From the Principal and Assistant Principal
Wow! The Covid-19 Second Wave has really hit! Here we go again with remote learning. Once more, we are all having to navigate our way through this period.
We would like to acknowledge the wonderful way our teachers, students and parents are once again embracing this period of flexible and remote learning. All of our lessons open with a live Google Meet/Classroom which has been excellent in maximizing student engagement and connection. To our Year 12 students, your final year is certainly not turning out to be the way we had all imagined. To all of our students and parents, we are thinking of you.
Wellbeing for our school community continues to be a priority. Here is the current advice from the Education Department regarding managing screen time, health and wellbeing which you may find helpful:
Managing screen time and online safety
It’s important you keep a balanced approach to home learning. Time spent using digital devices for learning should be broken up with physical exercise and offline learning tasks often.
It’s also important that during this time of remote learning we maintain safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies.
For more information about being safe online, visit Bully Stoppers
Looking after your child’s wellbeing
Wellbeing comes from physical, mental and emotional health.
For children and young people, there are many things that build positive wellbeing. Wellbeing can come from:
- Understanding and managing emotions
- Having good relationships
- Experiencing a sense of accomplishment
- Taking part in healthy activities, getting lots of sleep and eating well.
For more information, including wellbeing activities and conversation starters, visit: Looking after your child’s wellbeing.
Looking after your child’s mental health
Changes in your child’s mood and behaviour are normal part of growing up.
While you know your child better than anyone, sometimes it can also be hard to know the difference between normal behaviour and potential mental health concerns. No one expects you to be an expert in mental health.
For more information, visit: Looking after your child’s mental health.
Physical activity and healthy eating
Keeping active and eating well helps maintain your child’s physical and mental health. It also helps with concentration, memory and problem solving.
For more information, visit: Keeping your child active and eating healthy.
Talking to your child about coronavirus (COVID-19)
You can follow tips for talking to your child about coronavirus (COVID-19). They include how to have a safe and reassuring conversation and links to resources to help you and your family.
Taking care of yourself
Looking after your own wellbeing and mental and physical health is important.
If looking after yourself is challenging and you have concerns about how you are coping, support is available.
For more information, visit: Taking care of yourself.
Free online parenting advice
Triple P – positive parenting is a free online tool to help you:
- raise happy, confident and resilient children
- manage misbehaviour so everyone in the family enjoys life more
- encourage positive behaviour
- set family routines and rules that everyone can follow
- balance work and family life with less stress
- take care of yourself
The program is suitable for families with children between the age of 2 and 16 years.
The current pandemic has raised new parenting challenges for everyone. The program, funded by the Victorian Government, helps parents during these challenging times.
Find out more at the Triple P program website.
Steve Parkin + Joseph Caruana
Principal + Assistant Principal
From the Assistant Principal
FOOD STUDIES – REMOTE STYLE!
Since the beginning of Term 3 the Year 7-10 students have been attending classes remotely. Interesting and engaging learning has certainly continued, even with students participating in remote and flexible learning!
Recently in Food Studies, Year 9 students were given the recipe (below) to follow and bring to life at home. The results were impressive!
Vegetarian Nachos
Ingredients
2 large wholemeal pita breads
1 teaspoon oil
¼ onion, finely chopped
¼ red capsicum, sliced
½ cup kidney beans
1 small red chilli, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
¼ cup water
½ cup grated tasty cheese
½ avocado, mashed
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander, finely chopped
¼ cup sour cream
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Cut Pita Bread into triangles, place on tray, spray with olive oil and bake for 6-8 minutes or until crispy
- Place the oil, onion and red capsicum into a saucepan on medium heat and cook for 3-4 minutes
- Add kidney beans, small red chilli, tomato paste and watr to saucepan, simmer for 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced. Remove from heat.
- Pile the pita bread in 2 foil containersand top with the kidney bean mix
- Sprinkle cheese on top of pita bread and beans and bake until the cheese has melted. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack
- Mix together the avocado, tomato and coriander then sprinkle on top of melted cheese
- Dollop the sour cream on top – then serve
FOOD STUDIES – VCE STUDENTS
Check out some of the awesome work and learning happening with VCE Food Studies Students! Before returning to remote and flexible learning, the school kitchen rooms here at WHS were indeed abuzz with students cooking and learning.
The task was to prepare: Roasted Tomato Tarts and Caramelised Onion Tarts! I can tell you the aroma was so enticing and all the students were so engaged and focused! As with the junior levels, VCE Food Studies has indeed now transitioned to remote and flexible learning! We are certainly flexible, resilient and adaptable here at Warrandyte High!
VCE Chemistry – Engaging Learning!
Prior to the VCE students returning to remote and flexible learning this term, our Year 12 Chemistry students were participating in interesting learning, all aimed at preparing them for their final exam at the end of the year!
With the return to remote and flexible learning for VCE students, the engaging Chemistry curriculum will certainly continue!
Let’s hear from, Lucas Zhang, as he outlines what was recently happening in Year 12 Chemistry:
Our Year 12 Chemistry class conducted the SAC experiment on chemical compounds called esters. Esters are the organic compounds that produce the scents we smell in foods.
Why does a banana smell like a banana? Why does an apple smell like an apple? It is because of the esters pentyl ethanoate and proply menthnoate!
If you want to know the ester that produces the smell of pear, you will also need to study Year 12 Chemistry!
Lucas Zhang
Year 12 Chemistry
Below are some images of our Year 12 Chemistry students indeed learning about esters
Year 10 Photography
Click on image to enlarge and view name and artist.
Science News
As we enter Term 3 we are once again teaching and learning remotely. In order to allow our students to have the utmost best experience that is engaging and immersive, we have created an array of activities and experiments for students to try at home. We have also included videos involving experiments and demonstrations that would normally happen in the classroom and we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to still show our students from home.
Year 7 Science
Our Year 7 students are currently learning about the different forces we encounter in the world, from gravity, electrostatic, and magnetic to name a few. Throughout this learning experience students have created their own compass to demonstrate their understanding of magnetic fields! Below are some of the fantastic work samples from some of our Year 7 students. This week, students are learning about electrostatic forces, so Mr Nye and Ms Passarella created some very engaging videos using the Van de Graaff generator to help explain how positive and negative charges work.
Mr Nye demonstrating how gravity behaves on different objects
Year 8 Science
Year 8 Science students are currently exploring the concepts of sound and light as energy. To effectively understand these topics students need to experience and complete hands on activities, therefore the students have had videos and activities created that allow them to engage deeper in the concept of how sound and light behave. Last week students were given the task of creating a loud sound and then describing how the sound wave was produced and how the anatomy of the human ear allows us to interpret these vibrations. There were many excellent submissions of work. This week students are working on how light behaves and travels and will be explaining the law of reflection and why light behaves as a wave and a particle.
Year 10 Science
Year 10 students have gotten creative and used items from around the house to extract DNA from either a strawberry or banana, with great success. Students will now analyse the results from this experiment and write up a scientific practical report. Currently they are learning how genetic traits are inherited from one generation to the next. Using a punnet square (a tic tac toe grid) they are able to predict the chance of certain physical characteristics (phenotype) in offspring.
Marija Passarella and Leanne Zammit Science Teachers
Above: Ms Passarella demonstrating how electrostatic forces work using a Van de Graaff generator
Below: Ms Passarella demonstrating how sound is produced
Community Ads
