Newsletter Edition 3, 2020

Newsletter

ST GEORGE’S ANGLICAN GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Edition Three 06 March 2020

Photographer: Seng Fu Wen (Hawaiian.com.au)

Contents From the Principal ......................................................................................................... 1 From the Head of Curriculum ................................................................................... 3 From the Head of Pastoral .......................................................................................... 5 From the Head of Science and Mathematics ......................................................... 9 From the Head of Music ............................................................................................. 10 From Head of Health and Physical Education ......................................................... 12 From Outdoor Education ............................................................................................ 14 School News ..................................................................................................................16

St George’s Anglican Grammar School; an exciting, innovative co-educational secondary school based in a high-rise building in the Perth CBD. The School caters for local and international students in Years 7-12, and is a proud member of the Anglican Schools Commission network of schools in Western Australia.

We are committed to child safety and protection, and expect all staff, volunteers, visitors to the School and contractors to respect and abide by all policies, procedures and practices developed and put in place by the Anglican Schools Commission (ASC) and/or the School in this regard.

From the Principal Mr Gary Racey

It is hoped families enjoyed the recent mid-term break and students have been able to regroup after a frenetic start to the year. A four-day break at this stage of the term is just what the students need, to take a breather and be refreshed for the second half of the term. We find this timing of staff professional development days better for our students as compared at the end of the term when they already have an extended holiday break scheduled.

From a teaching and learning perspective, such Professional Development Days for staff cannot be underestimated. We have set a few focus areas within the teaching and learning realm this year and these played a big part in the program last week. These include: Capabilities as the central focus of curriculum – using Australian Curriculum definitions and performance criteria for general capabilities.

Integrated curriculum – using dynamic and relevant interdisciplinary units incorporating integrated skills with an integrated curriculum.

Feedback – focusing on building a growth mindset through feedback with teacher feedback focusing on effort and improvement rather than focusing on success.

Additionally, staff completed their annual training in the area of Child Protection. A

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most productive and worthwhile day of professional development that only enhances the service we provide to our students and to their families.

Student success – Catherine Woods – Year 8 – Western Australian Symphony Orchestra It is with pleasure that I announce to the school community that Catherine Woods,Year 8, has received a place in the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra in the instrument of Violin. This position was contested by approximately 400 Applicants who auditioned from across Western Australia. We are very proud and excited for Catherine and wish her all the very best in her musical endeavours.

Student success – Aelwen Johnstone – Year 7 - Youth Board for Millenium Kids Millennium Kids is a youth led environmental organisation based in Western Australia.

Aelwen Johnstone sits on the Youth Board of Millennium Kids, who meet monthly to oversee the project direction of the organisation. Aelwen has been pivotal in getting a state-wide grant to support young people green their city as part of an urban canopy project, Green Lab. She has been working with Millennium Kids Inc, the Town of Victoria Park and the Water Corporation to secure access to and plant trees in a drainage basin located in East Victoria Park. She will St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

participate in the Changing Your World Youth Conference on 6 March 2020 and along with the Youth Board will present their findings to dignitaries and the Commissioner for Children and Young People.

This is the type of community involvement that we encourage and celebrate at St George’s and we commend Aelwen on stepping up to the plate and having a voice, particularly in one so young.

Quite the inspiration I would suggest.

Chaplain We introduced our School Chaplain in the last newsletter and welcomed Reverend Deacon Sarah Stapleton for her first day at St George’s on Wednesday 26 February.

Reverend Sarah will be working with us on Monday and Wednesday’s until July, after which she will take on a further day per week following additional training. We are thrilled to have found such a capable person to help lead faith development in the school and we look forward to working with Sarah in the years to come.

Mobile Phone Policy Survey Results I thank the Parents/Guardians who took part in the recent mobile phone policy survey. 201 entries were made, which provides a strong pool of opinion. For the sake of transparency, the parent results are below: Do you feel that the use of mobile phones is having a negative impact on you/your child’s mental health? 40.8% Yes Do you feel that mobile phones are causing stress/anxiety for you/your child due to bullying? 18% Yes

Do you feel mobile phones are beneficial to children at school in terms of their academic learning? 68% No Do you think that restricting mobile phone use will benefit you/your child in terms of engagement,socialisation and interaction with others? 67.5% Yes Do you support the WA Government’s restriction of mobile phones, whereby students must have these out of sight and turned off during school hours? 70% Yes Will you support sanctions, including phone confiscation and detentions/suspensions (for ongoing concerns) if these restrictions are introduced at St George’s AGS? 71% Yes. Unfortunately, only 8% (31) responses were gathered from the student body, which is disappointing as the decisions will directly impact them. In saying that, the percentages found above and in the staff survey were not reflected by this group; however, the leaders of the student body, the Student Guild, did not reflect the same thoughts. This group has been consulted and their feedback taken on board to adjust the draft policy. In terms of the consultation process, Executive and Middle Management have completed their review and surveys. All other staff will now begin their consultation phase before a final draft is presented to the Executive for ratification.

Blessings.

Gary Racey Principal

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From the Head of Curriculum Ms Victoria Kelleher

Our school vision aims to create a school community of trailblazers, creating a 21st century approach to thinking, learning and teaching that transforms lives and revolutionises education. As a community, we aim to reconceptualise what a 21st century approach to education looks like for our students. We are very much aware that one-size-fits-all approach to education is ill-adapted to addressing our students’ needs and is not the direction our school is working towards.

The OECD has offered a model of education, like the one shown above, which they believe represents the future of education. The model shows the relationship between knowledge, skills, attitudes and values which are interconnected and interacting to produce capabilities which are, in fact, knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in action.

However, it’s not enough to merely be capable in school. We need our students to be prepared for a world with increasingly 3

complex problems, to be critical thinkers with high level project and time management skills, to be media literate, ethical, socially aware and collaborative, to be creative, adaptable and strong communicators. Through a 21st century approach, we aim to prepare our students to be capable in a range of real-world settings.

A 21st century approach involves teachers taking on more of a supportive and coaching role, guiding our students through their learning. Last Friday, the teaching staff of St George’s spent the day working on ways our students can get what they need by tailoring their learning to match their learning needs. We focused on a range of teaching and learning domains, working from the notion that our purpose is to empower our students to be capable, independent learners and guide their education from teacher-centred, to learner-centred, to learner driven. The unique setting of our school already allows for our staff to make use of flexible spaces to support our students learning and engagement. These spaces support our students who are comfortable learning in a variety of places. On Friday, we explored how we can use technology, namely our learning management system SEQTA, as a flexible way to support our students learning and engagement. We want our students to collaborate, to persevere and be motivated. These are skills that can grow into capabilities, which can become a student’s default disposition, perfected and practiced in several different contexts.

St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

One of our focus areas on was the improved use of the Daily Planner on SEQTA. It was agreed that where applicable, staff will use the Daily Planner on SEQTA to communicate with students for each lesson.

They will provide a lesson objective and a clear outline of the lesson, along with all additional resources. The use of the Daily Planner will provide us with a sophisticated platform to put our students at the centre of the learning process and to communicate our teaching and learning in a personalised and detailed way. Staff will use this approach to deliver a learner driven curriculum to our student and we are confident such an approach will continue to support your son/ daughter’s learning journey at St. George’s.

Victoria Kelleher Curriculum Coordinator

OLNA (Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment) The first round of OLNA 2020 got underway on Tuesday 3 March with the Writing component. The Reading component was completed on Thursday 5 March and Numeracy will be on Tuesday 10 March. I will continue to communicate with our students and our families closer to the date.

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy) NAPLAN Online 2020 will be conducted from Tuesday 12 May to Friday 22 May 2020.

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school. All students in Years 7 and 9 will participate in tests in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. Further details and more specific dates will be provided closer to the time.

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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

From the Head of Pastoral Mr Hilton Hardman

Student Mentors This will be the third year running our exciting Student Mentorship Program.

Nominations took place at the beginning of this year, where students across Years 10 to 12 could self-nominate as Mentors. These students have completed their training program designed to develop skills of supporting others while understanding their personal boundaries.

Kate van Olden, Riley Watson, Eliza Webb, Chantelle Wellsted, Hugo Wong

Mentors will provide an approachable and non-threatening alternative for students who need support with any concerns or personal issues. They will have fortnightly group sessions run by the Head of Pastoral to debrief and provide ongoing guidance and support. This aspect of the program is predicated on the knowledge that students are often more likely to speak to a trusted peer than to an adult. Not only will our Mentors be a support for their peers, but they will also learn incredible life skills through being part of the program.

The first project for this group will be the promotion of National Day of Action Against Bullying in week 8.

It gives me great pleasure to announce this year’s Student Mentors: Alice Conroy, Brianna Goss, Jess Green, Meghan Green, Daniel Greenaway, Ali Griffin, Eliza Griffin, Jordan Higginson Sofia Pascall, Maddi Phillips, Marvel Sukadis, Ella Tiley, 5 Edition 2 2020

Attendance and Student Outcomes Last week the Heads of House did their first-round of checks and contacted parents of students who have below 90% attendance to date.

Research confirms a strong link between attendance and student outcomes. While some student absences are unavoidable and understandable due to illness or enforced through school disciplinary absences, many are not. These could be unexplained or unauthorised absences. Poor school attendance can be linked to many related short and long-term adverse outcomes for students such as; lower academic outcomes, early school leaving, substance use, unemployment, and negative health outcomes.

However, these factors may be interrelated in complex ways, and factors that lead to low levels of attendance may also independently lead to some of these adverse outcomes.

A student’s regular absence from school may be a critical indicator in disengagement, leading directly to some of these adverse outcomes. Regardless of the nature of the relationship, poor school attendance, particularly with a high number of unexplained or unauthorised absences, is a readily observable warning sign for potential longer-term adverse outcomes.

Hilton Hardman Head of Pastoral

In saying the above, parents can expect contact from PCG Tutors for unexplained absences or Head of House for low attendance rates. Below is an overview of the overall impact of the accumulation of days absent or days late during a students school life.

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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

From the Science and Mathematics Department Ms Charlotte Donovan

Have Sum Fun is coming up! Each year St George’s supports our enthusiastic Maths students in the Face to Face competition for Have Sum Fun. This year we are have entered 2 Junior teams, an Intermediate team and a Senior team.

The competition starts with our Senior team on Friday 13 March and the Junior and Intermediate competition is the following Friday (20 March). Good luck to all students involved and thankyou to Miss Hewitt and Mr Battersby for their coaching and supervision of our students. Watch this space to see how they performed on the night!

This week is the commencement of ONLA for some students, we wish them well and remind the students that ONLA help for Numeracy is available – just ask your Maths teachers.

On Friday 21 February the Year 11 Biology students visited Perth Zoo as part of their course of study covering “Classification”.

Students were fortunate to attend a lecture and workshop given by one of the zookeepers who talked about the importance of classification at the zoo. They were able to conduct their own classification activities using a variety of animal skulls and dichotomous keys and then had the chance to get up close and meet some reptiles, including bobtail and blue 9

tongue lizards and a very cute tortoise.

Then it was time to visit many of the amazing enclosures at the zoo and marvel at the variety of animals on display. The visit certainly helped students’ understanding of classification as an essential tool when it comes to recognising, appreciating and conserving the biodiversity on Earth.

The annual RACI Bayliss Lecture series is back for 2020. This year the presentation is on...

Shining a light on crime: Applications of spectroscopy to forensic science Paint, cosmetics, ink - All of these can be forms of forensic evidence that can help detectives to make links between individuals, objects and locations – a critically important part of a criminal investigation. But how to get the most useful information from these types of evidence? This is where chemistry plays an essential role. Join Dr Georgina Sauzier as she explores a key tool of analytical chemistry and how it can be used for analysis of forensic evidence. Dr Georgina Sauzier works in the fields of forensic science and analytical chemistry at Curtin University.

Date: Tuesday 10 March 2020 Time: 6:45pm - 8:00pm Location: UWA: Wilsmore Lecture Theatre Tickets: See Miss Donovan or your Science Teacher - ONLY 20 FREE tickets are available

From the Music Department Mr Michael Newton

This week Electrocity Ensemble performed at the Perth Festival’s “Highway to Hell” it was a great performance! They performed two original songs and two AC/DC covers (Spellbound and a jazz version of Down Payment Blues). There was a huge crowd turnout and it was a great experience for all students involved. Thank you to everyone who came out to support them.

Don’t forget to buy your Electrocity CD ‘Voices’ from Level 1 Reception. 10 awesome tracks for $10!

Coming Up 8 March - ASC Combined Schools Concert audition videos deadline. Click here for more information on taking part in the ASC Concert.

19 March - On The Roof Concert 9 – 11 June SGAGS Music Festival & Battle of the Bands 21 June - International Make Music Day

Michael Newton Head of Music

Up next is the “On the Roof” concert. Stay tuned for more news about that!

Muso Profile - Alan Leung What instrument(s) do you play?

Piano and Alto Saxophone What first got you interested in Music?

Strict Asian Parents What’s the best thing about Music at St. G’s?

There are a lot facilities and opportunities to support students’ talents and interests.

Why should other people do music?

Apparently, it helps doing Maths, and it’s fun!

What’s your advice for anyone learning Music?

Always practice your scale!!!

Kate van Olden Music Captain

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St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

From the Health and Physical Education Department Ms Jodie Scheele

Congratulations to our Individual Champions at this year’s Inter-House Swimming Carnival.

There was some sensational swimming races with these students excelling in the pool.

All students are congratulated on their increased level of participation as there were lots of participation points awarded.

It really does make a difference to the overall score and this year it was an absolute thriller with Lincoln being awarded the Inter-House Swimming shield. Gandhi were very close behind them with only nine points difference. Mandela’s Sync Swim performance rocked the pool and they were awarded this years trophy. It was a fantastic carnival and many thanks to everyone that was at the event.

The ACC F-Division Swimming carnival is at HBF Stadium in the Outside Pool on 20 March. The team will be announced this week and swimming training is encouraged for all ACC Team members, taking place at 6:15am every Monday and Wednesday mornings at Trinity Pool. All students are welcome. ACC Team members must have the School bathers to compete and can be purchased through Matrix Uniforms.

Jodie Scheele Health and Physical Education Department

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Edition 2 2020

From the Health and Physical Education Department - Outdoor Education Ms Jackie Sullivan

Outdoor Education My name is Jackie Sullivan and I am coordinating and teaching Outdoor Education at St Georges. This year will be the first year it will be running at the school and I feel very happy to be able to deliver a wonderful program to Year 9 and Year 10 students.

Year 9 Outdoor Education Year 9 students can choose to study Outdoor Education as an elective. They participate in this subject for 2 periods (of 60 minutes) per week.

This semester, students will have the opportunity to acquire and develop skills in the following units: Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Team Building Games, Orienteering and Sustainability Studies.

Student will be involved in an Orienteering Day Excursion – Date to be confirmed.

Year 10 Outdoor Education Year 10 students can choose to study Outdoor Education as an elective. They participate in this subject for 2 periods (of 60 minutes) per week.

This semester, students will have the opportunity to acquire and develop skills in the following units: Indoor Rock-climbing and Roping techniques, Mountain biking, Trangia cooking, Environmental studies, teamwork and leadership activities.

Students will also be attending a Day Excursion – Mountain Bike Riding.

Due to the nature of our school, we will take every opportunity to use the city and the wider community as our teaching space. This will mean students will walk to venues, use public transport and catch private bus charters.

If you do have any queries or questions about Outdoor Education feel free to contact me on jsullivan@stgeorges.wa.edu.au

Year 10 Outdoor Education – Written by Brianna Goss, Harrison Maude, and Alexandra Griffin Outdoor Education is a new subject at St Georges and we are lucky to be trying it out this semester. Outdoor Education is a subject that allows you to be put out of your comfort zone to experience and learn things that you would never learn in the classroom.

This semester, we will be covering many different topics including rock climbing, rope techniques, mountain bike riding and trangia cooking. At the end of the semester we will be going on a day excursion mountain biking.

It will be our opportunity to use all the skills we will learn over the course and it will be a lot of fun!

This term, we are focusing on rock climbing and rope techniques. Each Wednesday, we meet on ground floor at lunch and go to The Hangout in Bayswater. We get into groups of two and spend the lesson rock climbing.

Rock climbing provides a good break from regular classroom work and it allows us to challenge ourselves and try something new.

During our Thursday lesson, we do team building games and learn rope techniques.

Rope techniques include tying knots and learning how to properly use the equipment.

We also learn how to be safe in dangerous situations and help others out.

We are very lucky to have this exciting new subject and we are looking forward to seeing it grow in the future.

Jackie Sullivan Outdoor Education 16

St George’s Anglican Grammar School Newsletter

School News Student Term Dates - 2020 Term 1 30 January - 9 April New Student Orientation 29 January Students Mid Term Break, Friday 28 February Term 2 30 April - 3 July Students Mid Term Break, Friday 29 May Term 3 27 July - 25 September New Student Orientation 24 July Students Mid Term Break, Friday 21 August Term 4 13 October - 9 December Enrolments The School Enrolment Policy requires one full term’s notice in writing prior to the withdrawal of a student from the School.

Where such notice is not received, the School will charge an amount equal to the tuition fees for that current term.

To avoid fees in lieu being charged, notice of a student’s withdrawal must be received by the School before the first day of the School Term preceding the Term of the student’s departure.

If this does not occur, families will be charged the remainder of the current Term, plus an additional Terms fee in lieu.

Upon withdrawal of a student from the School, all fees and charges incurred for that student are payable to the School in full within seven days of exit.

If the account has been paid in full and a refund is due, payment will be processed for the full refund due within seven days of exit.

SEQTA The St George’s Anglican Grammar School SEQTA account is not assigned to a staff member and, therefore, is not monitored.

Please contact the staff member directly to ensure prompt action to your message.

Science Department Request

The Science Department is still after any plastic icecream containers that they could use in the laboratory.

Any donations greatly appreciated.