From the Director of Educational Operations

the finals from the heats, and also featured some staff groups strutting their stuff!

Our co-curricular programs have a broad range of offerings: from Chess Club to STEAM Club to our SAGE group to Book Club, there are many options for students to learn, be challenged and thrive. These programs drive student leadership, broaden horizons, build character, resilience and community.

International Connections

provided performance preparation for those embarking on the upcoming Queensland Music Tour in the July school holidays.

Aspire

Luther College encourages independent, curious learners to collaborate, innovate, create and achieve using their God given talents. Lutheran Education’s holistic development of students as individuals enables us to provide educationally relevant, diverse and engaging opportunities to develop the student as a whole.

It’s been wonderful to see so many learning experiences beyond the classroom, with events, camps and a plethora of opportunities for students to try something new.

In Term 2 we saw experiences range from Geography fieldwork excursions to Environmental Science excursions to Art exhibitions to the German Film Festival and the commencement of our Building Bridges Interfaith Program.

Our talented students across all year levels competed in the ‘Rising Stars Dance Competition’. The event culminated on the last day of Term 1 with

German Tour

After a long covid pause, it was wonderful to see our students travel abroad once more. Ten students and three staff spent time in Germany during the April holidays, experiencing the sights, eating the food, speaking the language and

The German Language Tour, our first international trip post-covid, took place during the Easter holidays. Highlights of the trip visiting Neuschwanstein Castle, the Pergamon Museum full of centuriesold artefacts and antiquities, climbing the dome at the Reichstag, home to Germany’s parliament, and making new friends at a school visit to the Lutheran school Evangelisches Gymnasium Hermannswerder in Potsdam, in which we are establishing a relationship between the two schools.

Arts Week

Luther Create was the theme for Arts Week and it was an immersive week of art, design, theatre, film and music. From microfilm making, to Irish Dancing, to art on the floors, windows and walls. It was a celebration of all things arts at Luther College. We had three creators in residence throughout the week, hip-hop artist and producer, Dylan Joel, musical theatre performer, Erin Cornell, and visual artist and illustrator, Lou Endicott.

The Autumn Concert was held at Karralyka Centre as part of Arts Week and also

The Advanced Support Program and Individual Recognition of Excellence (ASPIRE) is designed to identify, support and recognise students who are pursuing performance excellence in the fields of Performing Arts or Sport. The program feeds identified students into our Pastoral Care support team as well as offering the opportunity for students to engage in mindset and performance skills workshops, and to strengthen community connections and partnerships into the future as the program evolves.

We have been working with the Thrive Global team at the Monash Business School to craft a program for the second year of our partnership to support our ASPIRE students. We attended Monash recently for the first workshop in the series. Themes covered this year are:

• Mindsets and goal setting

• Study and time management techniques

• Internal and external judgements

• Performance anxiety

The ASPIRE program provides recognition, connection, support and celebration of our students reaching for the stars. If you are interested in becoming a community partner or sponsor, contact me on caf@luther.vic.edu.au or by calling the college.

Celeste Acfield Director of Educational Operations

immersing themselves in German culture. Time spent at Lutheran school Evangelisches Gymnasium Hermannswerder in Potsdam, around 40kms from Berlin another highlight.

Being immersed in everyday German life and language helped us to become more self-sufficient, especially when doing our own shopping, going out to restaurants and finding our way through the city by ourselves on leisure days.

Alicia Year 11

EISM Carnivals

Swimming and Athletics

The Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne (EISM) swimming and athletics carnivals provide an opportunity for students to compete against other schools. Swimming took place at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in March, Team Luther proving very competitive in all events. Well done to our U14 Girls and Open Girls teams who won their age groups.

Athletics was another successful day, with students achieving outstanding results despite challenging weather conditions. There were a number of personal bests achieved as well as records broken.

Year 8 student Ruby Ladd claimed two of just three records broken across all age groups on the day, throwing a huge 31.13m in the U14 Girls Discus. She also took out the shotput record for U13 Girls with a throw of 10.62m.

Berlin was an eye-opening experience, rich with history, culture and art. After travelling on the ICE train, going 300km/h, we arrived at one of the biggest train stations in Europe, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. When exploring the city, we were constantly met with historically significant locations, such as the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charli and the Reichstag building. We were confronted with many sobering experiences such as the Palace of Tears where families were separated during communist times, the Stasi Museum, which was a secret police service of east Germany, set up to spy on citizens, the Holocaust Memorial and even Hitlers final bunker.

We were also incredibly lucky to have been able to experience a day in a small German school, located in the beautiful town of Potsdam. Situated on a small, autumn leaf decorated island, we attended many different German classes such as philosophy and chemistry and were even lucky enough to have lunch at die Menza (their canteen)! Potsdam is home to some of the most beautiful architecture In the world! The castles and palaces of the Prussian royalty such as Schloss Sanssouci and the new palace had us in awe and the gardens surrounding them felt as though they had been stolen from a fairy-tale.

It was an amazing experience to not only hear about this history, but to interact with it firsthand while also continuing to improve our understanding and fluency of the German language.

Year 10

In a weeklong celebration of the arts, students and staff immersed themselves in activities spanning music, media, theatre and visual arts. Here’s a snapshot of the week.

Making Music with Dylan J

Australian singer songwriter Dylan Joel, also known as Dylan J kicked off Arts Week with a bang, leading Chapel with music and reflection. Students were mesmerised by his incredible vocals and seamless ability to move from a solo acoustic performance to that of a band though the genius of looping. Dylan has found success both here and abroad collaborating with artists including Ruel and touring with hip hop trio Bliss n Eso. Following Chapel, Dylan ran three song writing workshops through the course of the day. The workshops laid the foundation for students to start their own song writing journey. Each workshop also produced the basics of a song, with students contributing music and lyrics, before recording and watching it come together on recording software. The three songs all uniquely different, had catchy summer vibes, chilled vocals and rapping showcased throughout.

The Dylan J workshop was exciting, with lots of different things to try, from creating a backing track using only an app, to writing creative lyrics. Dylan was inspirational and showed us how to make your passion a reality.

Georgia Year 8

Art Exhibition

A beautifully curated display of 2022 VCE artwork filled the atrium during Arts Week, providing staff and students an opportunity to stop and reflect, and enjoy the talented artistic endeavours of our recently graduated students. The Exhibition was officially opened by Melbourne artist Lou Endicott and attended by students and their families.

Zombie Walkshop

An army of dancing zombies took the school by storm on day three of Arts Week. Staff and student zombies dragged themselves around campus at recess, stopping

Making Theatre with Erin Cornell

International theatre super star

Erin Cornell warmed up her vocal chords for an early morning rendition of classics Memory (Cats) and Defying Gravity (Wicked), delivering Chapel on day three of Arts Week. Among many successful performances, Erin has played the role of Grizabella in Cats and Elphaba in Wicked, played a number of one woman shows and even scored a place on Team Delta on The Voice. Erin’s infectious enthusiasm was felt by all as she sent chills down the spines of those watching when she sang.

Erin’s workshops were a powerful reminder of the importance of self-love and resilience, her advice was to feel the fear and do it anyway, she also reminded students its rarely personal when you don’t get a gig, so grieve, learn and start over.

The Erin Cornell Theatre Workshop was a spectacular experience that truly inspired us students who have a strong love and passion for Theatre. Erin taught us so much about the arts from warmups, vocal and acting tips, to the ability to love and trust your passion and maintain courage in everything you do.

Isabella

Year 11 only to dance their routine in unison. Hundreds of students followed them, as they immersed themselves in music and dance, disguised by masks and costumes.

Chalk the Walk

Chalk the Walk is a long-standing tradition at the college, each year students turning a concrete walkway into a chalk drawing exhibition. This year’s theme was The Lost Key, with students creating pieces around concepts like Alice in Wonderland, under the sea, horses, puzzle pieces, gardens and monsters. Congratulations to all the students who participated, showing incredible teamwork, creativity and skill.

Irish Dancing

College drama and media teacher Ms Lorraine Millar shared her love of Irish dancing with students at lunchtime on day four of Arts Week. She taught students the fundamentals including basic movements, foot placement, posture and technique. They finished the session with a clip of arguably the most famous Irish dancer, Michael Flatley.

Microfilm Comp

Using the power of storytelling through film, the Luther Create Microfilm Competition challenged students to work together to produce a short film using a camera or phone in less than 100 minutes.

Creative decision making needed to be fast, design well managed and editing decisive as students pushed to complete the project. Congratulations to all students who entered and to our winners.

1st Maia, Ashlynn, Jack, Maisie and Ashleigh

Year 12

2nd Nina and Allegra

Year 8

3rd Jono, Kai, Tait and Aleck

Year 7

Making Art with Lou Endicott

Day four was a celebration of the visual arts, starting with the very talented and passionate Melbourne artist and illustrator Lou Endicott. Lou used her time leading Chapel to describe her own creative processes and career journey including a change of direction during covid, where she discovered window art. Lou also spoke about the need to be adaptable and trusting yourself in the creative journey. Lou is currently writing a children’s book based on her own experience of learning to swim in her forties.

Lou’s workshops were a masterclass in botanical drawing, shapes and what she called ‘zen tangles’ which were then applied to windows around the school. Glass was turned into magical gardens with rainbows, mushrooms, butterflies and lines all of which attracted plenty of attention from students passing by at recess, lunch and between classes.

We were encouraged to rethink art and what we knew about it, and to put a different lens on how we see it.

Lou’s workshop was incredibly thought provoking, with so much to gain and ideas to explore. It was definitely a fun experience for all.

Tom Year 8