Read more to hear about our Art Express Excursion, Year 9 Sports & Exercise Science students and their Coaching activities, Year 8 students who are learning Japanese, and our Term 1 Sport Program.
Year 10, 11 & 12 - Art Express Excursion
Last Wednesday, our Year 10, 11 and 12 students travelled with their Visual Arts teachers to the Art Gallery of NSW. This was an opportunity for students to visit the new North Building added to the gallery in December 2022 and visit the Art Express exhibition in the existing South Building. We also met the practising artist Atong Atem who graciously took a photo with our very excited students.
Here is what some students had to say about their experience:
Wednesday was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. It brought new ideas into my mind and opened my eyes to different perspectives. I've also learned that art isn't always so serious, it can also bring out laughter and fun, such as chickens and toilet paper.
- Ashley, Year 10
The artist's talk was so brain-altering, hearing HSC students' advice and their art practice helped me think about what I want to do for my HSC. Meeting Atong Atem made my heart melt with happiness to see someone who comes from my cultural background having a piece of her work in an art gallery really inspires me of what I can become as an artist.
- Naomi, Year 10
I was reminded to have an open mind, even when I have a clear vision of the piece/s I want to create, and to keep going back to my VAPD to regularly document my work and experiment. I was interested to hear about the ways in which the artists’ voices came through in their works, and how they chose to express that. I was also reminded of the value of investigating artists and paying attention to an artist’s influences and just the value of immersing myself in art.
- Elisabeth, Year 11
A few of the things I took away from the artist talks were, to rely on your teacher and your peers and that it's okay to fail and make mistakes. From failure and mistakes you can learn new things or what works with your idea and what doesn't, relying on your teacher can help with these things as well.
- Sarah, Year 10
Year 9 Sports & Exercise Science - Coaching Unit
The first few weeks of Term 1 have been busy for our Year 9 Sports and Exercise Science elective students. Students have been working through their Coaching unit, developing their skills in coaching and instruction, investigating qualities of effective coaching and assessing their own and others’ skills to improve their abilities. One of the highlights of this unit has been the opportunity to practically apply their coaching skills in real-life situations.
Drawing on content covered in the unit, students have spent time working together in small groups to plan, implement and evaluate some coaching sessions with our College Primary School students. The task required the groups to first, develop detailed coaching session plans and second, carry out these plans with a group of younger students.
The practical component was certainly the most enjoyable aspect of the task for all involved, as our Year 9 students have run three sessions with our Primary classes. Students have had the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership, communication and organisational skills, motivational abilities and their capacity to work cohesively as a group.
Even though a number of groups were challenged through having to modify their sessions due to inclement weather, availability of space and time constraints, it was clear that the Primary students enjoyed their experience and had fun! On behalf of the Sports and Exercise Science students and PDHPE staff, we would like to sincerely thank Mrs Woods and the Primary Teaching staff for their flexibility, assistance and encouragement throughout the task.
Year 8 LOTE Classes - Japanese
This year, Year 8 students embarked on a very exciting journey of learning Japanese!
While studying a whole new language is not always easy, here are what our students had to say about their experience so far.
“My favourite part about learning Japanese is how to properly express yourself to Japanese people.”
“Learning how the language works like the hiragana, katakana etc. has been a lot of fun.”
“I love learning about the culture and people of Japan.”
Learning a language isn’t just about memorising vocabulary, practising how to read and write and studying grammatical patterns. Rather, it allows us to experience a world that lies beyond our “Australian bubble” - it broadens our horizon to see and understand our surroundings in a new way, helps us connect with different people and cultures, and enables us to celebrate and appreciate the diverse world that God has created.
Therefore, the language classroom is always vibrant and full of new language and cultural experiences!
We studied the different scripts of Japanese while also doing a bit of science to make shrink plastic name tags. We learnt the importance of addressing people respectfully using the correct suffixes, while exploring the life of a sumo wrestler which is based around respect towards your seniors and towards an incredibly disciplined way of life.
We examined how not only spoken language, but body language is different across cultures and studied various expressions while role playing the correct body gestures to use when saying these phrases.
Are you curious about the different angle that Japanese people bow at? How to exchange business cards in Japan following the countless etiquette? Ask any of our Year 8 students!
Term One Sport Program
Tuesday March 22 was the culmination of our Met-West CSSA Volleyball Competition for 2023 and we wanted to extend a big congratulations to all our students who represented the College in our teams!
A special congratulations to our 15 & Under team who won their Grand Final against Toongabbie CC 2 sets to 0! The boys played brilliantly as a team and showed some outstanding skill throughout the entire competition. We are so proud of all our students who were involved in our Term 1 sport program.
