AD ASTRATHE GEELONG COLLEGE COMMUNITY MAGAZINE ISSUE NO 125 FEBRUARY 2014 FROM THE EDITOR I hope you have all had a wonderful and restful which will be an exciting new initiative to summer break with your families and friends. professionally develop our own staff as well as teachers in the community. For those living This edition of Ad Astra reflects on the end of the around Geelong keep an eye out on the roads 2013 school year and showcases the diversity for our new fleet of distinctive Geelong College of learning opportunities in and beyond the buses doing the school run and providing an classroom. after sports service. Our teachers are challenged to continually adapt Our Middle School parents, teachers and their teaching strategies to best engage individual students will be excited to commence the learners. The article on p.8 and 9 provides a New Year in the newly completed state-of-the- wonderful insight into visible learning and the art facilities. There is still work to be done on growth of students through goal setting, self- aesthetics and landscaping but disruption will Contributors reflection, self-monitoring and self-regulating. be minimal. Read more about this on p.6. Mike Howell The creativity this develops is nurtured in many Nicole Roache of our learning programs such as Go Green Day The Presidents of both the Old Collegians Belinda Romain (p.12) and Creative Wondering (p.25). Association and College Foundation and their Andrew Barr committees look forward to welcoming many Con Lannan We congratulate our 2013 Year 12 cohort on their of you back to visit or reconnect with your Annabelle Shannon outstanding year and wish them all the very best College through a number of new and well Will May for the next stage of their educational journey, established events. Leanne Russell be it the excitement of a gap year or beginning Chris Dinneen further studies or work. Once again our VCE With Christmas behind us we wish you all a very Sally Wynter results were excellent with 33% scoring over 90 happy, healthy and creative New Year. Jo Panckridge Kevin Jess and Dux of the College, Erica White, achieved an Julie Bickett ATAR score of 99.45. Read more about our VCE David Curnow results on p.19. Michael Betts Many of you will remember former Director of David Waterhouse Campbell House, Joan Sweetman who sadly Kathryn Alexander Jenny Brimacombe passed away over the holidays. We pay tribute Mike Howell Bella Anderson to Joan and others who have contributed to our Director Community Relations and James Ratcliffe community on p.45. Development Coral Turner Another busy and exciting year lies ahead. Roly Imhoff A number of key projects will be implemented Orazio Galluccio including the TripleR social and emotional Bruce Doery learning program and the establishment of the Photography Centre for Learning, Research and Innovation, Belinda Romain Mike Howell Nicole Roache Trevor Cooke Photography Pat Clark ELC staff members Junior School staff members Senior School staff members The Geelong College Archives Year 10 students Richard Kuminick Coral Turner geelongcollege.vic.edu.au 2 AD ASTRA ISSUE NO 125 contentS 8 2 From the Editor 4 From the Principal 6 Welcome to the new Middle School! 26 8 Making learning visible at The ‘We are so proud of our Geelong College accomplishments this year 10 Our time as leaders and look forward, in the years 12 Little green thumbs to come, to hearing the stories 14 A place to connect 15 Transit lounge... the journey of life outside these gates’ continues Valedictory, 2013. 16 Eurostars 17 VCE Theatre Studies 19 Shooting for the stars: VCE 2013 12 21 Lizard Island 40 Here ‘n’ there 22 Athletics winners 42 Building the state library dome: 23 House athletics Edmund Armstrong and James Battye 24 Vote one 44 Donation to the archives 32 25 Creative wondering 45 Farewells 26 A fitting farewell: valedictory 2013 50 Message from the President 28 Staff departures 52 Foundation concert 30 New staff leaders 54 OGCA President’s report 32 Student activities 56 OGS football 34 Golden APS memories 57 OGS netball 36 What a great walk 58 OGS cricket 38 Surf skills for Sri Lanka 58 Senior School Parents’ Association (SSPA) 59 Prep School Parents’ Association (PSPA) 59 Boarding Parents’ Support Group (BPSG) 60 Parent events THE 63 OCGA events COVER 64 School & community events Thomas Condie (Year 2) and Shayleigh Dicks-Joblin (EL4). 40 Creativity and wonder. 3 AD ASTRA ISSUE NO 125 FROM THE PRINCIPAL Andrew Barr, Principal This edition of Ad Astra shows clearly the vision and Mr David Curnow, to focus more on community service commitment of our College to be an innovative and caring outreach, growing those learning opportunities for community of learners wanting our young people to grow to our students. be making a positive difference to their ever changing world. Mrs Joan Gill, Director of Student Wellbeing, has been The past year has shown strongly the obvious strengths of leading a major development for our College over recent the College, particularly in the closeness of its community, months, that of our Social and Emotional wellbeing the commitment of families and staff, and the obvious educational initiative, called TripleR, and that will be vitality, enthusiasm, ability and humour of the students. implemented strongly this year at all year levels. The following pages show the activities of our community The three Rs of this program, stand for Resilience, from last year in learning together and the energy and Reflection and Relationships. We have worked closely dedication associated with that learning. with noted educational psychologist, Mr Andrew Fuller on this project and all students this year in Years 5 to 12 were We celebrate the success of our Year 12 student cohort surveyed late last year on their Resilience levels. of last year both in their VCE results and in the choice of These survey results are guiding the development of tertiary placement and we look forward to following their elements of this program and will be accompanied by adventures ahead. work on goal setting by students. Now, we look forward to an exciting new year ahead and I Dr Craig Hassed, from Monash University, has led the look forward to working with all in our community towards training of about 40 of our teaching staff, in Mindfulness and our goals. these staff will become the “champions” of this with other An obvious goal is to be united in our vision as one staff and also students. Its aim is to help focus the mind College; one College with three schools (Junior, Middle towards tasks and this will no doubt help students of all and Senior). We have now in place three Heads of School, ages in their processes of learning. (Daniel Mahon – Senior, Leanne Russell – Middle, and Chris We look forward to keeping parents informed of Dinneen – Junior) and each has a Deputy Head in support developments in TripleR and also involving them in (Kirsten Van Cleef – Senior, Michael Panckridge – Middle parenting programs as part of it all. and Edwina Davis - Junior). Mr Roger Smith is the College Head of Curriculum and We also have a strong team of College-wide leaders to Development Initiatives. His major project work, working guide developments and initiatives. The new Head of with staff, involves our Learning Outdoors programs, Teaching and Learning is Mr Adrian Camm, whose major curriculum work and innovations across the three schools, role will lie in the coaching of teaching staff across the and assessment and reporting. More will be outlined of three schools. work in his area over the year. Ms Christine Shannon is the new Director of Professional We also have welcomed a range of new teaching and other Learning and Research. She leads the College’s new Centre staff across the three schools and I know they, together with for Learning, Research and Innovation, supported by Deakin our existing staff, will provide expert guidance and support University, and this will lead and guide professional learning in learning to our students in the year ahead. and research opportunities not only for our own staff but also for teachers in our region, adding to the attraction of As I write, we are preparing for an extensive week of our College for teachers and aspiring leaders into the future. professional learning involving all staff, just prior to students returning, focussing mainly on our College learning goals Mr Camm and Ms Shannon, together with our new for the coming year, set late in 2013 and outlined to all Chaplain, Rev. Tim Edwards, a past College Captain and staff before Christmas. The week involves a conference of parent, are new leaders to our College. The appointment of external and internal speakers and workshop presenters, Rev. Edwards will allow the existing Outreach Co-Ordinator, as well as planning meetings. 4 AD ASTRA ISSUE NO 125 In the Junior School, there is great excitement about the initiatives involving the extension of Reggio Emilia principles through to Year 3 from Early Learning. There is a report on this in this edition and, again, more will be written and spoken of this in the coming months. The Middle School facility redevelopment reaches another stage, as outlined in another story in this edition, and landscaping and externals will be the feature there in 2014. Our energies concentrated on what’s appropriate and right to enhance the learning by our students and to make them more independent, curious and aspirational learners. They are capable of so much and I was reminded again of their capabilities in reading, with my daughter, over the summer the story of a young Indian man, Saroo Munshi Khan, now in his 30s and living in Hobart with his adopted family.