Newsletter

This year within the Year 9 cohort, the five of us, Noah (Vice Fallon House), Annamai (Vice Arts), Seb (Vice Social Justice), Saskia (Vice College) and Matilda (Vice Student Voice), take great pride in our roles as the Vice Prefects of the College. As we engage in our various subjects, we’ve found that each area of learning offers new opportunities to challenge ourselves and discover our passions. Whether it’s exploring creativity in the arts, using critical thinking skills in humanities, solving complex problems in mathematics, or conducting experiments in science, we are always being inspired by our classes and how they allow us to grow as individuals. We hope this article can show the pride students take in their work, and what skills and memories we are currently making in year nine.

Currently in the year nine English curriculum, we are finishing up our film analysis topic, in which students had to pick a movie in which they deeply resonated with, and then further explored film techniques such as sound, camera angles and mise en scene; all basic film techniques with such big impacts. The students' speaking and listening skills were further developed through having to create powerpoints of analysing the film being presented in front of the class. “Moving from one fun topic to another”, quoted by Mr Peters, then summarises the topic transition students will be going through, moving into the novel ‘Animal Farm’, a novel written on the Russian Revolution.

During Coaching, year 9s have had their focus set on achieving goals for all of our subjects, whilst moving forward into term 2, we have flipped over to the topic of developing life skills and becoming more Academic. All students find coaching a great time to reflect and focus on ourselves and what we can bring into our everyday life, therefore it is really helpful and beneficial for our well-being and health.

In Humanities, we are currently working on the final section of the Geography Unit (interconnectedness). This topic deals with trade and the benefits/drawbacks for specific sections of a community. This will then lead into tourism and its effects, again, on specified communities. Across the year level we will, then move on to the economics and business unit, where we will focus on both personal finance, and the effects government (policies) and economic factors (Rates, economic cycles etc) have on society.
Mr Georgiou

This year in Maths we are looking at a range of topics including financial maths, geometry, algebra and probability. In term one we worked on financial maths and looked at percentage increase and decrease, being given worded problems and situations to expand our knowledge. For the second half of the term we looked at area, perimeter and length of shapes, memorising formulas and equations to figure out the problems. This unit we looked at how to find the area and perimeter of various shapes, (continuing on from the last unit's topic), and will soon be transitioning into algebra and expanding and factorising brackets, all of which are crucial skills we can develop to use later in life.

In Religion the Year 9 students have been working hard to understand what religion means to everyone. In the first term we looked at what we believe as a catholic school and what religion really means to catholics. As part of this we looked at the Nicene creed prayer and what its true meaning is. As well as Christianity, we looked at a wide range of religions and what their belief system looks like. Religion is a very interesting subject to explore what our core beliefs are and what other people believe as well. It's a great, supportive atmosphere in the classroom where we can all start to talk about what we believe in and why.

In Science this term we are looking at the immune system. The immune system is what protects our bodies from disease and sickness using a variety of means. I find this unit very interesting because we’re learning about the complex system our body uses every day to keep us safe without us knowing it. One of the reasons this is a great subject is it overlaps with many other topics, such as Health, mind body soul, and other areas of biology.

In Health this term we are looking at fuel for life, which focuses on nutrition. Nutrition is a key part of our health and by looking at this topic we are improving our ability to regulate our health and live a healthier life. This focus is also overlapping a lot in the elective of Mind Body Soul, intertwining with each other in multiple ways. In Physical Education, we are looking at the idea of invading space, which is used in various sports such as netball, basketball, and Australian football. These sports are played by lots of us, and by understanding controlling space, offense, and defense, we can build on our playing skills. Meanwhile, for those of us who don’t play these sports, it’s a great way to learn these skills, and practice them while staying active.

In Health and PE this term, the year 9 students will develop their knowledge and skills around attacking and defensive principles, and the role of nutrients to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Ms Turner

Apart from the core subjects, the year nine cohort has been participating and learning skills in a variety of electives, languages and sports.

In this term of Art 2D, we've been engaging in fun activities like ink art, where we use fineliners and ink to create artworks of either underwater animals or mythical creatures. It's been a great way to explore our creativity while learning new techniques in linework and shading.
Ava Jiang

For many students throughout this topic, it has been refreshing to step outside of basic art skills, and to reform techniques and artforms to bring underwater creators and worlds to life.

This semester in Art 3D, Year 9 students have been creating ceramic sculptures inspired by Australian ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa. They've come up with a fantastic range of artworks, building on their skills in both construction and decoration. It’s been a really enjoyable class to teach— everyone’s been super engaged and has had fun with each part of the process.
Ms Franze

As well as sculptures there has been an opportunity to use the pottery wheels and have a go at creating functional bowls and cups. For many people it's the first time using the wheels, making it a very exciting experience for everyone. Art 3D has been a great hands-on subject that has been loved by many students.

TIDE- which stands for technology, innovation, design, and engineering is an immersive elective which covers a wide variety of topics. This term, we are finishing off our coding unit, in which we took part in a Python course. This course was not only helpful in learning skills related to python, but skills related to coding on a whole, as well as various skills that come with it. Our next unit is motor vehicles. I, Noah, am looking forward in this unit to build our mini-racers, which we will power using a battery.

In Food Tech, for the remainder of this term in our 'Foods Around the World' unit, students can look forward to preparing delicious Greek dishes such as spanakopita, homemade pita breads, and traditional dips. We’ll also dive into the vibrant flavours of Indian cuisine by creating curries from scratch, explore the sweets of France with chocolate mousse, and experience the art of Japanese cooking through sushi rolls and miso soup. Though details are not confirmed yet we are currently working on a new and exciting excursion.
Miss Forslind

This semester in Music we have looked at many things so far including learning new instruments, designing our own concerts and learning to write music. At the beginning of the year we got to learn new instruments including guitar or piano. We did this for most of the term before we moved on to designing our own concert in a group. We were instructed to be as creative as we want and include whatever we wanted in the presentation. At the moment we are starting to learn more music theory and learn to write and compose sheet music with new apps and even eventually getting a performance together with that knowledge!
William McLeod

‘This year in Photography, year 9’s have learnt modern day skills such as camera expertise where we can learn to take scenic photos and also use photoshop to make them look even more magical. In this term we are focusing on triptychs which are 3 photos which look similar to each other. I love this subject because it helps me take good photos when I go away to very scenic places which I want to keep because it looks so good!’
Josh McGloin

In Streetwear, students have been indulged in a creative pathway in the making of a hoodie. “The Year 9 Streetwear class explored the history of the hoodie before designing their own. Their ideas were brought to life through dynamic fashion illustrations that showcased each student's unique style. Currently, production is well underway as students continue to develop their machine sewing skills. It has been a pleasure to teach such a motivated and engaged group.
Ms Franze (Year 9 Streetwear Teacher)

Students have shared their thoughts and perspectives on the subject:

In streetwear, I feel I can release all my creativity into my clothes and customise them to reflect my personality and likes.
Dulce Beaumont

I really enjoy studying Streetwear in year 9, it is fun and inclusive, I highly recommend it.
Bill Davies

‘In Italian we are learning to compare living in the city and the countryside, as well as things such as, asking for and giving directions, using tu and Lei when speaking formally and informally, using volere (to want) and potere (can/may/be able to), using preposizioni articolate (e.g. nel, alla) to say “in” or “at” a place, and we are learning cardinal (1, 2, 3...) and ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd...)!
Miss Schiliro

こんにちは、みんな! The year nine Japanese students have been working hard this semester to improve their skills in a range of different topics. So far we have looked at describing people and celebrations. Our classes are full of practicing and repetition of content to help imbed such an interesting language into our brains. As well as the language,- we have also looked into Japanese culture and how different it can be from the way we live. As part of this we are currently writing letters to our sister school pen pals to help practice our Japanese as well as help them learn english. We can’t wait to see what they write back! It's been great learning Japanese in year nine and we hope to keep furthering our knowledge.

In French this term, we are learning how to talk about things we have done in the past. This includes the past tense, quantities, physical feelings, expressions of quantities, and things we have to do. All of these are crucial parts of the French language and will enable us to speak more fluently in conversations. A number of the year 9 French students are also participating in the French Poetry Competition, which we will work hard in to achieve our best possible results.

Overall, year nine has been an adventurous, fantastic self-discovery journey in which we all feel as if we have grown in our own individual ways. We, as Vice Prefects, hope this article has highlighted all the memories and learning experiences we have experienced throughout the year so far, and we cannot wait to see where this year takes us.