Some thoughts from Pope Francis on COVID-19

At a time when many people are on the front lines of this pandemic, the Pope recalls “the saints who live next door. They are the heroes: doctors, volunteers, religious sisters, priests, shop workers – all performing their duty so that society can continue to function. If we become aware of the miracle of the next-door saints… if we follow their tracks, the miracle will end well, for the good of all. God doesn’t leave things halfway. We are the ones who do that.”

Wellbeing Day

Tomorrow (Tuesday 5 May) has been dedicated a Wellbeing Day and the College will be closed. The purpose is to allow staff, students and parents time to switch off from screens and to enjoy some well-deserved down time. While it is impossible to predict how long we will be required to operate in Distance Learning Mode, the Leadership team is planning for a sustained Term 2 delivery. Regular brain breaks and time to renew and refresh will therefore be essential to maintain the longevity of the current arrangements.

Message from Archbishop Peter Comensoli

The Archbishop has sent a message to the people of the Archdiocese on various issues facing us during COVID-19. Follow this link to watch the Archbishop's message.

This week our classes continued in Distance Learning Mode with teachers and students submitting classwork and assessment tasks online.

We are currently surveying parents, students and teachers to gain insight into how they are progressing and identify the ways we can continue to support remote learning.

Parents and guardians are asked to complete the survey by following this link: Distance Learning Mode Parent Survey.

Mathematics SACs

The Further Mathematics and Specialist Mathematics SACs were completed on Thursday afternoon at the College. Students were respectful of the social distancing restrictions and recorded 100% attendance. Congratulations to Ms Doan Nguyen our Domain Leader of Mathematics and her team for the efficient organisation of our first on-site SAC.

Mathematics requires the use of many symbols and this is more challenging when using electronic technology. For fairness and equity, students were provided with the opportunity to handwrite their responses.

Student attendance

Teachers are monitoring students and will contact parents and guardians when work is regularly not submitted or formative assessment is not showing progress.

When this happens regularly, an Unsatisfactory Progress Letter is sent home for students in Year 8 to 12. Continuous learning and progress are important throughout Term 2. To sustainably maintain Distance Learning, parents and students are encouraged to contact teachers during normal school hours (8.30-4.30). This allows both teachers and students to have the required breaks from screens and their class work.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority VCE and VCAL updates

The latest update from the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) regarding VCE and VCAL studies is summarised below:

• Reasonable adjustments have been made to all Unit 4 VCE and VCE/VET Study Designs by VCAA to allow for the impact of remote learning, including school-based tasks (SACs/SATs). This reduces the student workload.
• The adjustments are available on the VCAA website.
• End-of-year examinations will reflect the changes in the Study Designs.
• Webinars for each Study Design will begin next week for teachers to obtain further information.
• The GAT will run however the date is still to be advised.
• VCAL and VCE will also have more time to complete assessment.
• All students in 2020 will have a viable pathway.
• As the ATAR is a nationally recognised indicator for university entrance it will be used in 2020 along with other university/TAFE/Institute requirements such as folios and interviews.
• Studies will be restored to the original Study Design in 2021.
• The 2020 year will see all VCE and VCAL studies completed.
• Some small groups can attend the College to complete learning and assessment – the College will arrange this as needed.

As further updates become available our College community will be notified. If you have any questions please contact the subject teacher, VCE, VET or VCAL Co-ordinators or myself.

The next instalment of The Resilience Project’s TRP @ Home is ready and available for families.

This week’s session focuses on Emotional Literacy, which is our ability to label our emotions as we experience them. It is a critical skill in helping manage our emotions - labelling them and why we feel a certain way helps us to better understand and change our behaviours.

To view the Emotional Literacy activities Click Here.

We are three weeks into Distance Learning and what an interesting time it has been. For our maths teachers and students, it has presented its challenges, but also given us an opportunity to be more creative and innovative in how we teach and learn.

I recognise how tiresome it may become to be in front of a screen all day, but our students have risen to this challenge. They have shown great enthusiasm to continue developing their maths skills and are regularly submitting quality work that reflects this.

A number of our maths teachers have been busy creating videos and talk-throughs explaining concepts while others have created application tasks requiring students to use resources at home to link ideas with practice.

If you’ve been near your child during their maths lesson, I’m sure you have seen lots of our maths teachers turning screens into whiteboards and hearing their voices alongside a moving cursor, writing numbers, symbols and equations as though they were right there in the room.

Our junior students have been busy learning a variety of concepts at various levels, geometry, percentages, measurement, linear and algebra to name a few. Some examples of their work can be seen below. The images illustrate the work of our Year 7 students exploring their homes searching for angles and our Year 9 students solving measurement problems on the online platforms Jacaranda Plus, learnOn and Quizzes in Microsoft Teams.

Our senior students have used this time to practice the teaching and learning styles that would often occur if they were to pursue further studies - watching videos at their own pace, taking down notes, checking in via Teams and initiating conversations with their teacher. This highlights the many ways our senior students are taking ownership of their learning.

Last Thursday, during period 4, our year 12 Further and Specialist maths students attended school to complete their Unit 1 School Assessed Coursework. Our maths teachers were delighted to see an attendance rate of 100%, but it was more pleasing to see the student’s faces and have a conversation, if only for a short time. The students appreciated the chance to see their peers, even if it meant being 1.5 metres away. I would like to thank the Year 12 students for coming in and showing their dedication to their mathematical studies.

I encourage students to share with their parents/guardians the maths they are learning in the virtual classroom and discuss where these concepts can be applied in the real world. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to see the connection between the two.

During Term 1, we began selecting our Student Representative Council (SRC) members for 2020. This year we took a different approach by asking the Student Leadership Team to conduct interviews after prospective leaders completed an application form.

We had more than 60 applicants from Year 7 to 10. It was amazing to see so many students eager to become school leaders.

I would like to thank the Student Leadership Team for giving up their lunchtimes to conduct these interviews - selecting our SRC members was a difficult process because we had so many worthy applicants.

Due to Distance Learning Mode, we have not been able to introduce our elected leaders as we usually would. So, over the next few weeks, our SRC leaders will introduce themselves to the broader school community through the College newsletter.

If you have anything to ask our SRC or ideas you would like to share, please email src@sfcc.vic.edu.au

Year 7 SRC members

The following students are your Year 7 SRC representatives for 2020:

Alanis Furtado, Aruai Kon, Basil Baiju, Hasna Massa, Isabella Zerafa, Jacob Cauchi, Lana Lewis and William Gilford.

To briefly introduce themselves, the Year 7 SRC members answered the following question: What do you hope to achieve as an SRC member?

"As an SRC member, the only thing that I want to achieve is to make everyone to feel welcome at school." Jacob

"I hope that I can convince everyone that school should be a place they want to be not where they have to be. Everyone should be excited to learn new things." Hasna

"To make everyone feel welcome and appreciated at the school. Making people feel more comfortable with their interest in activities and not feeling bad about themselves." Aruai

"I hope that I can make a difference as an SRC member and allow other students opinions to be heard by the school." Basil

"I would like to make our school more environmentally aware and implement new systems and ideas to reduce plastic and litter in our school. I would also like to focus on the overall mental health and wellbeing of students and the entire school to make sure everyone feels safe and happy." Alanis

"As an SRC member, I would like to inspire others and be a voice for the kids. I want to encourage people to speak up with ideas and opinions, and lastly, I would like to make a positive impact on my school." Lana

"As an SRC member, I would like to make people smile and feel good about themselves when they’re unhappy. I would like to continue to build our strong school community and use our faith to continue to grow as a school." Isabella

"I hope to achieve many things as an SRC member, especially my peers’ safety in and out of class across all year levels. To me, this is the most important thing because I don’t like bullying and don’t understand how hurting a person physically and mentally is amusing or fun." William

Nirasha Pandi

Student Leadership Coordinator

During this time of crisis, it is easy to fall into a negative mindset.

This term, the Social Justice Team invites students to post images of positivity and things they are grateful for on their homeroom Teams page each Monday, Wednesday and Friday during homeroom.

Every Friday, homeroom teachers or a student will pick two images from the week and send them to their year level Social Justice representative.

The representatives will choose three images from their year level to send to Miss Hume who will share them on Simon and in the College newsletter for all to enjoy.

The year-level Social Justice representatives for this initiative are:

Year 7 - Taya Wilken (of 9C)

Year 8 - Ryan Ellul (of 9C)

Year 9 - Ophelia Fernando (of 9D)

Year 10 - Karina Delgadillo (of 7R)

Year 11 - Abby Timms (of 10R)

Year 12 - Sophie Hine (of 12B)

CRC Melton Social Justice Team

The first round of winners has been decided in the new fortnightly CRC Melton Photography Contest.

The Media Team had a tough job choosing from the many entries and would like to thank everyone who participated. This competition has shown there is no shortage of talent at CRC Melton.

All entrants in the contest will receive two house points. Winners in each group will receive ten house points, and runners up five points. Prizes will be awarded when students and teachers return to campus.

The theme for Round 2 will be announced later this week on Simon. All students and staff are encouraged to enter.

The Media Team congratulate the following staff and students. Their winning entries are pictured in the order listed below.

Junior student category

Winner – Danielle Ide (9O)

Runner Up – Addison McKellar (7O)

Senior student category

Winner – Jason Toth (11C)

Runner Up – Ellen Kerr (10C)

Special Mention – Solomon Miesen (11M) for managing to include 3 out of 4 themes in one photo! (not pictured below)

Staff category

Winner – Miss Hill

Runner Up – Miss Bandeira

CRC Melton Media Team

Challenge yourself physically, learn about mental health, engage in some friendly rivalry and help the College support mental health and suicide prevention through The Push-Up Challenge.

From 11 to 31 May, the College is challenged to complete 3046 push-ups as a team. The number represents how many lives were lost in Australia to suicide in 2018.

Working together to hit the combined daily target you can chip in as little as one push up a day or fulfil the whole goal, it is up to you and your capabilities.

You can do push-ups just about anywhere, and you can spread them out over the day. Alternatives to push-ups are also welcome.

The number of push-ups changes each day to reflect a vital mental health statistic, which will give you some mental health tips and facts along the way.

This year the funds raised by our CRC Melton team will support Headspace Melton to help give back to an organisation that helps so many of our students and local youth (fundraising is optional but encouraged).

Join our community and thousands of others across Australia to push for better mental health!

How to get involved

• Email src@sfcc.vic.edu.au with your interest so that you can be added into our Microsoft Teams page where daily reminders and encouragement will be posted.
• Visit our Community page https://www.thepushupchallenge.com.au/community/catholic-regional-college-melton where you can join an existing team or create your team within our Community (you can take on all 3046 push-ups yourself if you choose to).
• Spread the word and get others involved.
• Start preparing yourself and from Monday 11 May start pushing!

If you have any queries, please contact The Push-Up Challenge representatives through their website www.thepushupchallenge.com.au or email src@sfcc.vic.edu.au

A points surge by Glasheen across the weekend was enough for it to knock Daffey from top spot and win the Active April Challenge.

Glasheen finished with 296 points, followed by Daffey with 287, Reed with 198 and Fitzgerald with 109.

For the past two weeks, the Active April Challenge has called on students to complete a simple and achievable task each day. More than 80 students took part, and most agreed it was a great way to get away from their screens and keep fit and healthy.

Bonus challenges also allowed students to showcase and promote the healthy meals they have been eating. It was great to see so many kinds of foods and recipes shared among the group (see pictures below).

Congratulations to all those who participated and achieved every daily challenge. You have all done a great job and we hope everyone is excited and ready for the next challenge coming up this month. Stay healthy and safe.

Our English as an Additional Language (EAL) students were invited to reflect on Distance Learning this week. Here they share the positives and challenges they are facing learning from home.

“Distance learning is alright. I see it as learning new things and skills. It makes me stronger because I have no teacher close to me that I can ask for help. The challenge of distance learning is working independently as a student and making sure that I submit my work on time. I am getting support from teachers. I miss my friends because it is good to be around others when learning, and I also miss my teachers. Learning at home is good because we want to be safe from this virus, but it can be stressful sometimes." Cynthia - Year 10

"It’s a bit challenging doing schoolwork at home because there are lots of things I get distracted with, such as TV and my mobile phone. I overworked myself at first, and I felt helpless, but my teachers do a daily check-in and ask me if I have any problems or how can they help me. They even made me a plan and routine so that I can do my tasks on time and not overwork myself. I am really grateful. Their support helps me in many ways." Emanuelle - Year 10

"I like that I have more time to finish things now that I can work at home. However, I find it challenging as I need to be more organised. I have been supported, and it has been good. I miss my friends and everyone at school." Waseem - Year 10

"What I like with online learning is that I don’t have to wake up at 7am, and teachers are trying to make the work a bit easier. The challenges are, there is quite a lot of homework, and making sure I am on time with everything. The teachers have supported me, and I have been able to talk to them. I miss seeing my friends." Christo - Year 9

"Having freedom, being in a comfortable environment and not having to wear a school uniform are some of the good things about Distance Learning. I find it challenging to find the motivation to do the work; however, I feel well supported by my teachers. I miss my friends and working at school." Regina - Year 11

"Distance Learning is easier than school. I feel I’m getting better because for example in maths, I didn’t have the time before, but now I have been spending a lot more time on it, and I feel more confident. I am also trying my best to hand in all my work." Bianca - Year 9

"I like that I can wear what I want and be warmer than I usually would be at school. Distance Learning is sometimes challenging, especially completing the work. It is difficult when you have questions you need to ask, and you never really know when the teacher will respond. It is hard for teachers as well, trying to help all the students. Teachers have supported me a lot through this time by continually asking if I need help and providing it when I do. Teachers have created private channels in Teams, with just me. They have made me feel less overwhelmed and not alone. They have also helped by giving me catch up time to finish uncompleted work, which has made me feel less overwhelmed. I miss having face-to-face contact with teachers because conversations are clearer and work can be easily demonstrated. I miss walking to school in the morning and having time to myself. I miss my friends and talking to them about school and struggles." Wanwue - Year 10

At CRC we would usually run a blanket drive during May to help support the St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) Winter Appeal that provides for those less fortunate who are sleeping rough during the colder months.

Although Vinnies are not currently taking donations of material items, they are still providing for those less fortunate in our community.

This year we suggest you may like to give a monetary donation to Vinnies instead so they can provide housing support, financial help and food assistance to those people impacted the most by COVID-19.

If you are looking for a way to support those in need this winter and during this crisis follow this link https://donate.vinnies.org.au/donation-hub

CRC Melton Social Justice Team