL

This term Intermediate VCAL has been put together a newspaper, full of advice and news and other tidbits for our Literacy class. Please have a read and send through any feedback to jsti@tc.vic.edu.au that you have as we'd love to learn and improve our work for future issues.

Art day YAY

Art ran several full day workshops so students could complete whole projects in a day! It was open to anyone and students created some beautiful work, and got a pizza lunch!

The seven themes were:

• Exploring Watercolour and Ink

• Make a Zine

• Documentary Film Making

• Nature Photography

• Screen Print a T-shirt Workshop

• Textiles Felting

• Senior Art Extension Workshop

In the 'Art Yay!' Watercolour and Ink workshop students learnt the combination of watercolour and ink being influenced by Fiona McMonagle and her artworks, learning to use a variety of inks and watercolours to create their desired effects following the philosophy 'less is more' working off curated reference images students would sketch their chosen image create a monochromatic tone using the ink and add dashes of watercolour to create a 3D and accentuated painting. Read more about Art Day YAY from TCNEWS by clicking here.

The Picasso Century and Queer Exhibition and talk

Visual Arts Instagram - TC Visual Arts (@tcvisualart) • Instagram photos and videos

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