Dear Parents and Guardians

Amid the gloom of another lockdown and all that it brings with it, it is good to have some things to celebrate or be grateful for, so let’s start with some of those.

VCE Premier’s Award

Congratulations to Year 12 student, Cindy Le, who has been awarded a prestigious VCE Premier’s Award for her achievement in Further Mathematics. Cindy studied Further Maths as an acceleration subject during Year 11 and achieved a perfect study score of 50. It is extremely difficult to attain such a score, and, even then, the Premier’s Awards are only given to a select few of the very top achievers in each subject. It is a wonderful recognition of Cindy’s mathematical ability, as well as her dedication to and perseverance with her studies.

 

Congratulations also to Mr Steven Vo, Cindy’s Further Maths teacher, for his commitment to ensuring that each of his students has the opportunity and the skills and knowledge to excel in Mathematics. It is a well deserved recognition of his skill as a teacher.

 

 

 

Mathematics Games Day

Each year, our school participates in the Maths Games Day, and even online learning didn’t prevent that this year. A team of 8 Year 7 students, led and coached by Ms Fatima Azmitia, represented St Albans SC in the competition between approximately 70 government and non-government schools. We are really delighted to say that the Year 7 team came tenth overall which is a fabulous result. They were one of two government schools from across Melbourne in the top ten.

Ms Fatima said of the team, ‘They were punctual, attentive, resourceful, collaborative and tenacious,’ and she was very proud to work with such a great group of students.

Congratulations to:

Chantelle Duong (7C)

Stephanie Truong (7C)

Abhi Farmah (7C)

Tanvi Mangalath (7C)

Andy Nguyen (7C)

Matthew Nguyen (7C) 

Japvir Singh (7C)           

Angela Vu (7C)               

Special mention to Julien Kanwar and Angelina Huynh for offering to be emergencies on the day.

 

Welcome  

We are pleased to welcome Karen De Amyand to the staff as a Teacher Assistant working in the Individual Needs team. Karen has been doing some casual work with us over the last few months, and we look forward to her continuing in her role supporting students and staff.

We also warmly welcome Omega Raimundo as a Science and Maths teacher. Omega starts with classes next week, replacing Clara Campbell, and it is great to have her as part of the staff team. We hope both Karen and Omega enjoy their time at St Albans SC. Very best wishes to Clara and her family, too, for the birth of their second baby in a few weeks.

 

New Garden

After several years in the planning and construction, our new garden and passive recreation area between the gymnasium and Nindethana is now open. It is a shame that there are very few here to enjoy it right now, but, on the bright side, it will be lovely for students to have something new to come back to.

The space is designed with lots of seating and shade, and also encompasses an outdoor performance and event space – perfect for our bands and special celebration days.

Here are some photos you might enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interact Club Activity during 2021

Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting. 

Throughout 2021, there has been a great deal of activity by our St Albans Secondary College Interact Club.

They participated in the activities run by the VCAL class on IDAHOBIT day, for which they designed, produced and handed out stickers in support of this event.  They have run meetings in support of many local and international causes and offered hot chocolate to participants during their recruitment drive earlier in the year.  There are currently almost 50 members of the St Albans Secondary branch of Interact and there is a strong executive team lead by May Nguyen as the President.

During term 3, the club is planning an Asian Awareness project which they have promoted and organised as part of the celebration of cultural diversity at the school.  This is an initiative specifically for this year which will involve lunchtime activities and fundraising by selling packages of Asian inspired goods. It has been planned to align with the Moon Festival, although the timing will depend on Covid safety guidelines.

There is also a scholarship program linked to our Interact Club. The executive team ran a process of applications and interviews to determine the successful candidate for 2021 and the recipient this year was Maybel Verma of Year 9. Congratulations to Maybel. As a result of her selection, Mabel will run a project within the Interact Club which is a book drive as outlined below.

The book drive is in support of the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation and for this we will be seeking book donations which can include new or second hand children’s books:

• Picture books – new titles, classic titles, favourite authors, award winners
• Early readers – popular series, cardboard books
• Fiction – new titles, popular authors, classics
• Non-fiction – current and relevant to Indigenous culture

The number of books we can donate is limited and only books in excellent condition and suitable for children up to 16 years of age are required.  There will be more information about this project once we have more certainty that we can go ahead with it.

During Term 4 the club would like to run a food drive to support a local charity and there will be more about this in future newsletters.

We would like to express the thanks of the school and the Rotary Club to the outgoing executive consisting of the following Year 12 students:

President: May Nguyen

Vice President: Lisa Pham

Secretary: Tiffani Tran

Project Coordinator: Jessica Taing

Treasurer: Thanazal Jawz

Creative Director: Stephanie Tran
Public Relations: Christina Nguyen and Julia Nguyen

and welcome the incoming executive of:

President: Tracey Nguyen

Vice President: Isra Siddique

Secretary: Kathleen Phan

Project Coordinator: Deedee Colussi

Treasurer: Eddie Nguyen

Public Relations: Vianna Tran

Congratulations to all the members of our Interact Club, it is wonderful to see such enthusiasm for such a range of projects and causes led by students.

 

Year 8 Night

Thank you to the many parents and students who attended our Virtual Year 8 parent night. At this evening we provided a brief overview of the subject selection process for Year 9. For more information on each subject and subject selection process please refer to the subject selection handbook and notices on Compass. Coordinators are also available to assist families and students making subject selections.

 

Alpine School

We currently have a small group of students studying at the School for Student Leadership 400 kilometres away in the snow fields of Dinner Plains. The School for Student Leadership is a Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) initiative offering a unique residential education experience for Year nine students. The curriculum focuses on personal development and team learning projects sourced from students’ home regions. These students applied for this program earlier in the year and will remain on site away from COVID and the lockdowns of Melbourne for the duration of the term away. When they return to St Albans they will implement a community project that they developed at the Alpine School. St Albans Secondary College has been part of this initiative for many years and we wish our team all the best. We will provide your more updates as they become available.

 

Wellbeing Support

Being in lockdown is not easy, so please reach out to the school if we can provide support or assistance. The school has partnerships with a range of agencies that may be able to help you. To request support please call the school and ask for someone from the Wellbeing Team to give you a call. Alternatively, you can email us. For our contact details and some ways to support your wellbeing please refer to the attached Student and Parents Guide to Online Learning.

 

Progress Reports

In Term 3, progress reports for different year levels are released at different times. Last week reports for Year 11 VCE Unit 2 and Year 11 VCAL were published on Compass.

Year 7 to 1o progress reports will be available at the end of new week on Friday 27 August.

At this stage Year 12 progress reports will be available at the end of Term 3. This date is dependent on any changes made by VCAA due to online learning.

As always, please contact your child’s Year Level Coordinator if you have any questions about reports, or things you would like to discuss.

 

And finally …..

As always, we are ready to provide any additional support you, your child or family may need to get through this lockdown. Please get in touch and we will do whatever we can to help.  We know that many of our students are finding it difficult to stay motivated; yet the vast majority are doing so well to stay connected with their classes, peers and teachers. Each one of them deserves congratulations for this effort.