Newsletter Term 2 2021

Discover what TC did in Term 2.
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I want to start by thanking everyone for their contributions towards TC in term 2. Term 2 was a term with many highs and lows in it. The term and the changing conditions required everyone to continually push themselves in their resilience, knowledge and skills building and communication, and many other skills.  

No more authentic example of this can be the end of Semester music performances. Whilst rehearsals took place, students had to adapt with incredibly short notice to performing to a remote audience, and then the following day to a socially distanced crowd, and then almost immediately, we moved into a remote learning model. Our students and staff adapted superbly through all of these modes, demonstrating learning that goes far beyond a typical curriculum.  

Another example of this was our Robotics students who, along with the support of their families, managed to move quickly (within hours) to adapt by moving the field of play for their online competition from being onsite here @ TC to their own homes! There are many examples that I can draw upon that demonstrate where I have felt so proud of the way that our community has adapted to meet the ever-changing conditions that we are placed in. 

Looking forward, a big focus for term three will be around the course counselling process. We are planning on holding our student parent-teacher interviews remotely again, with slightly adjusted hours based upon feedback from families. We will be running our course counselling day remotely in which the Connect mentor, student and family can all be online and look into the final subject selections being made for 2022 and the impact that this will have on students 5-year plan as part of their ILP. We have found that holding these events remotely has given us the ability to connect families and school together easily without large disruption to the parent/carers own working day.  

Again, I would like to thank everyone for all of your efforts in term 2. I am looking forward to us all taking on the challenges and experiencing the joys that term three will bring together as a community. 

Peter

31st School ANZAC Service

Local Primary and Secondary Schools were invited to the annual Schools ANZAC Service on Thursday, 22 April 2021, this service has been run by the Rotary Club of Templestowe which marks its 31st ANZAC Service. TC Students representatives Jasmine King, Kyra Teichtahl and Angelina Waterman laid the ANZAC wreath for our school community at Templestowe Memorial Park

This event has provided generations of local school children with firsthand opportunity to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

The program included a prominent citizen giving an address, playing of the last post and flag rising.

Athletics Carnival

On the 29th of April Templestowe College held our annual athletics carnival at Doncaster Athletics Track.
Students had a fantastic day in the sunshine showing off their running, throwing and jumping skills. There were also student DJs, a sausage sizzle, art creations, novelty events and dungeons and dragons.

The community cup results for the day were as follows:

• 1st – Blue Community

• 2nd – Green Community

• 3rd – Red Community

• 4th – Gold Community

The age group champions for the day were:

• U13 – Chase Clissold & Violet Muleta

• U14 – Jack Warrell & Hailey May

• U15 –Tiarnach O’Connor & Millie Snowden

• U16 – George Kardaras & Ruby Dunne/ Matilda Brougham

• U17 – Finn Dalton & Charli Filliponi-Haines/ Linda Ndlovu

• OPEN – Alexander Rowlands & Indigo Brown

Congratulations to these students and all who participated in the event.

Cross Country Colour Run

On the 18th of May during period 3 and lunchtime TC held its annual cross country competition in the form of a ‘Crazy Colour Run’ . Students completed 2 laps around the school and neighbouring streets in hopes of entry into the Mullum Division Competition. Once students finished their race, they were given the opportunity to have colour powder thrown at them, with a big colour throw at the end of the event. There were sausage sizzles, rainbow cookies, popcorn, lawn games, art, music and carnival like activities on the oval throughout the event. Students had a blast!

Congratulations to the following age group champions for the event:

• 13 Years: Oscar Barbieri and Maia Kellett-Gabriel

• 14 Years: Lachlan Young and Ginger Jordan

• 15 Years: Tiarnach O’Connor and Cleo Georgiou

• 16 Years: Charlie Norton and Ruby Dunne

• 17 Years: Kiera Andrews

• 18 Years: Charlie Norton and Yanina Dehaerne

• 19 Years: Aaquila Imran

STAR WARS day

TC celebrated the annual star wars day ‘May The Fourth Be With Up’ with dress up and a good v evil photo shoot!

Zoology Excursion to Melbourne Museum

The Zoology students spent a day looking at the Natural History and Bugs sections of the Melbourne Museum, followed by a visit to Imax to watch a movie on the amazing secret life of bugs. They spent ages reading about the enormous dinosaur skeletons and seeing who knew the most about this display. Some of the students knew far more about them than any of the staff present. The Bugs display at the Melbourne Museum is amazing. The students loved looking at them and suggested that TC needed to get lots of these specimens back at our school. The room full of live spiders that are free to go where ever they want was a favourite. Imax is a really great cinema, the screen is enormous, so watching the unique and magical adaptations that a range of invertebrates either escape being eaten or get themselves a meal was brilliant. The students behaved perfectly and came home energised and inspired. The staff came home exhausted and drained! Thank you to Jasmine for organising this amazing excursion.

Kryal Castle

In Humanities this term week we went on an excursion to Kryal Castle. We left early in the morning at 8:30am and arrived there at around 10:20am. There were lots for fun experiences we got to have. The Entries and the Pre-VCE History classes split and we did the same activities at different times. There was an activity called the Executioner, where we put someone on trial and we'd prove whether they were innocent or not. We also did archery a lot of us Entries got our first bullseye! We also did some leather work and that was fun - we got to print our initials or symbols on little strips of real leather. It was a lot of fun hammering it in! We also learnt about the Black Death and other diseases, and the herbal cures for them! We also fought in battle of red against blue - different tribes on the verge of war on the battle line. There was the clang of swords and shields were used well. no one got hurt in the end red was the victor, just. We all learnt how to use a sword and shield properly and it was fun! Thanks to all the teachers who helped us to make that excursion possible!

By Amber Firgaira

Systems and Jewellery excursion to Melbourne Museum

Students from Systems Engineering and Jewellery classes visited the Melbourne Museum on May 26th (just before lockdown). They explored the Minimodels exhibition, the rocks and minerals gallery and the Top Designs exhibition showcasing VCE Design Technology and Systems Engineering projects.

Media Elective - ACMI Excursion – ‘Disney, The Art of Animation’

ACMI has just opened again after renovations and there are many great things to go and see. Students went to the new screen worlds and explored their interests in Media by collecting information on their ACMI Lens, which they can then access at any point. Students were blown away with the extent of the exhibition and the interactive nature. We then entered the main event, Disney – The Art of Animation. Students have said they were so impressed with the exhibition and how it followed Disney over the years. They were amazed that nearly every Disney movie and character were shown. Students loved seeing how animations are made and the time and process it takes to create a full animation. Students immersed themselves in the exhibition and all found their favourite films over the years. For the afternoon students spent time around Federation Square and surrounds shooting their own imagery and scenes that they can use for their own media products. A great day had by all!

Global Citizenship Leadership Forums:

TC students always do us proud when they attend forums with students from other schools. Our leaders are friendly, proactive and confident. This term there were 2 opportunities to attend such events; the Melbourne Knowledge Week Eco Design Challenge and the Global Youth Advocacy Forum.

Melbourne Knowledge Week Eco Design Challenge

Run by Young Change Agents and held at the Melbourne University ‘Connect Centre’ this one day workshop brought students together from across Greater Melbourne to consider environmental issues and develop solutions. Student aligned themselves with the issues they were most passionate about like food waste or access to fresh food or clean water and completed a ‘sprint’ from idea to shark tank-style pitch using a web design platform. The panel listening to their final presentations were impressive entrepreneurs who gave targeted and useful feedback for the groups. I think it says a lot about the quality of our leaders that in each of the groups our students were in, they were the chosen spokesperson for the group.

Two of our students from the ‘Verde-Cal’ group have been asked to attend a national forum to pitch their business idea of local food gardens in the city in a national competition over the holidays for actual start up money. It is exciting to think this could be the start of something huge for them!

Participating students:

Natalya Cheng, Troy Jordan, Shiva Mirkazemi, Keisha Sadler, Cassia Stollio & Lucinda Thorpe

Global Youth Advocacy Forum

Matilda Prout and Kai Hyatt-Boyle were our FLE students that attended the Global Youth Advocacy Forum. This was a 2-day program that led students through a range of interactive online global citizenship activities and discussions with students from other students to increase their intercultural awareness and acknowledge issues that are important to young people. Our students focussed on issues such as the prevalence of anxiety in young people and bullying and discrimination.

The students showed poise and maturity in their interactions and contributions throughout the workshop. The next step is to make a video for the Videos for Change competition, should they wish to take their ideas further.

Empire Music Studios Excursion

8 TC bands headed to Empire Music Studios to record their original songs. These recordings will be mixed, mastered and put on a special record to be released soon. Thank you to Templestowe Living Room restaurant for donating the funds to make this recording session possible. Students shared their experience with TC Facebook: “TC bossin!” said Elise. “Run away, run away”, said Kyra (that’s a lyric from their song). “I'm so damn tired”, said Elise again. “Recording was great. An amazing experience”, said Jen. “Was poggers”, said Leon. (I think that's a good thing!)

MAP Melbourne Museum Excursion

On the 6th of May the Montessori Adolescent Program went to the Melbourne Museum. The excursion was planned by me, Alyssa, a third year MAP student, and Gabe, a first year MAP student, helped with the small final details of the planning stages. The day was packed with fun activities including games like a stop motion photo game. We all spent time at different parts of the museum such as the ‘600 million year exhibit’, ‘Millari Gardens’, ‘Bugs Alive Exhibition’ and the ‘Forest Gallery’. Students really enjoyed themselves and really enjoyed the stop motion photo game. It was such a memorable day because we had a great time together.

Media 3/4 - Top Screen / Top Design Excursion

On Thursday 20th May, Media 3/4 students ventured into the city to attend Top Screen and Top Design. Top Screen was held at ACMI cinemas and showcased a range of VCE Media films in a variety of genres and styles. Students were then joined by a panel of young film makers whose films had just been screened and the State Reviewer to discuss the process they undertook and had the opportunity to ask questions. We then headed over to the Melbourne Museum to check out all the other Media forms including photography, print, audio alongside their folios. This excursion is a valuable experience for 3/4 Media students to be able to celebrate the success of other media students across Victoria, including past TC students, and also gain a deeper understanding of the Media Production Process that they will undertake this year. A great day out by all 😊

VCE Literature Trip to Hanging Rock

On Wednesday the Fourteenth of February Nineteen Hundred, a group of adventurous schoolgirls travelled up Mount Diogenes to celebrate Valentine’s day, stopping to have a picnic, and then going on to examine the views and geological features of interest at the Summit of Hanging Rock.

Joan Lindsay’s classic example of Australian Gothic Literature, Picnic at Hanging Rock, has been a cultural touchstone for decades, due to its compelling narrative and social commentary. Lindsay’s writing, despite its many faults, manages to subtly and deliciously unpack the culture and prejudices of both the time she was writing for and the time she was writing from.

At the end of Term 1, it fell to me and the rest of my classmates to begin our study of the text, and on Friday, 23 April we spent a day climbing trails and studying foliage. This trip was intended for us to experience the majesty of nature and the Rock itself firsthand, whilst collecting specimens and samples of the local flora with photographs and soundbites to match. We all climbed the Rock together, before splitting up to gather what information we needed, and to commune and connect with the natural world around us.

We all had our own personal experiences on the Rock, but for me, one of the most powerful moments was when I looked down to the surrounding bushland, fields and township. It seemed idyllic, almost as though I was looking back to the times depicted in the novel. Of course, much has changed in the surrounding landscape in the intervening century – but that somehow doesn’t matter. The Hanging Rock itself hasn’t changed in the whole of known human habitation in this country, and the bushland is as timeless

But truly, the most powerful thing of all would be that everything we saw and felt was perhaps somewhat less than the revelatory and unique experience that I laid it out to be above: I grew up in the outer reaches of the Yarra Valley, and all my life have prided myself on a positive relationship with the natural world: and that, my dear reader, is the trick of it.

I have never known anything quite like Hanging Rock not because it is marvelous, or outlandish, or strange. Not because it holds some unnatural, inherent uniqueness that no other landmark or geological feature may possess. But what I saw and felt that day was down to all these things (for they are all unquestionably true), along with one other – I went there with the knowledge that in 1967 a novel was written about this place. It may not have been truthful, (for it is fiction) or skillfully crafted (although the story is brilliant), but it enflamed the minds of a nation none the less, to the point that I am still taught it today.

On Friday the Twenty-Third of April Two Thousand Twenty-One, a group of intrepid young explorers travelled past Woodend and towards Geboor, before stopping to have a picnic at the summit of Hanging Rock.

Also, there was a Koala. It was an excellent excursion.

By Elanor Menzel

Unit 1 Biology – Melbourne Zoo Excursion

 On the 27th of May, the Unit 1 Biology students visited Melbourne Zoo to investigate the structural, physiological and behavioural adaptations that the Southern Corroboree frog has in order to survive better in its environment. Students also collected data on the distribution of Orange Lacewing butterfly within different habitats to assist with the zoo’s breeding programs. Students then used this information for their SAC task later in the term.

vet sport rec excursions

Grad Camp

Though it was short lived, our 2021 grad camp was an experience to remember. For many of us, it was refreshing to spend some much needed time away from home, with our friends, teachers and the beach down at Anglesea.

Arriving at camp was a massive rush of nostalgia for a lot of us - the green astroturf, the obstacle courses and the cold, salty seawind all brought us back to being entries. Though this year, we made sure to add some of our own fun. On the first night, we held a ‘fluro disco’ where we all dressed up in our most obnoxiously bright and colourful clothing, and danced like there wasn’t a tomorrow to some rockin’ 80s tunes. Peter Ellis made a highly anticipated speech, which I must say lived up to the expectations.

The activities we took part in were engaging, a favourite was definitely the vertical challenge. Mountain biking in the rain was a blast, along with beach volleyball and Gaga ball too (you can never forget Gaga ball!). In all, aside from the dreary weather, I can safely say everybody enjoyed their time down at Anglesea. We all say a big thank you to every one of the awesome camp staff and of course, our own staff too. The camp couldn’t have been as memorable without you.

By Nadia De Fazio

Murray River Outdoor Camp

Our VCE Outdoor and Environmental Science class took part in a 5-day canoe trip down the Murray River, in Yorta Yorta Country during April. The group paddle down the river, camping along the banks as part of the curriculum investigation into Historical Relationship with Outdoor Environments. The group enjoyed afternoon river swims, and campfire cooking throughout the week. Our next trip will take the class snow camping at Mt Stirling during term three.

This year the international program has 8 Grads completing their VCE. Three of them have been at TC for 4 years, 2 for 3 years and the rest just over 2 years. Most of them started in our Language Centre for 6 months before joining the mainstream classes.

Part of our support to them is to attend University open days specifically tailored for international students. On the 7th of May we attended an open day in the State Library, universities from all over Australia were in attendance. There were representatives from RMIT, La Trobe, Monash, UNSW, ACT, University of Tasmania, and a number of universities from Queensland.

Some interesting facts:

• International students who complete their VCE are also required to do English as a requirement to university. They have the option of doing English as an Additional Language (EAL), normally needing a minimum study score of 30.

  • Because of lockdown some universities have adjusted this study score because international students can not apply for SEAS.

• Most languages can be taken as a VCE subject. TC offers, to our students, Chinese as a First Language which is conducted onsite after school hours. Other languages are done through VSL.

• International students are not eligible to apply to all courses offered at University and TAFE.

• All applications are also done through VTAC.

• We do not have any Japanese grads this year, but they normally return home to go to university.

• We usually have 1 or 2 students who go to universities in other countries or return home.

Our 2020 Graduates had one of the most difficult years with COVID Lockdowns. They missed out on celebrating with their family, friends and staff their graduate dinner which would normally be held in October. It was with great pleasure that we were able to arrange for the event to take place in May when no restrictions where in place so we could have large families attend and lots of dancing throughout the evening.

Students and families had a great time catching up with each other and staff and letting everyone know how life after secondary school was. It was a great time to reconnect and wish them all the best on the next stage of their adventures.

Senior Sports x 2

In Term 2 our Senior students competed in two separate competition days. Day one saw our senior students participate in Basketball, Soccer and Table Tennis. With Record numbers in our senior Basketball group, TC was able to provide five teams for the competition (two boys and three girls teams). Our Boys team won the competition with a great victory Auburn High School. In the girls competition it was clear that TC was in a class over their own with an epic Semi Final with our teams playing with one of our teams winning by 1 point. Our girls then went onto to win the final comfortably against Forest Hill.

In Soccer our senior boys took out the title against strong competition at Terarra Park in Vermont. The Senior Boys showed great passion and enthusiasm leading into the competition with taking ownership of their own training session and recruiting numerous players from across the school. Well done to the boys who won top without dropping a game.

Our Senior Table Tennis group also went out on the day to Mullauna College and put on a great display. The team of five did tremendously in all matches and played a role in coaching their opponents on occasions to help them with the game. Finally our Senior Hockey team had a quick entry into the regional finals after no other school was able to provide a team. The team has had a strong showing during their time at TC getting into the region finals over the past couple of year. This was a huge day for TC Sport with all TC Senior teams taking out the prizing. Good luck to our Senior Basketball Boys and Girls, Hockey, Soccer and Table Tennis in the Eastern Metropolitan Region Semi-Finals.

We also had a second day of Senior Sport in Term 2 with our Boys AFL, Girls Netball & Mixed Badminton. The AFL boys had a strong showing with an undermanned team. The boys won two games of their three games to finish runner up. The mixed badminton team was also undermanned with a couple of late call ups to ensure that the group was able to go out on the day. The group fought hard and the sportspersonship should be commended. Finally, the girl’s netball team won all games throughout the day, however were unable to pass a strong Forest Hill netball academy in the Grand Final. Well done to all senior teams for their effort this term.

Intermediate Sports

In Term 2 the students who represented TC for Intermediate sport showed great passion and commitment to TC Sport with attended their events on a department mandated pupil free day. After having a few students not attend the event the teams were able to get out and play for AFL Boys, Netball and Soccer.

The TC Mixed Soccer had a tough day against some very strong opposition. The team led by Elliot Frost, George Kardaras and Carsten Beyers were able to muster a couple of wins throughout the day to finish a very respectable mid table. The girl’s netball team also put in a huge performance throughout the day against a couple of Netball academy schools. The girls were fantastic in their approach to the game and improved with each performance. The best players for the day included Zoe Harris, Ruby Tidd and Paige Claringbold. Finally the boys AFL played a competitive competition against teams led by ex-AFL players Dennis Armfield and Andrew Collins. The boys worked hard all day to finish in third position. The best players for the day were Sam Alexander, Matthew Chivers and Charlie Norton.

Well done to all those who attend the event on a pupil free day and looking forward to seeing more accompany these groups in 2022.

Boys Netball

In a record breaking day to Mullum Sport, the TC Boys Netball Teams joined the other thirty teams at Ashwood for a great Netball competition. TC were able to enter a Junior, Intermediate and Senior team for the event again to keep the tradition of strong participation in Boys Netball. Our Junior team improved with each game throughout the day, to begin playing strong netball and will be better for the opportunity to play. The Intermediate team were fantastic with their approach to training with multiple practice sessions leading into the event and hit the ground running. Unfortunately they came up against strong competition to finish just outside of the top teams. The Senior team with multiple top up Intermediate players were great sports throughout the day and fought strong with great leadership from Christian Westein and Ronan Pring.

Girls AFL

Due to huge participation number in the Mullum Division our Competition this year was spread across two venues with our Seniors heading to Warringal Park Heidelberg and our Junior/Intermediate team playing at Templestowe Reserve. Our Seniors played well in the wet conditions with a starring effort from Lauren Jatczak who kicked five goal in one quarter in our first game. The girls played extremely well but due to illness and injury were unable to get over a strong Forest Hill team in the final game and ended as runners up on the day.

For our Junior/Intermediate team they played strongly throughout the day, however with a few students being unable to attend, they run out of steam late in the day to finish mid field. Special mentions need to go to Senior Jess Ryan, Piper Bradford and Charli Filliponi-Haines, Intermediate Zoe Harris and Keira Mackinnon and Junior Violet Muleta for their outstanding efforts throughout the day.

Looking forward to seeing TC girls footy comeback as strong as ever in 2022.

Schools Cup

TC Volleyball Academies senior students went to the Volleyball Victoria Schools Cup. The groups put in a gigantic performance throughout the day to defeat Eltham High School 1st team and Melton College. Logan Muller, Ocean Chen and Riley Minca led the group all day with all players having key moments in which they stood up for the team.
It was great to have the team out at the event, however it would be even better to see TC represented across the day in multiple competitions from Entry through to Graduates. Reminder that TC’s Volleyball Academy runs each Wednesday from 1.50 to 3.00pm in the Sport Centre. First session is a free trial, so come down and have a go in Term 3 or Term 4 with our State Level Coach Dan Higgins.

U14 SPORT

After missing sport this term during the covid restrictions our U14 AFL, Badminton and Netball teams were able to get out to play sport in the final week of Term. The AFL group were great all day with huge effort from Lachlan Young and LeBron Gencarelli. If was also great to see 30 students sign up for AFL this year. In Badminton our small team took on huge numbers at the competition to finish in third place. An amazing effort to pull together the team late with Joshua Yip, Jett Rogers, Gavin Chang and Miles Yeo representing the school extremely well. Finally the Netball girls took on 6 teams throughout the day and showed improve throughout the day with big wins in their final games. Great work by Lucy Alexander, Lily Donovan and Estelle Kardaras to get the team together for the tournament. Hopefully 2022 will open up more opportunities for this group to continue to develop.

Cross Country

Well done to all the students that participated in the Mullum Division Cross Country. Although challenging windy conditions, students put in a big effort in their age group races.

A big congratulations to all TC student, but especially Matt Chivers and Lachlan Young who both got 1st places in their age group and Keira Andrews and Tiarnach O’Connor came second in their age groups and all those who have qualified to go through to EMR in term 3.

Vic Orienteering

Friday 7th of May saw seven of TC’s finest Orienteering students participate in the Victorian Orienteering Championship held at Hawkstone Reserve in South Morang. Ironically both Julian and myself could have learnt a thing or two from the competitors, becoming geographically challenged on the way ( who needs maps, surely there will be a sign….). Nevertheless, we made it to the start line on time. Overall Alex Rowland came 2nd for his age group with TC making a strong stance against other schools.

ESDP Term 2 Wrap

Term 2 was full of activity for the ESDP Basketball program. It all started in week 1 when our teams competed in the Basketball Victoria 3x3 competitions.

The girls were once again a dominant force in the competition taking out the Junior and Intermediate titles and the Senior girls narrowly losing in the final. The Senior boys were unlucky not to advance to the semi finals with some good wins against teams with several players on the Basketball Victoria elite pathway. The Junior boys and Intermediate boys all competed well and it was clear all the students had an enjoyable day.

The Victorian College Championships (a series of one day round robin tournaments) also kicked off in term 2. These tournaments are usually completed by the end of term however due to COVID lockdowns some the tournaments will carry over into Term 3.

The Senior Boys and Girls both had their tournaments and both teams did fantastically to advanced to the next stage of the final series.

The Intermediate Boys and Girls also had their day with the girls advancing to the next stage with a double-digit win over Box Hill SC and the boys just missing out on percentage on making the Grand Final of the day, despite also having a historic win over Box Hill SC.

The Junior tournament will now be held early in Term 3 along with the finals for the Intermediate Girls and Senior Boys and Girls.

We usually don’t highlight individual achievements in the program but Maddy Potts was selected to represent Victoria at the Under 16 National Championships which are scheduled to be held in Perth during the July holidays (COVID permitting) this is a great achievement for Maddy who transferred to TC from Genazzano College to devote more time to her basketball career. Great work Maddy.

Music
Synesthesia Concert Review

Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, 20 TC Music acts performed in Synesthesia, a performance in the PAC that explored the blending of the senses in particular sound, light, colour and a celebration of music. All the proceeds from the concert sales are being used to enter TC Bands into this year's RockFest Battle of the Bands.

On the first night, TC students, staff and teachers had to quickly adjust to live-streaming the event 3 hours before the production.
Marcus: "I thought switching to an online streaming gig was a good experience for everyone. It was a good lesson on how to adapt, as that is a good skill for a musician to have"

Kayla: "I performed and designed the lighting for the show along with Esther and Jack. There were three days of work for the lighting, including set up and pack up. A lot of the work went into the performance behind the scenes, and a lot of time was dedicated to not only practicing and rehearsing as a band but also making sure the tech was all in working order and everything looked good for the night."

Allara: I performed one of my original songs "A River of Problems" and it was a great experience to perform it on stage. It was sad that we had to switch to a live stream 3 hours before the show though none the less it was a great experience and time. The tech and lighting crew did an amazing job setting everything up so quickly.

Luckily on the second night, the 20 acts were able to interact and perform in front of a live audience.
Leon: "The best thing about performing to a live audience was that we could finally see how people will react to our music and from that experience, we can build on it and get better as a band"

Daniel: " Some special moments from my experience would be Crispin's reaction when we covered his song and the ability to share a great experience with Krackers and Koolaid plugging our single and running a muck on the PAC stage"

Congratulations to everyone involved in Synesthesia.

If you missed out on attending the Synthesthesia Concert:
https://www.trybooking.com/BRUFO

Check out Krackers and Koolaids first single:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2S9NsZxOagalpIYdOdEMpX?si=1c8cf0a1edc3442a

Upcoming Doomsday Pilot EP:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7M9cZqR9cwoBt2wkXcmguv

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Chess Club

It’s been pretty cool to watch the birth of the TC Chess Club. Starting with a dozen and growing over the past month to more than 30 regular members, we always have a fun time. We’ve got lots of ideas for fun stuff to do in the future (giant chess boards, interschool chess, silly tournaments, etc), but mostly we play chess and eat snacks.

Over lockdown, we still managed to meet up through the gift of chess.com, with our very own Milo Wheeler setting up a group and weekly tournament to keep our heads in the game despite not having a physical chessboard in front of us.

A big thanks to all our regular members for the pleasant and respectful way in which everyone treats their opponents and the equipment. A huge shout out to Leonid Chizhevskiy for being super proactive in promoting the club and helping to keep things organised.

We have chess boards (only a couple of which are missing pieces, promise!); we have chess clocks; we have chess boards; we have puzzles; we have snacks; we have lots of friendly people looking for a game; we even have some renegade Magic the Gathering players. If you’re a member, you can come and borrow the boards anytime you like during school hours. So whatever your skill level (even if you’ve never played before, but REALLY enjoyed the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix), come on down every Thursday lunchtime, to D01/D03. You won’t regret it.

To whet your appetite…

1) b3

Baking Elective

One task for the baking elective this term was to create a layered celebration cake. It was great to see students efforts in design and execution. At the end of term Baking enjoyed a Devonshire tea fin celebrating an excellent term! There was tea, of course, scones with jam and cream, chicken sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches as well as jam biscuits 🎉😋 All baking made from the students.

Robotics

Senior Robotics - May 21, 22 & 23, 2021

May 21, was the first of 3 days of the virtual Worlds Robotic Championship Competition. The senior team: Leonid Chizhevskiy, Mal Heliotis & Ben Goldfarb started early in the morning at 4:45am to compete against South Korea, USA, Mexico and Canada. There was good collaboration amongst the team members and with their ally teams across the world. Our Templestowe team had their most successful match when they were allied with Canada as well as great success achieving the second highest score of 174 in a single match. The averaging score of other teams was only 130.

At the end of the first day of competition, Templestowe ranked 11th place out of 24 teams.

May 23, Templestowe’s senior V5 robotics team won their division at the worlds champion robotics competition and have made it to the semi-finals! An absolutely amazing feat.

After a two intense, instant death matches the team was eliminated. But what a success to make it to the quarterfinals! The first year any team from Australia has every made it that far! Go team Templestowe!

Junior Robotics - May 28, 29 & 30, 2021

Thomas Radford set up the robotics IQ court in his living room and competed from 5am – 9am virtually over three days! His team, Jamie Smith & William Melville & his teachers met up with him via Discord or Teams.

They did fantastic! They ranked 4th in our division. We would have had to have won the division to make finals but such an impressive job. Our Templestowe Junior IQ robotics team showed flexibility and perseverance in remote learning and in lock downs which is evident on how much they accomplished.

SYWTBAW

Students of the So You Want to be a Writer classes have worked together to create their very own anthologies of written work. Students chose their own theme, managed which types of pieces would be written and by whom, stuck to their own deadlines, workshopped and edited the written pieces of their peers, and then designed the final version themselves. Many also include student artwork.

FLE MATHS

Entry Science

In Entry Science this term students started out learning about chemical and physical changes and then moved on to exploring different methods for separating mixtures such as gravity separation, filtering, evaporation (and crystallisation!) and using a magnet.

The rest of term focused on ‘Our Place In Space’ and incorporated learning about how our position relative to the Moon and Sun affects our days, years, seasons, tides and the phases of the Moon. We also learnt about tectonic plates and how their movement affects land movement and formations.

During Reconciliation Week we learnt about the Kulin Nations traditional seasonal calendar and student were encouraged to look for signs that it was Wurung (Wombat Season), and some shared photos of things they found such as fungi and misty mornings. Some even wrote poetry:

Wurung poem by Ash Cloud:

Soft ferns blow in the wind
Cockatoos screeching in unison at the sun
Lyre birds dancing in the mist
Wombats peeking out of their holes
Kangaroos jumping through the plains

Back at school we enjoyed some experiments on what affects the diameter and depth of craters on the Moon.

Next term the focus will be back on Earth, learning all about living things in the Earth’s biosphere.

Solutions Using Science

This term the focus in Solutions started with ‘Feeding the Body’ where students learnt all about good nutrition, the ‘healthy plate’ model for eating a balanced diet and the body’s energy budget (energy in/energy out). We experimented with burning different foods to compare the energy content of foods high in simple sugars, complex carbohydrates and fats and also explored the action of our saliva enzymes (in a COVID-safe way!) on breaking down starches as well as how enzymes tolerate different temperature environments, all to help understand our own digestive systems better.

In recent weeks the focus moved to how we can ensure global food security to future local and global generations, exploring things like what crops different countries grow and eat, as well as how our consumption of things like sugars and meat compares to diets of other countries that are similar and different to us. We learnt about plant reproduction and the role of pollinators and the effect of overuse of pesticides and fertilisers on the natural cycles. We focused our learning of agriculture on the Murray Darling Food Basin, that provides 1/3 of our food, and learnt about how much water different crops require, as well as impacts of drought, algal blooms and salinity on the ability of farmers to yield good crops.

Students wrapped up the unit arguing in ‘letters to their parliamentary member’ what focus the government should take to ensure Australia has the ability to feed its population in the future, with students choosing a range of solutions including eating insects, GMOs, less meat or lab-grown meat or incorporating alternative farming practices such as permaculture, aquaponics, vertical farms and roof top farms.

Next term the big question is how we ‘Power the World’ as we transition away from fossil fuels…

Environmental Science

VCE Environmental Science students have been learning about environmental management and ecological sustainable development in their second area of study. We explored lots of case studies such as over fishing, light pollution, urban development and destruction of culturally significant sites, and learnt about the roles of stake holders in influencing projects. We had hoped to go to see the little penguins at St Kilda pier as part of learning about the new pier development, but lucky for us, the ranger came to us during lockdown via Teams.

Currently students are working on their independent investigations which require them to design and manage their own experiment. I have been very impressed with our students’ self management and interesting projects ranging from evaluating pollution in our local water ways, assessing the impact of pesticides in urban weed spraying, how temperature affects microorganisms and the amount of energy wasted through leaving appliances on stand by power.

MAP Graphic Novel task

During term 2, all MAP Language students began a study of graphic novels, to learn that graphic novels are just as legitimate, just as efficient a way of telling stories, as novels or movies. I personally didn’t really think graphic novels were as efficient a way of telling a tale as a book, and my mind is now completely changed. Mirranda Burton, an established graphic novelist who has published several graphic novels, visited all our Monday and Tuesday classes and provided instruction and activities to prepare them for the second half of the term, when they would be creating graphic novels of their own. Activities included analyzing and turning movie scripts into rudimentary graphic novel pages, called thumbnails, and creating thumbnails from interviews. Converting interviews into thumbnails was a focus, as that is what the MAP kids then did to create their graphic novels.

Each student then created a list of questions that they hoped would result in about 15 minutes of audio, recorded on their phones, out of school hours, and about a page of text recorded via speech to text. Once everyone had interviewed someone, they chose a role either as author, illustrator, or auteur. Authors would edit their interviews so they could easily be converted into graphic novels, and expressed interest in different artists they wanted to illustrate their graphic story. Illustrators discarded their interviews, though the experience was surely worth it alone, and created little illustrations to showcase to authors, so they could choose the illustrator they wanted. Illustrators also expressed interest in the story they wished to illustrate. The role of auteur was discouraged, as the teachers believed that interaction would be more valuable, but a few people remained adamant, and those people had to edit their interview, then illustrate it themselves.

Once everyone had worked out what role they would play and expressed interest in a few authors/illustrators, partnerships were made, and everyone went to work. Authors edited their script down further, to a single line per box, of which there was about 24-32, and gave it to the illustrators to draw. Then the authors did odd jobs to help the process along, like make title page prompts for their comics, or write this. The illustrators would create the four pages and the title page, a task that would take most, if not all, of the rest of term. This was a task so large that some people didn’t even finish all four pages, though tons of work was put in. The auteurs of course had to do all of this in the time they had. Once all this was done, the tales were collected and bound together for everyone to enjoy.

By Oliver McDonald

Jewellery Elective Projects

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Alyssa-Lauren Gunn - Volunteering work

Before Alyssa moved to Australia she volunteered at Petawawa Military Family Resource Centre in Canada collecting close to 250 hours with them.

She spoke about her work with them when we celebrated National Volunteer Week:
”My jobs changed constantly but usually were relevant to childcare. Most of my hours were from going Tuesday nights after school, we'd have our list of jobs that ranged from cleaning toys/tables/eating trays/chairs in the kinder classrooms, making dinner + clean-up, to laminating things for the kids to use such as flash cards.

There were also events we'd host like Halloween parties and Christmas parties our group would be in charge of planning, decorating, staffing, and clean-up for the event. I would normally be the photographer but other available roles were food stalls, craft stalls, balloon makers, face painters.

The benefit of me volunteering here was I got to improve/learn many skills. If I didn't volunteer here I wouldn't have learnt how to face paint, make balloon animals, laminate, or cook as well as I do. They also offered free training in things such as Customer Service and Problem Solving courses for volunteers to take. I even learnt how to create and maintain a garden through our community garden program, which successfully grew things such as tomatoes, corn, and peppers.”

Well done Alyssa on your dedication to community.

2021 Big Science National Competition

Well done to all the students who participated in the Big Science Competition (listed below). This was the first year we have participated in this competition and we had some terrific results including 2 distinctions (Zachary Kwei and Chloe Mason) and 4 high distinctions (Nicholas Pyle, Hannah Radford, Zack Patton and George Thornber). Thanks to Science teacher Penny Hale for organising this opportunity.

Competition participants:

Elizabeth Bores, Emmi Kyriacou, Abby Dearman, Mia Daniels, Harry Mccumiskey, Matilda Prout, Delanah Schelbach, Imogen Pappas-Zanatta, Camille Crawford, Evvie Bell, Ivan Leon, Jack Tyrrell, Caleb Bloomer, Zachary Kwei, Chloe Mayson, Nicholas Pyle, Hannah Radford and Zack Patton.

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