November News
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Principal Update
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Tales from IT: Congratulations to Alaina
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LitLinks Award
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Exam Timetable
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October Monthly Awards
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Spotlight on support staff - Nicole
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Bees and Bugs
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Geography Fieldwork Excursion
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Bread Hygiene Experiment
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Lake G Chill Week 2.0 - Cookie/Cupcake Decorating
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ACT Scaling Test (AST) 2021 Preparation
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English class - Olympians Q & A
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AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICS COMPETITION (AMC) 2020
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Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA)
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Structured Workplace Learning @ CIT Restaurant
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Mixed Touch Football
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ACT College Basketball Champions
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Science Mentors ACT
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ACT College Table Tennis Competition
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Year 12 Assembly - all the best!
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Naidoc week
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Formal
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Graduation
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Giving Tree - donations welcome
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Navigator Aged Care Program
Principal Update
This time of year is always one of commemorations, celebrations and farewells!
The Year 12’s were farewelled at a final assembly and had the opportunity to reflect on what they had learnt about themselves this year. The College is very proud of their ability to respond to change and manage what’s going on around them: homelife, study, work, staying connected and finding time for themselves.
The future may be very different for us all and we are inspired by their ability to keep connecting, innovating, and making an impact as per our school values. See you all soon after assessment time for the Formal, Year 12 Breakfast and Graduation.
To our Year 11’s congratulations for finishing the year with resilience and positivity. May you have a well-deserved break and we wish you well as leaders of the school in 2021.
Naidoc Week also provided an opportunity to partake in a greater dialogue about unity and our collective responsibilities to take care of our beautiful nation and what we add to our collective journey. Hearing Mitch Tambo’s, a First nation musician, cover of ‘Absolutely Everybody’ sung in Gamilaraay language was a highlight. Tambo, himself said ‘the song’s messages have an impact…a powerful reminder to come together.’
Our Satellite Selfie worked!
UCSSC Lake Ginninderra took part in #Satellite Selfie event hosted by the ANU during National Science Week this year. A satellite flew over the ACT and surrounding area and captured an image of as much of Canberra and the people in it as possible to create a time-capsule image of Australia's Capital from above.
See the images https://inspiringtheact.org.au/satellite-selfie/ and zoom in to the oval above the school to see the Lake G sign!
Congratulations to many of our students and award winners and enjoy reading about the many activities undertaken by students across the College. Don’t forget you can vote in the UC Creative Competition
- Use this link to see students’ work and cast your vote: https://www.canberra.edu.au/uccreativecompetition
- Click on ‘view the gallery’, then filter using ‘lake g’ to see our student entries.
Thank you to all for what we have achieved as a school community this Semester.
Melissa Planten
Tales from IT: Congratulations to Alaina
The College would like to share Alaina Lawson's achievement in winning the Women in ICT's Student Encouragement Award with our school community. This highly competitive award comes with a $2,000 bursary to help her transition to further study in 2021.
Alaina won this award for her consummate passion in Information Technology which she has shown at in all IT domains offered at Lake Ginninderra College, Data Science, Robotics and Mechatronics, and Cyber Security. Thanks are due to her teacher Adam Carter who has helped her to develop her knowledge and skills.
Women in ICT (WiC) is a Canberra based non-profit organisation bringing people together to champion Women in Information and Communication
LitLinks Award
Year 12 student Max Van Den Boogaard has won a major award at the LitLinks competition, run by the ACT Association for the Teaching of English.
Max was one of only four students from across the ACT to win such an award, with the judges determining that his short story 'The Palm' was the best piece of Speculative Fiction in the competition.
In their comments on Max’s piece, the judges said it was “a harrowing depiction of the future, reflecting major current concerns of pollution, the consequences of government inaction in protecting our environment, and the concept of progress at any cost.”
Congratulations are also due to his teacher Arthika Prasad.
Max's story has been published on the LitLinks website.
Exam Timetable
The exam timetable is included below. Some exams will take place prior to this period. Please note for your student(s) the dates when their attendance is required.
October Monthly Awards
Monthly awards recognise the additional efforts of students beyond particpation in class. The students are nominated by teachers.
Awardees for October:
- Steph Bush (Disability & Aged Care)
- Audrey Helliwell (English)
- Alice Fraser (Exercise Science)
Other students nominated:
- Furqan Al Qowi (Chemistry: Molecules)
- Annabelle Yariyari (Cool and Modern Jazz)
- Tyler White (Biology and Human Biology)
- Erica Cooper (Sports Development)
- Jackson Bryant (Mathematical Methods)
- Max Van Den Boogaard (Literature)
- Tivien Andrews-Homerang (Literature)
- Victoria Nikias (Contemporary Music of the 90's and Beyond and Early Rock of the 50's & 60's)
- Pasha Gholami (Contemporary Music of the 90's and Beyond)
Spotlight on support staff - Nicole
Nicole has worked in Student Services at UC SSC Lake Ginninderra for the past 12 years. It is a job which requires a lot of patience and energy and a job of many puzzles and much problem solving. Nicole enjoys the challenges the job brings.
Fun fact: Nicole likes puzzles and is a jigsaw whiz!
Behind the scenes Nicole works tirelessly on ensuring our classes are timetabled, attendance records are accurate and academic reports go out to families. Her knowledge of the school administration system database is broad and bountiful.
Nicole is always a smiling and welcoming face at the student services window, working with students to assist them with all of their enrolment, attendance, subject and class advice. Her customer focussed service to students, families and staff alike is a credit to herself and our College.
Bees and Bugs
This semester the Year 12 Biology class is studying Biodiversity, and we have been fortunate to have some subject experts in to talk to us.
In Week 12 Rob Lawless came in as part of the ACT for Bees organisation to explain to the class about the importance of bees in the ecosystem. Bees have a critical role as a ‘keystone’ organism in the ecosystem. This is due to their specialised role in pollinating plants and ensuring the survival not only of the plant species but also the organisms that depend on those plants for food and habitat. In Australia we have many species of native bees which are often overlooked in favour of the European honey bee. Our native bees often nest in a solitary location rather than a big group nest, and they need special ‘tubes’ to lay their eggs in. Rob was very responsive to the heavy class discussion and many interruptions as the students kept thinking of things they wanted to know! We all came away with a greater appreciation of bees and their many varied roles and appearances.
Week 13 saw the awesome crew from ACT Waterwatch come in to help us undertake a waterbugs survey in the Lake G wetlands. The 2 hour lesson flew by as students netted water bugs and learned how to identify all the different types. There was great excitement when we found caddis fly larvae hiding in some of the things that just looked like little sticks in the water. When legs emerged and the stick moved we knew there was something else going on! Bruno and Marten from Waterwatch were kept very busy casting their expert eyes over the different bugs to help us identify them. We then went back to class and used our results to calculate the health of the Lake G wetland. The verdict: high levels of salinity or nutrient levels are present in the wetlands. We can all help improve this by trying to reduce pollution through careful disposal of waste and practices such as washing cars on the lawn and not in the driveway.
Geography Fieldwork Excursion
On Wednesday the 28th of October, the Year 11 and 12 Geography students went on a fieldwork excursion to the Belconnen shopping centre. While there, they delineated a section of the shopping centre, selected an anchor store, and then gathered the data they will need to write their final essay on economic globalisation. In doing this, they practiced mapping and sketching, as well as observing how the Gruen Effect works in their selected zone and where the products sold in Belconnen come from.
This excursion has been a good opportunity for the Geography class to see the impact that the global processes we have been examining all semester have on their local environment and to observe the impact on their community.
Overall, it has been wonderful to see the class working so collaboratively to draw conclusions from their fieldwork data.
Bread Hygiene Experiment
Hospitality students have been working towards achieving the competency 'Participate in safe food handling practices' which involves a close look at the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) method.
To get a better understanding of the invisible pathogens that live on our everyday items, students were required to wipe slices of bread across various high touch surfaces, then seal them up and observe any changes in appearance over a 2 week period.
The experiment highlighted how our phones, keys, laptops and other items are in need of a good clean!
Lake G Chill Week 2.0 - Cookie/Cupcake Decorating
Year 11 Hospitality students ran a very successful cookie and cupcake decorating activity for Lake G Chill Week. Everyone loved the free food!
Cookie/Cupcake Decorating
ACT Scaling Test (AST) 2021 Preparation
Year 11 students have been introduced to all three of the AST tasks during Monday afternoon H line classes.
A trial of each exam will take place at the close of the exam period (see separate timetable for exams) on Monday November 23 and Tuesday November 24.
Any student who anticipates entering university by the ATAR pathway is expected to participate in all trials.
Students will:
- experience of the different order of exams which mirrors changes in the AST exams for 2021
- sit an exam supervised by an external supervisor
- receive feedback to help them improve into 2021 the level of difficulty of a typical AST exam
In 2021 the AST is scheduled for Tuesday 31 August and Wednesday 1 September.
- Students must be available for these dates.
- Late sittings are not available.
- Students who require special conditions to enable their participation in long exams eg breaks, food, medication, assistive technology etc must apply before Friday 19 March 2021.
Contact lakegstudentservices@ed.act.edu.au for more information and application forms.
Pop Up Art
English class - Olympians Q & A
We are privileged to have Olympians not only in our student and ex-student population, but on staff. For the T English Literature of Sport Unit, Gerard Barrett (Moscow 1980) and John Fox (Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992) came to class for a Q&A session about their sporting careers and opinions, so students could practice their interview skills and get some quotes for their upcoming journalistic pieces.
John and Gerard covered the difference between the Olympics and their sports then and now (Did you know that women’s water polo only made it to the Olympics in the year 2000?); their training regimes (including Gerard starting his Sundays with a nice 35km run); and shared their inspiration and experiences as elite athletes (including the food hall at the Olympics, which was a topic of much fascination!). Thank you very much to Gerard and John for an inspiring and interesting lesson as we worked towards our creative pieces.
AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICS COMPETITION (AMC) 2020
The AMC is an engaging 30-problem competition that demonstrates the importance and relevance of mathematics in students’ everyday lives.
The college recorded a record participation in 2020 with 104 Year 11 and 68 Year 12 students taking part. Particular congratulations are due to the following students who gained a distinction result.
International student Junyu TU was awarded best in school.
Year 12 | Year 11 |
Junyu TU | Euan ROCHFORD |
Gilad KLEIN | Joyce NGUYEN |
Anubhav SAXENA | Joshua ALLEN |
Liam TATTERSALL | Jack MCWILLIAMS |
Angus WEBB | Jess SHADDOCK |
Richard MOIR | |
Ella REYNOLDS | |
Kim TRAN |
Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA)
Forty five students successfully completed the Responsible Service of Alcohol course in week 13. This training provides our students with the skills and knowledge required to serve alcohol in a responsible manner.
It includes the current laws surrounding liquor and its service, the strengths and effects of alcoholic beverages and responsible services strategies. Well done to all involved.
Structured Workplace Learning @ CIT Restaurant
Eight year 11 Hospitality students undertook Structured Workplace Learning (SWL) at CIT Restaurant, where they developed their fine dining service skills. The supervisors highly praised their efforts and hard work.
Mixed Touch Football
On Tuesday 3rd of November UC SSC Lake G competed in the ACT Colleges Mixed Touch Football Carnival. The team started the day well with a convincing win against Canberra College.
The second game against Hawker College was close with some great defensive efforts but after leading in the opening 5 minutes, Hawker answered with quick tries to record a draw. Lake G lost narrrowly to Erindale College in another tight game but went on to win the rest of the round games against Narrabundah College and Dickson College. Finishing second in the pool Lake qualified for the semi-finals. The semi was fast paced and after a strong start the team tired, and Erindale winning the match and progressing to the final.
ACT College Basketball Champions
The girl’s basketball team went through undefeated at the ACT College Basketball competition. They played Canberra, Narrabundah, Erindale and St Francis Xavier in the pool rounds and coasted into the final. The team came up against Erindale in the final who were clearly the strongest other team in the competition.
It was a close contest in the first half, then the Lakers kicked away to a 10-point lead at three quarter time. In the final quarter Erindale came back and forced the game into overtime. Lakers scored the only basket in OT to take a narrow victory. Jasmyn Boutzos was on fire all day shooting a high percentage of 3 pointers. Hayley, Ayen, Kassidy and Abby gobbled up many rebounds with Emmy and Eliza moving the ball well in transition. Akuol contributed with many steals over the day. Congratulations girls!
Science Mentors ACT
Interested in Science and new to the college in 2021 - consider this fantastic opportunity!
If you are in years 9 through to 12 in 2021, you have the opportunity to do real research with a science mentor. Applications for 2021 are now open.
Details are in the flier or speak to Roger in Science if you are already at college.
ACT College Table Tennis Competition
There was a good turnout for the ACT College Table Tennis competition held at Gungahlin College. The Lakers team consisted of six boys and six girls all keen to test their skills with the best from across the ACT. The teams started with singles and played up to five games in the pool rounds. Eliza, Abby, Jasmyn, Robbie, Tim and Sam all made it through to the finals with Abby and Tim making it through to the semi-final.
The Lakers team then paired up in the doubles. Eliza and Abby came up against Gisela and Jasmyn in the girls doubles semi-final and won through to the final. Eliza and Abby played some amazing shots but had a narrow final loss to Narrabundah College; however runners up is a great achievement. Tim and Bede won through to the boys’ doubles quarter finals but were knocked out at that stage. Baden and Sam won through to the semi-final where they came up against the eventual winners from Dickson College. Baden and Sam tried a heavy hitting tactic in the semi-final and were gallant in defeat.
Year 12 Assembly - all the best!
The final assembly for Year 12 students, was held fittingly during a re-scheduled NAIDOC week. The student community group led a Remembrance Day commemoration including a minute silence, last post and the reading of the Ode. Melissa Planten, Principal, congratulated students, teachers, families and friends for their combined efforts this year. There was high praise for the students continuing to move forward and for their accomplishments during their time at college. The college looks forward to hearing about the paths students will take and the goals they will continue to achieve.
Students left the gym to the tune of Vanessa Amorosi's Absolutely Everybody sung in indigenous language, proceeded into the main quad where teachers and year 11's applauded their journey and wished them farewell.
The Formal, Year 12 Breakfast and Graduation will round out the year's events for year 12.
The assembly was hosted by year 11 student Ellen Johnson from the Student Community Group.
Naidoc week
First Nations musician Mitch Tambo gave the song a new lease on life, sung in his Gamilaraay language for NAIDOC Week.
“Absolutely Everybody is always remembered as the anthem of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is such an iconic song embedded in Australian music history,” Tambo said. “I’ve always wanted to cover it as its messages are very impactful and mean a lot to me personally.”
Formal
The Front Office is now taking full payments for the year 12 formal. Please see details below.
Cost: $50
Date: Thursday 26 November 2020
Who: Year 12 student event ONLY. Year 11 students or guests from outside the school are not invited.
Where: UCSSC Like Ginninderra – Gymnasium
Time: 6.30pm – 9.30pm
Dress: Formal
Catering: Individually packaged meal, juice and water + ice cream
Included: Red carpet entry, DJ and Photobooths
Drop offs: Between 6.15pm – 6.30pm
- All formal arrival ceremonies have been discouraged in the ‘Guide to COVID safe end of year events’.
- Crowds are not permitted to form in or around the grounds of the school.
- The college requests that students are dropped off by parents and carers at the designated time and area.
Please ensure formal ticket payments are made by Wednesday 18 November
Graduation
Details published soon!
Hold the date, Wednesday December 16.
Giving Tree - donations welcome
Each year Capital Region Community Service (formerly Belconnen Community Service) provides Christmas Hampers to over 100 vulnerable individuals and families across Belconnen.
These hampers contain some basic food items (which CRCS provides). We rely on donations from local schools and businesses to provide special Christmas cheer items such as gifts, treats, decorations etc.
The school is supporting this appeal and we encourage staff, students and families to donate a gift to help some of the less fortunate in our Belconnen Community. Gifts and items should be new and in sealed packaging.
CRCS have recommended gifts of $10- $15 in value. These could include toys, games, vouchers, toiletries, books, puzzles, stocking fillers. There is always a shortage of gifts for teenagers and male adults.
Please leave these gifts in the collection containers near the Front Office.
Thanks for supporting those in our local community who will do it tough this Christmas.
For further information speak to Becky (Rebecca.Gill@ed.act.edu.au)
Navigator Aged Care Program
Do you, or a loved one need help navigating the aged care system? We can help!! See the flier.