Wellington Champions from the Monash Division Swimming:
Ivan Dang (Year 9), Jayden McEwan (Year 9), Daniel Atkinson (Year 9), Isabelle Huynh (Year 7)
Wellington’s Intermediate Girls Volleyball Team reach the State Final for the second year in a row!
End of Term
It is hard to believe that the end of term is with us again. Term 1 has been particularly busy, made more so by the movement of the NAPLAN testing from Term 2 to Term 1. I thank everyone in the community for their support over the last 10 weeks and wish you all a happy and safe term break.
Long Service Leave
In wishing everyone a great break, I can announce that I will be taking some Long Service Leave for the first three weeks of Term 2 to travel with the family to Japan. I will be returning to school on Monday May 15. Mr Brendan Dwyer will be Acting Principal in my absence, and I wish him and the Leadership Team all the best. I know that the school will be in good hands during my time away.
Annual Report To The Community (2022) and Annual Public Meeting
The final draft of this report was endorsed and approved by Council last Wednesday. The data continues to show Wellington as a successful, high performing school, compared with “similar” schools and with state benchmarks. Our Annual Public Meeting will be held at 6:45pm on Tuesday May 16, with the Council meeting to follow immediately after. The final report will be uploaded to the website after this meeting and after final DET approval.
3-Way Conferences
Our 3-Way Conferences occurred on Tuesday of this week and I trust that all conversations were productive. Every student report is different with teachers working very hard to develop a genuine understanding of each student’s ‘point of need’. I encourage all students to use the holiday period to reflect on feedback given and to take appropriate action for the start of Term 2.
Attitudes to School Survey 2023
The Annual Student Survey will again be an online format with individual year levels completing the survey at different times over a four-week period in Term 2. This significant managerial operation will again be the responsibility of Mr Dwyer and his Student Programs Team. We certainly look forward to receiving feedback from our student body to inform our future planning.
ANZAC Day – April 25, 2023
I will be on leave throughout April and will subsequently miss the ANZAC Day commemoration when we get back. Mr Dwyer will conduct this special Assembly during the first week back in Term 2.
Each year I like to draw attention to the connection Wellington has with this incredibly powerful moment for all Australians in our rich and proud history. You may wish to reflect on the information below as you pause for remembrance on April 25 this year.
ANZAC Day is always an appropriate time to acknowledge the role our school has played in recognising this culturally and historically significant signpost in the history of our nation.
Many of you may not realise that in the Eastern Courtyard, we have growing an Aleppo Pine, which is a direct descendant of the original tree that grew at Lone Pine, Gallipoli in Turkey (many men took pinecones from the original Lone Pine as a souvenir of their time on Gallipoli). The tree was presented to the College on ANZAC Day in 1999, by Mr Geoffrey Fox, the father-in-law of one of our staff members at the time.
The battle for Lone Pine in August 1915 was part of the ‘August Offensive’ of the Allies to finally break through the lines that had been held since the landing at Gallipoli in April. Although the offensive was a disastrous failure overall (and included the ill-fated charges at The Nek by the Australian Light Horse made famous in Peter Weir’s film, Gallipoli), the attacks on the Turkish Lone Pine trenches were successfully carried out by the Australian infantry, albeit with significant casualties. Seven of the nine Gallipoli Victoria Crosses were awarded as a consequence of the Lone Pine assaults.
Next time you are in the Eastern Courtyard, I urge all members of our community to pause and reflect on the significance of our pine tree, its direct link with Australian history and the journey it has made from a ‘souvenired pinecone’ from Turkey in 1915 to the Eastern Courtyard at Wellington in 2023.
In 2002, I was able to fulfil one of my lifelong dreams – to attend a Dawn Service at Gallipoli itself. With the Principal at the time, John Coulson, we organised the ‘Wellington SC Gallipoli Study Tour’. Two things made this trip special: Firstly, we believe that it was the first such tour by a Victorian Government School. Of more importance, however, was that the touring party was made up equally of ‘Anglo’ Australians and ‘Turkish’ Australians from the Wellington community. This allowed a unique cultural and historical understanding of the 1915 conflict from our modern multi-cultural perspective. Enemies in a past life had become schoolmates, colleagues and friends. The experience of our journey and the Dawn Service itself will never be forgotten by those who attended.
Everyone will choose to reflect on ANZAC Day in their own way. For me, ANZAC Day in Australia is not simply a commemoration of one day from a war long ago. It is not glorification of war. It is, however, a day when we, who live in the relative safety and security of our great country, can reflect on the willing sacrifices made by fellow Australian men and women over the last century in protecting the values and freedoms that make this country safe for all of us today.
Lest We Forget.
Hugh Blaikie
Principal
Have a blessed Ramadan!
The Holy Month of Ramadan began on Thursday March 23.
We wish our Muslim community a safe and peaceful holy month. We hope this period of reflection and spiritual renewal is a sacred time to strengthen bonds among family and community.
The Inclusion and Wellbeing Teams set up a sign in the Wellbeing Centre at the reception desk to mark the beginning of Ramadan. We have also made two prayer spaces available for students during lunch in W-8 and W-12.
Please read through the images provided by the Victorian Department of Education (DET) that explain the meaning of Ramadan.
May all the Wellington Community welcome the spirit of this tradition with compassion, kindness and care for those around us.
#RamadanMubarak #Ramadan
Sunday April 2 was World Autism Awareness Day. In Australia, it is estimated that one in every 70 people is living with autism – that is over half a million Australians who face unique challenges when it comes to accessing education.
There are a number of barriers to learning for students on the autism spectrum which can impact their educational outcomes. These include social and communication difficulties, sensory processing issues and repetitive behaviours. Many students also have associated mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Wellington Secondary College is committed to improving the education outcomes of all students, including those with autism. World Autism Awareness Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of autism and celebrate the unique strengths and abilities of individuals on the spectrum.
#AutismAwarenessDay2023
David Hose
Director of Student Services – Inclusion
My classmates and I learnt a lot of new things about Australia and we visited many landmarks. We went on an excursion on the 15th of March to the city and some of us thought the travel was one hour but it was only thirty minutes! The weather was cool and nice, and it was also very sunny, but not as sunny as Vietnam. We all met up at Springvale station at 8:20am and stopped at Melbourne Central station. This was the first time we were in the city in the morning and it was very busy. We first went to the Melbourne Museum where we explored how Melbourne developed throughout the years. In the museum, we also saw the models of animals and how large they were before the existence of humans. In addition to this, there were also models of old motels, planes and a paper maker machine. In the city, we got to ride on trams and in the museum, we saw pictures of trams in the past where there were no windows and it reminded us of riding the tuk tuk in Cambodia. After that, we visited Federation Square, ACMI and made our way to the Shrine of Remembrance. The architecture of the Shrine of Remembrance was marvellous and it was inspiring to see that people can build a monument like the Shrine. Lastly, we explored the rest of Melbourne Central and ate lunch before heading home. At the end of the day, we were all very tired but happy. Some of us took a nap on the ride home to Springvale station. This was our first school excursion and we had so much fun. We are looking forward to our next excursion.
WIELC Class with Ms Kang
The first Senior VCAL project for the year focused on raising awareness about Motor Neuron Disease (MND). On Thursday March 30, the Senior VCAL students organised a gold coin donation casual dress day, which raised over $600. The money raised will be donated to MND Victoria. In addition, they wanted to replicate the “Big Freeze” and organised for a group of staff and students to take part in the “ice bucket challenge”. Despite the heavy rainfall at the start of lunchtime, the crowd gathered and the ice bucket challenge was a hit!
Thank you to the four Year 12 students, Mr Coles and Mr Wallace who joined in on the icy fun!
Jaclyn Jacobs
Director of Vocational Education and Pathways
On Tuesday March 28, the Senior VCAL and VCE Vocational Major students went to the 2023 Gateway Career Expo at Box Hill Town Hall. Students had the opportunity to interact with employers and industry professionals to find out about future career opportunities across a range of industries. They visited over 70 exhibitor stalls and filled up their showbags with informative resources to help them make informed choices about future pathway options. It was a fun and interactive expo that included spin the wheel competitions, virtual reality career exploration and icing your own cupcakes and scrolls.
Jaclyn Jacobs
Director of Vocational Education and Pathways
Congratulations to our Wellington Champions from the Monash Division Swimming!
Age Group Champions – Women
12-13 Isabelle Huynh
17 Paris Tong
Age Group Champions – Men
15 Jayden McEwan
There were 15 new records set in 2023:
Wellington’s Intermediate Girls Volleyball Team Reach the State Final For the Second Year In A Row!
This is the second volleyball team in two years to make the state finals (following on from the Year 9/10 boys in 2022). The girls listed below trained 2-3 times every week throughout 2022 and continued that level of commitment into 2023. Guided by their amazing coaches, Ms Pauline Xie, Maryam Touch (former Wellington student in 2022) and senior students, Dylan Din and Dylan Chhit, they have certainly gone to another level regarding skill and social chemistry to achieve success against very accomplished volleyball schools, beating Upwey, Monbulk and Canterbury Girls Secondary College in the pool matches, and then Mooroolbark Secondary College in the final.
Year 9/10 Girls Volleyball A Team members:
The way they have all trained and played at both division and regionals has made Pauline and I exceptionally proud. This result will certainly be fantastic role modelling for all the other female students at this school to show them what is possible with commitment and dedication to improvement. We have six junior volleyball teams (3 male, 3 female) competing next Wednesday April 5 at their first-round division tournament, as well as tennis, cricket and baseball teams.
Kim Durrant
Coordinator of Interschool Sports
During our elective, Maths Matters, led by Ms Anjana Dwivedi, we have undergone a period of great development and improvement. This elective has strengthened our reasoning and critical thinking skills. Maths Matters showcases how we think analytically, reason logically and apply it to the real world. The same steps you take to understand a problem, identify the knowns and unknowns, and then solve – this can be applied to other areas of your life. In class, we have touched on maths in jewellery and how specific shapes, polygons and lines can make composite shapes, patterns, and images. We are learning how to find the x and y-intercepts and gradient from different sources of information. We then used Demos to construct an individual and complex design that showed our understanding of how to plot linear equations, vertical and horizontal lines with a positive and negative gradient and restricting the domain. Learning all these new skills can help us further improve and allow us to gain a more sophisticated understanding of maths in a real life context.
Celeste Rojas (9M)
On Thursday March 9, U3 Art Making and Exhibiting students attended the NGV International to view the Freedom of Movement and China: The Past is Present exhibitions. They also viewed the Peter Tyndall exhibition at Buxton Contemporary Art Museum. These exhibition visits allowed students to develop the necessary knowledge and skills associated with exhibitions, artwork displays and collections, roles of curators and exhibition design with a focus on thematic exhibitions. Students will now apply their knowledge to curate their own hypothetical exhibition of artworks in a school assessed coursework task. The viewing of a broad range of artworks from different exhibition spaces also allowed students to gain further inspiration for their own art making. All students should be commended for their engagement and exemplary behaviour.
Fiona Szabo
Visual Arts Teacher
We have had quite a few music events and performances happening in Term 1!
The Busking Day lunchtime concerts have returned this year, with an amazing turn out to the events. We have had some brilliant performers and even a surprise performance from our Principal, Mr. Blaikie. A big thank you to the Performing Arts Student Leadership team for organising and running these events.
A few of our students also had the opportunity to perform at the Keysborough Big Picnic event, which was a large community event with over 5,000 people in attendance. Congratulations to Henry Hua and Daniella Nikolaou for representing the school through such an amazing performance.
Tray Driscoll-Plavins
Director of Arts and Instrumental Music
This term, we have introduced Cookie Club to Wellington. Held in the art room with Miss Davies during Monday lunchtimes, Year 8s in particular have been learning the skill of icing sugar cookies. Techniques we’ve been working on include outlining and ‘flooding’ the cookies with royal icing, a skill generally only mastered by adults. The students, however, have picked it up wonderfully and have been producing some great cookie art. After completing their cookies, students pick them up on Tuesdays after they’ve dried – ready to be eaten, given as gifts, or shown off! We’ve had a great time icing this term and are keen to continue into Term 2!
Zoe Davies
Art Teacher
On Friday March 24, a small group of our senior student leaders had the pleasure of attending a leadership afternoon tea event hosted by the senior student leaders at Wheelers Hill Secondary College. College Captains Ben Wellman and Victoria Nikolaou, and Vice-Captain Tihi Tsoka represented Wellington (Vice-Captain Victoria Ly was absent).
It was a fantastic opportunity for our students to network with other senior student leaders from nearby schools, including Wheelers Hill, Forest Hill and Mazenod College. They participated in some games and discussion topics around student leadership roles, problems and solutions relating to student leadership. I was very proud of the way our student leaders represented our College and contributed to discussions at this event.
The students and teachers in attendance agreed that these opportunities to collaborate are invaluable, so there are plans for another similar event to occur next term.
Louise Clarke
Director of Student Voice and Agency
The afternoon tea hosted on March 24 was a fantastic opportunity for us leaders to network and meet other leaders. The event hosted by Wheelers Hill provided a great chance to hear from our fellow leaders in the Mulgrave region on what policies and practices they are implementing throughout their schools. The event was a fantastic social opportunity to see the types of leaders in our local schools. The event involved games, discussions and forums, and some snacks to accompany the social event. Overall, the event was a great opportunity to meet and listen to other leadership ideas, and it has made me super excited for the next catch up throughout the year.
Ben Wellman
College Captain
The second Victoria, Ben and myself entered the Wheelers Hill premises, we were welcomed with such dignity and grace by fellow leaders of the school. They directed us straight to the building where we interacted with other student leaders from other schools. I was so impressed by the professionalism and sophistication I observed and felt during our short time there. It was a wonderful experience to learn about the student leadership at other schools and I can attest to the fact that all of us were inspired by each other and I am looking forward to more afternoon teas like this in the future.
Tihi Tsoka
College Vice-Captain
On March 24, Ben, Tihi, Ms Clarke and I attended a leadership afternoon tea that was hosted by a group of incredible leaders from Wheelers Hill Secondary College. This event was an amazing opportunity to meet leaders from various schools in the region, such as Forest Hill and Mazenod, as well as hearing their ideas and policies that are either implemented throughout their schools, or that they are interested in looking further into. Not only did we discuss our ideas for our schools, but we also played a series of games and ate a variety of snacks, which they had provided us as we socialised with the leaders. I believe this was an exciting new experience for us student leaders and we are all looking forward to any other catch-ups that may happen throughout the course of the year.
Victoria Nikolaou
College Captain
