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Address
86-100 Alamanda Blvd
(PO Box 6606)
Point Cook Vic 3030
Telephone
(03) 8376 5200
There’s less than 30 school days remaining
for the 2019 school year (not that anyone is
counting…)
As we hit the final stretch of the school year,
the events are starting to pile up with the
calendar dates being filled to the brim as we
speak. Over the next month, we will be
hosting a plethora of events, including elective
exhibitions, fashion shows, graduations,
student reports, student-led conferences,
transition days, Christmas carol evenings
along with plenty of end of year celebrations,
which makes for a very fun and exciting time
for the Alamanda College Secondary School
staff and students.
One key change to legislation will be to the
access to mobile phones for students on
school grounds for 2020. There has been a
new ministerial policy which will come into
effect from Term 1, 2020 where all students,
who are bringing mobile phones onto school
grounds, will need to ensure that it is switched
off and stored securely during the school day.
The aim of this policy is to provide a safe
environment for learning, without
inappropriate mobile phone use (including
cyberbullying) or distractions, providing
greater opportunities for social interaction and
physical activity during recess and lunchtimes.
According to our Student Attitudes to School
Survey data, four percent of our secondary
students answered negatively towards being
asked “I have often been picked on by
another student from my school while online
or on social media.” although a ban will not
completely eradicate this issue, it is a step in
the right direction towards developing
solutions towards improving our students’
mental health and well-being.
We will continue to host numerous
conversations with the students in our weekly
Monday morning assemblies to ensure that
we have alignment and coherence of our
school expectations moving forward.
More information can be found by clicking on
the following links:
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/
principals/spag/safety/Pages/
mobilephones.aspx
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/
going-to-school/Pages/Mobile-phones-in-
schools.aspx#research
As we wind down the year, our key focus over
the next month will be to continue to evaluate
our Alamanda College mission and vision
towards the Victorian Teaching and Learning
model, which emphasises that all students are
empowered to learn and achieve,
experiencing high quality teaching practice
and the best conditions for learning, which
equip them with the knowledge, skills and
dispositions for lifelong learning and shaping
the world around them. We will take a deep
dive and analyse our achievements
throughout 2019, while also looking at key
improvement areas for 2020 as part of our
Annual Implementation Plan for the next
academic school year.
Term Four is always exciting as our students
are taking action as part of their community
projects, which is in line with the Middle Years
Programme framework of the International
Baccalaureate. Over the last couple of weeks,
we have had our Year 8 Community Art group
host an art show which showcased a variety
of art pieces focusing on homelessness and
the impact that it has had on our society. Erin
Huntman successfully raised close to $300 for
the Yellow Ladybugs organisation, which is
focused on dedicating to happiness, success
REMINDER OF DATES
COMING UP…
Year 9 Top Design Exhibition
Week of 25th November
Year 6 to 7 state-wide
transition
10th December
Year 7, 8, 9 Celebration Movie
Day
10th December
Year 9 Graduation
11th December
Swimming sports
13th December
Whole school transition
19th December
Last day of term
19th December (normal finish time)
and the celebration of autistic girls and
women as part of her “Yellow Ribbon”
day. Well done Erin!
Last week, the School Council and staff
came together to celebrate the
achievements from throughout 2019, and
in particular, the staff who have been a
part of the Alamanda family since 2014.
The theme of the evening was ‘The
Alamanda Homestead’ with a nod to
country Victoria, and efforts to meet the
theme were not overlooked by everyone!
Thank you to the Alamanda School
Council for the opportunity to come
together and celebrate achievements
from throughout the year – it was a
fantastic and fun evening.
On Monday the 11th of November, we will
also be holding a Remembrance Day
Ceremony to remember the members of
the armed forces who have died in the
line of duty. We will be holding a
commemorative ceremony and a one
minute silence on the 11th hour of the 11th
day on the 11th month.
Kirsten and I are currently in the process
of trying to organise our programming for
2020. So, parents if you know that your
child will not be returning for 2020, could
you please kindly notify the office so that
we can have the most accurate and up-to-
date numbers as we plan for next year.
Your assistance in this matter is greatly
appreciated.
Tackers Sailing program has commenced
this term and over 100 students are taking
part in the tackers program from Year 4, 5,
6 & 7. Alamanda’s Tackers sailing has
become the largest tackers sailing school
in the state according to Sailing Australia.
The program plays a major role in
developing students confidence, resilience
and on the water skills and safety. As we
are based geographically so close to the
bay, on the water recreational activity
plays a major role in developing
competent and confident young
Australians .
Students take part in a 20 hour program
run over the course of 6 weeks which will
see them develop into competent sailors.
Students in Year 4 have begun the
Tackers 1 program, learning to rig, knot
tyre, capsize and steer the boat. Tackers
2 Students are beginning to develop the
tacking and jibing skills as well as learning
to operate the boat with limited
assistance.
Our Year 7 Tackers 3 Students are
currently sailing solo as well as in pairs,
students are pushed in tougher conditions
inside and outside the harbour.
A massive thankyou to Wyndham Harbour
who play a major role in supporting
Alamanda in providing world class
facilities for our students.
Watch this space for Alamanda and
Wyndham Harbour’s Boat Shed!! :) Some
exciting times to come in 2020.
“Going to Sailing has been
something that I look forward to each
week, since it has taught me
important values such as
perseverance and teamwork. I have
also learned new skills through
Sailing that will assist me throughout
the rest of my life.”
Jana Du Toit, 7F
“The sailing program is helping me
learn about the complex sport of
sailing and helping me feel safer in
the water. I am learning fast, and if
I have any questions it is easy for
me to ask our expert instructors
who are very supportive.”
Isaac Reynolds,
REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
On Wednesday 30th October, Siddharth Anand, Dev Gupta,
Amen Mehta and Ruthvik Rudraraju travelled to Geelong to
represent Alamanda College at the Western Region Table
Tennis finals.
The boys’ exceptional preparation was clearly evident from the
first rubber, which eventually saw them as comfortable winners of
their pool. The boys displayed a very high standard of
sportsmanship and respect throughout each of their matches,
which saw them represent the College with pride regardless of
the result.
The boys faced a tougher match up in Gilson College for their
semi-final. At the conclusion of the singles stage, the boys were
in the lead 3 rubbers to 1, eventually making it through to the
final 4 rubbers to 2 after the doubles stage.
The boys then matched up against a very strong Maribyrnong
College for the final. The boys played brilliantly, but a very strong
performance by Maribyrnong saw them trailing 1 rubber to 3 after
the singles stage. To win, they needed to win both of their
doubles rubbers with strong leads. Instead of feeling deflated, the
team brought each other back up with encouragement to finish
the match strong. Both doubles partners put in brilliant
performances, where they displayed an inspiring level of
teamwork and went on to win both their rubbers convincingly. At
the end of the match, both teams left the arena unsure as to who
had won. Eventually, after careful calculation of overall points, it
was revealed that Alamanda had won: 174-164!
Congratulations to Sid, Dev, Amen and Ruthvik.
We wish you all the very best for the state finals in November!
A new term means a new group of Year 7 students enjoying the
opportunities and challenges of Drama! Beginning with an
exploration of mime, our students have learned about how actors
must use clear, exaggerated, consistent movements to express
imaginary objects when miming. Working together in partners
and groups, students have also developed a deeper
understanding of how good theatre-makers collaborate with one
another to achieve success. Well done, Year 7s!
The Year 7 cricket team attended the Western Metropolitan Re-
gion Semi- Finals last week.
After weeks of training and preparing for the tournament, the
Year 7 boys cricket team arrived in Ascot Vale full of enthusiasm
and confidence. The boys were unfazed by the dark overhead
clouds and patchy rain that remained persistent throughout the
day.
After losing the coin toss and being asked to bowl in our first
game, some nerves were evident with a few mistakes in the
initial overs costing us some early runs. However, we quickly
found our groove and began to bowl and field quite well. Our
opposition, posting 75 runs off their 20 overs was a target that
was certainly gettable and right from the beginning of our in-
nings our run rate was well above what was required. Some
great partnerships with our top order allowed us to pass the op-
positions total with many overs to spare. The win advanced us
into the semi-final of the day with the state final awaiting the
eventual winner of this match.
We come up against a well drilled team in Strathmore Second-
ary College. Again, losing the toss we were asked to bat first.
Some heavy downpours of rain caused some frustration with the
match having to be paused a few times. Some very good bowl-
ing backed up by nice fielding from Strathmore made scoring
difficult. We managed to post 96 runs from our 20 overs which
was going to be difficult to defend, but not impossible. Another
heavy rain shower before our bowling innings made it tough for
our bowlers to grip the ball, whilst their batsman took full ad-
vantage. The boys tried their best and never gave in, however,
we were beaten by a stronger team on the day. I would like to
thank all of the students for their commitment to training and
congratulate them on making it through to the semi-finals.
Year 7 cricket team:
Siddarth, Dharshan, Dhyan, Saagar, Andy, Azhar, Vraj, Abhi, Pranav,
Mrudul, Amen, Ayaan
On Thursday the 7th of November ten boys and
one girl travelled to Ascot Vale to compete in the
second round of the cricket competition. The kids
arrived at school at 8 to leave by 8:30 so that we
could get warmed up and assess the conditions.
The conditions were ordinary, the wind was
roughly about 50 km/h and it was threatening to
rain. We met with the other captain and had the
toss which we won and elected to bowl. We
agreed upon a 16 over game.
The bowling started reasonable well but Dhruv
set a field that was probably to attacking and we
leaked boundaries. After tightening up a bit and
a few field changes we took a few wickets and
wound the run rate in. We were looking good at
3 for when a short red headed kid came into bat
it looks as if we were into the tail and could hold
them. But the two batters batted amazingly with
the pair both retiring on 40 odd each and
together they made 80 odd of the final 8/99 they
made.
During the break I spoke with the kids about us
needing to bat deep and that the front line
bowlers will be strong but if we can weather that
without losing to many wickets we are a massive
change. We started off slowly with Dhruv and
Hugo watchful with the bat this was due to the
bowlers bowling tight lines and lengths. After the
5th oval the shackles broke with Dhruv hitting a 6
and starting to score freely. Once Dhruv went
out ,in came Aditya who batted the rest of the
innings for a chanceless 25 odd. Hugo retired in
the 8th oval after a solid knock. Kai came in and
nearly got us over the line finishing ran out on 26
ish after hitting 6,4,4,4 and then ran out. We
finished with 1/86 which was disappointing but
still a solid effort.
So far this term we have been looking at
Reaction Time in Year 9 Science. This
has involved using a ruler and seeing
how quickly we can catch it when is
dropped using various stimuli. We found
that when we had a 3, 2, 1 countdown we
reacted a lot quicker due to being able to
anticipate the release of the ruler (see
picture). This is similar to what happens
at the start of a race when the starter
gives his instructions before sounding the
start.
Choice reaction time was much more
complex and used a deck of
cards. When sorting them we found that
as the number of choices or responses
increased we were much slower to react
to the stimuli. Maybe we weren’t slower
at reacting to the stimuli, just having to
make more decisions such as colour and
positioning of the card resulted in having
more things to consider before making the
appropriate response.
We have also looked at touch and
temperature receptors of the skin. The
temperature receptor investigation was
strange. We put one hand in ice cold
water and another in hot water at the
same time. After a couple of minutes
both hands were put in room temperature
water at the same time. The hand that
was in the hot water felt cold, while the
hand in the ice-cold water felt hot. Weird!
Investigating touch receptors of the skin
was not as exciting. However, we did find
that the fingers are more sensitive to
touch than the back of the forearm. We
also heard that the back is less sensitive
to the chest.
It has been a busy fortnight in Secondary
Food Technology, with the Year 9
students realising their fine dining dishes
after weeks of hard work. Throughout the
semester the students have been
developing their own main and dessert
dishes, as part of their Fine Dining Unit.
This work has involved weeks of testing
and refining each element of their complex
dishes, preparing students for their final
presentation of their work.
In week 4 the two year 9 classes had the
daunting task of preparing their dishes for
20 excited guests, which included
Alamanda teachers, staff and school
council members. Their guests were
treated to a fine dining experience, each
enjoying a main and dessert created by
the students. With many guests attending
the event, the students had the challenge
of producing 3-5 consistent plates of their
main and dessert. Rising to the challenge,
the students conducted themselves with
maturity, effectively collaborated with their
peers and expertly applied the skills they
have developed over the course of the
year.
The Food Technology team are extremely
proud of the hard work and high-quality
dishes the students produced and
presented to their guests. We are looking
forward to witnessing the students achieve
great success again when they have the
opportunity to serve their dishes to their
families in week 6.
The Food Technology Team
Year 9 Food Technology students treating 20 guests—including Alamanda Teachers, Staff and School
Council Members to a Fine Dining Experience
In our most recent unit, we developed our
interpretation skills by looking at the works
of Shakespeare, making our own
interpretations and performing these in a
non-conventional performance space.
Through this unit we learnt that the
language is really hard! We learnt that a
highly exaggerated physicality is needed
to communicate the story, which we
worked on through the ‘Shakespeare
Insults’ game.
We used non-conventional spaces to
make our own interpretations of our
chosen scripts. At first, this was really
challenging for us as it took us out of our
comfort zones. Some of the challenges
with working in a non-conventional space
was that the audience are all around you
and often in your way! You really have
improvise and also include audience
interaction to deal with this. Performing in
a non-conventional space felt more
genuine; the arguments really felt
arguments because we could actually
face each other! It was also interesting
not using microphones in these
performances. While this was difficult
because we really had to project our
voices, it made the scene feel more real
between the actors. Not breaking
character during performance when
audience members are in the way was
also difficult, in addition to performing to
varied sizes of audiences; sometimes
there were two audience members,
sometimes there were 50 people!
It was interesting to do a more classic
type of theatre in comparison to modern
theatre, and though it was probably our
most difficult unit of work, it was
enjoyable. Doing this unit has made it
easier to adapt to different performance
styles and different performance areas. It
has also been interesting trying to
translate these scenes back to the theatre
and a more traditional stage now as part
of our showcase; there are different rules
and conventions associated to performing
in the theatre, so we have to change the
scenes and the way we are blocking
them.
By Alexandria Eagles, Ella Hansen and
Vivienne Yeoh
On October 30th, the Secondary cohort gathered to attend a
drama performance presented by 'Brainstorm Productions'. They
tackled problems that many may face in their lifetime, such as
bullying, abuse and assault, theft and privacy invasions,
converting them into a drama performance. The energetic
members of Brainstorm Productions demonstrated the issues and
problems, depicting their own experiences as well as others, who
may have encountered abuse, bullying on the streets, at home,
during school or online. They taught us how to deal with the
sometimes inappropriate peer modelling from adults and friends.
They encouraged us to have empathy and to be able to
comprehend right from wrong when witnessing physical or mental
abuse and assault and to have the ability to calm down after a
rage-inducing experience. This award-winning show was
extremely engaging, really hooking in the viewers as they dived
into a world filled with acts of mental and physical harm.
Hayden Chan—Year 9
Brainstorm (Sticks and Stones), is a production group developed
to help others. They describe the pain of family problems with
details so true, it has to be carved by experience. I found
enjoyment during the production when comparing the characters
with students at this school, and my happiness when seeing
those students later talking about how they were so similar, was
incomparable. The actors were so realistic, that it was hard to
imagine them acting in another way, even during their normal life.
Stick and Stones was a play that I know I will keep in my mind
forever, as most other students will too. I highly encourage others
to watch them in action as well.
Aryan Choudhary—Year 8
Brainstorm describes the problems of cyber safety, bullying and
physical assault through a fun and engaging performance. It is
executed by two actors who have experienced abuse from family
and classmates in their own pasts. I enjoyed the wittiness of the
actors and the waves of emotions that came with each scene. I
gained insight into how corrupted families and friends can
influence a person’s life and the ways to properly treat people.
Po-Hsu Chen—Year 8
I really enjoyed this production, because it touched on a few
topics that I am very passionate about, including harassment
and domestic violence. The two actors were extremely talented,
so much so that I started to cry (just a little bit). I would definitely
recommend the production to anyone, at any age.
Lucy Formosa—Year 7
After watching the Brainstorm Production, it made me gain a
new understanding towards other people such as family, friends
and random people. Each situation has its purpose in telling you
what is the right response and wrong response.
Cooper Smith—Year 7
