May 2007
Sapphire Excursion to GTAC
Experimenting with DNA
As part of our current study of genetics, the Sapphire Team year 8 students
visited the Gene Technology Access Centre for a full day of science experiments
and discussion on Monday 23 April.
They learnt about the structure of DNA and made a DNA model to demonstrate
what they had learnt. They used very powerful microscopes to compare the
cell structure of several micro-organisms. The students conducted a range
of experiments in the GTAC laboratory, including extracting DNA from kiwi
fruit, and genetically modifying bacteria cells using DNA from a luminous
jellyfish (and thereby making the bacteria glow in the dark). In the final
session of the day, they were introduced to some of the issues that surround
genetics and genetic engineering, and were asked to consider the role
of ethics in scientific exploration and advancement.
As always, the students were a pleasure to take out of school and represented
Fitzroy High School with great style.
Careers
Thank you to all the staff, students and families who have warmly welcomed
me to Fitzroy High. This is my “dream job, and it is a thrill to
be here. In addition to implementing the Career Development strategy,
my immediate focus is will be on the forthcoming Work Experience program
for Year 10 students in Scarlet. This week I have met the majority of
Year 10 students and will continue to be a presence in Tutorials to assist
any students in finding placements.
Please find attached to the newsletter a flyer for parents/carers from
Inner Melbourne VE&T Cluster, offering a number of Careers at Work
programs. These programs are a good opportunity for parents/carers to
explore vocational options for their child.
I work Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and welcome inquiries from students
and their families. I can be contacted via email: sandrad@fitzroyhs.vic.edu.au or by phone: 94881900.
Cheers,
Sandra Dickins
Principal’s Report
Alpine School
Students attending the Alpine School in Term 3 have been industrious in
developing a raffle to support the costs associated with the program.
I would ask that all in the school community support their efforts.
Education Showcases
The school continues to receive many visitors from across the education
spectrum. Pauline Rice and myself will be presenting next week at the
Department’s Innovation and Next Practice showcase. Twelve schools
from around the state have been selected to present who:
* Are innovative in the evolution and transformation of teaching practice
* Welcome and incorporate radically different practice
* Recognise and optimise opportunities for change and improvement
In October we will be hosting a day for the Williamson Community Leadership
group. This consists of forty young Victorians from public and private
enterprise who have been chosen for their potential as future leaders
of the state. In the morning they will be working with the Secretary of
the Department of Education, Peter Dawkins, Executive Director for policy
and cabinet for the Premier, Tom Bentley, and well known psychologist,
Michael Carr Gregg. They will also be working with some of our students
in the afternoon.
Enrolments for 2008
Next week is the last opportunity prospective families have to visit the
school before enrolments forms for Year 7 2008 are complete. We have agreed
with region to cap our enrolments in the 475-485 range which means that
we will again be taking a maximum of 100 students at Year 7.
If any family knows of people thinking of enrolling in the school could
you please let them know this will be the last chance if they haven’t
visited before. There has been high interest in the school again this
year and we have had many visitors through looking at our program.
It is a matter of some pride for me that when these visitors have asked
the students what they have been doing invariably the replies have been
articulate and full of understanding of what and why they are learning.
April 2007
Research
The second of our three goals in the school's strategic plan states that
we want to:
" Develop an environment with strong relationships where students
can thrive"
One of the strategies that we are pursuing to achieve this is:
Student voice
Detailed feedback from students on engagement and challenge in the classroom
The Department of Education has published a research paper on 'Student
Voice' in which the school features. An abstract of the paper is provided
below and if you click on this link you can download a PDF of the entire paper.
Student Voice: a historical perspective and new directions.
This report examines local and international literature on the concept
of ‘student voice’ and explores the links between student voice
and student learning and engagement. Part 1 examines student voice from
a historical perspective and summarises the findings of Australian and
international research. Part 2 is a review of how Australian jurisdictions
are promoting student voice and includes a range of initiatives within
the Victorian education system that are contributing to improved teaching
and learning, teacher-student relationships and productive learning experiences.
School tours and information for 2008
School tours for families of prospective 2008 students started on Thursday
March 8 at 9:30 a.m. Tours need to be booked through the school office
on 9488 1900. Tours will run every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
New building program
The school has now reached the detailed design stage of our building
program. Over the next six weeks our architects will be taking the project
through to its final design. The schematic design is on display in the
foyer.
Please click here to view a
flash presentation of the process and the design steps taken up until
now.
Year 8 Boys Volleyball Report
On Tuesday the 20th of March, Zeb, Alex, Angus, Ali, Jack, Lachy, Sam
and I played volleyball against Brunswick, Glen Eira and Elwood in our
school gym.
In our first game we played Glen Eira. We won the match in straight sets.
Our next game was against Brunswick. We lost the first set 15-8, but rallied
back to win the second set 15-10. This meant that the last set was the
decider. Eventually we won 15-11.
We were 2 from 2 so we needed to win our last match to move through to
zone. Our opponent was Elwood who were also 2 from 2. We lost the first
set 15-10, but fought back really hard in the second to win 15-11, which
meant once again it all came down to the final set. We got off to a good
start, but Elwood eventually over ran us to win 15-8, which meant Elwood
were going to zone and we were going to miss out.
Aiden
Principal’s report
Open evening
As parents were advised earlier this week on Tuesday April 25 we will
be having an open afternoon/evening for current and prospective families.
We are running a special timetable on the day which is featured on the
opposite page. I encourage you to take the opportunity to see your child
at work.
Students are not required at school until Session Three. If your child
needs supervision before this time please contact the school.
Year 10 Exhibition
A large number of families were present at the school last night to see
the Year 10 students present an exhibition of their work on sustainable
communities.
The students had a range of thought provoking ‘urban’ developments
that they had modelled.
Building Program
We also had a community consultation meeting last night on the new building
program. Those who attended were very complimentary about the designs.
There will be a more complete report in next week’s newsletter.
Staffing
Jess Lovell has taken up a role as a Youth Worker within the school.
Jess will be providing details about her position in future newsletters.
Our new Italian Assistant joined us today.
Marianne Crowe in the office is on extended leave.
National Champion
Congratulations to Remy who participated in the Australian Age Swimming
Championships over the break and won a number of events.
Jet Team Urbanisation
Jet students have been studying the concept of urbanisation and investigating
aspects of city life throughout Term 1. This has involved research, reading,
multimedia presentations, film study and extensive writing. Below are
written pieces reflecting different parts of this inquiry work.
Falling Down Review
Falling Down is a movie not to be missed by any action or black comedy
lover.
Elaborately puzzled together the movie follows the actions and troubles
of a man labeled D-FENS and a detective, Sergeant Prendergast. These two
people have been cleverly matched together in numerous ways. Basically
the story starts off in a horrible, fumigated freeway tunnel in America
where we meet up with our main man D-FENS. This man, who’s real name
we don’t find out, is trying to get home to his daughter's birthday,
but his wife (X wife) isn't keen on that. This is how Prendergast gets
involved.
What used to be a normal, hardworking American citizen has just lately
been having some troubles with his world, he's getting a bit sick of it
all, so suddenly there’s a spark, and he does what we all sometimes
want to do. Explode. Not literally but D-FENS goes on an absolute rampage
around the streets, fixing what he thinks stinks about American society.
At a similar time we meet up with the detective. He's supposed be retiring,
so there is the cop on his last day thing.
He's got a few problems himself, such as his nagging, somewhat psychotic
wife who is driving him insane. Prendergast, doesn't really want to quit,
he's got the case of D-FENS on his mind, and he can't seem to get away
from it without solving it. When we get back to D-FENS we get to see his
smash-up of the city, in a bit of a scary sort of way its quite comical
to get to see someone trash a milk bar and get an UZI onto a Mc Donalds.
Whatever.
To sum this awesome film up, I must say I found it extremely enjoyable,
the sound track, although pretty rough is perfect for the scenes, and
gives the film quite a violent edge. The actors Michael Douglas, playing
D-FENS, and Robert Duvall playing Prendergast are just irreplaceable,
perfect for the job. I loved the real American desk jockey look of D-FENS.
Nothing’s to diss about this movie. Do not, I repeat do not go about
dying before seeing this movie if you love to see shattered phone boxes.
I'd give this 9 1/2 out of 10.
By Alexander, Year 9
Utopia
Utopia is an impossible concept. No matter how good or well planned a
city is it will never be able to be a utopia.
Say that this utopian city has hundreds of parks. This would be great.
They would clean the air and they would be wonderful to be in but there
will always be people who vandalise them. So then you would need the services
of hundreds of cleaners and gardeners to keep the parks nice and not many
people would think that a place where they had to scrub paint off walls
24-7 would be utopia.
Perhaps all the people in your city are equal. They all get a fair share
of all that is produced. There are two problems with this: firstly some
people would be farmers, this is fine, they make food. But what about
the admin type of jobs? The farmers who work all day in the fields would
think that the admin workers had it easy, regardless of whether or not
they actually did. Secondly, some people would want more food or resources
than they got and some of these people would some how find a way of getting
it. This would upset the whole balance idea.
There is a way that you could have a completely fair and equal city but
you would need two things which are completely and utterly impossible
to get: completely perfect people who don’t steal or have any bad
feelings and aren’t greedy and you would also need a completely perfect,
just, not greedy, and unbiased leader who would either never die or have
equally perfect, just, not greedy, and unbiased decedents. As I mentioned
earlier these things would be impossible to come across because human
nature is greedy and biased and to remove these characteristics would
be to remove free will.
The human mind is yet to create an image of a perfect world mainly because
we have nothing to base this image on. The moment we see a working utopia
we will problem try to create one of our own but until then it will be
impossible.
By Joe, Year 9
Architecture, Happiness and Sustainability
In our utopian city we will have a reusable water source because we have
a river flowing from a mountain into a huge lake. The water from this
lake is used for drinking, showers and other hygienic uses. There is a
drain system that after the water has been used it flows into a separate
man-made lake that is able to filter the waste of the previous water which
runs to various tanks where the water is used on things like gardens,
washing and other non-drinking uses. The lakes are surrounded by healthy
vegetation including trees, plants, grass and a variety of different fruits,
nuts and vegetables.
Culture will be a huge part of out city. It doesn’t matter what
race you are any one can live in our city. There will also be lots of
different foods from all over the world.
Around the city area there are numerous parks and public sporting facilities
including basketball courts, football fields, tennis courts, swimming
pools and various different other facilities. There are also parks for
dog walkers, young children parents and elderly people.
In the city centre there will be a main shopping centre for everything
from cloths and food to batteries and books. Around the outer parts of
the city there will be various food shops, cloth shops and many other
little shops selling various items.
In terms of electricity we have wind farms that would power the majority
of the cities electrical needs but as well as the wind farms we have found
a new type of rock called kiokima in the mountains which we have been
burning to power cars, trams, trains and buses and the benefit of using
kiokima is that it doesn’t create carbon dioxide, pollute our air
and destroy our ozone layer. Because kiokima is a back up electrical source
we have at least 200-300 years of it left.
There will be a lot of sport in our city there will be a junior sporting
competitions’ running over the weekends and there will be a senior
competitions’ running over the weekends as well. For entertainment
in our city we will have a movie theatre, video shop, there will be a
theatre for people to perform plays, musicals and other types of productions.
The employment system will cater with a range of different jobs for people
age 14 + and from any background. The education system will be free for
every one and all schools will get the same amount of founding as each
other.
Our city will be run by democracy and we will have an election to elect
our prime minister and we will have an election every two years so the
people are able to change our leaders if they are not performing the way
the people want him/her to.
The legal system in our city will run and have many different laws that
if people break they will be punished but there will be no capital punishment
in our city.
Our city will look modern in some parts and old fashioned in others.
We will have some buildings that architects have put a lot of work into
to make them look very inviting, safe and beautiful.
By Toby and Blake, Year 9
Open afternoon/evening and information session
Tuesday 24 April.
Please enter the school via Falconer Street.
3:30 - 4:30 p.m. |
School tours and observation of classes |
5:00 p.m. |
Information Session 1 |
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. |
School tours and observation of classes |
6:15 p.m. |
Information Session 2 |
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. |
Launch of the school's Healthy Learning and Living Frameowrk by
Professor Lawry St Leger |
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Please click here to go to our enrolments
page. |
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The information sessions will provide the same information. |
New building program
The school has now reached the detailed design stage of our building
program. Over the next six weeks our architects will be taking the project
through to its final design. The schematic design is on display in the
foyer.
Please click here to view a
flash presentation of the process and the design steps taken up until
now.
Information Session
Year 11 & 12 Building Program at Fitzroy High School
Fitzroy High School invites students, parents, teachers and members of
the local community to an information session on the Year 11 & 12
Building Program.
The session will show the links between the innovative building design
and the post-compulsory curriculum. The staged development of the building
and proposed site works will be explained. Options for community engagement
with the new building will be explored in the discussion session.
The Year 11 & 12 Building Program will be presented and explained
by the architects, McBride Charles Ryan, the Principal and members of
the Built and Natural Environment committee.
Thursday 19th April, 7.30pm - 9.00pm
TDU at Fitzroy High School
(enter from Falconer Street, turn left at first corridor)
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Indigo