Newsletter Term 3, Week 3 29 July 2021

We currently have many families in quarantine and I am sure the days are very challenging for them. Teachers are delivering both in real-time and virtually so that these students are continuing in their learning. Some of those quarantined are teachers and they are teaching from home.

The VCE Premier’s Awards was supposed to be held on Tuesday but was, predictably, cancelled. Two of our 2020 students received a Premier’s Award – Alicia Tilley for Drama and Zoe Christofides for History: Revolutions. This is an outstanding achievement and we recognise their hard work and talent and also that of their teachers.

Parent Conferences went smoothly this week online. Staff told me that they felt incredibly well supported by parents as so many of you began the interviews, apparently, with questions about how teachers were managing and offering words of kindness and gratitude. Thank you – this meant so much.

A reminder that next week we will have three virtual careers evenings with engaging panels of our alumnae and we encourage your daughters to attend their panels of interest.  Details of the evenings and panels have been emailed from the Career’s Department.

Warm regards

Marise McConaghy, Principal

In the English online learning space, students from Years 7-12 have been busy creating, imagining, reading, discussing, collaborating, and writing. Henry Matisse once said, “creativity takes courage”, however, I firmly believe that creativity also requires imagination, curiosity, and energy. I’m proud to say that our students have continued to draw on their creative reserves and have risen to the challenges of late. It’s a timely reminder that we should all take a moment to replenish our reserves; reading, journaling, drawing, painting, or listening to your favourite music playlist can all offer creative nourishment.

While we could be forgiven for saying ‘Bah Humbug’ to lockdown number five, Year 7 English students have used their online learning time to engage with Charles Dickens’ great work A Christmas Carol. Through inquiry learning tasks, they are researching the origins and history of Christmas and its associated symbolism. At the same time, Year 8 students have been imagining and writing about their utopian visions of the future, in preparation for their study of Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver.

In other news, on Monday evening, Strathcona’s Year 9 - 12 debating teams competed in the fifth round of the Debater’s Association of Victoria’s online debating competition. Congratulations to Year 9 D-Grade Team 1, and their coaches Ms Goldstone and Ms Waldron, on their win. Well done to Zoe Fotheringham for receiving the ‘Best Speaker’ award for her efforts during the debate. In addition, Year 10 C-Grade Debating Team 2 won their debate and Milla Pitkanen was awarded 'Best Speaker' for her performance. Congratulations and well done to our Year 10 debaters and their coaches, Ms Cleeland and Ms Young!

Finally, I would also like to acknowledge Year 11 student, Maha Thiagarajan, who was invited to attend the annual McWhirter Conference over the term two holiday break. The three-day conference focused on the debate around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and whether this technology would ultimately make us happier in the future. What a fascinating and complex future world issue to examine!

Ms Carolyn Joubran, Head of English

Items in the Career News include -
• Dates to Diarise in Term 3
• What is VET in the VCE?
• OSA Virtual Careers Nights
• New Business Degrees at RMIT University
• What is a Barrister?
• Key Dates for Tertiary Applications for 2022 Entry
• Nexus Program at La Trobe University
• CASPer Entry Requirements for Teacher Qualifications
• APS Study Pathways to a Registered Psychologist
• Upcoming Inside Monash Seminar Series
• Biomedicine/Biomedical Science Degrees in Victoria in 2021
• Electrical Engineering Degrees in Victoria in 2021
• Snapshot of Kangan Institute in 2021

Dates to Diarise in Term 3

• University / TAFE Open Days 2021 – late July through August
• OSA Virtual Career Nights – 2, 4 & 5 August, 7 - 9.10pm
• Centre for Learning Futures talk: Planning Liveable Cities – now Thursday 26 August 5.30-6.30pm, Featherstone Hall
• Year 12 VTAC timely registration and SEAS application – opens Monday 2 August and closes late September (Note: actual course preferences are not due in to VTAC until December after results are released)
• Year 12 Parent Information Session on VTAC – Wed 11 August 7-8pm, Senior Centre
• Year 12 students VTAC presentation – Wednesday 11 August (time TBC)
• VCE Subject Selections due in – Monday 9 August

Please click here for this week's Career News. To visit the Careers page or view previous versions of Careers News click here.

Like guests who outstay their welcome, by the time we reached Day 10, not being able to go for a walk, go to school or find our own space was seriously beginning to aggravate.  I needed to remind myself several times that the end was in sight and others, including Sydneysiders, have it far worse at the moment. Today, I was able to teach my Humanities class from home whilst my students were in the classroom - it brightened up my day and gave us all a laugh. 

One of the attributes that we like to encourage in our Year 9 cohort is having a sense of optimism. Seeing many of the students dressed in their Olympic regalia last Friday for our Olympics quiz was so much fun, as was hearing our first business "Cookie & Dough" make their pitch today online, albeit not in the way they were imagining. You will be amazed at their product - edible, safe cookie dough (which is very popular at the moment). 

I read recently an Alliance of Girls School's report titled "Great expectations: Believing in your child’s academic success can boost results". It looked at the link between a parent's optimism and their child's performance. Unsurprisingly, the academics suggested that optimism was a powerful weapon in motivating and encouraging success. 

Nurturing a sense of optimism and having things to look forward to is very much part of the Year 9 experience. For our teens (and even for those of us far older) it is the ability to imagine a positive outcome or look towards the future with optimism that we need most. Whilst this can be challenging at the moment, we are moving on, launching businesses and remaining optimistic.  We have booked a date in Term 4 with OEG to complete Camp to Campus with a beach day and many activities that were planned at Year 9 will continue, just in a different format. 

We look forward to resuming school at Tay Creggan.

Mrs Karyn Murray, Head of Tay Creggan 

On Monday 26 July, two of our Year 9 Debating teams went head-to-head in the C Grade, Round 5 debate with the topic “TV programs glorifying the military should not be broadcasted”. 

This topic was challenging and both teams spoke very well. Team 1, who argued for the negative side won by 2 points with Isabelle Gemmel as 1st speaker, Amy Johnson as 2nd speaker and Zoe Fotheringham as 3rd speaker along with their teammates Cynthia Shi, Jemima Collings, Jayna Wang and Vinny Liang. Congratulations to Zoe Fotheringham who was awarded Best Speaker. 

Team 3 also acquitted themselves well and were tough competition with Heidi Gillon as 1st speaker, Liza Griffon as 2nd speaker and Naomi Attala as 3rd speaker along with their teammates, Sienna Maiolo and Steph Tang.

Unfortunately, team four’s opposition requested a two-week postponement and team two’s opposition forfeited, meaning that both teams missed out on debating this week. 

Amy Johnson, Year 9 Debating Leader

Mrs Kyritsis and I have been unpacking a new digital learning platform that enables students to interact with 3D objects and simulations they can touch, hold and interact with. It is quite extraordinary and brings to life concepts and ideas in Science and STEM. The Merge Cube lets you hold digital 3D objects, enabling an entirely new way to interact with the digital world.

An introduction to how the Merge Cube is used can be viewed by clicking the video below:

Kind regards

Ms Lisa Miller, Head of Junior School (Click on the below image to enlarge)

The literature is incredibly clear about the key role the first 5 years make in a child’s development at that time and beyond. At Strathcona we too value these years and work with children and families in the ELC to build their child’s resources and skills during these fundamental years.

In celebration of Early Learning Matters Week, we would love to share the
4 P’s of what ELC/Kindergarten learning assists your child with.

1/.       Play, play and more play

Children learn about themselves and make sense of their world through play. The more opportunities they have to play in a learning environment (with freeplay, outdoor play, games and crafts) the greater their opportunities to explore, test ideas and learn how things and relationships operate in their life. If you would like further ideas about why play is so important I’d encourage you to watch the ‘Thrive by Five’ 7minute TED talk by Molly a 7year old Australian girl with some important tips https://www.minderoo.org/

2/.       Positive sense of identity

Children in an ELC experience an opportunity to explore themselves and their relationships with others in a safe supportive environment beyond that of their home.

3/.       Promotes language development

An ELC environment provides new and rich opportunities, activities, connections with others and experiences that enable and assist further language development.

4/.       Provides for emotion regulation opportunities.

Children are always learning and managing their emotions. When children experience ELC environments they have the opportunity to learn, test and fine tune some of these emotion regulation skills beyond their family and immediate circle or network of connections.

Ms Sharon Turner, Junior School Psychologist

Suggestions are welcome from staff, students, and parents in the community and if your suggestion is chosen you will win a pair of Pro Apple AirPods, valued at $304.00.

Some guidelines:
Keep it short and sharp!
The more symbolic of our school, and positive, the better!

Tips:

• You could use an acronym
• You make up an entirely new word
• You could have a brainstorm over the family dinner table and see what you come up with together!  

You can submit as many suggestions as you wish and all suggestions are welcome. The more suggestions the better!

To Enter: 

Place your suggestion in this online form by July 31: https://sb.strathcona.vic.edu.au/survey/intro/384  

Questions?

Email Mrs Newton cnewton@strathcona.vic.edu.au 

Tomorrow at 7.15am is Strathcona's Green Evolution Breakfast. We hope that you can join us for what is going to be a very informative event. 

Hear from our panel of experts about climate change and rising sea levels, and be inspired by stories of action from local sustainability heroes. Learn about Strathcona’s own "Green Evolution’’ and commitment to a better Earth for girls and families everywhere.

Click here to register for this event.

Dr Kathleen McInnes ('79) - CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere 

Kathleen McInnes leads the Climate Extremes and Projections group of the Climate Science Centre in CSIRO's Ocean and Atmosphere business unit. Her work deals with how climate change will affect severe weather and coastal extreme sea levels through numerical modelling and climate model analysis with a focus on Australia and small islands. She has developed climate projections for impact and adaptation assessments to assist local government manage and adapt to climate change. Her contribution to this work was awarded Eureka award in 2003 and 2009. She has published over 200 refereed publications and other reports and articles and was a contributing author on the IPCC second, third, fourth and sixth assessment reports. She was a lead author on the IPCC Fifth assessment report chapter on Coastal Systems and Low-Lying Areas as well as a lead author on the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adapation in 2012 and the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in 2019. She currently serves as a co-chair of the World Climate Research Program Grand Challenge on Regional Sea Level Changes and Coastal Impacts. In 2017 she became a Fellow of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and in 2020 she was awarded the CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Ninna K Larsen, Founder and Director - Reground

"Reground exists to help businesses help the environment and not let coffee, chaff or soft plastic waste end in landfill. Reground creates a community around waste resources to educate us all on how to make our future more sustainable.Reground changes our current waste disposal structure making it more resourceful for our pocket, people and planet.Reground exists to create positive change."Ninna is an expert in behavioural design, marrying her passion for sustainability and practicality to create real change in the waste and innovation space. She founded Reground in 2014 after experiencing the unnecessary coffee waste in Melbourne. Determined to see businesses stepping into the circular economy, she is creating a movement of businesses that puts impact over profit.

Matt Jones, Director - Mamachi

Matt owns and operates a number of Energy and Technology businesses and is driven to accelerate Australia's Energy and Carbon Transition. His passion and experience in Sustainability and Renewable Energy drives Matt to create impact and value for the Education Sector and other large organisations across the country. Through increasingly intelling and automated Building, Asset and Energy Management technologies Matt has delivered large scale programs and portfolio wide data management strategies nationally, achieving meaningful energy, emissions and building outcomes across most sectors.

Hollie Fields - Head of House, Strathcona Sustainability Team Leader

Hollie Fields has taught the Geography curriculum in schools across Victoria and Tasmania. She is committed to giving students on active role in sustainability education by providing them with knowledge and skills to foster change. Currently she teaches at Strathcona Girls Grammar where she leads the Senior curriculum for Geography (10-12). Alongside this, Hollie is a member of the School's sustainability committee, oversees the environment club and participates in the Boroondara Indigenous Network. Having presented at the Australian Geography Teachers Conference in 2019, Hollie engages with an Australia wide network of teachers to consider the best approaches for raising awareness for an ecological mindset. She believes everyone has a key role and that significant change is required to reduce the impacts of modern lifestyles on the natural environment. 

Planning Liveable Cities event is tonight 5.30pm - 6.30pm. Register now! 

You are warmly invited to the Strathcona Centre Learning Futures event – Planning Liveable Cities.Hear about urban planning and the impact it has on lives now and into the future. Madison Robb and Yang Bai from Plan Melbourne will share about their careers in urban planning. We eagerly await their presentation where we will learn something that will have enormous impacts on our futures - the future of Melbourne.

Read more about our guest speakers below.

Madison Robb
Madison has over seven years' experience in urban planning, project management and Ministerial roles in State Government, delivering high-profile, large-scale planning and urban renewal projects, including Docklands and Fishermans Bend in Victoria and Perth City Link and Scarborough Beach in WA. Originally from Perth, Madison moved to Melbourne 4 years ago and took a short break from planning to explore cities as cabin crew for Virgin Australia, before COVID-19 hit the travel industry. Madison now works on delivering Plan Melbourne 2017-2050, the Victorian Government's strategy to guide the growth of Melbourne until 2050, including where people live and work and how we connect people to jobs and services.

Yang Bai
Yang Bai is a strategic planner working on the 20 minute neighbourhoods project in the Planning Department of Victoria. Her passion is in understanding the relationship between people and urban space, and also how we can create quality spaces. She is also interested in spatial data analysis and visualisation to facilitate communication and decision making. She was an engineer before moving to Melbourne to study Urban Planning. She is now also studying Urban Design.

Click here to register for this event.

Parents, caregivers and students are warmly invited to the Careers Nights for 2021. 
Hear from a panel of Alumni about life after Strathy and where their careers have taken them. Outstanding career stories from a range of industries including STEM, Law, Health and Business to name a few.

As we know career journeys are not always linear. There may be highs, challenges, and even changes of direction we do not anticipate. We are delighted to welcome these Alumnae to share with current students their insights and anecdotes into their chosen careers. 

This event will be held online at 7pm on Monday 2 August, Wednesday 4 August and Thursday 5 August. 

We look forward to you joining us for what will be an informative night.
Click on the below images to see the panellists for each night.