Issue 2 2015
Final Issue - 2015
GWSC Newsletter
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
As 2015 draws to a close, the College farewells two long-serving members of
staff who will be greatly missed. Jim Ross arrived at GWSC back in 1974 and
has tallied forty-one years of service to the school. Jim is the longest serving
teacher in the history of the College. What an achievement! Over the course of
those years many thousands of Maths students have benefited from Jim’s
careful nurturing. Alan Payne has been a central figure in both the Chemistry
and Technology programs at the school for nearly two decades. We wish both
these fine teachers a long and happy retirement.
One of our great challenges is replacing such expertise and vast experience. But every change is an
opportunity and when the school advertises a teaching vacancy there is always massive interest and
a quality field of applicants ready to continue the good work. We have made some very exciting
appointments in recent weeks and I look forward to introducing this new talent to you after the
Christmas vacation.
2015 has been a busy and productive year. The first year of the College’s new Strategic Plan
following last year’s School Review saw the appointment of Dr. Lars Andersson into the newly
created leadership position Director of Pedagogy. In this position, Dr. Andersson has taken
responsibility for leading the development of the GWSC Instructional Model. The model aims to
articulate the core elements of an effective lesson and will both inform teaching practice and provide
a vehicle around which we can continue to build collaboration, classroom observation and peer
feedback amongst the teaching staff. Our goal is to ensure that every student is provided with quality
learning every lesson. The development of teacher capacity and sharing best practice is aimed at
providing the best possible learning experience for our students. It is our focus and our mission to do
just that.
Our Year 12 students are nervously awaiting the release of their VCE results on Monday 14
December. I wish them well. There is a huge amount of talent in this group and I am sure they will
make their mark in the years to come.
As we farewell the Class of 2015 we greet the Class of 2021 who will be spending Tuesday with us
on their Orientation Day. We anticipate a high level of energy and expectation among the three
hundred new students. It will be wonderful to welcome them into the fold.
I hope to see many of you at our Presentation Nights in Treseder Hall on Monday 14 December
(Middle School) and Wednesday 16 December (Senior School). Both evenings commence at 7.00
pm and will be wonderful celebrations of the achievements of our students in 2015.
I extend my best wishes to all families for a safe and relaxing holiday break and look forward to
catching up in 2016.
Gerry Schiller - Principal
MIDDLE SCHOOL
What a rewarding year this has been and as always, student achievement has been remarkable in a
wide range of areas. The Middle School Team would like to thank students and parents for their
wonderful support this year and we know that we can look back with pride on a very successful year.
The Year 9 End of Year Program will run from Monday 7th December until Thursday 17 th December.
Year 9 students have been issued with a detailed program of scheduled activities which focus on
Year 9 into 10 transition and work education.
We want to thank all the Year 8 students who applied to be Peer Support Leaders and congratulate
the students who were chosen. We had an unprecedented number of applications and it is terrific to
see the willingness of students to take on this role. The successful students undertook a day of
training on Thursday November 26th and the focus of their work is to develop relationships with their
group of Year 7 students on Orientation Day and these relationships will be further developed in the
program next year. The enthusiasm shown by the students to be Peer Support Leaders is an
indication of how important they viewed this program when they were in Year 7.
Presentation Night is on Monday 14th December, commencing at 7.00pm in Treseder Hall.
Presentation Night is an important event for the college when our students are recognised for a wide
range of achievements. It is a time for celebrating the success of our college and the breadth and
quality of the educational program we offer. Detailed arrangements for rehearsals will be distributed
to students later this week or early the week after.
Booklists are now available online and hard copies have been distributed. Orders must be in by
Friday December 11th. www.campion.com.au ( enter code K5ED)
Year 7 – 9 reports will be available online from 4pm on Thursday December 17th. Congratulations to
all students who have applied themselves and achieved their personal best.
We are sad to inform you that Director of Middle School Students, Ms Viv Coad has decided to go
part time next year and so she will no longer be a part of our team. Viv has been a great leader in
Middle School, both as Director of Learning and in the past two years as Director of Students and her
guidance and support have been invaluable to students, staff and parents. Her focus has always
been on the best outcome for students and she has been tireless in her efforts to achieve this.
We would like to thank the wonderful team in the Middle School Office whose support, hard work and
dedication is much appreciated. Our House Leaders are: Bradman – Julia Cafiso, Elliott – Athena
Romanas, Fraser – Alice Rowse, Goolagong – Kelly Russell and our secretaries are Catherine
Harrison and Jo Ballantyne.
Next year we welcome Ms Jackie Knight as the new Director of Students. Jackie has been Head of
Health and Physical Education at the college and she has a lot of experience in student management
at her previous school. We are sure that she will be a great asset to our team and she will join Ms
Amanda Provis, the Director of Learning and Mr Geoff O’Neill the Director of Programs. We are
confident that we will be a highly functioning team in 2016 where we shall continue to foster strong,
positive relationships with students. All students commence on Friday 29th January, Year 8 & 9
students commence at 9.50am and should meet at Treseder Hall for assembly.
We wish all our students and their families a peaceful and happy holiday period and the Middle
School Team looks forward to working with you in 2016.
Viv Coad
Director of Students
Geoff O’Neill
Director of Programs
Mandy Provis
Director of Learning
SENIOR SCHOOL REPORT
VCE results
In the last Newsletter, we mentioned the final celebrations of our Year 12 students. We were
certainly proud of the maturity displayed by all Year 12 students in their conduct during those final
days and at their Valedictory Celebration. Once their celebrations were over, most students would
have knuckled down to some serious study and preparation for their final exams, which ended on the
18th November. We look forward to the publication of VCE results and we are sure that most of our
students will be able to hold their heads up high knowing that they did the very best they could in
2015. We know that the college has prepared them to experience success in a competitive world and
to leave their mark beyond our learning community.
Year 12 students, and those students, who completed a Year 12 subject, will receive their results on
Monday 14th December. Students can choose to receive their results as an SMS text message on the
day or access their results via the internet (resultsandatar.vic.edu.au).
Year 10 and Year 11 Semester 2 reports will be available online from 4:00pm on Friday 18 th
December.
Course Approval Interviews
Following the Year 10 and Year 11 exams, all our students in these two year levels met with a
member of the Senior School Management Team for an interview last week, to discuss their course,
and to gain approval on their selections. Course approval is an important step in the process leading
to next year, and is based on students’ final assessments and exam results. Many students are to be
congratulated for their fine effort this year. However, some students chose to focus their time on their
one Yr 11 or Yr 12 subject, and as a result, they did not do very well across their other studies. Some
students in this category, who insisted on continuing with subjects for which they were not
recommended, are encouraged to participate in a summer school program to develop their
knowledge and skill in preparation for next year.
Summer School Programs
Many private educational institutions, such as NEAP, TSFX and Access Education, offer a summer
school program for students, who wish to make a head start with their VCE subjects in order to
optimize their results. Most lessons for a subject run in the second and third week of January for up
to three mornings or afternoons. The lecturers who run these lessons are usually senior VCE
teachers, writers and assessors of VCE exams and authors of current VCE textbooks. Some
institutions also offer a valuable lecture that is designed to give students an insight into how to
manage and cope through their VCE, by setting goals, maintaining focus, managing time, and
preparing for SACs and exams. Students who want to participate in any such programs must enrol
online or make use of the enrolment forms available from the Senior School.
EDROLO
Edrolo is a fantastic online resource that is VCE-specific and includes video lessons, quiz questions,
exam-style questions, downloadable/printable study notes and more! It’s also mobile friendly. The
materials can be used to supplement learning (in and out of the classroom) throughout the year, and
as a revision tool to prepare for SACs and exams. Edrolo provides for students to clarify material
covered in class, and to engage with content before class so students come prepared. In 2016,
Edrolo will be used as an important teaching tool in Year 12 Biology, Psychology and Studio Arts
classes and to give ongoing feedback for improvement. Students in the above subjects were
provided with relevant information to bring home to parents, including details of payment information
to allow your child access to this resource. Please see the Edrolo website (www.edrolo.com.au) for
further information and to view some sample lessons.
VCE Head-Start Program and Holiday homework
The VCE Head-Start Program was held this week, from Monday 30 th November to Friday 4th
December. In speaking with students at the interviews, they were eagerly waiting to begin their VCE
studies prior to the summer holidays. We were pleased with the high level of participation from our
students, including new students officially starting in January 2016. Students received relevant
information, such as the Study Design and assessment format, and made a start on the first topic in
every subject they are enrolled in for 2016, often as preparation for their first School Assessed
Coursework task. All students have been set homework for each subject, which is due back within
the first two weeks of commencing school next year. Students are expected to complete this
homework as part of their first assessment task in the subject. Many subjects require that
students demonstrate the satisfactory completion of their homework via a test or a task, which will
also be set in the first two weeks of 2016. Electronic copies of Head Start materials can be accessed
via the College Library site on Compass.
Year 11 Formal
A pleasurable evening was had by all who attended the Yr 11 Formal
at Lincoln of Toorak, on the evening of 26th November. We were all
able to relax, enjoy one another’s company and celebrate the
achievements of 2015 after a busy period of exams and corrections.
Thank you to Mr Nguyen and Ms Alway for organizing this great night.
Credit must also go
to Lauri Reddy
and Melika
Abbasszadeh,
who organized presentations in a variety of
categories.
Lauren Johnson-Sutton was awarded best dressed
female, Thomas
Rachon - best dressed male! The winners of the
‘dance-off’ were
Aisha Imam and Berke Unal.
Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program
The Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program is an academic enrichment program
designed to support high-achieving Year 11 and 12 students, and offers them
numerous opportunities to engage with the
University
and
each other through an extensive program of
events.
Participants are selected on the basis of their
school's
endorsement
and
their
own
academic
performance and
leadership skills. The Senior School is proud to
announce Alice
Huang and Alan Fong as our two Yr 10 students who have been
accepted into this
highly regarded program for 2016. We congratulate them and
look forward to
hearing of their experience during the course of next year.
Student Leadership 2016
We are pleased to announce our School Captains, Senior School Council, Senior School Sport
House Captains and the Fund Raising Committee for 2016:
School Captains – Yishan NEO, Visura LOKUGE DON, Tanvi NAIR and Amir MIRFENDERESKI;
Senior School Council – Farhan ISHRAQ, Kash MARUDHAVANAN, Sabrina MOHD SARIP, Tiara
RAJESH, Nicole TEH;
Senior School Advisory Group – Malisha GODAKANDA, Meredith LAI, Frederick LUNG, Astro
SAKALIS, Wedny XIE, Mohammad ZIA;
Visual Arts Captains – Serena ANG, Tony CHEUNG;
Community Arts Council – Min Yi SHU, Ryan KOUCH;
VicSRC Representatives – Prineeka SHARMA, Mahek SHAH, Alfred TANG, Rocky LIANG;
Senior Music Captains – Amber MAY, Justin LIM, Carla MAGGIO DE LEO and Jerry ZHAO;
Elliott House Captains – Dahami BATUGAHAGE DON MADAVA, Bip BIJAY, Sam COMBRIDGE;
Fraser House Captains – Suvin DIAS, Klemens HABERBERGER, Videsh WAGH;
Bradman House Captains – James DOUGLAS, Michael MOORE, Ria NERLIKAR, Stuti PANDE,
Akshat PURI, Chelsea TAING;
Goolagong House Captains – Kristin BOWEN, Swathika KARTHIKEYAN, Sharon LIM, Amanda
LOW, Noee RABER, Astro SAKALIS, Evangeline STOGIANNOU;
Fundraising Committee – Minoshka BOCARRO, Yifan GUO, Ella HARDY, Katie HE, Maanya IVAR,
Pei Ting FOO, Sarah LIAW, Sameera TADIKONDA.
Congratulations to all of the above students! We are confident that they will be excellent leaders and
role models, and we applaud them for their willingness to serve Glen Waverley Secondary College.
Thank you to all students who showed an interest in student leadership.
The Student Leadership Team will participate in a leadership training session next week, on
Wednesday, 9th December, facilitated by Stefan Bramble, a past-GWSC student, who trained
overseas and has had many years of experience in working with young people. Stefan utilises his
expertise in the area of drama and performance to inspire in an active and unique way. We look
forward to Stefan’s work with our students.
Our College Captains for 2016 will be acknowledged at the Senior School Presentation Night on
Wednesday 16th December. We are pleased to invite all families to attend on this night to celebrate,
as a community, the full array of life at Glen Waverley Secondary College, and to also farewell the
Class of 2015. The occasion, focusing on our students' achievements in academic study, the arts,
sport, service and leadership will begin promptly at 7:00pm in Treseder Hall, and should finish by
9:00pm. All students in Years 10 to 12 are expected to attend this final formal event of the School
year.
We wish senior school students and their families a safe and restful holiday.
All Senior School students resume school on Friday 29th January 2016
(Year 11/12 students – 7:50am; Year 10 students – 8:45am)
Sue Simadri – Director of Students
Fiona Bui – Director of Learning
MUSIC
Earlier this term GWSC participated in the “Music, Count Us In” project. This project involves young
songwriters who mentored by Australian recording artists like Marcia Hines and Claire Bowditch to
write a song that is sung at the same time by over 50,000 students in Australia. This year a select
number Middle School students formed a band to lead the singing at the live site at Federation
Square. The students had a great time meeting the student songwriters and entertaining the large
crowd at Federation Square, well done for representing GWSC to the community so well.
Sharon Hua, Louise Lay, Angus Lee, Sneha Mantha, Declan Wakefield, Claire Bowditch
(ambassador), Bradley Nguyen, Ethan Lee, Jamie Douglas, Ryan Lee, Craig Ellis, Alex Li, Luc
Bogemann, Loc Lien, Grace Lay
Thepuli Dematawala, Anthea Ng, Tyrone Rossouw, Gabriel Lee, Bianca Curnow, Mr Gerry Schiller
Three weeks ago the GWSC music department teamed up with Yamaha Australia to film a special
video to encourage students and families to play music. Our College principal Gerry Schiller, selected
year 7 students, and parents willingly gave their time to speak about the benefits of learning music,
students spoke about being beginner students and how much they have enjoyed their lessons and
band rehearsal. The students had a wonderful experience seeing how a production studio works, and
how to perform and act for film. The video will be published by Yamaha and distributed to all schools
in Australia next year and will be available on youtube later this year.
GWSC Concert Band with Leongatha Primary School Band
Two weeks ago the students from the Concert Band joined with the Leongatha Primary School
Beginner Band for a special music workshop. GWSC students we given several Leongatha Primary
School students to mentor and show around the school. Leongatha is a small regional farming town
and this was the first time many of the students had been to Melbourne. Well done to the Concert
Band students who we so welcoming of our guests to the school. GWSC and Leongatha students
had a great day making new friends and learnt two new songs with just one class to rehearse.
Intermediate Strings and Concert Band students to bring their instruments on Tuesday 8th
December and wear FORMAL BLACK with GWSC music tie/scarf for the Orientation Day
performances.
Middle School Presentation Evening Performance - Mon 14th Dec
Junior Guitars, Symphonic Band, Symphonic Band and Middle School Choir, Seussical Cast
and Orchestra
Senior School Presentation Evening Performances - Wed 16th Dec
Senior Choir and Senior Guitar, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra (Senior/Concert Strings
with Wind Ensemble), Latin Band, Seussical Cast and Orchestra
Planning for 2016
Feb 9th 7-9pm Music Recruitment Night - Wind Ensemble and Concert/Senior Strings, a chance for
all Year 7 students and new students to the school to try out instruments and join our vibrant music
program
Thank you to all students how have participated in music, during music classes on the guitar, elective
music, GWSC ensembles, battle of the bands and lunchtime concerts. Thanks to our wonderful
Music Staff and GWSC music leaders for a fantastic year of music making.
Amy Wert – Director of Music
SPORT
This year Glen Waverley was lucky enough to be selected by Richmond Football Club to represent
them in the Victorian High School's Multicultural Cup. This is an AFL initiative in which yrs 8-10 can
complete in modified AFL games, but must have a multicultural background by having at least one
parent born overseas. Trials started late in Term 2 and by Term 3 our Squads were finalised. During
Term 3 our squads trained hard each week with development coaches from Richmond FC and we
saw a huge improvement in their skills and game sense. We competed on October 21st of this year
at the 2015 Multicultural Cup in Parkville. It was a wet and rainy start to the day but our teams held
strong with a big win for the girls squad and the boys coming close to pinching the points. From there
both teams played strongly with the girls pushing other teams to the final siren and the boys clinching
their first win of the day with their final game. It was a fantastic event with a DJ playing during games,
Cash a female footballer for the Western Bulldogs having talks with the girls squads and a grand-final
sprint before the final games. Our squads represented the college fantastically and had a wonderful
day out playing AFL and enjoying hanging out with their team mates. It has been a fantastic ride for
our two squads and we have been invited back again next year to again compete in the Multicultural
Cup, so get your kicking boots on and get practicing!
Leisha Jungalwalla
SPORT
The College no longer runs a second hand uniform shop.
Second Hand School items may be purchased and sold through the
Sustainable School Shop
www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au
Items available include uniform,books,calculators,music items and
stationery. The schools booklist and uniform list is loaded to assist you.
Parent Association
Morning Tea for new families
Friday 29th January in the College Library at 9.00am
All meetings of the Parents Association are held in the Science & Technology Centre commencing at
7.30pm. Parking is available in the Staff Car Park, enter via Sneddon Drive. 2016 dates coming
shortly.
Cheryl Monkman – President Parents Association
Victorian School of Languages
We are pleased to announce to secondary students living in outer Melbourne
the opportunity to study:
LATIN (Years 7-12)
on Saturday (9:00am-12:20pm).
At the
Glen Waverley SC Centre
(21 O’Sullivan Road, Glen Waverley)
Classes will commence in 2016 if there are sufficient enrolments
For information on this and other languages and centres,
phone: Kevin
Ryan 9802 4326