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DRIPSTONE MIDDLE SCHOOLDelamere Street, Tiwi NT 0810, PO Box 41370, Casuarina NT 0811e: admin.dripshs@ntschools.net p: (08) 8920 2299 f: (08) 8920 2298www.dripstonemiddle.nt.edu.au

Page 2 Duke of Edinburgh Awards Try a Trade Year 8 Art Dripstone Cafe

Page 3 Year 9 Science Science and Engineering Challenge 2011

From the Counsellor

Page 4 Learn, Earn, Legend AFLNT Indigenous Careers Expo Mentoring Program Cooking Capers From the Drama Department

24 JUNE 2011ISSUE 6

Important Dates

F R O M T H E P R I N C I PA L

24 June Last day of Term 2 25 July Staff resume for Term 3 26 July Students resume for Term 3

27 July Visit by Jessica Watson

Congratulations Jordan! road safety Creative arts Competition winnerIn conjunction with National Youth Week 2011, the Road Safety Creative Arts Competition asked young people to design and create works of art which assist in spreading important road safety messages. The entries were of a high standard, all competing to win a 12.1 megapixel digital camera. The winner for the 12 - 17 years category was 13 year old Jordan Lockley of Woodleigh Gardens. Jordan combined photography, street drawing, and computer design to create his unique ‘Use your head – Wear a helmet’ piece to emphasise to young people that wearing a helmet while riding your bike is a smart decision.

reminder If you ride a bike to school and you are under the age of 18, it is against the law if you do not wear a helmet.

Accompanying this newsletter is your child’s report on their achievement in all learning areas for Semester one. As I read through the reports I feel very proud of our students' efforts and achievements. I am acutely aware of the critical role parents have in raising their children to respect themselves and each other as learners, and we appreciate the support you give to the school which allows our children to take on learning challenges and succeed. Please don’t hesitate to make contact with your child’s teachers or Year Level Coordinator if you have any questions or wish to follow up on any feedback regarding your child’s progress to date.

A number of staff will be leaving Dripstone this week. Ms Liz Easton has served the school as our English as a Second Language teacher specialist for a number of years. She has worked with all our ESL students and teachers to ensure they are well supported in developing their literacy which enables success in all learning. We wish her the best in her new teaching role at Shepherdson College. Ms Amanda Graham Sutton who has taught our students in the Humanities for several years has won a temporary appointment with Palmerston and Rural schools as a Curriculum Advisor for Semester 2 and Mr Paul Saleta returns to Casuarina Secondary College, having been with us for a semester in Tech Studies and Declan O'Gallagher will continue to work with our students as a relief teacher next semester. We thank each of these teachers for their hard work and dedication to all of our students. I would also like to thank Gloria Craigie who stepped into our AIEW role this semester and wish her the best at Nightcliff Middle School.

Dripstone’s new Principal, Mr Brian Collins, was able to visit this week and has met with all staff as well as spending time with the senior leadership team. Mr Collins brings extensive leadership experience from several Victorian schools including the Middle Years and I am confident that his expertise will be greatly appreciated by the Dripstone School community.

A newsletter communicating all other staffing changes will be sent our early in Term 3. Students have completed their selections for workshops and Friday afternoon activities. Each child will receive a new timetable on the first day of their return to school, on Tuesday 26th July.

Have a relaxing semester break and best wishes

Sabina Smith

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duKe of edinBurgH awardsCongratulations to the following students who received their Duke of Edinburgh Awards at a ceremony at Government House on 25th May.

Jamie-Lee Ede, Shayenne Carne, Madeleine Chin, Jasmine Christie, Elysia Jongue, Tiara Ladju, Bao Mo, Sharanya Shantharam, Alica Stroud and Renae Williams, with Kirby Schell, the Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator for last year.

try-a-tradeIt was all hands on deck as all Year 9 students attended Try-A-Trade at CDU during Week 9 this term. It was a great opportunity for

the students to get some hands on experience and information about many of the trades offered though the university's VETiS program. On the day, each student had to choose seven of a possible sixteen trades. The students attended short practical sessions within proper training facilities. The trades ranged from hospitality and commercial cookery, to beauty therapy and hairdressing, right through to automotive, plumbing and engineering. Great positive feedback was received from those who attended and the attitude shown by our students was fantastic. A big thankyou to all the staff who attended and helped make the day a great experience.

Damien McDermid, Careers

year 8 art Students have recently explored the printing process through creating Lino designs based on their ceramic sculptures.

Kim Boardman, Art Teacher

dripstone Cafe The Dripstone Cafe will be opening for breakfast on

Wednesday 3rd August from 7.30am to 8.20am.

The Cafe is free for all students and will be run by the Wellbeing Team and some students as a mock business.

Jarrod West & Mason Niven-Trewin

Erin Smillie and Jasmin Bonson

Jesse Lai

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year 9-8 sCienCe - CHemistry KidsFor the past term, students have been working on Rates of Reaction and Chemical Equations. As part of this chemistry unit, students have worked to develop their own experimental design. This task encompassed looking at the Law of Conservation of Mass; that is, does the mass of the reactant equal that of the product during a chemical reaction? After developing their own hypotheses, using scientific method, students set out to prove their hypotheses to arrive at evidence-based conclusions. After much deliberation and a few more trials, students proved the theory to be supported.

Mrs Girdham, Science Teacher

Sam Jongue, Robert Bradshaw, Alex Lockyear and Luke Logan

sCienCe and engineering CHallenge 2011The Science and Engineering Challenge is a day-long competition designed to provide students in years 9 and 10 across Australia with a positive experience of science and engineering.

The challenge, presented by the University of Newcastle, has been in operation since 2000 and aims to challenge Year 9 and 10 students to consider a career in Science or Engineering. Eight teams comprised of students from Ms Vatskalis’ and Ms Lee’s Maths/Science class represented Dripstone Middle School and competed against other middle and senior schools across Darwin. Each challenge had a specific theme such as ‘Back to the Future’, where students designed a propeller-driven ‘time machine’ vehicle to race along a track and ‘Heli Rescue’, where teams designed and tested a model helicopter by positioning a pair of twin propellers to rescue casualties and transport them to the hospital.

There were also activities that focused on issues that real scientists and engineers are faced with, such as sustainable and eco-friendly habitats in ‘Eco-Habitech’ while in ‘Electracity’ students designed and test a plan to provide power to as much of a city’s infrastructure as possible whilst being cost effective. Students also had to construct a bridge in the activity ‘Gold Fever’ that is able to withstand the transport of heavy loads from one side of the chasm to the other. Other activities such as ‘War Machine’ and ‘Mission to Mars’, allowed teams to transport their imagination into the past or outer space. Not only were the students given an opportunity to take part in hands on activities, putting their imagination to the test as well as putting their thoughts into action, listening to their team members' thoughts and opinions and negotiate on what they were going to include in their final product, but it also gave them a chance to interact with other students across Darwin in a positive supportive manner. Teams were awarded points for each activity and the school with the most points at the end of the day was declared the winner. The overall winning team from the Northern Territory will represent their school as well as the Territory in a national competition against schools from other States. Though Dripstone did not win, the students had heaps of fun sharing their ideas and working together in a group to achieve goals throughout the whole day.

Susan Lee, Year 9 Maths/Science Teacher

Vanessa Branco, Kristine Mercader, Furdosa Aba Bor and their eco-habitech

Robert Bradshaw, Alex Locklear, Sam Jongue and Kristine Lee adding some more support to their bridge in 'Gold Fever'.

from tHe sCHool CounsellorThanks to the support of DET and the Smith Family, in the beginning of Semester 2, we will see the introduction of a Girls' Group to Dripstone Middle School. Look for more information to follow on this exciting new program in upcoming newsletters. To assist with the Girls Groups, we are seeking some generous donations from the community and are to asking for your help in gathering some essential and fun items to kick the Girls' Group off. If you have, or aware of, anyone wishing to donate the following items please call Beth Mitchell (School Counsellor) on (08) 89202217 or email beth.mitchell@ntschools.net. We can organise for them to be dropped off or picked up at your convenience.

We are seeking: IPOD Dock radio, Wii, or Nintendo, Games eg ping pong, air hockey, pool table, sing star, kareoke, disco ball, mirror, popcorn maker, sandwich Breville, toaster, weights, flat screen TV, fridge, camera, clock, microwave, computers, bean bags, couch/futon, pin board (notice board/photos), table, chairs, whiteboard, cutlery, plates/bowls, glasses/cups, large blank canvases, tea towels, drying rack, water jug.

Thank you, in advance for your generosity.

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learn earn legend aflnt indigenous Careers expoMs Motlop and I took 22 students to the Careers Expo at TIO Stadium in May. The Careers Expo was organised by Nova Peris. We were split up into three groups. Group 1 heard Paul Vandenburg give a talk about mentoring, Group 2 was NT Health – Jason Bonson spoke about the different jobs you can do if you want to work for NT Health and Group 3 – Group Training NT (GTNT) spoke about what they can do to help students get a job. After that, students had to answer a questionnaire. When they handed their questionnaire in they got tickets to go to the Port Adelaide vs Richmond game. Their names went into a draw to win a Richmond jersey. The students enjoyed themselves. A huge hit with the students was ABC Radio & TV and tasting the lovely food from Karen Sheldon Training & Development.

Gloria CraigieAIEW

mentoring programWe were invited to go to Nakara Primary School to mentor four Year 5/6 girls. I chose four Year 8 students who I thought would be good role models for the girls; they were Faith PangQuee, Katrina Marranbya, Dom Cook and Shania Rosas. When we arrived at Nakara Primary School the girls were introduced to the AIEW Karen Newman. Then we went to the Library and meet the Year 5/6 girls. This visit is only an introduction. Our girls were really excited about mentoring the younger girls and look forward to going to Nakara again.

Gloria CraigieA/AIEW

CooKing CapersYear 7 students are nearing the end of this unit, ready to take on the new subject in Term 3. Students worked together to halve a recipe for a breakfast muesli muffin. Students worked together to problem solve this perplexing issue. The muffins were superb. We have just completed a design component where students had to design a tofu breakfast. Students certainly found this to be a pressure test, but did a great job.

Year 8 students have completed their magnificent muffin design project. The only thing left to do is to get the judges in for the winning low fat and low sugar muffin.

Year 9 students have completed their design project. Students had to research the humble fatty and sugary cake to transform this into a healthy, but yummy cake that would appeal to a teenager. After many hours of experimentation, students have come up with great recipes. There were challenges such as, making it light and fluffy without the butter; making it edible without all that sugar; making it look good without the icing. But you know what? They finally did it, and without the copied recipes.

I say a fond farewell to all my classes and wish you the best in your new workshop. Remember Chemistry, Maths and English are just cooking really.

Mrs Girdham, Cooking Teacher

Ryan Slade, Jimmy McMurtrie, Hagen Wigney and Luke Johnson

from tHe drama departmentOn Thursday the 2nd of June my year 7 and Year 9 dance classes danced at Sanderson Middle School at a dance competition called Sanderson Under the Stars. There were 3 middle schools represented including: Sanderson, Dripstone and Darwin with 11 groups dancing. I would like to congratulate my classes on their excellent dancing and would like to share their marks with you. Each group were marked out of 20. My Year 7’s scored a mark of 16 and my Year 9 Rock and Roller’s scored a mark of 17. The “Dynamics”, a crew made up of 6 of my year 9 dance students including: Jake Kunde, Haylen Ducan, Mitchell Green, Ariki Murray, Nicole Taborada and Roshen Santos, scored 18 out of 20 and came third in the competition. Well done everyone!

On Thursday and Friday the 9th and 10th of June Dripstone Middle School held a performance to show off our talent in the performing arts learning areas. It was a cross curriculum celebration of talents with students from the Dance, Drama and Music faculties taking part. I would personally like to thank Miss Boardman and her art students who painted the scenes, Mr O’ Gallagher who made a DVD of the night’s performance and his IT students who made posters, along with the drama students, and Mr Cantrill and his tech crew students who worked so hard behind the scenes. A huge thankyou to Miss Carnegie who was a pleasure to work with.

I would like to thank the teachers for their support in allowing students to practise in class time. We would also like to thank Ms Smith our principal, Miss Pikoulos and Mr Trouw our Assistant Principals and all the senior teachers for being so supportive. Last but not least; well done every student, who took part, for your hard work. I’m so proud of you all. YOU ROCK!

Janelle Cantrill, Drama Teacher