Respect ALL

Look to Inspire others

Aim to Innovate

Embrace Learning

ECSCE D G A R S C R E E K

S E C O N D A R Y C O L L E G E  

I S S U E 0 2   • M A R C H 2 0 1 8   • W W W . E D G A R S C R E E K S C . V I C . E D U . A U

N E W S L E T T E R  

Family Meet and Greet

What's inside...

CONTENTS • ECSC

02 Upcoming events  

03

Curriculum updates - Teaching and learning, English and Humanities, Maths and Science.

08

09

Student Wellbeing Update 12

Student Leadership

13

CONTACT US AT EDGARS CREEK SECONDARY COLLEGE: 

MON       8:30AM - 4:00PM  TUE         8:30AM - 4:00PM WED       8:30AM - 4:00PM THUR     8:30AM - 4:00PM FRI           8:30AM - 4:00PM

E D G A R S . C R E E K . S C @ E D U M A I L . V I C . G O V . A U . •   ( 0 3 ) 8 7 7 6 9 6 8 1     • @ E D G A R S C R E E K S C

Principal's Report - Uniform, Reports,  Bullying  

06Student's Report - Art and  Performing Arts 

College Community Partnerships

16 Harmony Day Celebrations

21/03 Harmony Day celebrations  

26/04

09/05

23/05 Student Led Conferences (alternate day) 12:00pm-7:00pm

28/05 Interschool athletics

Last day of term 1 - 2:20pm Finish

PAGE 2 • UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Year 7 Information Night - Galada Community Centre - 5:30pm start 

29/03

Interschool Cross Country

16/04 First day of term 2

message from the principal

As we near the end of our first term I can only congratulate the teachers, education support staff and students on an amazing effort. This foundation year will continue to be full of events and developing traditions that all schools have as part of their culture. It is extremely important to establish a strong school culture of high expectations across all areas of adolescent development. It was wonderful to meet some of our families at the Meet and Greet held at the Aurora Hub and Sprout Café. It was a perfect evening and one of many events where students, staff and families will have an opportunity to connect. 

It was great pride that I witnessed and experienced a few “firsts” for Edgars Creek Secondary College this term: • Our first cricket team represented the school in the      Mickleham Division • Our first Day camp was a success at Lake Dewar • Our first School Captains, Vice Captains and Student Representative Council were selected.

Currently the athletics team has been training hard at lunchtime preparing for the Interschool sports competition and House captain nominations have closed; the selection process will now begin.

Currently the building is due to open on time for the start of Semester 2 this year. I have been meeting with the architects and interior designer to help make decisions in regards to all the furniture that will be required to fit out the spaces for classrooms – this includes lockers! There are definitely more exciting times ahead in Term 2 as we begin preparing for our move to the Wollert site.

 JOANNE CAMOZZATO

PAGE 3 • ECSC

Thank you for your ongoing support and I think all students are looking forward to the Term 1 holidays.

It was great pride that I witnessed and experienced a few “firsts” for Edgars Creek Secondary College this term

Assessment and Reporting: All students will receive a progress report at the end of this term. In this report teachers are using a scale to indicate how your child has responded to the transition to high school in regards to: Organisation; Learning and Behaviour. These reports will be made live and pushed out through COMPASS from Thursday 29 March.

You may recall that in order to ensure that all ECSC students have an opportunity to experience Food as a subject while at Mernda Central there will be a change over for classes in Term 2, Week 3. Students in the following classes will change to or from: 7A Food to Art 7B Art to Food 7C Food to Art 7D Art to Food.

Students will continue to experience Performing Arts for the remainder of semester one. PE/Health is a year long subject with our teacher Dominic Bruno continuing to take all classes once we move.

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to for our students to have used some of the amazing facilities at Mernda Central as in the medium to long term we will not have the facilities for Food or Performing Arts.

The Leadership team and teachers will be developing semester units for the students that will be able to make the most of our STEM facility when we move over to the Wollert site.

Winter and Sports Uniform  A reminder that Term 2 and 3 is the time for all students to wearing the winter uniform which includes the blazer and tie. All items of the winter uniform are available at PSW South Morang store and the sports uniform (including the cap) will be on sale as of the 4 April. You will notice there are many items available as part of the sports uniform. As a family you may choose to purchase the shorts and top for now adding the extra pieces as you go. All students require the school cap for sport and from Term 2 this is the only cap that students may wear to and from school (Please see Uniform Shop details in this newsletter). If your family qualifies for State School Relief Support please contact the school on 8776 9681. There will be a change over period from summer to winter uniform in the first two weeks of term 2, with all students to be in winter uniform by Monday 30 April.

PAGE 4 • ECSC

EXTRACT FROM ECSC BULLYING

AND HARASSMENT POLICY.It is important that when discussing bullying and/or harassment we are all clear on the definitions and the form it can take. Please see below an extract from the College’s Bullying and Harassment Policy: What are Bullying, Cyberbullying and Harassment? Bullying - Definition of Bullying Bullying is when someone, or a group of people, who have more power at the time, deliberately upset or hurt another person, their property, reputation or social acceptance on more than one occasion.  Types of Bullying There are three broad categories of bullying: 1. Direct physical bullying - e.g. hitting, tripping, and pushing or damaging property.  2. Direct verbal bullying – e.g. name calling, insults, homophobic or racist remarks, verbal abuse.  3. Indirect bullying – this form of bullying is harder to recognise and often carried out behind the bullied student’s back. It is designed to harm someone’s social reputation and/or cause humiliation.  Indirect bullying includes:  • lying and spreading rumours  • playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate  • mimicking  • encouraging others to socially exclude someone  • damaging someone’s social reputation and social acceptance  • cyber-bullying, which involves the use of electronic means to humiliate and distress

Cyberbullying  • Consists of psychological bullying, conveyed through the electronic mediums such as cell-phones, web-logs and web-sites, on-line chat rooms, ‘MUD’ rooms (multi- user domains where individuals take on different characters) and Xangas (on-line personal profiles where some adolescents create lists of people they do not like).  It is verbal (over the telephone or mobile phone), or written (flaming, threats, racial, sexual or homophobic harassment) using the various mediums available.

Harassment • Harassment is any verbal, physical or sexual conduct (including gestures) which is uninvited, unwelcome or which could reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation.

What Bullying is Not Many distressing behaviours are not examples of bullying even though they are unpleasant and often require teacher intervention and management. There are three socially unpleasant situations that are often confused with bullying: Mutual Conflict In mutual conflict situations, there is an argument or disagreement between students but not an imbalance of power. Both parties are upset and usually both want a resolution to the problem. However, unresolved mutual conflict sometimes develops into a bullying situation with one person becoming targeted repeatedly for ‘retaliation’ in a one-sided way. Social Rejection or Dislike Unless the social rejection is directed towards someone specific and involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others, it is not bullying. Single-episode acts of nastiness or meanness, or random acts of aggression or intimidation. Single episodes of nastiness or physical aggression are not the same as bullying. If a student is verbally abused or pushed on one occasion they are not being bullied. Nastiness or physical aggression that is directed towards many different students is not the same as bullying.

If you have any concerns about your child please contact Student Wellbeing Coordinator: Chantelle Gianinotti or the Home group teacher.

V I S U A L A R T S R E P O R TI would love to tell you what we are doing in Art this term. In Art our teacher’s name is Helen, she is a pleasant and passionate teacher. She used to be a Science teacher for Mernda Central. I have been enjoying Art a lot as we have been drawing realistic faces. The first thing we did was draw a circle and then the two sides. We then started the hair, nose, eyes, mouth and etc. After that we started to put it on canvas, and we did a wash with paint so it can last longer. Once everyone has done that we start to paint over it(I don’t think paint is going to be easy to make a realistic face). We will add layers of paint, and then we are finished.

By Arnavjot (Arnie) Singh Aulakh

P E R F O R M I N G A R T S R E P O R T

In the last few weeks in Performing Arts we have been learning one of the three aspects of the subject- drama. We learnt about mime last week- what it is and how to do it. Our performing arts lessons have been underpinned by 4 things- enunciation, articulation, participation and projection. At the start of every lesson, we work on tongue twisters- where we try and improve our skills in the above 4 things. They have been getting progressively difficult. Our teacher in Performing Arts is the lovely Deb, who will be teaching Edgars classes until Term 2. Although we might not have a Performing Arts teacher when we get to Edgars, I sure hope we do!

By Adam Newman

PAGE 6 - STUDENT REPORTS

By Erin Simpson Year 7 Coordinator

Over the last few weeks, students underwent an application process for the position of School Captain or student representative. The first step in the process was for students to submit a written or filmed application answering some key questions. They were asked what attributes they would bring to the position, how they could represent the school and their fellow students, and the types of activities they would like to help plan and run. After reading and watching all applications, the Year 7 Coordinators created a shortlist of applicants to be interviewed for captain positions. Interviews were conducted, and the students were asked to provide more detailed responses to the questions they answered in their applications. We were very impressed with the quality of the applications, and after careful consideration made our final decision.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP AND STUDENT VOICE 

We are pleased to announce our Edgars Creek Secondary College student representatives for 2018: School Captains – Shavith Witharanage and Aleyna Yon Vice Captains – Jovan Antony and Ashmit Kaur Head of SRC – Emily Sahragard SRC members – Adam Newman, Atar Singh, Fateh Bhullar, Sayara Sharma, Arnie Aulakh, Ally Lynas, Elise Walshe, Tvisha Chauhan, Naman Sharma, Reet Kaur and James Dimech.

PAGE 8 - ECSC

One of our core College values is that of ‘Embracing Learning’ and already in Term 1 it is encouraging to see all students and teachers embodying this in every class. Our teachers are continuing to get to know their students and how they learn best, and spending time creating curriculum that is engaging and challenging.

This term staff have begun working as part of Professional Learning Community (PLC). A PLC is a team approach to educating students that focuses on what students need to learn, monitoring their progress and providing opportunities for support and extension whenever it is needed. Our staff meet weekly as a PLC and focus on looking at data, curriculum and teaching and assessment practices. Our current PLC work has been on the introduction of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria in every classroom. Learning Intentions are statements that tell students what they are to learn in a unit of work and the Success Criteria help them figure out with their teacher how they can best get there. Research tells us that students learn best, and improve, when they know exactly where they are going and Learning Intentions and Success Criteria help students figure that out. Much like a car ride from A to B, students can practice navigating any obstacles and challenges they may face along the way to get to their destination. We feel that the introduction of these teaching strategies will have a profound impact on the way students see themselves as learners and help them achieve success.

We are also are very fortunate to have begun work with Bronwyn Jones who is a Clinical Specialist at the Assessment Centre at Melbourne University. Through working with Bronwyn, our teachers will learn how to create strong assessments that are challenging and inclusive as well as rubrics that help students evaluate their own performance and set goals for future learning. We know that this work with Bronwyn as part of our PLC practice is really going to benefit both students and teachers. 

TEACHING AND LEARNING 

By Taryn Godley Curriculum and

Pedagogy Coach

This term we will be choosing two house captains for each of the four house groups at Edgars Creek Secondary College. Our four house groups include, Doherty, Jenkins, McDonald and Wollert. To receive this opportunity, students must fill out the house captain application form which has four questions. The application form gets the students to think of why they would be suited to the role and share any possible house activity ideas they may have. The applications will be read carefully and students with positive qualities and a wide variety of ideas will be chosen for the roles. Students chosen as house captains will help work with me to design fun house activities that we will complete during lunchtimes and on certain days scheduled throughout the year. They will be announced just before the end of Term 1.

Coming Soon - House Captains

In English this term, students have been focusing on their persuasive writing and developing their language to engage their audience. They have analysed and applied persuasive techniques including anecdotes and inclusive language to try to convince their teachers on topics such as ‘we should be allowed to eat in class’ and ‘the canteen should only sell healthy food’. In week 7 they completed their common assessment task for this unit and worked hard to achieve their best. In term two, students will work on developing their creative writing skills. They will also continue with their independent reading and conferencing with their teachers and will be introduced to the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge.

In Humanities this term, students have worked hard to develop their historical knowledge. They learned about primary and secondary sources, chronology and cause and effect and have begun to learn about Ancient Egypt. They have looked at the role of the Nile river, the different social groups in Ancient Egypt and have had a go at writing hieroglyphics. They have learned many new facts about Egypt. For example, did you know the Nile river is approximately the distance from Melbourne to Perth and back? Moving forward, students will begin to prepare for our Egyptian showcase afternoon, in which students will create a display and present a research task. This is definitely an event that parents are most welcome to attend and you will hear more details about this in a couple of weeks! After the showcase we will begin to look at the Vikings. All students have made a fantastic start to the year and we are proud of their efforts in English and Humanities. 

This term, students have been working hard on developing their number skills with the four base operations, with a focus on algorithmic setting out and showing detailed and correct working out. They have also completed a unit where they worked on collecting data in various ways, displaying their data using different types of graphs and analysing using statistics.

All students have been enthusiastically participating in the Numeracy Ninjas program which is helping them identify areas that they need to work on throughout the year to strive toward becoming a blackbelt and possibly a grand master! Congratulations to Atar, Naman and Sayara for already achieving the grand master award.

Up next in Maths is some in depth work on factors and multiples of numbers and indices and square roots.

In Science students have been learning the fundamentals of how to properly conduct a science experiment, which has culminated in their Common Assessment Task: a full lab write up of an experiment conducted in class where students designed a test to determine which substance (salt, sugar or lemon juice) melted ice the fastest.

                       Coming up next is a Physics-based unit on forces and simple machines.

By Alyssa Stewart Maths/Science Coordinator

Maths and Science

Engligh/Humanities

Elise Westphalen English/Humanities

Coordinator

CRICKET TEAM UPDTAE

B y D o m i n i c B r u n o I n t e r s c h o o l S p o r t s C o o r d i n a t o r

On Monday 26th March, 12 lucky students received the amazing opportunity to be the first students to represent Edgars Creek Secondary College in interschool sport! We would like to thank Graham and George from PSW for our awesome shirts we were given to wear on the day, so the students could look and feel like the fantastic team they were. We played three games on the day, finishing with two wins and one loss which was an exceptional effort. Daniel started the day with a wicket on his first bowl, followed by Shavith bowling a hat-trick in our first game!

Naman put on a masterful batting display every game, hitting fours all over the ground and forcing the fielders to stand further back towards the boundary. Rohan contributed in every aspect of the game as he was our only player to bat, bowl, field and wicket-keep which he did an excellent job in all roles. The students really enjoyed the day and created high expectations by demonstrating all our school values throughout the day and giving their best effort the entire day. I was extremely proud of how well the students represented our school and they are all terrific cricket players that will continue to improve in the future.

STUDENTWELLBEINGBY CHANTELLE GIANINOTTI

Our school will proudly stand united with schools across Australia on Friday 16 March to mark the eighth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). The NDA provides our school the opportunity to stand together on this important issue and help ignite thoughtful and positive discussions about bullying and ways we can work as a community to address it.

I’m proud our school community will be sending a powerful message, along with other Australian schools, that bullying and violence in or outside the classroom, are not okay at any time. Through positive action we can make a real change. At Edgars Creek Secondary College, we are dedicated to supporting our students and families. We need to ensure we are providing safe and supportive learning environments, free from bullying, harassment and violence.

Wellbeing will be working alongside the students to create a masterpiece to show Edgars Creek students and staff say No! to bullying.

Please visit the Bullying. No Way! website (www.bullyingnoway.gov.au) for practical advice and information to help students, parents, teachers and other members of the school community work together against bullying.

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‘Bullying. No Way!’

Edgars Creek Secondary College is very excited to be part of the University of Melbourne Network of Schools. Glen and Taryn had the opportunity to hear and speak with John Hattie, researcher and educator about what strategies and decisions really make a positive impact on student learning. Pictured with them is Katherine Henderson, the convener of the project and all the schools involved.

We are very excited to be able to announce the appointment of Rob Park and Bronwyn Ryrie Jones to the school as “Critical Friends”.

What you may well ask, what is a critical friend? Well perhaps the best way to describe the role of Rob and Bronwyn is to describe role as fellow professionals who have a shared understanding are supportive, and empathetic but who are not hesitant to speak candidly about the challenges, alternative approaches and who provide constructive criticism about what needs to change to improve students learning growth based on sound educational research. Their role is not dissimilar to that of sports coach, where experienced professionals with specialized expertise, advise, train, and mentor the team towards the shared goal of improving the learning outcomes of our students.

New Educational

Leaders

appointed as

Critical Friends

Bronwyn Ryrie Jones is best described as specialist educational consultant who supports teachers and leaders to:

• articulate progressions of learning that underpin planning, teaching and assessment • generate evidence-based rubrics for assessment • collect, analyse and use assessment data more meaningfully • develop a common understanding of best practice

A teacher, Clinical Specialist and Doctoral Candidate (University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education), Bronwyn is highly-respected for her ability to bridge the gap between complex theory and everyday practice.

Rob Park can be described as a specialist educational consultant who has worked extensively across Melbourne, regional Victoria in and New York for the past 10

years supporting teachers and school leaders to: • identify student misunderstandings related to additive vs multiplicative thinking

• the develop and applications of problem-based learning • identify, gather and analyse data to improve student learning

• develop a common understanding of best practice

Rob Park, holds a Masters in Education and a Bachelors Degree in Science Education in addition to thirty two years’ of experience in the middle and senior years

of school education. Most of Rob’s work is in field of coaching Mathematics teachers, however he also has extensive experience as a facilitator and critical friend to school leaders through his work with the University Melbourne Network of Schools

and Victorian Ecumenical System of Schools.

By Glen Cowan Assistant Principal

The school wishes to take this opportunity to introduce the newly appointed Co-Directors of the Whittlesea Tech School Sandra and Stefan. The school has already had the opportunity to meet with the directors to discuss opportunities for collaboration with the new Tech school to enhance our students learning potential. The new Tech school is currently under construction at the Epping campus of Melbourne Polytechnic, near the Epping rail station. At the Beginning of February Dr Sandra McKechnie and Dr Stefan Schutt joined the Tech school in the role of Whittlesea Directors. Together they have an impressive skill set and hold a passion for creating opportunities for young people.

Forming a strategic

partnership with the

new Whittlesea Tech

School

Sandra McKechnie is a science educator with greater than twenty years’ of collective experience in teaching, research and educational management in the tertiary sector, Victorian Secondary Schools and as the co-founder and Manager of a STEM based education consultancy. Sandra is passionate about education practice that transforms the lives of our young people and impacts positively on the community. Sandra has extensive expertise in areas such as Biotech bringing a depth of knowledge and connection to the partnership and area.

Stefan Schutt has led university research programs and has won national awards

for projects including The Lab (www.thelab.org.aiu), a national network of

technology clubs for young people with autism. Stefan's

background is as an Internet industry project manager, developer and writer and

has a particular passion

for the community of the North of Melbourne.

We look forward to working with both Sandra and Stefan in their new roles and with

Marc Blanks in his

role as Executive Director across both Whittlesea and Banyule-Nillumbik Tech

Schools.

With the forth coming ANZAC Day ceremonies to be held on April 26, the school leadership team is in the early stages of planning to commemorate this important historical event.

We will announce further details of how the school intends to acknowledge this important event shortly.

Building partnerships with our Community

By Glen Cowan Assistant Principal

HARMONY DAY CELEBRATIONS

B Y J A S M I N E A L M A T R A H

Harmony Day will be held on the 21st of March to promote harmony and acceptance of other cultures and religions. The message of Harmony Day motto is ‘everyone belongs’, and at Edgars Creek Secondary College, we promote this motto through our school value, ‘Respect ALL’, where students show respect to each other by listening to each other, working together and trying new experiences together. It is also represented by the colour orange as it signifies social communication and the freedom of ideas and meaningful conversations.

To celebrate Harmony Day, we will be having a range of activities the students can participate in with their peers, such as mindfulness colouring, meditation and human tic-tac-toe. We will also be having a ‘Share a Plate’ lunch day, where all kids are asked to bring in a plate of food from their culture/background, which we will all share together as year level in a hope to make all students aware of the different cultures that we are surrounded by.

PAGE 16 - HARMONY DAY