Newsletter

Welcome back to the Year 12 students, families and the wider community. The Year 12 cohort have returned after a well-deserved break feeling refreshed and ready for the term ahead. Many of the Year 12’s spent the first week of the holidays attending holiday classes offered by our dedicated VCE teachers and some of the break studying in preparation for this Term.

Term 2 marks the halfway point of the Year 12 journey and therefore an important time for our students to reflect on what they have achieved and set goals for this upcoming term. Students now have completed their first round of assessments in most subjects and with the guidance of their teachers will now be looking at how they can improve and achieve their goals.

Daniela Franzé, Year 12 Leader

This term in English, the cohort has been exploring the themes and values of the novel “Nine Days”. These include themes such as thriving within an unconventional family structure, changing moral values and the challenge of dealing with adversity. The story narrative is unique because it is not structured along chronological lines as each chapter is from the perspective of a different family member at a distinct point in history. By the end of the novel, the last chapter links with the first, giving the reader a complete picture of the main themes. One thing I found interesting is how the author gave an insight into each of the nine characters by giving them their own point of view by making them the narrator of their titled chapter. It was a clever way of the author imparting the understanding of the choices of each character. Katelyn Bartlett

This term in Italian, our Year 12 class has just finished our study of women’s rights in Italy and Australia. We have learned how womens’ lives have changed and improved through the feminist movement, yet also how equality still has room to be achieved. We concluded this study with a reading, listening and writing comprehension SAC. We are now developing our understanding on Italian youth issues. These include the dangers and struggles teenagers are faced with and how this compares to Australian teens. Blaise Segafredo

Currently, in Product Design and Technology, our class is developing research surrounding a garment we intend to make by the end of Term 2. Our research consists of examining different eras of fashion (for example contemporary or period specific styles), features of garments (like necklines or sleeve shapes), and end-user oriented designs (ways to increase comfort or wearability). This research provides a stepping stone towards the construction of our visualisations of a finalised garment, which will then receive feedback and critique from our client. Last week we attended an excursion to the Melbourne Museum to view the Top Designs exhibition, there we viewed the highest scoring VCE Product Design folios and garments. Seeing them all was very inspiring for our work in the following units as they promoted interesting and contemporary comments on topics like sustainability and as well as the celebration of gender-neutral wear. Zoe McGee

In VCD this term we have begun work on our portfolio, this is a super exciting time in the subject because we are given the creative freedom to explore our own ideas and follow the design process. To help us in developing our portfolio we visited Top Designs at the Melbourne Museum, this experience helped us to develop unique ideas for our own folio and give us an idea of what we will be expected to produce for final product. Ava Casey

This term for Food studies we have been focusing on the emotional role food plays within our lives and how it can help form bonds with others in our family or community and within ourselves. We have been preparing for our upcoming SAC whilst also routinely cooking to develop a variety of cooking skills. We began this term by making red velvet cupcakes. Evie Linehan

In Chemistry, we have just completed our study on Redox equations and Galvanic cells, and are now working on developing our knowledge on both Equilibrium, as well as the process of Electrolysis. Our lessons have been extremely enriching and we have been given the opportunity to consolidate these key topics in a variety of ways, through applying our understanding into the real world and answering exam style questions to assist us in our preparation with our upcoming SAC. I look forward to continuing to learn more about this subject, and grasp new concepts. Kyarah Pumo

Currently in Studio Arts, students are heading into the refinement stage of their portfolios. Students are trialling the use of subject matter, art elements and principles and materials and techniques to communicate the messages they decided on in term 1, and annotating those trials in their portfolios in preparation for unit 4 where they must select the trials which best communicate their meaning to create their final works. Sacha French