Fe August 22 nd 2017 Issue 12 MONBULK COLLEGE NEWS Respect, Excellence, Responsibility David Hill Rd, Monbulk Ph: 9751 9000 Fax: 9751 9001 Email: monbulk.co@edumail.vic.gov.au Web: www.monbulkcol.vic.edu.au Dates to remember: Monday 28 th August Interim reports available from 3.30pm Tuesday 29 th August Free Dress Day gold coin donation Monday 4 th September Student progress Conferences 4 to 7pm In this issue: Principal s Report Naplan Information VCAL News Interim Reports & Student Progress Conference Information Free Dress Day Maths News Music News Arts News Curiositorium News German News Principal s Report Winter Concert Last Tuesday was an excellent evening travelling around the world musically and seeing so many of our students perform before a large audience. Congratulations to all performers. I had a most enjoyable evening. I would like to thank Yolande van Oosten who, as the Instrumental Music Co-ordinator, managed the event so well along with the Music Captains. A thank you is also extended to all the staff who assisted on the night. Interim Reports Semester 2 Interim reports will be available on Compass from Monday 28 th August and bookings for Student Progress Conferences which occur on Monday September 4 th from 4pm to 7pm can be made from the 28 th. I would encourage all parents to discuss their child s progress with teachers on this afternoon. Parent Opinion Survey Reminder Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents at each school. It closes on Sunday 27 th August. All responses to the survey are anonymous so I would appreciate it if you were able to complete it. Earn and Learn Earn and Learn has begun and will conclude on 19 th September. This is a great program if you shop at Woolies and a collection box is located in the General Office as well as at Woolies in Monbulk and either the stickers or completed sheets can be dropped in at any time. Thanks to those who have already returned stickers. Keep them coming. Margaret Uren Upcoming Sport Dates: Friday 1 st September Year 7 Sport NAPLAN is a useful indicator for schools and provides useful information that we incorporate into our planning to improve student outcomes. For students, it is an indicator of a point in time assessment. Results were released this week to schools; posted home to families. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Fran Ibbott Assistant Principal.
VCAL NEWS The Intermediate VCAL students are working on Community projects. This one is about recycling old phones to raise money and stop illegal mining practices. The gorillas are calling on you! A major threat to gorillas in the wild is the illegal mining of coltan. Coltan is a mineral that is used in part to make cell phones. Please donate any and all of your old and damaged mobile phones to the office in an effort to combat this problem. All phones go to PhoneCycle where they recycle the phones and donate money to a chosen charity, in this case the charity is GorillaDoctors. Please visit zoo.org.au/callingonyou for more details. Interim Reports & Student Progress Conferences Interim reports will be available to be viewed and downloaded at 3:30pm Monday 28 th August. Our Student Progress Conferences will be held on Monday 4 th September, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. These interviews will be the last formal opportunity for families to discuss progress of students completing a Unit 3/4 study and obtain advice from teachers how to best prepare for end of year exams and SACs. Please encourage students to attend with you, so they can get a chance to reflect on what they have achieved so far. To access reports and the Student Progress Conferences system, parents will need to log-in to Compass, monbulkcol-vic.compass.education The booking system will become available to families on Monday 28 th August, when reports are available. Further details on using the new system follow. We look forward to having this valuable opportunity to discuss your students progress. Alan Butterley Reporting Manager 2
Booking Student Progress Conference Times Web Browser Once logged in, parents will see a screen similar to the following. Select the link for Parent Teacher Interviews You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below. A help guide is available to assist you if required. 3
Mobile/tablet app Select the menu icon and then Conferences. Choose the appropriate Conference cycle to continue. Follow the prompts to book time slots for your students teachers. Free Dress Day SRC at Monbulk College are holding a free dress day on Tuesday, the 29 th of August to raise funds for the Breakfast Club at school. All students are welcome to come in free dress on the day and donate a gold coin to support the Breakfast Club which provides healthy food for students. 4
Maths News Students in Year 10 Maths Advanced have been studying quadratic equations. The graph of a quadratic equation is the famous parabolic shape which can be used to model many situations in the real world. Architects and engineers use this shape in many designs from bridges, logos including the Maccas logo, along with the equation for the path taken by a moving object such as a football. In the field of astronomy this may be the motion of a space exploration craft such as the Voyager-missions which have sent us back amazing information on the outer planets. Some satellite dishes are also parabolas along with many reflective surfaces for car headlights. The students used M&Ms to graph the quadratics and explored transformations such as dilations and translations to learn about the connection between the equation in its factorised form and the location of the parabola on the Cartesian plane (graph paper). This activity also highlighted the symmetrical shape of the parabola and the turning point or vertex which is the maximum or minimum of the graph. There were smiles all round as each new set of equations were graphed as the previous set needed to be consumed to create a fresh blank graph sheet! 5
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Auf Wiedersehen to our German exchange students! Daria, Elli, Emilie, Jessica, Meline, Hendrikje and Till all agreed it was the wonderful host families of the Monbulk School community, who made their six week stay in Australia so unforgettable. Once again, a heartfelt thank you to all families! Whilst at Monbulk College, the students not only participated in a variety of classes but also shared their experiences of life in Germany in all the German classes providing many opportunities for our Australian students to practise their spoken German. As 4 of them are handball players at the Schwerin Sportgymnasium, they were able to teach our students handball, the second most popular sport in Germany. Special thankyous to Kate McAlister for arranging a unique hands-on visit to a reptile house and to the Carbone family for organising a terrific farewell evening. In just under 3 weeks, 14 Monbulk students leave on a return visit to Germany for one month! Shani Vander-Young Susan Kremer Reminder: Applications for both the 2018 Tour of German Speaking Countries and Japanese 9 Tour are due by Friday 25 th August Any queries to Shani Vander-Young or Fiona McNair
Community Announcements Any items you may wish to donate can be left for collection in the General Office Erica Shipsey - Year 9 10