Senior School Newsletter Issue No. 10 Term 3 2017

Inspire, Shine, Create.

Dare to be wise.

Over the last 12 weeks, the year 9 food tech students have been working in small groups to create a main and dessert that wouldn’t look out of place in a ‘fine dining’ establishment. Initial focused sessions showing how to create purees, gels and spherication techniques, help put to bed any uneasiness around the magnitude of the task and slowly the students started to forge their own dish identities and started thinking about how elements could marry together, along with trialing some weird and wacky flavor combinations.

Once the students had planned, drawn up visual plans and experimented with individual components of their dishes, they cooked their mains one lesson followed by the dessert in the next. After each, a theory lesson where they could evaluate and improve upon their dish took place. Seasonality, costing and quantities were considered before the stakes were upped and the students cooked one dish of both courses in a lesson. The student’s dedication to the unit has been unwavering, with many students staying past 5pm the night before the large cooks and then seeing a que of them waiting to enter the food tech room when I arrived at 7.30am the next day.

After focus sessions on plating, the students then cooked their dishes to a room of 30 staff, including many from the leadership team. The acquitted themselves superbly, and were given a standing ovation at the end of the evening. The final cook was to their parents, many of whom didn’t believe their child could cook. We also invited 3 local restaurants in to sample the food on this evening, just in case the pressure of cooking for their parents wasn’t enough for them. The students excelled themselves again, the room was buzzing and it felt like every dish was photographed and uploaded onto social media.

I personally couldn’t be prouder of the students, and as I said to them, “You’ve absolutely smashed that!”

Special thanks to Nicole Lilly and Jaike Ludewig who have been by my side the whole way, the staff who helped out on both evening behind the scenes and Lyn for her support throughout.

Jeff DentHead of Food Technology

2

For term 3 and a little bit of term 4 the year 9 Food Tech class has been working on ‘Fine dining.’ Fine dining provides the highest quality food and is usually very minimalistic, the atmosphere is very formal especially in an expensive restaurant; usually where fine dining takes place. The year 9’s explored foods such as purees, gelees and different foods that were typically served in fine dining. We had also explored presentation skills using various types of vegetables. Our final task in this

unit was to create a main and dessert, which we would then serve to teaches on one night and our parents and some professional cooks on the next. This fine dining challenge was very exhilarating especially after you finally served a plate of food that took you about 3-5 hours to make. Hearing all the feedback from the teachers and parents was very delightful and this experience was very eye opening. Mr Dent, Mrs Lilly and Mr Ludewig did an amazing job in teaching us different ways to cook ingredients to give us ideas on our final dishes. Such as the session on purees, different methods to cooking potatoes, working with gelatine, combinations of proteins and vegetables. The end result was very rewarding, as we slowly improved by building up on our skills through the trial and error process over the course of the term. We would also like to thank the parents and teachers that came a long to the night to support us it wouldn’t have been possible without you! - Sasha Wickrema Arachchi, 9B

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents at each school.

It is designed to assist our school in gaining an understanding of parents’ perception of school climate, student engagement and relationships with our parent community. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

The survey will be conducted online by ORIMA Research Pty Ltd and only takes 15 minutes to complete. The survey can be accessed via desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile at any convenient time within the fieldwork period from Monday 7th August to Sunday 27th August.

Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous.

Dare to be Wise,

Lyn JobsonPrincipal

The online survey is available in English, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha) and Hindi.

Survey language guides will be provided in a range of languages including Albanian, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, Dari, Filipino, Greek, Gujarati, Indonesian, Japanese, Karen, Khmer, Korean, Macedonian, Malayalam, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish or Urdu.

The overall survey results will be reported to parents in our newsletter in September

For further information, please speak to you child’s teacher or visit:

h t t p : / / w w w . e d u c a t i o n . v i c . g o v . a u / s c h o o l /t e a c h e r s / m a n a g e m e n t / i m p r o v e m e n t / P a g e s /performsurveyparent.aspx

WE WANT OUT PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK.

Year 9 Fine Dining Experience

There has been a lot going on in Year 7 at the beginning of a new term! Here are some reflections, and some photos on our Slam Poetry session with Emilie Zoey Baker.

SLAM POETRY

On the 19th of July, a group of students did a Slam Poetry workshop with Emilie Zoe Baker (EZB). We learnt the basics of slam poetry, and she showed us examples of slam poems created by students similar to our age. We also viewed examples of famous slam poems. EZB explained how it didn’t have to rhyme, the most important part was to feel strongly about your topic. Her example was, “Don’t talk about cheeseburgers, talk about CHEESEBURGERS!” EZB also

Year 7 News

said that using bold statements would help make people feel more strongly about your topic, to the extent of making people cry, making people laugh, or even roasting 20 people. We were all told to write down what we felt passionate about on a piece of A3 paper, and not to stop writing until we heard the bell chime. Then we all ranted… the rants were edited and chopped up to form our slam poems. We rehearsed with our groups until we were all ready to present. We presented our poems in front of our workshop groups, Ms.Mayes, Ms.Steel and EZB. We created poems on women’s rights, bullying, stereotypes and Donald Trump. At the end of the day, we all had a new view on poetry, after all, poetry is an egg with a horse inside of it. -Alexandra Eagles, 7A

July Wednesday 19th 2017, the year sevens were given an opportunity to do slam poetry with Emilie Zoey Baker (EZB, SO WHAT, NO BIG DEAL). Slam Poetry is when you go on stage and say your poem with no special effects, (no digital presentation, props, drawings, etc). It’s just you saying your poem with passion. Slam Poetry is when you write something based on your emotions. EZB helped Imansi and me out with writing our poems. Her feedback was, “Your poem is a little unclear, I know you don’t want to be literal but sometimes being clear and straightforward is the best way to go”. Imansi and I started brainstorming ideas for improvement with our limerick. After taking EZB’s feedback into consideration, at the end of the competition, we won chocolates for the best writing performance.

Before we started creating, EZB gave us a task. We had to brainstorm about ideas to write about. After that, we did another brainstorm about chosen topic. Subsequently, we decided to write two different parts of the poem and then combined them together. Our poem was about life and women abuse. Ariana Smile, 7A

Term 3. Wow! The year has come rolling around quicker than ever along with a great deal of academic success across Alamanda College. As a year seven student, I have encountered many new challenges that came along with high school but, many opportunities have become extremely enjoyable experiences. In particular, a guest slam poet (Emilie Zoey Baker) came in to Alamanda College to inform the year 7’s and 9’s on the form and function of Slam Poetry.

Slam Poetry is a form of poetry that tackles large issues that are particularly striking to the poet. They could be as vast as World War or as simple as everyday problems. Emilie Zoey Baker taught us that no matter what the issue may be, as long as it is important and

meaningful to the poet, because that gives the poem true meaning and it evokes emotive language.

When Emilie came in, she also held a workshop for the year 7’s and 9’s which allowed us to get into our creative thinking processes and it gave us a chance to properly learn how to write slam poetry. In the end of the 2-hour workshop, we presented our poem to the rest of the students participating in the workshop, sharing ideas and letting our voice be heard.

Now that Emilie has blessed us with the knowledge of slam poetry, we will continue to study this unit within our English classes. -Ella Hansen, 7E

Quite recently, Emilie Zoey Baker – known as EZB to her fans – came to Alamanda College to speak to us about slam poetry. She knows her memes. She explained the stereotypes that poems face and then subsequently destroyed them. She told us that poetry can come in many forms and can be about anything that you are passionate about. She showed us examples of what there schools did for the OutLoud competition (of which she is a founder). Our favourite was the poem about social stereotypes such as the dumb white, the math-happy Asian, the Indian with the weird name and the abused Muslim. The poem ended on a plea to accept us as we are. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we can’t wait to further our understanding of slam poetry...-Semia Alao, 7E

REC SPORT

In the secondary mini school at Alamanda, we have been trying out different recreational sports, such as - martial arts, yoga, walking and cycling. Over the past few weeks, we have been getting a taste of each sport by participating in an hour of each sport. Then, we chose which sport we would like to further develop our skills in.

In martial arts, we had an instructor from a martial arts program come in to teach us how to protect ourselves

using self-defence techniques. In yoga, we had Ms. Rani help us how to do the sunrise salutation. In cycling, we brought our bikes to school and went around the Alamanda community for a ride. In walking, we walked around Alamanda at a high intensity.

Overall, REC sport has been wonderful to participate in. The school has given us such a great opportunity to try out new things other than normal sport.-Emily Kim, 7E

HEALTH AND PE

We sprint across the court, bouncing the basketball and calling for our respective team members. Sport has been extremely interesting and enjoyable this term with our basketball unit. We have been playing through a class basketball tournament in which we have been developing on our

basketball skills. Along with this, we are working and improving on our cooperation and communication skills. We are really enjoying this as we are getting the opportunity to have some fun competition with our peers and work on our sport goals. We are looking forward to finding out the team who won the class competition and our next PE unit. -Nidhi Anand & Khushi Bharadwaj, 7E

The floor glistened as the lights reflected. Sprinting up and down the court, everyone manipulated by the ball. The court was a battlefield. The score was at a tie. Everyone fought for the ball. Sweat dripped from everyone’s forehead as they ran up and down the courts. The clock ticked as the whistle was about to blow. -Anamita Mahalanabis, 7E

We have started Term 3 with a brand new group of Year 7 students in Wood Technology. Currently the Year 7 Wood Technology students are moving at an incredible pace given we are only 3 weeks into the term. Our students have been learning about safety within the Wood Technology room. They have been working very hard towards becoming proficient with the safe use of basic hand tools. Students have been practicing making common timber joints such as Square cuts, Housing joint, Mortise and Tenon. Our more advanced students have been attempting a common cabinetmaking joint which is the Dove tail joint. This week the class has begun working on designs for their first Wood Technology project which is a Bread Board. Students have been investigating different types of designs and sorting through the different types of upcycled timbers we have to offer, including Jarrah, Spotted Gum and Brush Box. Once students have created at least 3 designs and the reasoning for their preferred choice they move onto creating a cutting list for their chosen timber. The next step is for students to begin construction of their Bread Board.

Year 7 WoodTech

Year 8 Community Project

We are now entering an exciting and at times apprehensive stage of the community projects which is the Action piece I would like to share with you one of the projects from year 8. This project is being led by Jacob and his team mates Mathew and Turi Through one of the Alamanda parents, we have made a connection with a company called Concern Australia. Concern Australia are located here in Victoria, they work with vulnerable young people and children, aged 5-21, creating opportunities for them to enjoy full and meaningful lives. One of the programs that Concern Australia run is called “Inside out” which is a housing assistance program. The program is aimed at 16 to 19 year olds. One of the main aims of the program is to help educate and assist these young people towards independent living. Concern Australia run 17 houses across Victoria with this program Most of the housing that they have has

a limited outside space. The project that they have asked Jacob, Mathew and Turi to do is to create small planter boxes. The idea behind this is for the young people to learn how to tend and look after a vegetable garden. This also helps promote their understanding of self-sufficiency along with giving them a positive focus as they tend their garden and see the fruits of their time and labour. These pictures are of the prototypes that the group have put together. They have worked out that the planter boxes cost $35 each. They have been asked if they could make 20 planter boxes which comes in at $700.Which brings us to the group’s fundraiser which is a BBQ. At this point we are trying to organise it for Week 4 of Term. The group has worked out that they need to sell 500 sausages! I hope everyone is hungry!-Michael Hick

For this term, the year eights are studying cells, their structure and how they work. We have done 2 experiments uisng microscopes: one where we looked at the fibres of newspaper to practice using microscopes and the other looking plant cells of brown onion and celery, hoping to find the organelles. In order to see the close-up view of them, we had to first place the sample onto a glass slide which we then sealed with a droplet of water and coverslip, that way, we could look at it under the microscope. For our second experiment, we also used methylene blue stain to stain our thin onion layer, this helped us see the cells and their features better as the colour made contrast. We have learnt a lot from the two lessons and anticipate the next. Reflection and photos by Yizi Shao and Clarissa Chang of 8D

Year 8 Science

Onion cells at 400X magnification

Onion cells at 40X magnification

Slam Poet Emilie Zoe Baker, or EZB, came in and taught a workshop to the Year 9s. She taught them how to write and perform slam poetry. The students got into teams and performed to the rest of the groups, and who ever had the best piece of work goes to the OutLoud Slam poetry competition. They will perform their piece and represent Alamanda College.

The poems we have created relate to the declaration of human rights that everyone deserves. This is where our Interdisciplinary Unit comes in. The statement we have been researching is ‘Our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the world have evolved with the demands of social requirements’. What this means is that as people have changed over the years, so have the responsibilities, requirements and social demands. These demands

often lead to conflict between people that result in protests. In our English and Humanities classes, we are looking at protests; what they are, what types there can be and some issues that are resulting in protests. The end goal of the unit is to create our own slam poem around the issues addressed in the Declaration of Human Rights - Alana Gray and Aidan Dummett

This term, the Year 9s have been looking at slam poetry in their English classes. For our assessment, we have to find an issue that is important to us and write a piece of poetry around our issue.

To assess our speaking, we have to present this piece of poetry to our class in the form of slam poetry.

YEAR 9 INTERDISCIPLINARY UNIT

I Know What Love Looks Like

Alana Gray

I know what love looks like,It’s how

Friends unitParents hug their kids so tight,

ButI know what love looks like,

But I don’t knowHow it feels to be loved.

I don’t have friends.I don’t have loving parents.

I have monsters.I have loneliness.

I have bullies.See,

I don’t have love,I have hatred,

TearsBruises.

I have emptiness.

I don’t know what love feels like,But

I know what hatred feel like.

It’s how I get thrown around,Pushed, shoved.

“YOU WILL BE NOTHING”Will be?

IHave already been turned

Into nothing.I AM NO ONE!I am not strong,

Or brave,Or even full;

I AM EMPTY!

I know what hatred looks like,It’s how I feel about the world,

How I think about,Myself

The kids at school.It’s how I stare at myself

In the mirror,Contemplating whether or not,

To end it all, My pain,

Tears,My monsters,

And my loneliness.

But no,No I won’t.

Because I believeThat I will rise up

And be strong;

The first week of term 3 we were given the opportunity to write slam poetry with EZB. She was introduced, followed by a presentation about her career and what Slam poetry is. We very very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with EZB in a workshop to plan and presented our group Slam Poetry. We started by writing down random words that meant something to us or we were passionate about and wanted to write about. We further chose one topic and started writing relatable words that we could use in our poem. The final stages of the work shop were further planning and creating our poems.

Sasha Wickrema Arachchi, 9BOn Tuesday 18th of July, the secondary school had a guest speaker attend the school called Emilie Zoey Baker (EZB). Emilie Zoey Baker is an award

winning poet, educator and slam poetry performer.

She delivered a very visual presentation on Slam Poetry that was targeted towards teenagers; this presentation included a lot of things that had related to us, she kept the presentation engaging and exciting by including a large amount of visual humour. EZB was an AMAZING public speaker, she was funny, loud, charismatic and relatable and I think everyone now aspires to have public speaking skills like her. This presentation included what other students define slam poetry as, and an insight into what slam poetry competitions are like. We had gained a lot of knowledge through this presentation. This then inspired the whole year 9 co-hort to create slam poetry about an issue we believe needs to be addressed.

YEAR 9 SLAM POETRY

I Know What Love Looks LikeAnne Rubio, 9A

I know what love looks like.Just like what everybody thinks

It’s whimsical and compassionate-but at the same time, it goes without saying:

Love is danger with its unsympathetic development.Many first-timers don’t believe that it’s true.

That Love is a disease because it’s something that they yearn for-Something for them to pursue.

They ignore the callings of heartbreak and do whatever they canTo ensure that their fake little dreams temporarily come true.

Temporarily.Because they’ve never seen the reality.

But those that have felt it before understand.Love is cruel and savage- it’s poison.

And those that know?They try to avoid it.

Because they’re aware that they can no longer be carefree about pursuing.Because they know that if they aren’t wary of the weight they’ll have to carry,

Love will become their enemy- it will be their undoing. They know what Love looks like.

Love is watching them- from afar or from a distance.It’s watching them smile, run and laugh and kiss their boyfriend or their girlfriend

Knowing that you can never be apart of that person’s life.Not anymore- because you’ve missed that chance.

Love is cruel and savage- it’s poison.But at the same time, it’s peace.

Peace because whether you believe in deities or gods,You know that that feeling of heartache will always be with you no matter what the odds.

You feel reverie, a hint of relief, knowing that you aren’t doomed to Fate.You know that you are human because you can feel terror, happiness and hate.

Love is them.

It’s watching those last moments of happiness slowly fade from their eyes.Love is watching them blink once- twice,

Before they finally close and a tear rolls down their cheek before they can apologise.Apologise.

For leaving you.For letting their own lights of life bid farewell knowing they couldn’t pull through.

And you feel bitter, and hatred, resentment and furyBecause that one person who made you happy

suddenly decided to leave you with nothing but anxiety.And it’s not because they left you-

No, it’s never because of that.It’s because of the fact that you saw that one feeling you can never, ever get back./

In their eyes, before the light faded away:A twinkle of something- but you don’t know what.

In their eyes was a feeling of familiarity,Something so clear that you could see it was full of sincerity.

It was so different from the bitterness you feltThat you can’t help but let go of the anger that dwelt.

Because you know that when you realise- without a trace of doubt,Staying until their last moments got through their heart- inside and out.

But once you realise in that one, split second,You know that they know.

They know.

They know what love looks like.

Boys Boys Bullying Kaitlyn Forssell

When we are little,Boys pull our hair,

Throw crayons at us,Is that what love looks like?

They continue.They trip us over,

Wreck our drawings.But don’t worry,

That’s just what love looks like.

When we get into secondary,Boys hate on our appearance,

They say,Your boobs are small, or too big.

Your waist is fat, or too small.Is that what love looks like?

They continue.They call us names if we don’t like them,

Or even if we do.But don’t worry,

That’s just what love looks like.

No, that’s not what love looks like – that’s what hatred looks like.

We get older,We find ourselves a boyfriend,

He’s caring, loving and everything.I am so surprised,

It’s weird.He isn’t throwing things at me,

He doesn’t hate on my appearance,And for once, he doesn’t call me names.

Now I know what love looks like.

Brave,Full,

Even loved,And I beat those bullies.

See, That’s why I don’t end my life.

BecauseRight now I may not know

How it feels to be loved.But I believeThat one day

After pushing through all the pain,That I will finally know

How it feels to be

Loved.

Slam Poetryby Hayley, Steph, and Cleo

Imagine waking up, too scared to go about your day before it even begins.Every cut,

Every bruise, Every scar,SLOWLEY

Marking you as his property.1/3 woman are victims

TO THIS DAY!Women all over the world are suffering from…

Physical, Mental,

and verbal ABUSE! But no!

It’s as simple as saying… “why don’t you just leave him?”

“why don’t you just cover it up, or something?”a jumper, glasses, makeup?

NO!!!!!!!Women shouldn’t be ashamed of being a victim,

of being brutalised, of being tossed around,

TREATED AS IF WE’RE NOTHING!!!!!!! But of course…

Our sole purpose is to what?Cook? Clean? Have children?Forever please our husbands?

and what is expected of girls in high school? Sexts? Nudes?

to be able to have ‘fun’? Perhaps this violence starts younger then we expect?

Perhaps todays youth is being abused in ways we could never fathom?Perhaps a woman’s identity is bruised through adolescence?

And this is what makes us so vulnerable in adulthood?NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every woman, child and adult, dreamsand sometimes these dreams are cut short.

BUT NO LONGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Woman across the globe must start standing up.

We must not let stereo-types, violence and abuse stop us…because we all dream.

I dream of flying for the Air Force,I dream of studying medicine,

I dream of joining the police force,WE DREAM OF BEING HAPPY AND VIOLENCE FREE

And so we will…

Slam PoetryBy Ellie, Sasha, Aqueel & Laekin

Manly,Feminine,

Skinny,Tall.

‘Boys can’t be emotional!’‘Why are you crying?’

‘Man up!’People expect you to be manly!

Emotions are treated as a gender specific thing.

God forbid a man cry because if they do you’ll bring shame upon your family.

We’re conditioned to suppress our emotions.Into bottles that will soon explode.

Full of rage, tears, and the yearning desire to be able to cry.

Who are you to judge?

Work,Stay at home,

Strong,Weak.

You shouldn’t go out at night.A lot of things can happen you know.

That’s not fair.What have we done wrong?

Why do we have to change our behavior?When we aren’t the ones committing crimes.Why is it that we have to hang out in groups?

Just to feel like we’re safe.Strangers demean us, because of what clothes

we choose to wear.The clothes we feel comfortable and confident

in.

We’re humiliated by idiots who don’t take the time to get to knowOur personalities.

Who are you to judge?

Tanned,Dominant,

Over emotional,Jocks.

“All guys do is stay inside and play video games!”

“Personally, I’d like a guy taller than me with abs.”

My height doesn’t make me less of a man.The games I play give me skills a gym

wouldn’t be able to give me.For men, it must be confident, strong and

manly.If you don’t match societies standards of a

manThen you’ve instantly failed at being a man.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a shining star,Amongst darkness.

All that matters is thatYou’re like every other guy you see.

There is no room for originality in society.Who are you to judge?

Woah, who are you wearing that makeup for?You don’t need to wear makeup! Kim

Kardashian doesn’t wear makeup and she’s beautiful!

For women it’s a double edged sword.If you aren’t beautiful, your whole life goes

down the drainLooking good takes you to far more places,

then looking just average.If you wear makeup you’re told you’re wearing

too muchBut not wearing makeup ends up with com-

ments about how you don’t even try.For women, it must be feminine, delicate and

pretty.

Fighting for our rights is ruled as unruly and unfeminine.

Yet to this day women are still fighting for the right to an education.Who are you to judge?

I wish it wasn’t there.In the back of my mind.

Telling me that your,Age,

Gender,and looks,

Define who you are as a person,Because it doesn’t define you.

Your actions define you.Your words define you.Labels do not define us.

Please, before you judge us take a step back.Open your eyes as wide as you can.

See through all those labels you have given us.and just see me.

Year 9 Reading AreaThis term the year nine reading area has been opened up a space to do silent reading every morning as a year level for part of our routine. The teachers have opened up our sitting area with couches, chairs and a mini library. The year level has settled into this routine very well and we were very lucky to be given a wide selection of books to enjoy and read, so we have been treating the space given to us with a lot of respect. We are so fortunate to be given this reward, as it is now somewhere where we can relax, read and do homework during rainy days and lunch.

Reading as a year level has encouraged us to read a lot more during our spare time and to enjoy this activity. For a lot of us reading has become a very fun thing to do and sometimes we find it hard to put the book down because we’re really engaged in our books. This reward is teaching to treat our own space with respect and how to maintain our behaviour in a mature way. This area is effective because every morning instead of homeroom all year 9’s gather around in this space and we read for 10-15 minutes. This activity will be part of our assignment task coming closer in the future of writing a book review to further develop in our review writing skills from last term. By Kirsten, Ebony and Alana

In the year 9 PE/health sessions this term we are creating and testing our own fitness program. We have created a pre, mid, and post test to work out specific muscle groups to see how we have improved over time. We are also learning about the different types of fitness skills such as, cardiovascular, SAQ (speed, agility, quickness), fartlek and intensive training. We have assigned our own training exercises for specific days of the week to increase our fitness levels. My class and I went down the gym today to work on our fitness tests and we all really enjoyed it. Some students were working on their core, whilst others were working on their cardio. This is a really good and exciting unit that we are looking into and we look forward to seeing the end results.

Year 9 P.E.