Edition 13: 2 September 2016

News from Wellington Secondary College

Riddle me this

Wellington Journal

College Production: The Lion King

Q: What goes up when rain comes down?

A: An umbrella13 September

rd thFrom August 23 to the 26 , Wellington held one of its most exciting productions yet:

The Lion King. The production crew spent months putting together this timeless tale

and the hard work was certainly worth it!

Students and teachers in the production dedicated two days each week from February

for after school rehearsals, gave up two days of their holidays, even a few Saturdays

and along with the Instrumental Music students we had a three day camp in

Daylesford. After all the hard work The Pride lands came to life each night in the MJP

theatre with African-inspired face paint, dances and songs.

A special thankyou to everyone who came to watch The Lion King and also to the

teachers who put in the extra hours and effort into making the production possible. We

managed to have sellout crowds on the Thursday and Friday nights which is a huge

achievement.

The production ended with an emotional high where tears were shed and hugs were

given. However, Hakuna Matata my friends, there will be a production next year and

all are welcome to audition and join our performance family.

Natacha Cangy

Performing Arts Capatain

Three Way Conferences

V

Athletics Carnival

22

Principal’s Report

Simon?

Enrolment:

Cuuurrently, our Year 7 numbers for 2017 stand at 347. Mr Butler has been in contact with the NEVR Facilities manager in order to negotiate the provision of new portables to service our increased enrolments. The new classrooms will be available for the start of the 2017 year. As well as this we are still exploring the option of building a new canteen to alleviate the congestion we currently experience. This is based on enrolment needs and is not part of the Master Planning process. Four of the older portables at the front of the College will be removed over the upcoming holiday period and will be replaced by four brand new rooms on the Oval.

Master Planning

Mr Butler, Mrs Brisbane and I met with DET and our Architects (Clarke/Hopkins/Clarke) last Tuesday. It was a very exciting conversation and also quite daunting in the scope of work we are undertaking. I have arranged for the architects to address our next Council Meeting (October). I extend an invitation to the broader community for this presentation as well. If you are interested in attending please contact the General Office. The meeting will

be in the MJP Theatre (depending on numbers). I will send a Compass News feed confirming arrangements closer to the time.

Child Safe PoliciesThe Victorian Government is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people. As part of the government's commitment to implementing the recommendations of the Betrayal of Trust report, there is a new regulatory landscape that underpins the new PROTECT Child Safety Standards. These standards are compulsory across all Victorian schools and need to be implemented by the beginning of 2017. Part of the process requires me to sign a Statutory Declaration (countersigned by the Council President) that we either have appropriate policies in place or have an action plan to have them in place by 2017. Once ratified by Council, these policies will be available on the school website.

Victorian Young Leaders To China (VYLC)

It was with great pleasure that two weekends ago I attended the Victorian Young Leaders To China Induction Camp and Blazer Presentation at CYS in the City. Our 9 excited Year 9 Mandarin students, along with teachers Ms Haijin Zhuang and Mr Josh Coller met with Ms Judith Graley, MP (Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier) to receive their tour blazers and spend the weekend preparing for their 6 weeks immersion in China in October and November this year. This is a fantastic opportunity where all students are fully funded by the government or the school. We wish the touring party a safe and wonderful trip and look forward to hearing about their experiences when they return. I thank Mrs Brisbane, Ms Zhuang and Mr Coller for their commitment and hard work making this project happen.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN results were released a little earlier this year and I am delighted to report that the results continue to reflect the great academic potential of our students. Whilst there are some specific points of interest that will be followed up by the Policy and Curriculum committees, overall the data shows that the “Low Growth” axis puts us on or below the state in every field and the “High Growth” axis has us on or above the state in all fields except writing – a remarkable result for the students and teachers at Wellington.

3 Way Conferences

Mrs Brisbane and the ICT Team have rolled out the Compass process again and we have, as usual, organized a suite of interpreters to assist families. Any concerns, contact the General Office or Mrs Brisbane directly.

Presentation BallthThe Presentation Ball was held at “The Grand on Cathies Lane” on Friday 19 August. 23 couples and their families and friends

had a great night – it was interesting to see the continuing trend of the significant number of student and former student guests as well as the more traditional “family” tables.

Our guest of honour was our local member and the Premier of Victoria, Mr Daniel Andrews. Congratulations to debutant organisers Ms Lauren Elverd and Mr Peter Clarke and their team for all the hard work and support of our students on this “night of nights”.

College Production

“The Lion King” was held over 4 nights last week in the MJ Putrino Theatre. Congratulations to Mr Alexander, Mr Lake, Ms Masterton. Mrs Tunnicliffe and Mr Shadur on their innovative sets, brilliant production and in leading the very large staff and student support crews. Well done to everyone involved in a great performance. I also acknowledge the fantastic support of the Performing Arts Parents and Friends Group over the 4 nights. I am currently exploring the option of installing a proper floor over the floor boards of the old stage.

Interschool Sports

On Monday of last week I attended the Monash District Athletics Sports at Knox track. It was fantastic to see so many of our young athletes, not just competing well, but representing the school with distinction in terms of appearance and behaviour. Mr Whyte has reported specific results in more detail elsewhere, however I thank him and his team of coaches for preparing and coaching our students for this competition.

End of term arrangement

thSchool will be dismissed for the term break on Friday September16 at 2.30pm. The charter buses will leave at 2.45pm. I remind everyone that Term Four is a “summer uniform term”. Please ensure that you have organised your uniform in preparation for the new term. Check the student diary for details.

rdFinally, I wish you all a safe holiday and look forward to seeing everyone return safely for term four on Monday 3 October.

Hugh BlaikiePrincipal

Athletics Carnival

23

Principal’s Report Continued

Simon?Athletics CarnivalMonash Division Athletics

Sport this week involved the Monash Division Interschool Athletics Carnival at the Knox Athletics Track. Wellington attended

with a healthy 58 students competing across all events. While the weather was rather cold, wet and windy this did not hinder

performances.

st From the gallant efforts of the team came a number of notable results. Wellington was able to bring home 21 1 place results, 15 nd rd 2 place results and 6 3 place results. Of these first place results there were 6 records set which means these students have been

the best ever in the Monash Division; an achievement to be very proud of. (Records set are marked by * below)

Our first placegetters and, in the distance events, first and second placegetters will now go on to represent Wellington SC and the

Monash Division at the Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR) competition thback at the Knox Athletics Track in the first week of term 4 on Friday 7

October.

This EMR Team will include:

Declan McBean in the 15 year Boys 100m,*100m Hurdles, 200m, *Javelin,

Discus and *4x100m Relay

Thariel Ter in the 15 year Boys 400m, 800m and *4x100m Relay

Damon Harbis in the 15 year Boys Triple Jump and *4x100m Relay

Jack Buller in the 15 year Boys *4x100m Relay

Nilesh Vahessan in the 16 year Boys 100m, *100m Hurdles and *Triple

Jump

Jack Scott-Smith in the 16 year Boys 800m, *1500m and 3000m

Ben Rekic in the 17 year Boys 800m

Keauna Mills in the 13 year Girls Shot Put

Natalie Wagan in the 18-20 year Girls 400m, 800m and 1500m

Kevin Giang in the 13 year Boys 400m

Amanda Vo in the 18 year Girls Long Jump

The college would like to congratulate the whole team for their efforts

throughout the day and wish all students who qualified to compete at EMR

all the best in their training and competition on the day.

Thank you!

Greg Whyte

Director Sport

Athletics CarnivalAthletics CarnivalVictorian Young Leaders to China

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Athletics CarnivalPresentation Ball 2016

On August 27-28, students participating in the VYLC program were invited to

the City CYC overnight camp to take part in various leadership activities

throughout the course of the day. Our school was one of nine Victorian schools

to partake in the camp.

On Saturday morning we listened to a number of presentations from the AFS

(dubbed the “Orange people”), previous VYLC students and other members of

the program, and were assigned rooms and VYLC blazers. We had a set

schedule for meal times – breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner

and supper – and rotating group activities focusing on either China, culture or

leadership, depending on which group we were in. There was also an organised

7pm walk through the city, which was a spectacular experience!

On Sunday, we started the day with a fun (and exhausting) game about

leadership and teamwork in which one person had to walk on a rope whilst

everyone else stood in a circle and held it. I think we all got hand-burn by the

end of the activity (ouch).

Later we got to finish the last of our rotating groups and went for another day walk

through the city. At the end of the program we had the opportunity to rate the camp

on the staff, venue, program and food, and were presented with VYLC backpacks,

rugby shirts and polo shirts.

Overall I thought that the camp was extremely engaging and offered a lot of extra

leadership skills. Many friends were made across schools – some of which were

fortunately in the same group of Nanjing as Wellington.

Jessica Kean

9L

The 2016 Presentation Ball was one of the best nights of the year for the Year 11's. After the 8 weeks of preparation, we were finally able to be presented and perform our dances in front of our family and friends.

Being able to watch all of our hard work come together for one night was so awesome. It was a great night for everyone to dress up and look their best for a couple of hours.

The most enjoyable part of the night was the dancing in front of our families with our partners and our friends. The girls definitely enjoyed getting dressed up as princesses and having fun in the limousine.

The Presentation Ball was definitely a night to remember and is an event that everybody enjoyed!

Overall, it was such a good experience and I recommend the next Year 11's to take part in it.

Chelsea Radin 11I & Tiana Nikolova 11H

Athletics CarnivalAthletics CarivalAuthor Visit: Scot Gardner

25

Athletics CarnivaAthletics CaPool Champion

Devlin Praegar of Year 9 recently won the Under 18 State Championship for 8-ball Pool. This means that he will again represent Victoria at the Nationals, in Darwin, during the school holidays in January. He did this as a 15 year old, playing against many older players, and in the largest field of Juniors that has ever competed. Not only did Devlin win, he did it quite convincingly by winning the first elimination final 3-0, the second elimination final 3-0 and the grand final 4-0. This is quite an achievement and is making waves in the pool scene. Devlin has received compliments and congratulations on social media.

Devlin is also competing in the Open Mens State titles, against adults, and is currently among the top 20 player in Victoria. The next round of the Open Mens is known as the Top 20, as that is the number of players still competing, and those who progress to the next stage will make the Open Mens State Team.

For a 15 year old to make the top 20 is extremely rare. Only two past players have achieved this at 15. Most adults play for many years and only dream of making the Top 20.

Congratulations on your wonderful achievement Devlin!

Scot Gardner is a great author (and also a great comedian). His jokes and stories

were hilarious and I laughed at every one. He first explained his name, then his

personality and then his books. He only explained his first couple of books and his

most recent book 'The way we roll' with some detail. He talked about his

inspiration for these books which was his own experience. After that he talked

about how he wrote his story, where he wrote it and where he got his ideas from.

He gave a tip to always have pen and paper at your fingertips because ideas for

books come at the most random times. After that he talked about his best book

'The dead I know'. He spoke about the front cover having such an irrelevant

picture to the story he wrote. Basically, this book is meant to be about a Goth boy

with an unusual relationship with death. He told us about his real life story

(inspiration) for this book, his farm and his cow, Tiny. He talked about his

relationship with death and what it means to him and for a while he asked to share

funny stories. I laughed so hard, I ended up choking.

Andy Tran

7N

stWednesday the 31 of August, author Scot Gardner visited Wellington. 7N was

extremely lucky to have a writing workshop session with Scot Gardner. During

this time, 7N was taught many tips and tricks on how to improve our narrative

writing. We learnt that instead of using the first adjective that comes to mind, we

should expand our vocabulary and choose more effective adjectives. Scot

Gardner also gave 7N a few fun writing activities. An activity we had to

attempt, was writing a twenty-word description about the ocean. This task

may seem easy, but when you exclude the letter 'e', it becomes quite difficult.

Whilst attempting the task, 7N learnt to widen their vocabulary.

On behalf of 7N I would like to thank Scot Gardner for taking the time to

visit Wellington and giving us the chance to know him.

Ben Coldebella

7N

26

Year 9 Form V Form Basketball FinalWhat’s On In Our Classrooms?

Year 9 students have been learning about Biomes and Food Security in their Humanities classes. In order to recognise the uneven distribution of food around the word 9L participated in a simulation activity.

As a class they represented the world population of 7 billion people and individually they accounted for about 4% of the world's population or approximately 286 million people. Students were then placed into groups to account for the billions of people who live off either $1.25 or $2 a day, and compared this to people who had more than enough. Their situation was visually represented by corn chips and either clean or dirty water, with the one wealthy group having sufficient food represented by not only corn chips and clean water but fruit and jelly beans.

A great discussion was held as the students tried to understand how such a situation had come about, and discussed potential solutions to the problem.

Many students commented at the end that participating in the simulation allowed them to not only empathise with the situation but to be more proactive about changing it.

Miss Daniels 9L Humanities Teacher

thOn Thursday 18 of August, the Senior VCAL class went on an excursion to the city as a part of our current focus on Homelessness.

First of all, we went for a walk along Southbank and played pool for a bit. The main point of the day though was to visit an

organisation called The Big Issue. The Big Issue helps homeless and disadvantaged people by giving them a stable source of income

through selling magazines. Kate told us all about The Big Issue and how they help people by providing them with a job. She said the

most helpful thing we can do is to stop and say 'hello' when we see someone selling the magazine so that the sellers feel respected.

We can obviously also buy the magazine as the profits help each seller to buy food and pay rent. We completed some group puzzles

and some of us had way more challenging puzzles than other people, which helped us to understand what it is like to be

disadvantaged and how you can basically never get ahead when other people have an unfair advantage over you. We had a guest

speaker named Pete who told us his story and about how The Big Issue helped him to get on his feet. He told us about how he used to

be wealthy but his business collapsed during the global financial crisis and he became homeless for many years and slept next to a

boat shed near the Yarra River. His story made us all

stop and think as it was very intense.

It was good to see a different approach to helping

the homeless and seeing real change through this

great organisation.

Senior VCAL students

VCAL Excursion

Simon?

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Year 9 Form V Form Basketball FialCollege Production: The Lion King

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Wellington Journal - Fortnightly Newsletter of Wellington Secondary College - Designed & Edited by Mr Simon Coles.

Editorial Support by Mrs Dianne Schneider. Printing and Technical Support by Mr Brian Foster and Mr David Kerrisk.Wellington Journal - Fortnightly Newsletter of Wellington Secondary College. Designed & Edited by Ms Erin Daniels

Athletics CarnivalWellingtons Got Talent Grand FinalAthletics CarnivalYear 12 Application for 2017 Courses

To apply for ter�ary (university and TAFE courses) students must lodge an applica�on via the VTAC website – . www.vtac.edu.au

By the end of Term 3, students should have lodged a VTAC applica�on and many will also apply for the special entry access scheme and scholarships.

Students are able to list up to 8 courses in their applica�on. VTAC applica�ons are open now and students must create an account and enter at least one preference by September 29. There is a $32 VTAC processing fee, which increases if students apply late. Students are able to change their VTAC preferences, even a�er they have received their ATAR, with no further cost involved.

Addi�onally, students can also apply via VTAC for financial scholarships and for the special entry access scheme (SEAS). SEAS recognises disadvantage in educa�on and students are able to gain entry into courses with a lower ATAR than would normally be required. The categories under which students can apply for SEAS include factors such disadvantaged financial background, difficult circumstances (such as illness in the family or family difficul�es) and disability and illness (which covers learning and physical disabili�es and mental and physical illnesses).

· Closing date for �mely VTAC applica�ons ($32 fee) – 5pm September 29

· Closing date for late applica�ons ($100 fee) – 5pm November 4· Closing Date for SEAS applica�ons – 5pm October 4· Closing date for VTAC scholarship applica�ons – 5pm October 14· Release of ATARs (online) - 7am December 12· Deadline for interna�onal students to make final changes to

preferences – 4pm December 15· Deadline for local students to make final changes to preferences –

12 noon December 20· Round one course offers – January 18

Parents/guardians should rest assured that students receive frequent reminders of these cut-off dates and will be supported with the applica�on process. Students can a�end one of a number of a�er-school sessions held specifically to assist students to apply for VTAC, enter preferences and apply for SEAS and scholarships.

All Year 12 students have received a booklet called 'The ABCs of Applying', which outlines the key dates and processes. This booklet can also be accessed online at:

h�p://www.vtac.edu.au/pdf/publica�ons/abc_of_applying.pdf