Newcomb Secondary College Newsletter

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TUESDAY 18th August 2015 ISSUE: 25

Coming Events

Wednesday, 19th August You Yangs/Serendip 10 Outdoor Ed Excursion. Thursday, 20th August Pupil Free Day. Council Meeting. Friday, 21st August Girls Go Extreme, All Day. GROW at Gordon. Monday, 24th August Senior Concert Band Tour. Tuesday, 25th August Senior Concert Band Tour. Wednesday, 26th August Senior Concert Band Tour. Year 10 Outdoor Ed: Burchel Trail. Thursday, 27th August Senior Concert Band Tour. Girls Go Extreme, P2 to 4. Year Level Assembly. Friday, 28th August Senior Concert Band Tour. GROW at Gordon. Thursday, 3rd September Girls Go Extreme. Friday, 4th September GROW at Gordon.

Pupil Free Day This Thursday, 20th August we have a pupil free day for planning purposes. To support our year of review we will be looking at our progress over the last 4 years and looking forward to what the next 4 years may bring.

Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences Thank you to all of the families that attended our student conferences on Thursday, 13th August. It is always a great opportunity to discuss student learning and work together to help students move forward with their education. Many studies have reported that the support shown by parents greatly effects the outcomes of students. Any parents who were unable to attend on Thursday are encouraged to make contact with teachers via the Xuno Portal or phone the school on 5248 1400 to arrange a meeting. We have had a very positive response to our first go at booking these interviews online. Parents commented that the system was very easy and allowed them to see a full list of their student’s teachers and to easily book all appointments at once. It would be great if these parents were able to show others how things work on the Portal so we can continue to increase our communications. Printing the finished list also allowed parents to easily bring the details with them. Teachers found that they could easily see new bookings as they appeared and could manage times very well. If any parents are still unable to use the Xuno Portal please contact Stephen Bath at the school for assistance.

College Council On Thursday, 20th August a meeting of the Newcomb Secondary College Council will take place in the Language Centre.

Mr Phil Honeywell, Principal Mr Shane Elevato, Assistant Principal

Mrs Liz McNamara, Assistant Principal

College Council: Student Leaders: Student Leaders: President: Yvette Ramsay Mitchell Allen Toby France

Vice President: Vidas Kymantas Amanda Clydesdale Bailee Jones

Exec. Officer: Phil Honeywell

81-85 Bellarine Highway Newcomb VIC 3219 Phone: 03 5248 1400 Fax: 03 5248 3523

Email: newcomb.sc@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.newcombsc.vic.edu.au SMS student absences: 0416 907 351

EARN and LEARN Fundraiser

From Wednesday, 15th July to Tuesday, 8th September 2015, when you shop at Woolworths you can collect Woolworths Earn & Learn Stickers from the checkout operator or through an online order and place them on a Woolworths Earn & Learn Sticker Sheet. There will be one Woolworths Earn & Learn Sticker for every $10 spent (excluding liquor, tobacco, and gift cards). Once completed, simply place the Sticker Sheet in the Collection Box, either at Newcomb Secondary College or at your local Woolworths. Or alternatively, hand the stickers to Newcomb Secondary College and we will stick them on the Sticker Sheets for you.

Year/Group Excursion Date Cost Permission Slips &

Payment Due

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Serendip Sanctuary Wednesday, 19th August $125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Senior Concert Band Band Tour, Daylesford Friday, 21st August $280 $100 deposit by 25th May

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Brisbane Ranges Enviro Work Wednesday, 26th August $125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9 Just Think Forum, Geelong Football Club Wednesday, 9th September Nil 4th September

Year 12 Food & Tech VCE Exam Preparation, William Angliss

Melbourne Thursday, 10th September $30 -

Various V8 Super Cars ‘Students on Track’ Friday, 11th September $5.00 1st September

VCE Food and Tech Food and Technology VCE Student Day Out Thursday, 10th September $30 -

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Mountain Bike Riding Monday, 14th September $125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Bushwalking Monday, 12th October, Tuesday, 13th October

Wednesday, 14th October

$125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Sailing Thursday, 22nd October

Friday, 23rd October

$125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Canoeing Wednesday, 11th November $125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9/10 Outdoor Ed

Surfing Friday, 21st November $125 (Sem 2

charge) -

Year 9 Year 9 Deakin Camp 12th November, 13th

November Nil 21st August

SCHOOL EXCURSIONS AND REMINDERS Students who don’t attend an excursion are expected to attend school as normal.

Parents are asked to not keep students at home.

GIRLS GO EXTREME –

Year 9 - Rock Climbing Challenge On Thursday, 6th August the Year 9 “Girls Go Extreme” group had their first excursion to THE ROCK in Newtown. The excursions aim was to challenge themselves and attempt rock climbing and bouldering.

The 10 girls have been participating in a group that is designed to assist them to increase self-esteem, challenge themselves, develop leadership skills and step outside of their comfort zones. The group is facilitated by Greg Chadwick and funded by the City of Greater Geelong’s Youth Development Unit.

The group were not all confident to attempt this challenge but even those who were unsure eventually harnessed up and got climbing on the wall. These students in particular should be very proud of themselves.

Well done to all the girls! We will keep you updated as the girls embark on their future challenges this term.

Chiara Ercoli

Student Wellbeing

Wombat Gully Donations A big thank you to Wombat Gully for their generous donation to the Hands On Learning (HOL) vegetable growing project. We were greeted by Nat from Wombat Gully on Wednesday who loaded us up with 2 large trays of seedlings including broccoli, lettuce, onions, leeks, carrots and beetroots. Well done to HOL students who have been caring for the veggie patch. Thank you also to Wombat Gully for donating flowers for the day for the PTech launch.

Hands On Learning: Horsemanship

Tiara, Sarah and Shaylah continue their training as

volunteers guided by Rhonda at RDA

Jessica Connor Kennedy

Thursdays Brumby project at G.C Natural

Horsemanship

Bright Futures News Recently our Bright Futures Programme (run via Youth Engagement Support) was lucky enough to be awarded Community Grant Funding through the City of Greater Geelong. With the Council’s generosity, we have been able to purchase two mini IPads. These will enable us to further enhance student learning, and also assist with our administration.

We have been using a number of great learning Apps with our students such as “Khan Academy”, “Mathletics”, “Disease Detective” and many Indigenous Apps such as “Sharing the Dreaming”, “Namatjira”, “Ngurrara”, and “Healesville High School Dreamtime Stories”. We have also been introducing students to the “Smiling Minds” mindfulness App which has been well received.

We would like to sincerely thank the City of Greater Geelong for supporting our Bright Futures Students and our Programme.

Penny Saunders and Emily Cardell

Rock Climbing by Cooper H

On Wednesday, 29th July the Outdoor Ed class went rock climbing at The Rock in Newtown. When we got there, we went through safety procedures and started by doing some bouldering. Bouldering is where you go on small rock faces with no ropes and harnesses. We did that for a little bit and then we

went to the other room with the big rock

faces. Before we went on the rock faces

with the ropes and harnesses we had to

learn how to belay and stop people from

hitting the ground hard. Then Isaiah

demonstrated how to climb the first rock

face. Half the way up Isaiah got stuck on a

bit of the rock face that jutted out from

the wall. With help from Richard, the

instructor, he eventually figured out how

to get out of the situation and made it to

the top. We then climbed by ourselves.

There were different colour rocks to grab

onto. Green the easiest one and black the

hardest one. We were allowed to do

whichever ones we felt suited to our

individual skill level.

Circus Quirkus

On Wednesday, 5th August a group of very lucky students took advantage of the opportunity to attend a Circus Quirkus performance at the Arena in Geelong. The tickets for this performance were generously provided, free of charge, by the Rotary Club of Highton. The performance began with a few of the Circus performers scattered among the audience performing tricks,

short samples of the acts in store for the audience. Some of the favourite acts included the dance trio fighting over chairs, the female acrobat showing off her talent with the spinning wheel and the tight rope walk across the stage by the MC.

The entire performance was amazing. Many thanks to the Rotary Club of Highton for their generosity in providing the tickets to Circus Quirkus and to Mrs Swan for acquiring the tickets and organising the day.

Vicki Swan PSD Co-ordinator

Music Department

Grants Received by the Music Department

In the last couple of weeks the music department received two grants of money for the purchase of new musical instruments. The Lions Club of Geelong Breakfast Inc. donated us $500. Thanks to the support of Mr Alan Davis and The Lions Club of Geelong Breakfast inc. for this very generous donation. Telstra donated us $1200. Thanks to the support of Mr David Harrison, parent and Telstra for their continued support of our music program.

Senior Concert Band Tour Next week the Senior Concert Band, Cold Fusion and Blues’n Jazz is away touring and performing in Daylesford, Bendigo, Castlemaine and Ballarat.

Junior Music Camp Will be held from 16th to 18th September at Daylesford. A reminder to parents that final payments and return of all permission and medical forms are due at the General Office by Tuesday, 1st September.

Music Department Calendar Week 7 – 24th to 28th August – Senior Concert Band Tour Week 8 – 31st August – 4th September No band rehearsals for the Senior Bands. Thursday Period 2 – Intermediate Concert Band Thursday Period 3 – 73 Band. Week 9 – 7th to 11th September Monday Period 5 – Intermediate Concert Band Tuesday Period 5 – 71/72 Band. Thursday Period 6 – Senior Concert Band. Week 10 – 14th to 18th September Tuesday Period 2 – Senior Concert Band. Wednesday to Friday – Junior Music Camp,

Upcoming Music Events Beat The Drum Free youth drumming workshop for ages 12-25 on Monday, 14th September from 5.30pm to 7.00pm at the Newcomb Library. Melbourne Youth Music 2016 Summer School program from 10th to 16th January. See Mrs Stabryla for more information.

Cheryl Stabryla Music Co-ordinator

Year 12 History Roadshow 2015 Every year the History Council of Victoria brings a notable historian to Geelong to speak to Year 12 Australian History students. This year’s historian was the famous Richard Broome! Emeritus Professor at LaTrobe University and author of a number of highly regarded books on Australian and Aboriginal History including one of the text books Year 12 students use. Professor Broome spoke at length about the need for complexity in responses to exam questions, the history of settlement in the Port Phillip District and the impact of ideas about race on the growth of the new nation of Australia. He illustrated his main discussion points with evidence and anecdotes including the now infamous boxing bout of 1908 between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson. Students were relieved to find that despite Professor Broome’s extensive knowledge on the topic, there was little in the way of new concepts for them. A reassurance that they are on the right track in their study. At the conclusion of the presentations students had the opportunity to ask questions, of which Sophie E distinguished herself with an insightful question about Australian attitudes to race in 1901, and then snapped a quick photo with the illustrious Professor. The Year 12 Australian History class with Emeritus Professor Richard Broome.

Jeremy Sinclair

Year 11 and 12 Student Support Person

Active Balance Mat Pilates and Yoga is a new studio that has opened at Adaptive Health Centre in Leopold. The studio offers classes each day to help build your strength, flexibility and endurance. Beginners, intermediate and advanced are all welcome.

Introduction offer for all new clients: 2 week unlimited pass for $30.

To accommodate everyone we run 11 classes across the week, Monday to Friday, morning, afternoon and evening. To see our full schedule access our website www.activebalancepilatesyoga.com. If you have any questions regarding our timetable or prices please contact Andrea on 52505902.

FREE STUDENT EXCHANGE INFORMATION

EVENING IN GEELONG Hear from returned students, find out more

about discounts and scholarships available and ask

questions.

Thursday, 20th August - 7.30pm Belmont Library

163 High Street, BELMONT

Visit www.studentexchange.org.au or call 1300 135 331 for more information