Swinburne News Issue 2: 29 March 2018

505 Burwood Road, Hawthorn 3122 Phone: 8862 4400 Fax: 9819 6186

swinburne.senior.sc@edumail.vic.gov.au www.sssc.vic.gov.au

From the Principal’s Desk Term 1 finishes today with staff and students having earned a well-deserved break over the next few weeks. I am pleased to report that the year has begun very well for the vast majority of students. Beginning a new school year can be challenging at the best of times and I know that this was the case for many students. For those students moving to Swinburne there would have been additional issues to deal with. Making new friends and developing relationships with their peers and teachers takes time and can be emotionally draining. With students coming from over 130 suburbs the issue of coming to terms with Melbourne’s public transport system takes time. In addition to this, students are required to make sense of the VCE, VCAL and VET programs. Each of these certificates have their own language, requirements and nuances. At the recent Parent/Teacher conferences, we had a record number of parents attending over the two weeks. I received some very positive feedback from parents that certainly emphasized the point that finding the right school at the right time is incredibly important. To find a school where you can be yourself, feel safe, supported, accepted and academically challenged to do your best is everyone’s goal. I look forward to following the growth and development of every student throughout their time with us. School Council The School Council for this year has been finalized. Congratulations to all councilors, in particular those that are joining us for the first time. Parent Representatives Jo Watson Karen Kimber Therese Donato Craig Hickman Peter Ryan Louise Longley Community Representatives Oriel Flewell-Smith Karen Brown India Guerrieri (Student) Gabi Condilis (Student)

DET Representatives Michael O’Brien (Principal and Executive Officer) Stephanie Cross Joel Guye Rob Lewkowicz Gita Menon

CHANCES Scholars Three representatives from the board of Boroondara Cares attended the school to present CHANCES Scholarships to four of our students. These scholarships are highly sought after, with students having to meet a range of strict criteria. Swinburne student to be awarded scholarships this year are Rachel Stokes, Emma Farrington, Jessie Wilson and Maddie Hill. Provided that guidelines are met over the year, students have an opportunity of continuing with their scholarship through tertiary education.

Above: Rachel and Emma receive their scholarships from Jane, Helen and Andrew from Boroondara Cares. Michael O’Brien Principal

Assistant Principal’s News At Swinburne Senior Secondary College we have high expectations in the areas of student engagement, attendance and their learning. At Swinburne we use Compass School Manager to record and monitor students’ attendance. Once the teacher marks the class roll parents or guardians are notified by SMS if their child is absent from class without parent or school approval. When your child is away from school or a class, parents or guardians should log onto the Compass Portal and enter a

parent approved absence at the beginning of the day or before the class begins. Students are expected to make up absences and the work they have missed. I would like to encourage all parents to login to the Compass portal weekly, so they can be up to date with their child’s attendance and any other new events happening at the college. It will be a busy 2nd term; we have a number of events coming up at Swinburne Senior Secondary College. The college play opens on Wednesday 23 May, midyear practice exams for students enrolled in VCE Unit 3 English, Literature and English Language will be conducted on 12

June and the General Achievement Test (GAT) will be held for all students enrolled in a VCE Unit 3 subject on 13 June. The next interim reporting cycle will be published on April 30, any queries about interim reports should be directed to your child’s mentor teacher. Term 2 begins on Monday 16 April. For updated information regarding the college, please visit our website https://sssc.vic.edu.au Robert Lewkowicz Assistant Principal

Senior VCAL Camp On Wednesday 7th of March the Senior VCAL class embarked on their journey to Torquay for the annual VCAL camp. Staying at the Torquay Foreshore Caravan Park, we were lucky enough to have the beach and a nature walk right at our doorsteps.

Students worked in groups to prepare meals for the class and make sure that all individuals were catered for. There were a range of activities that were so much fun, including surf lessons with Go Ride a Wave, a square dance lead by Belinda, a trek up to Jan Juc with spectacular views, a night-time viewing of the blood moon on the beach, as well as floating lanterns across the ocean.

The camp was a great success and provided students with an opportunity to get to know their classmates and teachers. Thank you to teachers Nick, Elana, Belinda and Sarah for being such great support on the camp and to all students who attended for making it one to remember. Maddie Harris Senior VCAL Mentor

VCAL Green Thumbs The Senior VCAL group would like to thank Bunnings Hawthorn for their generous donation of plants, pots, hanging baskets and soil.

The herbs are thriving and the hanging baskets have provided a splash of colour along the walkway adjacent to the Technology Centre.

Young Adults and Sleep Along with diet & exercise, sleep is one of the most important essentials of good health. Young adults need between 9 & 10 hours of sleep every night, but most are only getting between 7 & 8 hours.

The typical young adult’s brain wants to go to bed late and sleep in the next morning, which is hard to manage in the real world of school, work & life! One hour less sleep here & there is not a problem, but the ongoing lack of adequate daily sleep leads to a “sleep debt”. This means, the ongoing sleep you are missing out on cannot be “made up” which can lead to chronic sleep deprivation.

Constant lack of sleep can result in, concentration difficulties, shortened attention span, memory impairment, poor decision making skills, lack of energy & enthusiasm and changes in mood. Any of these can influence our wellbeing and our academic endeavors and performance. The good news is that with small, practical, daily changes you can improve your sleep.

Make a relaxing bedtime routine; have a bath / shower directly before bedtime.

Turn your mobile phone onto Aeroplane Mode 30 min before bedtime and overnight: your alarm will still work!

Avoid loud music, homework, computer games, or any other activity that gets your mind racing an hour before bedtime.

The brain’s sleep–wake cycle is largely set by light absorbed through our eyes.

o Limit all screen activity right before bed & keep your room dark at night.

o In the morning, expose your eyes to lots of light to help wake up your brain.

Do the same bedtime routine every night for four weeks to make your brain connect this routine with going to sleep.

Then after the 4 weeks

Start your same bedtime routine 10 minutes earlier. Do this for one week.

Then add an extra 10 minutes every week until you have reached your desired bedtime

It may take about six weeks of getting extra sleep before you feel the benefits

If possible, avoid staying up to late on the weekends, you don’t want to undo your hard work.

Remember that even 20 - 30 minutes of extra sleep each night on a regular basis will make a big difference to your wellbeing. Improving your sleep is probably the most positive and easiest thing you can do to improve your health and wellbeing.

If you need any help please come and see someone from the Wellbeing Team.

Technology to help sleep

The iPhone's "Bedtime" function

This is within the alarm clock app works on the basis that being consistent with the amount of sleep you get, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, promotes positive wellbeing. This makes it easier to achieve this goal.

Smiling Mind Sleep Meditation: Body Scan - YouTube (8

minutes) This meditation will help relax your body and mind to prepare you for a good night sleep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxYC_UcQ0PI

Smiling Mind free app-based program

This has been developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to people’s lives. Just as we eat well and stay fit to keep our body healthy, mindfulness meditation is about mental health and looking after the

mind. Easy to follow sleep meditations for all ages and abilities. https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

Fiona Keech Adolescent Health Nurse Secondary School Nursing Program Department of Education and Training

“Tuning Into Teens” – Support for Parents (Get in early as places limited to 25) Would you like to learn how to:

Be better at understanding and talking with your teen?

Help your teen learn how to manage their emotions?

Help to prevent behavioural issues in your teen? In this “Tuning Into Teens” abridged session, learn how to better understand and connect with your teenager through exploration of their and your emotions. You will be given strategies and tips to enhance your ability to communicate with your teenager in a unique and positive manner. Tuning into Teens helps parents to help their teen develop emotional intelligence. Adolescents with higher emotional intelligence are:

More aware, assertive and strong in situations causing peer pressure

Have greater success with making friends and are more able to manage conflict with peers

Are more equipped to cope when upset or angry

Have fewer mental health and substance abuse difficulties

Have more stable and satisfying relationships as adults

Your facilitators are Max Lynch and Vanessa Virgato from Boroondara Youth Services. Max Lynch is a therapist, Counsellor, Educator and Health Care Worker with over thirty years’ experience. Max has worked with a range of individuals, couples and families to support them to try and understand, and respond to, the range of issues that affect teenagers today. As Youth Counsellor at Boroondara Youth Services, he is committed to helping parents tackle issues in the here-and-now, to

avoid leaving parents feeling out of control and teens feeling misunderstood. Vanessa Virgato is a qualified Youth Work practitioner with twenty five years of industry experience. Vanessa has worked in a wide range of settings including residential settings, out of home care placements and schools. Vanessa has worked with hundreds of young people struggling with isolation, disconnection, mental health issues and drug & alcohol concerns. Vanessa holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment & Training and has facilitated youth and family groups. Where: Swinburne Senior Secondary College When: Tuesday 24 April 6:00pm start for 6:30-8:30pm (drinks and nibbles provided on arrival) Cost: Free (NOTE places limited to 25) RSVP: Elizabeth Reardon, Manager, Student

Wellbeing – 8862 4400 or via email reardon.elizabeth.e@edumail.vic.gov.au

Elizabeth Reardon Student Wellbeing Leader

Six Tips to Help You Study During the Holidays 1. Create a Holiday Schedule Create a holiday schedule to help you stay on track with your studies. Carve out a specific time to study that works best for you. It might be that you do school work for 1-2 hours each morning or a couple short periods throughout the week. Don’t feel bad for allowing yourself some down time, but you will feel better if you have taken some time to do school work before you go and see that movie with your friends. 2. Check Your Subject Timelines It is important to check your subject timelines regularly to make sure you aren’t falling behind. The timelines for your subjects are suggested guides to help you to do some forward planning for Term 2. Keeping track of your timeline is crucial component to helping you study during the holidays. Maybe it’s the case that you need to spend some time planning your Term 2 on a calendar. 3. Get Out of the House Studying at home can be quite distracting during the holidays, especially if you have a large family. So pack up your laptop and head out to your nearest cafe for a chai latte and some quality study time. You’ll be less distracted and more relaxed when you return home after a solid study session.

4. Reward Yourself Use some positive reinforcement and reward yourself each time you accomplish something. Give yourself a reward for after you complete a chapter, for example. Knowing what goodies await you ahead, will motivate you to persevere in accomplishing your tasks. 5. Study with Friends Students who study at least once a week in a study group with other students are more likely to have a better understanding of the course materials, ask good questions, and be more engaged in discussions. Collaborating with others and being around good company is one of the biggest factors to relieving stress and building motivation. Meet up with some friends to discuss that book you are studying in English over lunch. 6. Stay Inspired Keep yourself motivated by reading your favourite blogs, finding inspirational boards on Pinterest, visiting galleries or seeing a music gig. Let’s face it. Having to study during the holidays may not seem very appealing, but with clever strategies, you can stay on track while still enjoying the perks of not having to come to school every day for two weeks. As usual, the big picture ideas are simple: have a plan, stay motivated and avoid distractions. Otherwise, enjoy your holidays! Joel Guye School Improvement Manager

From the Year 12 Managers’ Office We have come to the end of Term 1 with most subjects having completed their first outcome and SAC/SAT submissions. The first interim reports are also out and students will have an idea on how well you have begun their Year 12 programme. Some students have received a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) in one or more of your subjects and it is very important that the outstanding tasks are discussed with the relevant teachers and then completed by the student. It is important that the teacher, mentor and parent signatures obtained on the form. Once teachers have sighted the outstanding work, they will update the Chronicle post on Compass and the student come off the PIP. The next interim report is due soon after the holidays and if outstanding work for any PIP hasn’t been completed, it will be reflected on the report. My tip to all Year 12 students is to use time productively-use the Easter break to catch up on outstanding work, read ahead for your next outcome, work on your folios and rest well so you are re-charged for Term 2. Year 12 is short- only three terms in all and you have completed the first term.

The Study periods are working well and it is great to see students using that time productively. Students will avoid the stress of last minute coursework catch up and perform better in their SACs/SATs if they are up to date. Next Term, students will also be meeting Tracy from Careers to explore tertiary options so it would be great if students could use this break to research courses that they would like to apply for and understand the ATAR requirements if any. We wish all the Year 12 students a great break and hope to see them refreshed and ready to tackle Term 2 after the holidays. Gita Menon Year 12 Manager

SRC and Social Justice Club It’s been a busy first term for the SRC and Social Justice Club. We held a hoodie design competition, with the SRC working together to promote the competition, shortlist the entries, and host a whole-school vote (online, to save paper). The winner of the hoodie design was year 12 student Jay Tomlinson, and school captains Gabi and India tied for first place for the varsity jacket. (This wasn’t an ode to Australian Cricket – we swear those were the ones most students voted for!).

India and Gabi attended their first school council meeting, representing the students of the school on issues relating to school budgets and governance, whatever governance is. Hannah Bailey represented Swinburne Senior College at the Boroondarra Leadership Week, where she worked alongside students from schools across the region to brainstorm what made good leadership, and how they could make their schools better for all students.

We opened up nominations for year 11 Captain, and were super impressed by the quality of all the applications. Shortlisted students were interviewed by a panel, and four students were preselected. The nominees are:

Hannah Bailey

Laura Moorfoot

Fynn Groves

Bianca Ciavarella

Elections will be held during year 11 assembly in week 2. All the nominees are fantastic, and if you’re in year 11 you should make an effort to get to know them, so you know who you want representing you. They will also give a short speech during the assembly. International Women’s Day celebrations were a huge success. VCAL Captain Georgie Olczak-Messig designed a beautiful hand-drawn poster commemorating significant historical women, with the slogan “Women support us, we support women”. Archie McDonald made a very jaunty poster reminding people that yes, there is an International Mens day too (November 19). Marc designed an awesome old-school photoframe for the day, and the SRC and Social Justice Club worked together to design a mentor activity where each student in the school nominated a woman who influences them. So many students picked their Mums! I came away very proud of our students, and of the achievements of women both in the social sphere and at home.

Coming up next term! We are going to send a debating team to the World’s Scholar’s Cup. Three members are required to make up a team. We already have three candidate, but we can have as many teams as we want, so if you are interested in getting involved, please see me (Meiki) on the first two days of term 2 (by April 18). Entry costs $20 but will be part subsidised by the SRC.

Joining the World’s Scholar’s Cup was Laura Moorfoot’s idea and here’s her spiel about it: The World Scholar's Cup is an amazing opportunity to meet people from around the world and Melbourne to debate topics from politics to poetry as well as pass motions on global issues. Other team events include: Scholars Bowl, Collaborative writing, Scholars Challenge, and as mentioned above team debate. If you would like to participate, email Meiki by the first week back at school. For more information check

out: http://www.scholarscup.org/events/#scholars-bowl

Stay tuned for more about Boroondara Youth Week (Friday April 20th 3.30-6pm, free food drinks art stalls music…), the Swinburne school formal, Reconciliation Day, and volunteering opportunities. Meiki Apted SRC Manager

Experiential Learning in Business Management Research tells us that students learn best when they experience the learning and in Business Management the endeavour is to expose them to multiple industry and learning experiences. This term at both Year 11 and Year 12, we have had incursions and excursions that relate directly to the content and case studies being studied and assessed. The Year 11s heard entrepreneurial stories from Amanda Walker, founder of Lord of the Fries and Sheryl Thai, founder of CupCake Central. They then visited the CupCake Central store on Glenferrie Road to see the store layout and speak to the staff about the skills required in their role. The advice given by these successful entrepreneurs helped them understand the first area of study on business planning.

The Year 12s visited the Thank You Water Headquarters and met the founders Daniel Flynn Jarryd Burns. They understood how social enterprises operate and got a chance to speak to the employees to understand the real corporate culture. Thank You Water was the case study they used for their first SAC.

The Year 12s also met the trainers from McDonalds in an incursion to understand on the job and off the job training as conducted by them- the challenges and the benefits of their investment in training. Finally, both groups used Kahoot games to revise for their SACs along with practice SACs, mind maps and other visual strategies. The objective is to use various strategies to suit different types of learners. Gita Menon Business Management Teacher

Boroondara Farmers’ Market The Boroondara Farmers' Market is a project of the Rotary Club of Glenferrie in conjunction with the City of Boroondara. When: Third Saturday of the month, 8am to 1pm (and when there is a Fifth Saturday) Where: Patterson Reserve, Auburn Road,

Hawthorn East (Melway 59 E4) Entry: $2 donation Contact: (03) 9278 4444

Change of Personal Details We are currently working through the process of updating our database with personal details. If you have changed any information please forward the changes to our General Office staff, Florence, Gail or Judy. Gail, Florence and Judy General Office