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Creator God,
We give thanks for the wisdom and knowledge you bestow on scientists
who work at revealing the secrets of creation.
We stand in awe and wonder at the history of the universe, of life on this planet and all that science can do.
This knowledge strengthens our faith in your creative power.
We are grateful for this wonderful creation and for being a part of your blessing.
Praise be to you, O God.
This week we have celebrated Science Week across the school. From making Oobleck to virtual tours of the zoo and the International Space Station, online incursions, a virtual safari, the STEM Challenge and lunchtime activities like the Science scavenger hunt, it has been an interesting, fun filled and action packed week. Thank you to the Science staff, led by Mrs Lowe and Mrs Arora for a week that has captured our imaginations.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of science and scientists is at the forefront of our minds. Scientists have replaced sports stars on the front page of newspapers. Every day we watch the news for coronavirus updates: we track case numbers, listen to the experts and watch progress on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. All this is the work of Scientists.
We rely on the work of Scientists in all aspects of our lives, and give thanks for their sense of curiosity, capacity to wonder, speculate, imagine and resolve.
Albert Einstein described the essential characteristic of all science and scientists, and possibly faith and life, as follows:
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose holy curiosity.
We hope that all our students be blessed with awe, wonder, questions and curiosity. Thank you to the Science faculty for continually drawing us to experiences which spark this within us.
Co-curricular Activities
In addition to the Learning from Home program, there are currently many opportunities for students to participate in co-curricular activities. I encourage everyone to engage with as many as you can. Activities such as these, provide a bit of fun, support our wellbeing; invite us to try new things and to develop or display different talents. All offer a break, connect us to other people and are a chance to focus on something different. Thank you to all the students and staff who have put such energy and thought into how we can continue some of the activities that would happen if we were at school. Have you participated in anything?
As well as all the Science Week activities, this week we are enjoying CRC’s Got Talent, WOW (Workout Wednesdays), the SHAPE Challenge, Year 7 Trivia and the Online Chess Club. Next week, we look forward to Languages and Understanding Week, and the annual Spelling Bee.
Friday 28 August: ‘Catch Up’ Day.
On Sunday we reach the mid-point of Stage 4 restrictions, three weeks down and on the downhill run! Thank you to everyone for all that you are doing to ensure that we get on top of the COVID-19 outbreak and that everyone remains safe.
We have decided that next Friday (28 August) will be a ‘Catch Up’ day at the College. At this point in the term, students often have a number of assessment tasks due and work begins to pile up. This day will give students and staff some ‘space’ away from formal online classes to catch up on work; to complete assessment tasks and to prepare for upcoming tests. A number of students have indicated that they are somewhat stressed in trying to keep up. This is a chance for everyone to ‘catch’ their breath.
Friday marks the end of the sixth week of remote and flexible learning for this term. It provides a good point for a break and to gear up for the final three weeks of term.
The students whose parents are essential workers can still attend school for their ‘Catch Up’ day as the College will be open for this purpose.
Congratulations
Earlier this week, we were delighted to hear that Caelen Khoo has been voted on to the VicSRC Executive Committee for 2020 - 2021. The VicSRC is the peak body for students in Victoria, representing their views to other stakeholders and ensuring student voice is front and centre on a range of issues.
Caelen has been a very active member of our school SRC and will bring energy, ideas and enthusiasm to his new role. He follows in the footsteps of Sonany Istaifo who is currently on the VicSRC Executive. Congratulations Caelen.
Congratulations: Year 10 Students
Last Friday Year 10 students finalised their courses for Year 11, supported by their pastoral care teacher, a staff member from Sydenham and their family. Like all things this year, the process used for course planning has been redesigned so that they could be completed online. The students have really impressed us all with their preparation, maturity, openness to advice and resilience.
A very big thank you to Mr Eder Ramos (Year 10 Level Leader), Mr Chris Orsini (Careers) and the Year 10 teachers who have supported students during this time. Thank you also to CRC Sydenham staff who have prepared an engaging online school tour, a series of subject based webinars and then where needed attended the course planning meetings. Their support has been much appreciated.
Lastly, thank you to all families who have been with these young people every step of the way; ploughing through the course selection information and the countless conversations in the background to support students’ decision making.
Newsletter
In Term 3 the newsletter will continue to be published online only. Families will receive a SMS with a link to the newsletter, and students will receive the newsletter by email.
Newsletter Days for Term 3 2020:
Fridays: 04 September 18 September
The newsletter can always be accessed on the College website at http://www.crcstalbans.catholic.edu.au
In Term 3 the Year 8’s are exploring what the Kingdom of God means for them. We started this conversation with developing a collage illustrating God's Ideal world. As a class we then developed an explanation of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is righteous and there is justice. There is hope for the poor and oppressed. Mercy and forgiveness are stronger than bitterness and resentment. Kimberely
Caring for others by wanting justice and righteousness and also hope for the poor and oppressed.
Emilia
Jesus used parables to explain how to bring about the Kingdom of God today. The year 8’s have also tried to use this method of recontextualising Jesus' parable to explain how the Kingdom of God is still relevant today.
On a Friday afternoon, Jared was heading to his favourite place to go after a long day of work. As he was walking down the street, he was caught in an accident, on the street in an area that was still being constructed, a piece of metal hit him hard in the shin. Jared fell and hit his stomach on a fire hydrant, then he fell on the ground. A rich man passed by but did nothing. Then a man from his workplace came but didn’t recognise him and passed by. Suddenly a homeless man, dressed in cheap and dirty clothing, helped him up, walked with him and called an ambulance, then gave him a portion of his money. Jamie
It was a sunny day on the school grounds of the College. A class was sitting in their classroom doing work when suddenly it was time for their break. Due to the rush of students through the halls, 10 students fell down and had scratches on their knees. They asked for help from the ones around them but no one had answered as they were too busy thinking of themselves. Then suddenly, a cleaner saw what had happened and helped all of them tend to their scratches and sent them on their way with the other students. They had all left without thanking her. All except one had run away, but one student stayed and thanked her for her kindness. My
Join us in the Rosary this Wednesday
All this week the students will be praying the Rosary in different languages in their PC groups. On Wednesday afternoon CRC St Albans will come together to pray the Rosary in English and Arabic. Everyone is warmly invited.
Archbishop’s message to families at this time
Archbishop Peter has asked that we circulate his message of support for families as they manage the challenges of this second lockdown period. Please watch the video below:
CRC students and staff celebrated Science Week with many activities and competitions held throughout the week.
OOBLECK
Students got involved making Oobleck with Mrs Stewart. Oobleck is a non-newtonian fluid. That is, it acts like a liquid when being poured, but like a solid when a force is acting on it. You can grab it and then it will ooze out of your hands. Make enough Oobleck and you can even walk on it!
Try making some this weekend:
Mix 2 cups of cornstarch to 1 cup of water into a bowl. Mix the cornstarch and water until your oobleck is formed. Tip: If you would like to color your oobleck, add your food coloring to your water and then mix with the cornstarch.
NASA and MELBOURNE ZOO VIRTUAL TOURS
Students had the opportunity to take virtual tours of the zoo and the International Space Station at lunchtime.
SCAVENGER HUNT
INTERESTING FACTS COMPETITION
Congratulations go to Tommy Pham (8OR), Roger Louis (7SN) and Sierra Lynch (7SN) for their contributions to the Interesting Facts Competition.
THE ZOMBIE ANT (Tommy Pham)
Did you know, Cordyceps is a parasitic fungus that is able to create zombie ants? These fungi spread exceedingly fast, releasing up to 30,000 spores! If a spore manages to reach an ant, it attaches to the ant's skin, allowing for parasites to infiltrate the ant's body. After a couple of minutes, the ant falls while going spastic until it "dies". The parasite has now taken control of the ant due to flooding chemicals into the ant's brain. The parasite controls the ant and heads to a perfect place where the fungus will break through the ant and reproduce!
NEUTRON STARS: (Roger Louis)
A neutron star is the remnants of a massive star that has run out of fuel. The dying star explodes in a supernova while its core collapses in on itself due to gravity, forming a super-dense neutron star. Typical neutron stars have a mass of up to three solar masses, which is crammed into a sphere with a radius of approximately ten kilometers – resulting in some of the densest matter in the known universe. This means that a teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.
MARINE AND AQUATIC ANIMALS VISITED STUDENTS AT HOME
Some of the questions asked by the students:
Do you think they are on the way to being endangered in the future or do you think that the population can only get better from here? (Kelvin)
Do they prefer fish rather than any other animal because of its narrow mouth? (Jimmy)
How would they normally hunt down their food? (Kayla)
Is it possible to train a crocodile not to bite humans? (Evan)
How long can they go without eating? (Kayden)
...AND THE WINNER IS....
Roger LOUIS
Claretta Rock
Raphael Victoria
Prizes will handed out when we get back to school.
Science Championships 2020
FATHERS DAY BREAKFAST
We warmly invite you to join us on Friday 4th September for our inaugural Father's Day Breakfast. This will be an online event hosted by our Student Leaders. We are very fortunate to have Reverend Tim Costello as our Guest Speaker, who will be sharing stories of hope. There is also be a Q & A.
You can RSVP by contacting Jill on 9366 2544. A link to the Online Breakfast will be emailed to you closer to the date.
We look forward to having many of you join us for this very special event.
CONGRATULATIONS CAELEN!
Hello there CRC St Albans Community!
I hope everyone is doing very well and coping with work and also keeping physically active! I would like to share with you some exciting news, this great news is only possible because of everyone in our community. This news is regarding VicSRC and I am very thankful to tell everyone that I am successful in being apart of the VicSRC! I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me and also to Sonany Istaifo and Cindy Nguyen who both helped me and also advised me in many things related to VicSRC. I would also like to thank the teachers who also helped to spread the news of voting as well as supporting me, Mr Dib, Ms Liberatore, Ms Cioccia and Mr Quinn, I am very grateful and thankful for your help and support.
Stay safe and take care everyone!!
Caelen Khoo
SCHOOL THEMES
The student leaders have been working hard to provide information and create activities around a series of topics that bring brightness to a sometimes monotonous day of remote leanirng. These are developed in order to bring the College Community together and to shed light on the positve aspects of our current situation. These are shared through morning notices, PC activities, surveys and competitions.
LEARNING WEEK: 17th - 21st August
LANGUAGES & UNDERSTANDING WEEK: 24th -28th August
COMMUNITY WEEK: 31st Aug - 4th September
RESPECT WEEK: 7th - 11th September
SUPPORT & EQUALITY WEEK: 14th - 18th September
CRC-SA PODCAST - EPISODE 3
CRC-SA Podcast Episode 3 - Next week our topic is Respect.
Thank you to all involved in this episode, especially Phillip, Emily, Spence, Mr Quinn, Mr Taylor, Miss Liberatore and Miss Sharika.
These podcasts were developed in order to keep our college community connected, to provide college news and updates and to keep us informed.
Episodes will be uploaded to Spotify every second Thursday. Each episode will be dedicated to different topics where students, teachers and guest speakers will be invited to discuss current issues.
Year 9 Trinity Program
This term Year 9 Trinity students have been finding ways to help educate and change the world in topics they are interested in and passionate about.
Here is a message from Angony, Dayanara, Aiden, Angela, Bahnam and Deng about Animal Rights.
Animal rights are important and must be focused on since many animals have been injured or have died due to laboratory abuse (by testing fragrances as well as other chemicals such as pesticides, cosmetics and paint on animals), animal abuse, dog and cat meat trade or even domestic violence. This has been going on for long enough and our group's aim is to spread awareness about animal killings and our objective is to inspire the next generation to start respecting animal rights. A way that we can prevent this cruel abuse is by buying products such as beauty products that are "cruelty free".
Here is a poster that Madison, Van, Vincent, Tony and Marven have made to educate readers about the effects of Climate Change and rising sea temperatures. Next week they will educate you on behaviours that can help reduce the effects of climate change and rising sea temperatures.
They are also conducting a survey on how much people know about coral bleaching and climate change. If you would like to take part in this survey, please click the link below. Thank you!
Jeehan, John, Anmar and Sandra created a poster about Homelessness:
Jessie Huy, Jorge and Mr Taylor shared some tips on self care during isolation.
Another group is raising awareness around domestic violence.
Year 7 English
These two examples of work are from 7 Wimmera and they are the introductory paragraph of their essay on the novel, The Fall by Tristan Bancks
‘The Fall’- Risky choices essay by Mirai, 7 Wimmera
The novel, ‘The Fall’, is a book written by Tristan Bancks that introduces the main character, Sam, who has witnessed a crime being committed, which leads him to make a series of risky choices just to fulfil his desire to be like his father, Harry. When making risky decisions, they lead to spontaneous consequences that are either good or terrible. First of all, Sam makes a risky choice by looking out of the window to investigate what had happened to the man that had fallen from the balcony above Harry’s apartment. Furthermore, Sam decided to stay with his father even though he knew that Mick Kelly was after him. Ultimately, Sam’s curiosity leads him to make numerous amounts of dangerous alternatives. The choices Sam mostly made throughout the novel lead to many vicious and minacious situations that almost got him killed.
‘The Fall’- Risky choices essay by Jenny, 7 Wimmera
The theme ‘risky choices’ is displayed throughout many parts of the novel ‘The Fall’ by Tristan Bancks. The main character Sam, has a desire to be like his father, who is an investigator. This leads to Sam making some risky choices. A risky choice is a decision a person makes that can lead to unpredictable or dangerous outcomes, which Sam does various times in the novel that led him to trouble. Sam’s curiosity which is like his father, leads to him getting into trouble. Sam wants to please his father by finding evidence on the crime, so he makes risky decisions to achieve this. After Sam and his father are captured by Mick Kelly, they make risky choices to fight for their survival. These risky choices made by Sam and his father lead to various unpredictable outcomes and put them in dangerous situations.
YEAR 7 MATERIALS
Teaching and studying from home has proved to be a challenging task for both our staff and students. Teaching a practical subject adds a layer of complexity involved for our students where independence, resilience and self-motivation become even more important. After 4 weeks of home learning I just wanted to congratulate some of my Year 7 students. These students have pushed themselves to be the best they can be by taking pride in their work and demanding to know how they can improve their work even further. The task involved creating four simple initial designs for the pencil box project. These designs will help student formulate their final design before constructing it in CAD. Well done to Tiffany Georgiou, Kayla Lu, Sierra Lynch and Vicky Huynh, all of 7 Snowy.
Scroll below:
Year 8 Humanities
Year 7 Trivia
Thank you to all the year 7s for taking part in the Year 7 Trivia Competition last Wednesday. 1st place will receive a canteen voucher when we get back to school, and all other winners will receive William's Cup points for their House.
The scores were close but the overall winners are:
1st - Kayla Lay 7 Wimmera
2nd - Jordan Mai 7 Yarra
3rd - Phuc Mai 7 Avoca
SHAPE Challenge update
Well done to the following students who successfully completed at least 5 of the CRC SHAPE Challenge 2.0 activities in weeks 4 and 5 of this term.
WEEK 4:
| YEAR 7 | YEAR 8 | YEAR 9 | YEAR 10 |
|
Ngun Losang Frank Hanona Kayla Lay Jenny Pham Caleb Tapuala-Unasa Tristan Wolfe Marcus Nguyen Aniseto Aniseto Diana Doan Avril San Jose Janelle Lawang Noor Alouka Kayden Luzar Ruby Nguyen Jayden Attard Evan Barisic Christopher Dang Liam Lim-It Audrey Gerada |
Arwen Godino Caelen Khoo Amber Nguyen Isabella Nguyen Theressa Nguyen John Bryton Santiago Veronica Le Fadi Makdessijarjis Isam Shakoori My Nguyen Catherine Mc Intyre Alex Aceiton Eleanore Durand Delongrais Peter Lean Alethea Mata Edwin Ortega Tommy Pham Vincent Truong Danielle Villamore Katie Cagoroski Hoang Quan Tran Phillip Nguyen |
Jesse Renda John Nguyen Precious Ohanekwu Calven Lipec Dustin Nguyen Alessandra Pagaduan Tommy Flasza Loard Al Shabee Deng Ring Christian Tapuala-Unasa Aresema Teshome Felix Tejo Julie Pham Roaa Aluoka Hinh Ho Nikola Markic Martina Tran Yania Saleem |
Marsel Eshaq Kahlia Cuccaro |
WEEK 5:
|
YEAR 7 |
YEAR 8 |
YEAR 9 |
|
Violet Lutar Audrey Gerada Tiffany Georgiou Ngun Losang Jeesika Al-Qasspitrus Avril San Jose Janelle Lawang Markus Antunovic-Spehar Frank Hanona Charlie Ferdinand Kayla Lay Jenny Pham Caleb Tapuala-Unasa Tristan Wolfe Marcus Nguyen |
Amadeus Wejak Caelen Khoo Amber Nguyen Isabella Nguyen Theressa Nguyen John Bryton Santiago Veronica Le Fadi Makdessijarjis Isam Shakoori My Nguyen |
Precious Ohanekwu Calven Lipec Dustin Nguyen Alessandra Pagaduan Julie Pham Roaa Aluoka Hinh Ho Nikola Markic Martina Tran Yania Saleem |
The points tally for the SHAPE Challenge are below:
| CORBETT - 60 pts | GUELEN - 54 pts | O'REILLY - 57 pts | REIS - 48 pts |
SACCSS Community Running Challenge
For more information please see Ms Jurcec, Mr Marshall or Jeremy.
A trio of high school outcasts—Paul, Big, and Small—face the complicated world of predators and prey in high school and come to realize that overcoming life’s challenges will take more than perseverance. Paul Adams is the shortest kid at his high school, and the school bullies relentlessly pick on him. He spends the entire day wishing school would end so he can escape to his favourite sport of rock climbing. This is the only place where he feels in control, competent, and free, despite the inherent fear. Lily Small is athletic, attractive, and, despite her last name, is actually very tall. Another kid, who looks almost like a grown man, introduces himself with a long Polynesian name, but says everyone calls him “Big,” and he seems to like the nickname! As they get to know each other, Paul, Big, and Small discover they have a lot in common as outsiders in their high school. As the trio’s friendship forms, their unique personalities are no longer those of misfits, but complement each other. Paul and Lily decide to enter a local competition for climbers, but their plans are abruptly halted by Lily’s diagnosis of leukemia. Paul is terrified of what lies ahead in Lily’s medical treatment, knowing what happened to his mother who died of cancer a few short years before. He retreats back to rabbit mode and can’t even visit her in the hospital. But Lily really wants Paul to go ahead with the competition and advises him to team up with Conor, the student who bullies Paul the most. Reluctantly, Paul agrees to move ahead with Lily’s wish, knowing that Conor is a strong climber and their best chance at winning.
The Different Land by Paul Jennings
Christopher is twelve thousand miles from home. The pub has a dirt floor and the owner is as rough as guts. The forest hides snakes, feral pigs and a dark secret. Mysterious, bold and strange. Expect the unexpected. And watch your step. Enter this place and you will be different for ever.
There are 5 staff members who appear in both photos. Can you pick them?
READERS' CUP LADDER
Placings on the ladder are calculated from the borrowing of books from the eplatform.
