Welcome to edition 2 of Term 3

Welcome to Week 5 of Term 3.

It’s a great time to be leading Forest Hill College

The good news is our Naplan Numeracy data has been identified by DET as the school in the Inner East showing the highest average change from year 7 to year 9, leading the change in this area for the entire Inner East.

This is very good news and is recognition for the hard work of Xianjun Chen, Emily Dillon, our Maths teaching team and all our staff who have been regularly extending students through individual and small group work as part of the Tutor Mentoring Program.

Whilst it’s been a hectic few weeks with course counselling taking place for our student in all year levels, I’d like to thank the Leading Teachers and Learning Area Leaders for happily using their own planning time to assist our students with their course selection.

In addition to this, we have undertaken a review of our report writing structures and have been providing our teachers with additional professional learning to ensure the feedback that your child receives concerning their learning is as accurate and helpful as possible.

We have also been updating our school policies.

These can be found on our school website Policies – Forest Hill College (fhc.vic.edu.au).

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Our teachers have also been busy implementing a new staged response to student management in the Middle Years.

This includes lining up outside classrooms to ensure a smooth start to teaching time, a welcome at the door and equipment and device check.

We have also introduced seating plans in some classes to enable students to focus on the learning and revised our exit routines to ensure students leave classrooms ready to move to learning in the next class.

Please support our staff in their endeavours by reminding students to be in full school uniform, to leave expensive ear buds at home (they don’t need these in classes) and ensure they place their mobile phone in their lockers for the entirety of the school day.

If you are concerned about your child’s over reliance on a mobile phone , please chat with the sub-school teams.

We have introduced mobile phone lockers located in the general office.

This allows identified students to place their phone in the locker at the outset of the school day.

The locker is locked by the admin staff and cannot be accessed again until 3.15.

Last week our school councillors agreed to a change to the school uniform in the removal of the hoodie from Year 7 2025.

Students in years 8-11 will be able to purchase the hoodie until stock items run down.

The hoodie will be replaced with a shirt, jumper and tie.

We look forward to our students wearing this adaptation with pride as we negotiate our uniform supplier across the next few months.

I’d like to reiterate my earlier sentiment that it’s a great time to be leading FHC.

Plans for our new buildings are now complete with a builder being appointed in the next few weeks.

Our community perception continues to grow as we are rightfully recognized as the school of choice in this area, but most importantly, our teaching and learning goes from strength to strength.

Have a wonderful week everyone

Nicky Buckingham

College Co-Principal

Legally Blonde The Musical – September 12th – 13th – Tickets On Sale 9am Monday August 12th!

This year our School Production is Legally Blonde The Musical.

We are performing 2 shows – Thursday September 12th & Friday September 13th, with the Friday September 13th show being Auslan interpreted.

Shows start at 7:30pm each evening.

Tickets go on sale on Monday August 12th. You also have the option of pre-ordering a production programme.

Tickets can by booked via this Trybooking link

Our students are working hard to put on their best show for you.

Hailley Reynolds

Production Assistant

VCE Sleep Incursion

Last week our Psychology students had an incursion facilitated by Monash University’s Healthy Sleep Clinic, to deepen their knowledge of the characteristics of sleep.

In this incursion, we learnt about the changing sleep patterns across our lifespan, the stages of a sleep cycle, and the way that sleep can be measured.

Kirk H volunteered to be wired up to the portable sleep diagnostic device and take a nap.

This great sacrifice was live streamed into the space where we could all observe Kirk’s brain waves (EEG), eye movements (EOG), heart (ECG) and muscle tone (EMG) in real time.

This demonstration gave the Psychology students a real-life chance to distinguish between different phases of the sleep cycle, using their knowledge of the frequency and amplitude of brain waves which were picked up by the polysomnography tools (EEG, EOG, EMG).

To our surprise Kirk’s polysomnography data suggested he did in fact enter the first stages of sleep – NREM 1 or 2.

Thank you Kirk!

From the Psychology team,

Carol Tau and Emily Dillon

Library News – Australian School Library Day 2024 : School Libraries Build Brighter Futures

Wednesday August 21st is Australian School Library Day

Australian School Library Day is a day to highlight and celebrate school libraries.

The theme for 2024 is School Libraries Build Bright Futures.

At Forest Hill College we are privileged to have a school library, with dedicated school library staff – this is not the case in all schools.

School libraries are about more than books.

At Forest Hill College, our library is a thriving hub of the school community.

We are a safe space, a learning space, and a social space.

Due to the re-scheduled School Athletics Carnival, we will be celebrating Australian School Library Day a day early, on Tuesday August 20th.

Keep an eye on Compass and the @fhclibrary Instagram for more details.

Helen Farch

School Library

Appreciation Week Wrap-Up

Appreciation Week was during week 3 and was chance for students to participate in school events and increase FHC’s culture.

We showed our appreciation for the ourselves, the arts, teachers, the environment, and the different cultures that make up our school.

Self appreciation: Monday July 29th

Students enjoyed mindfulness colouring in the library at lunch, escaping the cold and rain. It was great to see all the artworks at the end

Art day: Tuesday July 30th
Our amazing school band performed near the gym on Tuesday. Everyone loved the toasties that were handed out and stayed to enjoy the music as they added to the chalk mural.

Teacher day: Wednesday July 31st

Notes of appreciation were written for our teachers in the library and during Connect. Student vs teacher dodgeball was a great success in the gym at lunch. It was also fun to see all the creative way in which students dressed up like teachers. To demonstrate how appreciative the students are for their hardworking teachers, cupcakes were provided for the teachers at recess

Environment day: Thursday August 1st

In the library, there was animal origami and a David Attenborough documentary, but we saw the most turn out for the planting. Run by Leo’s club, a group of students spent their whole lunch planting 50 plants near one of the entrances to the school

Culture day: Friday August 2nd

There was cake sale at breakfast club with caramel, cardamom, and citrus cakes. They sold out incredibly fast and the school was able to raise over $100. There was cultural trivia in the library that earnt students Tribe points.

The week was all organised by student parliament with heaps of help from Mrs York. It was great to see how successful it was. Hopefully it can be even better next year

 

Jennifer S

Student Parliament Prime Minister

Australian Maths Competition

During Week 4, 26 students across Year 7 and 11 attended the Australian Maths Competition.

Students have worked really hard trying to tackle as many problems as they could through the 75-minute session.

The Students who attended were:

Year 7:

Isabella B, Gabriel C, Blake F, Yianni I, Erfan J, Avani S-A

Year 8:

Ashlee B, Asha E-D, Jordan F, Jason U, Justin K, Yalda Y

Year 9:

Griffin B, Jasper E-D, Nick H, Pratiksha P, Stanley Y

Year 10:

Joshua A, Alden J, Josh M, Zac R, Anish S, Frederick T, Cadell V

Year 11:

Maddie M, Scott Z

Xianjun Chen

Leading Teacher – Curriculum – Data Literacy

Sports News

So far this term, our sports teams have shown exceptional talent and sportsmanship representing Intermediate Basketball and Table Tennis, as well as our Senior students who participated in the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Round for AFL, Basketball and Table Tennis.

It was fantastic to see students work together to secure several impressive wins on the day in such a competitive environment.

FHC earnt recognition for their significant improvements and resilience in every game which was great to hear!

Looking ahead, we are excited about the upcoming Year 7/8 Basketball and Year 8 Table Tennis competitions, where we anticipate continued excellence and sportsmanship from our students.

 

A special mention to Cande W (Hockey) and Cooper G (Basketball) who recently represented Victoria in their sporting commitments alongside their studies. 

We are very proud of their hard work and dedication and congratulate them on a great tournament!

Additionally, we are excited to support Bailey L on his selection to participate in the AFL Victoria Metro Team in the upcoming weeks.

Bridget Mimmo

Sports Co-Ordinator

Student Achievement – Gabriel C

Congratulations to Gabriel from 7B who performed in the Children’s Choir to a sold-out audience as part of Opera Australia’s national tour of Puccini’s La Boheme on August 1st.