High School Notices

I would like to very publicly show gratitude to the wonderful senior English students I have been teaching. When classes went online last term, I was perturbed and anxious about my ability to adapt to this new way of teaching.

I found some of the initial sessions quite challenging, particularly relating to open discussions, group work and other collaborative tasks. Questions came up, such as how to manage when students didn’t turn their cameras on and how could I really tell how my students were feeling in the lesson without seeing them face to face.

Teaching is fundamentally about human relationships and connection. It is about sparking the fire of enthusiasm and inspiring learning. These aspects are more challenging in an online environment – but not impossible. I learnt much along the way.

‘Cameras off’ could have meant that the internet was down or that the student had actually left the room, gone to sleep or actually had never been there after the first 1 minute! ‘Cameras off’ also might mean that the idea of watching yourself online was way too confronting – I think a lot of us could relate to that.

I learnt that it was pretty easy to ask the well timed question to a student with a camera off to try to catch them out. I never did – they always answered and were fully there in the lesson.

It was fun to have the option to ‘mute’ a student at any time, a practice much easier than in class when physical muting is not an option!

It was fun to continue my obsessive colour wearing with full embellishments (on the top half at least) and try to find something of the correct day colour to hang on the wall behind.

Despite the challenges of poor internet, weird connections, frozen faces and not being able to really judge how someone was feeling in each class (a vital thing for us teachers), there were moments of joy and humour. We managed to recite King Richard’s famous soliloquy with every student taking on a line.

All of my students were gracious, punctual, diligent, innovative and deeply forgiving of my mistakes and attempts at the new technology. They greeted me with smiles every day and their maturity in adapting was a pleasure to observe. I loved their delicate suggestions; “Katie, um, I think you might have your mic turned off” after I’ve been rabbiting on for minutes about something. Or…”Katie, it sometimes works better if you……insert many phrases here…!”

They were all so patient and kind.

It wasn’t so bad after all. But the goosebumps I got when walking back into class and seeing them all face to face were wonderful to feel.

You just can’t replace the full human connection. What a gift it is to be a teacher.

Katie Biggin

Y10 will be encountering many different art movements during this four week ML
The groundbreaking controversial abstract expressionist drip paintings by Jackson Pollock and The spin paintings of Damien Hirst both of which the artist did not touch the canvas with a brush…
Appropriation art using art from the past and adding collage discreetly to change the mood of the artwork as in these 17/18th C engravings
Art Brut (Raw Art) was a movement that looked at children’s art and people in mental institutions who painted naively. The students are asked to draw with their non-dominant hands.
They will be researching a whole variety of contemporary artists and their artwork

Denis

Congratulations to Shanti Leimanis – Budden in Year 9 for winning first prize for her age group in the Wildlife Art Competition.
Shanti will receive a $50 Still at the Centre gift voucher.
Well done!

In Year 11 at Waldorf Schools all over the world Parzival by Wolfram Von Eschenbach is studied by students. As they journey with Parzival the students embark on their own journey of understanding themselves, which in their future life will enable them to have a more conscious relationship to the world. Parzival offers our students many seeds that will germinate much later in life and imparts knowledge and wisdom our young people need to meet the challenges we all face as human beings.

Isaac Poulsen and I both submitted applications to attend the National Questacon Invention Convention in Canberra at the start of next year and we’re very excited to both be offered places to attend. To get a place at the convention you are required to submit an original invention of your own. Your application has to compete with other students applications from all around Australia with the top 25 being chosen to attend the convention. My invention is designed to help the elderly or handicapped people to open difficult fridge doors. The lower temperature and thus lower air pressure makes fridges hard to open, particularly for elderly people. The device attaches to the side of the fridge with a small paddle inserted in between the seals, when the device senses motion around the handle it activates an actuator that moves the paddle in order to break the seal and equalise the air pressure allowing the fridge to be opened easily. I’d encourage any fellow student passionate about design and engineering to submit an application for next years convention.

Joshua Sykes Year 10

The National Invention Convention is an all-expenses-paid, five-day workshop held in Canberra every January. This program gives 25 delegates aged 14-18 from all around Australia the opportunity to play, make and create with us, designing and developing a prototype that solves a real-world problem.

Participants will use tools, tech and materials, work with local mentors and entrepreneurs, and forge friendships that last a lifetime!

https://www.questacon.edu.au/outreach/programs/questacon-smart-skills-initiative/questacon-invention-convention

At the end of each year, the school distributes a number of awards donated by organisations or philanthropists. The whole HS staff decide on the winners of these awards.

The Reuben Scarf award is given to a leaving Year 12 student for perseverance and commitment to achieve. Reuben Scarf was a philanthropist who donates a cash prize to every school (both government and independent) in NSW. This year the award went to Abbie Walden for her demonstrated determination, excellence and commitment to the school. Congratulations!

The Long Tan award is gifted by the Australian Defence Force to every school in Australia at the end of each year to a Year 10 and Year 12 student. The student must demonstrate teamwork, commitment to the local and wider community, leadership and determination to succeed at school. This year the award was gifted to Mia Green in Year 10 for her incredible commitment to her SRC role and fundraising for the wider community. The Year 12 award went to Avryl Hart who similarly was unsurpassed in her leadership amongst her class and her commitment to her studies and representation on behalf of our school in a wide variety of areas.

To give just one example in the past week of Mia and Avryl’s selflessness and commitment….Mia spoke to the whole HS at an assembly last week about her initiative to ensure older people living in aged care facilities in the shire all receive a handmade Christmas card at school to counter the loneliness that many older people experience. Many students are now busy meeting in the art room at lunchtime making these beautiful cards in the last week of school. Avryl decided that she wanted to organise some of the leaving Year 12 to come over to her house and sew little pouches and mittens for injured wildlife and this is what they are doing this week.

We are so very proud of all our students and the leadership shown by some to think about the world outside of their own and initiate positive actions.

Congratulations to our creative visual art and photography students, who took out major prizes in the Ocean Shores Art Expo student exhibition on the last weekend of August. What a fabulous exhibition it was!

This year’s theme was ‘celebrating a moment.’

Here are some of the prize winners: