Newsletter Term 4, Week 3 21 Oct 2021

As a result, our students have been exposed to a range of rich learning experiences and digital tools, increasing their self-sufficiency as learners in a way so significant that we have embedded these dispositions through initiatives such as the Learning Legacy Program. We have seen our students and teachers embrace and embed digital technologies in ways that have truly impacted what we do as a school. 

In our technologies learning area, we have been busily preparing for an exploration of Artificial Intelligence, where some of the most crucial ideas of our time will be developed and refined by our students in the context of a case study. The intersection of humans and technology remains a theme this year, culminating in the upcoming End Of Year Program where the girls will be diving into cutting-edge personal identification technologies. They will be placing an ethical lens over the rapidly expanding domain of Biometrics, and developing their skills and dispositions in complex problem solving and solution design.

As we continue to sequence and develop the programming capacities of our girls from Junior School through to VCE, we have seen some wonderful displays of web development and design this term. Using CSS and HTML coding skills, the girls have made their own digital creations during remote learning, building an awareness of computational thinking that will serve them now and into their future.
It’s an exciting time to be in educational technology, and we are looking forward to a few big weeks ahead in the Digital Learning space!  

Catherine Newton, Head of Digital Learning and Innovation

At Strathcona the ‘Art Department‘ is changing its name to the ‘Art and Design Department’ to reach further beyond the traditional Art theory and practice in order to include the centrality of Design Thinking and to reflect all the current contemporary learning theories and pedagogy taught in the department. The Art and Design Department will retain the historical and traditional philosophy of the department, however more truly reflect the breadth and depth the current Art department’s scope now reaches.

The role of the Art Department at Strathcona has always been to inspire ‘emotion, expression and creativity' through encouraging the students to take risks, experiment and value the role of productive failure to create innovative, creative and critical thinkers with a Growth Mindset 4 for the future. ‘Art’ at Strathcona has traditionally assisted students to build an understanding of how artists, through their experiences and viewpoints and the artworks they produce, communicate their ‘meanings and messages’ to an audience.  Students then use this understanding of societal contemporary Art to ‘create and make’ their own artworks to communicate their own meanings and messages in a variety of chosen media. The approach the department takes in structuring this process relies on the design process to organise the students’ Design Thinking into creative, critical and reflective thinking strategies. The contemporary debate about the centrality of Design Thinking in the future of education and the workplace is an ideal opportunity to prepare current students with these new forward-thinking skill sets.

The ability to anticipate and prepare students for future skill requirements has become increasingly important for educators. The OCED Future of Education and Skills 2030 report stated that “students will need to develop long-life 21st-century learning skills, where the focus is in not only teaching the content but teaching students to learn how to learn”. Interestingly it is estimated that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that do not currently exist. Many occupations are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation through a change in the required skillsets since technological breakthroughs have rapidly shifted the frontier between the work tasks performed by humans and those performed by machines and algorithms. In addition, The 2018 World Economic Forum Report stated ‘the top necessary skills required for the fourth industrial revolution will be complex problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, alongside emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility.

Therefore, the value of Design Thinking cannot be underestimated in preparing each Strathcona student for future workplaces that goes beyond art during their career. We want to ensure graduating students have complex problem-solving abilities, are creative and critical thinkers and will develop student agency, resilience and rigour for a future of education and work that requires Design Thinking. To future-proof Strathcona students with these crucial 21st-century skills, the name change will create an exciting new future for the Art and Design Department where creativity and critical thinking will be fully valued.

Kimberley Moor, Head of Art and Design

References:

1. OCED report https://www.oecd.org/education...
2. https://reports.weforum.org/fu...
3. https://education.unimelb.edu....
4. Professor Dweck’s Growth Mindsets: Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential. Constable & Robinson Limited
  

For many young people the uncertainty of the past months with moving quickly into online learning, back to school, and then home again for unpredictable amounts of time has been unsettling.  Returning to school imminently has the potential to trigger these uncertainties again, regarding whether they will end up learning from home again, whether school will be a safe place or will their friends still be their friends.  For some young people, there may be uncertainty about their academic progress during online learning and how this will be managed when they return to school.

Returning to school is more than just about academic achievement and will require schools and parents to focus on re-engaging young people socially and re-establishing a sense of connection, belonging and community within classrooms and schoolyards.

Some tips that may assist parents in smoothing the transition back into school include:

• Accepting your child’s responses may be different from your own or what you’d expected and assisting them to focus on the elements they can control, appreciate and look forward to within the transition may be helpful.  Celebrate small steps, progress and successes.

• Anticipate that your child might be tired due to the increase in activity and stimulation at school, which could result in meltdowns or less motivation after school and may require additional downtime.

• Start to create a routine that supports transition back to school well ahead of the return to school.  For example, ensuring that children return to a bedtime and wake time that will fit in with school hours.  Getting out the school uniform to make sure it’s clean, try it on to ensure it still fits, practice making lunch boxes and eating at regular school break times can all be helpful in reintroducing a school mindset.  

• Driving the route to school and talking about the activities and people they’ll look forward to engaging with on return to school may be one way to increase the familiarity of the school environment before returning.  Perhaps arrange a walk or picnic with a school friend to assist will feeling connected in advance of return to school.

• Ensure you are positive in communicating that returning to school will be a safe and beneficial process for your child.  Prepare your child for what the ‘new normal’ at school might look like (eg young students wearing masks), and discuss any changes in advance to help them adjust to the alterations in the environment or processes in advance.

• Be open to discussing any worries your child might have, listen to concerns and validate that all feelings are okay.  Be honest about your responses but also reassuring that if there are difficulties, you’ll be there to support them through these bumps in the road.

• Parents with concerns about how their children will adjust can reach out to their teacher or school before classroom teaching resumes and consider what supports might be helpful.

The reintroduction of after-school activities may also be something we need to factor into the return to routine and lifestyle with reduced restrictions.  Being mindful to balance these activities and communicate with your child about what they can cope with and what they would like to do.  This will help them to manage the school demands and feel they have some control, so that young people don’t become overwhelmed during the transition.

• Once young people have returned to school, they may find that the adjustment to the learning environment and social surroundings and dynamics is a tiring process.  Introducing changes in a staggered way can help to gradually ease young people back into managing multiple demands.

• Co-curricular activities can assist in balancing an academic focus and help to re-connect young people with friends and a sense that there is more to school than academic learning alone.  Moving their bodies, staying active, performing in ways that are not only classroom based are also valuable in reconnecting to school.

In order for students to maximise their engagement in learning as we move forward, reconnecting within school is essential.  At this time, the key focus is for all of us to support your children to reconnect with their peers, teachers and the school community.

Kerri Rhodes, Senior School Psychologist

Please follow this procedure:

• Search for the book you would like to borrow in the catalogue: Oliver Catalogue. You can search by title, author, genre and subject.

• When you find the book, you would like to borrow, click the reserve button. Do this for as many books as you would like to borrow.

• We will send you an email letting you know when you can collect the books.

• Collect the books from the year level designated areas. The books will be in a parcel with your name on it!

• Please pick your book up within 5 days.

Everyone can continue to find great reading material from our Wheelers ebook Library shared collection.

Remember, books can take you anywhere!  

Visit New York, Mongolia or the moon... all from the comfort of your own home.

Items in the Career News include -

• Reminder: VTAC 2022 Upcoming Key Dates
• Campus Living – Student Village Melbourne
• Advanced Diploma of Building Design (Architectural) at Box Hill Institute
• Applying for a Tax File Number
• Useful Websites/Links
• Low Income Health Care Card for Australian Students
• Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Science Courses in Victoria in 2021
• Snapshot of Photography Studies College (PSC) in 2021

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

Yesterday in Envision Year 9 participated in a virtual excursion to Orpheus Island Research Station, off the coast of Ingham in QLD. Rhys Cornish, the Orpheus Island Research Station Officer, and Science and Diving team member, took us for a tour of the station and we were able to see the aquaculture systems that they have established for research. Rhys was able to answer many questions from the Year 9 students and share his work to save the Great Barrier Reef. In the week when the inaugural Earthshot prizes were announced, this seemed to be a great way that we could learn more about our reef environments and what is being done to protect them.  

Year 9 students will have also added two micro-credentials to their toolkit since last week. Most have completed the mandatory Safe@Work certificate to allow them to complete any work experience they may wish to undertake, and on Friday they will complete a Food Handling certificate with Narelle Cameron. Whilst some students may never want to work in a food-related business, it is a sign of further study, discipline and demonstrates initiative on a developing personal portfolio. 

A large number of Year 9 students are nearing the end of their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. Between now and the end of the year we will spend time asking students to complete logging all hours and having them approved. We have had correspondence from the body who administers Duke of Ed that we will be able to sign off Camp2Campus for their entire Adventurous Journey experience. This is a very positive ruling as it will allow students who have continued with their activities, to complete the Bronze Award in 2021. 

We will look forward to welcoming all students back to Tay Creggan next Tuesday.  Please be assured that the staff at TC will be spending time re-connecting with each student in their class, checking on their learning gains and making plans for the rest of the year. We can't wait!

Karyn Murray, Head of Tay Creggan

The Boroondara Eisteddfod is a long-running prestigious competition, with groups and individuals usually travelling from all over Victoria to compete at the beautiful Hawthorn Arts Centre.  With the occurrence of the pandemic In 2020 and 2021, the competition moved to a digital format to allow performers and artists to continue having a place to perform, compete and share their music-making.  Fortunately for our Strathcona musicians, both the entered groups had recorded their performances before the recent lockdown put an end to rehearsals in Term 3, and we were able to submit entries into the Primary Choir and Primary Chamber String sections of this year’s eisteddfod.  A number of schools submitted entries to the competition, despite the lockdown, so this is a really pleasing result.

Congratulations to the musicians of Junior School!  We can’t wait to hear you performing together again soon!

Anna Miller, Director of Junior School Music

Considering the current environment and the digital world we now live in, this Special Report is about managing overwhelm in the age of information overload. We are constantly receiving a barrage of messages from various media platforms which can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety. This report offers a number of strategies to help manage these overwhelming feelings

Due to the pandemic, the world we now live in is a very different place. The hyperconnected nature of our current environment means that we are constantly being reminded of the challenges we face via numerous media and social media channels. Our connectivity to the digital world exposes us to a barrage of messages that can leave us feeling overwhelmed. As a result, many children and their parents are reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety

This month's edition is ‘Transitioning Back’. It is a great edition for parents and adult carers with children across all year levels. 

Read the special report here.

Although the reality of COVID is not quite over, there still remains a considerable amount of uncertainty. We have all experienced this event together and we are all at various levels of transition and adjustment. The circumstances of this situation have significantly impacted students, parents and teachers alike.

We invite you to join us for a relaxing online evening hosted by Strathcona, especially for our mums.

We are delighted to bring our special guest panel - Alice Stolz, National Managing Editor of Domain and current parent, Lucy Glade-Wright, Designer and Director of Hunting for George and a member of the League of Extraordinary Women and Dea Jolly, Interior Designer, winner of The Block 2015 and also a current parent. Our panel will chat to you about their career journeys, being involved with The Block and current design trends.

Take an hour out of your busy day and relax with a glass of wine and listen to our expert panel.

We hope you can join us for this special evening which will be held in place of our annual Spring Racing lunch at Leonda by the Yarra.

Click here to register for this event.

You are warmly invited to our next Parent Seminar Series event on the topic of sleep, adolescence, and school, with guest speaker Professor Greg Murray.

He will discuss sleep and its role in emotional wellbeing, and the biology of how sleep changes in adolescence. The well-known tension between school start times and adolescent sleep preferences will be considered, followed by a consideration of strategies to help adolescents manage this challenge.  Professor Murray is an award-winning lecturer and the talk is sure to be highly interactive and engaging.  

Professor Greg Murray has an international reputation for clinical psychology research, being ranked in the top 1% of researchers worldwide in the fields of bipolar disorders, circadian rhythms, and personality. He has published more than 200 articles, chapters and books primarily on sleep, biological rhythms and mood disorders, and is a contributor to the American Psychiatric Associations’ DSM. Professor Murray is a practicing clinical psychologist and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. He is currently Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Mental Health, Patron of Bipolar Life Australia, Chair of Orygen Research Review Committee, and Oceania Representative for the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.  After a first career in music, he took out his PhD from University of Melbourne in 2001, and has been a full Professor at Swinburne since 2011. 

Wednesday 1 December 6.00pm.

Please join us for this virtual event to celebrate the girls and boys from ELC-Year 6 and their creative endeavours at the Annual Art Exhibition. Both collaborative and individual pieces on display exploring both two and three-dimensional forms and a wide variety of mediums for your viewing.