PLC Sydney biannual magazine
13
rd
ED I T I ON FALL 2015
• International Student • A successful snow season • Intertwined exhibition • Year 12 graduation • Parent seminars now
CONTENTS 01 02 03 04 05
• From the Principal • Outstanding young writer recognised • St Aloysius’ College and PLC Sydney • International Student Science • SMART Tree project
06 07 08 09 10
• Living the dream • Disney comes to PLC Sydney • The end of Year 12 • The East Timor story so far • Sydney Eisteddfod results
11 12 13 14 15
• From the Principal • Outstanding young writer recognised • St Aloysius’ College and PLC Sydney • International Student Science • SMART Tree project
16 17 18 19 20
• Living the dream • Disney comes to PLC Sydney • The end of Year 12 • The East Timor story so far • Sydney Eisteddfod results
21 22 23 24 25
• From the Principal • Outstanding young writer recognised • St Aloysius’ College and PLC Sydney • International Student Science • SMART Tree project
26 27 28 29 30
• Living the dream • Disney comes to PLC Sydney • The end of Year 12 • The East Timor story so far • Sydney Eisteddfod results
PLC Sydney biannual magazine Boundary Street Croydon NSW 2132 Phone (+612) 9704 5666 Fax (+612) 9744 0519
enquiries@.plc.nsw.edu.au
www.plc.nsw.edu.au
13
rd
ED I T I ON
FALL 2015
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
As you look through the articles in this edition you might like to ask yourself what the purpose of education is at PLC Sydney.
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Our trip to China was an example of a project that assisted young women to develop skills in scientific enquiry in a manner that might grow the Australian economy; the Science Week report and the training in our
Dr Paul Burgis Executive Principal
hockey and ski programs are about learning how to learn; the reports on Junior and Senior School writing indicate the personalised nature of learning at PLC Sydney. The Central Australia Tour is about building an understanding of social justice and the History Tour and Music reports are on the great joy in finding out about the world and engaging in it. We seek to prioritise the third, fourth and fifth purposes, and believe that the first two will result if we do our job well. In this edition you will see evidence of the breadth of programs at PLC Sydney, and the high level of engagement with programs by students. One of the indicators of student flourishing is positive engagement. I see it each day at PLC Sydney. I hope you enjoy reading about it in this edition of Connect.
OUR MAGAZINE TEAM Editor Mrs Nicole Paull COVER
Contributors Dr Paul Burgis, Ms Carolyn Lain, Gwendalyn Dabaja, Ms Fiona Clouston, Emma Carnuccio, Isabelle Hooton, Catherine Taylor, Natalie Teh, Hayley Ng, Averlie Wang, Madeleine Maloof, Cailin Pascoe, Mrs Fiona Hendriks, Claire Protas, Madeline Panos, Isabella Cordaro, Leila Bunguric, Sophie Hayman, Mr Adam Bold, Claire Sharman, Ms Jenny Clarke, Mrs Melissa Watters, Mr Andrew Paxton, Mrs Joanna Taylor, Emma Bosco, Clare Bosco, Dr Elizabeth Guy, Ms Jo Knight, Mrs Rowena Barnett, Mrs Cassandra Morphew, Ms Belinda Harden, Kaitlin Nobbs, Mrs Annie Martin, Mrs Sarah Waller, Selina Zhang, Irene Magliveras, Elizabeth Kim, Averlie Wang, Jasmine Atkins, Beatrice Hobson, Ms Jo Hermann, Christina Bouletos, Sophia Law, Ms Katrina Avery, Ms Virginia Rowlands, Mrs Catherine Marvell, Ms Philippa Street, Mrs Carolyn Sanford, Mrs Anne Schroers, Ms Jade Schroers, Ms Rachel Schroers, Ms Alice Schroers, and Ms Lucy Humphrey.
PLC Sydney / camphora
Acropolis in Greece during the Ancient History Tour
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OUTSTANDING YOUNG WRITER RECOGNISED
Year 6 student Gwendalyn Dabaja has been presented with a Gold award in the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) ‘WriteOn’
Tom wasn’t your average twelve-year-old boy. Unlike others his age, he didn’t care for screen gazing. Knowing his birthday was approaching, he didn’t beg his parents for the latest gadget or game. What he wanted more than anything was to go camping. Reluctantly, Emily and Joe agreed when their only son made his simple, but horrifying request. Emily ordered her outfits and the cute green tent online. Most importantly, she tried to sound willing when she casually let it slip at work she was going ‘glamping’, in keeping with her champagne taste.
PLC Sydney / camphora
Binoculars raised, Tom peered through the scrub. It took discipline to be that still, but it was worth it. What he was witnessing was science in motion. The male of the species prowled around aggressively, trying to locate his prey. His desperation was driven by the basic need for food. The female of the species paced impatiently, waiting for her cub to return. The tension was thick, as the animals became frustrated, released after being so long in captivity and finally where they were meant to be. It would take some adjustment, but Tom had high hopes for them. He carefully put down his binoculars and reached for his notepad. Interesting, he observed, scribbling in hurried shorthand. They seem disoriented and forlorn. Almost confused and without purpose. Once placed in their natural environment, they resemble monkeys! Reaching for his backpack, Tom felt around for his pocket calculator. It was a risky experiment. With careful aim, he tossed it in the direction of his subjects. Pencil and notepad poised precariously in one hand, the other holding his only form of vision, there was an almighty scramble for the shiny tactile gadget. There was only one calculator, but two of them. The scramble was ferocious and Tom forgot to maintain his distance, running in order to get a closer look. The whistle hanging around his neck swung to the rhythm of his run. Stopping abruptly, Tom placed the whistle between his lips and blew as loud as he could. That night, Tom lay in his sleeping bag full of sausages and contentment. Eyes closed, the words on his notepad floated above him as he slipped into slumber. Fascinating day in the wild. They really did not know what to do with themselves! His parents really were lost without technology! “Mum. Dad. Thank you for a wonderful birthday. But I
Gwendalyn being presented her Gold award by Mr Tom Alegounarias, President of BOSTES
have to tell you, that when we get home, there are going to be some changes. I think we will start with parking your laptops and phones with me after dinner.It is time for some serious adjustment to your lifestyle.” Emily blushed silently in the front passenger seat, secretly making plans about playing Candy Crush in the Dentist waiting room where her son could not see her. As Joe slammed the car boot shut, restraining the last of the ‘glamping’ items he wondered how his son became the sensible one all of a sudden.
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St Aloysius’ College and PLC Sydney Special Concert This concert was the ‘brain child’ of Ms Monique Curiel (Head of Performance Music) and Mr Tim Chung (Head of Music at St Aloysius’ College) who often perform together with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir. Ms Curiel and Mr Chung organised an amazing event of combined choral and orchestral pieces. More than150 musicians from both schools were involved in items from South Africa (‘Ukulthula’), Billy Joel (‘And So It Goes’), a Mozart Symphony, some Australian string pieces by Queensland composer Stephen Chin, and to finish the evening all the musicians performed For The Beauty of The Earth by John Rutter and Zadok The Priest by Handel. Thank you to all the girls for performing so well, to the Music Support Group parents for providing the dinner before the concert and to Ms Fiona Clouston, Mr Michael O’Dea, Ms Monique Curiel and Ms Synthia Luo for helping organise and rehearse the music. It was a wonderful event and one that we hope will happen again. Scan the QR code with your digital device or visit the PLC Sydney channel on YouTube to view the performance of Handel's Zadok The Priest.
PLC Sydney / camphora
In August this year a special event was held in the Audrey Keown Theatre when more than 80 boys from St Aloysius’ College descended upon the school to perform in a wonderful concert.
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INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SCIENCE CONFERENCE Curgis, Mrs Hendriks and Mr Wishart took Emma Carnuccio, Isabelle Hooton, Catherine Taylor, Natalie Teh, Hayley Ng, Averlie Wang, Madeleine Maloof and Cailin Pascoe. Countries from around the world such as India, America, Britain, Russia, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Australia gave presentations about their scientific ideas relating to current world issues suiting the theme ‘Science, Creativity, Life’.
PLC Sydney / camphora
We presented three projects: the effect of Xenical on the inhibition of lipase; the effect of greywater on mung bean sprouts; and the SMART Tree project. All three projects deal with current concerns in our world such as obesity, effective water use and climate change. The standard of the foreign presentations were extremely high, particularly the students from Saint Paul’s Coeducational College, Hong Kong; The Doon School, India; and Tonbridge
From 11 October to 18 October, eight students travelled to Tianjin in China to represent PLC Sydney at the 10th International Student Science Conference, hosted at Tianjin
School, United Kingdom who produced innovative and creative projects such as stem cell and heart regener≠ation, brain computer interfacing and investigating the effect of halophilic bacteria on the growth of salt-stressed barley. We also attended two scientific lectures titled The Quantum Touch of Bit and High Temperature Superconductors which gave us an insight into professional sciences in the world. During our trip, we developed close friendships with students from around the world, and were also able to immerse ourselves in Chinese culture. We visited cultural monuments such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and The Emperor’s Gardens. Other attractions such as the Boeing Composites Factory and the Tianjin Natural History Museum also contributed to our scientific knowledge of the production of aircraft materials and of prehistoric fossils.
We all thoroughly enjoyed visiting the cultural markets, as we all improved our bargaining skills and bought many souvenirs and traditional street food. We were fortunate enough to visit the Great Wall of China, where we took hundreds of photos of the breathtaking views and watched Madeleine play the bagpipes on the seemingly endless steps. Travelling to China was an eye-opening experience, as we left behind our westernised traditions and realised how privileged we are as a country after struggling with things such as the squat toilets and the pollution – features that are part of Chinese daily life. Not only did we learn about Chinese culture, we also learnt traditions and new phrases in different languages from the various countries that attended this conference. It was particularly amusing when we convinced the international students of Australian legends such as ‘drop bears’. Our highland dancer Cailin, and our bagpipers, Madeleine, Isabelle and Emma were privileged enough to perform Scottish pieces in front of Nankai’s student body, the international students and important school leaders as a part of the school’s 110th Anniversary celebrations.
Gwendalyn being presented her Gold award by Mr Tom Alegounarias, President of BOSTES
This conference was an amazing scientific opportunity – not only did we share our scientific ideas, but we were also able to learn new ways to deal with international issues by using the insights from other schools.
SMART TREE PROJECT PLC Sydney, PLC Armidale and The Armidale School have taken part in a Science pilot program called the SMART Tree Project. The schools each have a solar powered SAP flow meter on a tree in their school.
PLC Sydney has the sap flow meter on a lemon scented gum (Corymbia citriodara) thought to be planted by our first headmaster, Dr Marden. Last year students in Year 9 studied whether the air pollution caused by the bushfires in October altered the sap flow. They collected the data on bushfire and nonbushfire days and plotted it using an Excel spreadsheet. They found that there was no effect. This year two students in Year 7 used the data to enter the NSW Science Teachers Association Young Scientist Competition. The girls attending
the 10th International Science Conference in Tianjin, China presented their findings on the trees to the conference. The theme for the conference was ‘Science Creativity Life’. For the creativity part, the girls involved all students from Years K –10 in producing a model tree which is to be found in the Macindoe Research Centre. It rises from the ground floor to the Mezzanine. Librarian, Ms Eileen Shuttleworth made the outline of the tree. Girls from the Junior School made the leaves, native mammals, birds and insects that lived in the tree and learnt about the ecology of the tree. The Senior School looked at the internal structure, making xylem and phloem cells, root hairs and showed the stomata on the leaves. Year 8 made glucose, oxygen and carbon dioxide and water molecules to explain photosynthesis. Year 9 studied the reproduction of native plants and made the flowers and gum nuts as well as the model solar panel and sap flow meter. They showed the root structure underneath the
ground as well. Year 10 made posters showing the indigenous uses of native trees and adaptations of some other native species. Photographs of the students making the tree were included in the presentation in China. Averlie Wang wrote about the project and the conference in a blog at http:// smarttreeproject.blogspot.com.a As there is so much data to analyse, students in Years 7-10 chose their birthdays and used Excel to graph the data for sap flow, temperature, wind speed and humidity for that day. The graphs have been displayed in the MRC. As part of the China conference, Katie Taylor and Averlie Wang presented and analysed data from both PLC Sydney and PLC Armidale. The project has involved collaboration with the Junior and Senior Schools, Science and ICT departments and librarians. ICT international has supplied the sap flow meter and weather station. In addition, scientists from ICT have spoken to staff and students to aid our understanding of the use of the sap flow meters.
PLC Sydney / camphora
PLC Sydney, PLC Armidale and The Armidale School have taken part in a Science pilot program called the SMART Tree Project
These meters measure plant water use (sap flow). This data can then be analysed with reference to data obtained on temperature, sunlight, humidity and wind direction. The schools collaborate by sharing data from each of the meters on the trees. Over 18 months of data have been collected. The data is available for anyone to use on the ICT international website http://ictcommunity.org/focus/?page_ id=97
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LIVING THE HAPPY DREAM As a young girl, Year 11 student Claire Protas knew she wanted to be a singer. Many years later with an EP recorded and available on iTunes, Claire is now living the dream.
The life of a PLC Sydney school girl can be classified as very different, and for me I have to say it is very different. But before I begin to explain why my life outside PLC is different and quite busy, I will start by sharing a little bit about myself. My name is Claire Protas and am currently in my first term of Year 12! Exciting and scary at the same time.
PLC Sydney / camphora
I have always been lucky to know exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up, and for a little nine-yearold girl to say to her parents “I want to be a singer” you can imagine that they thought this would be just a faze that almost every other little girl goes through, similar to how other young girls might say a princess or something else extravagant. For me however, the idea just stuck and has never left. I had always done piano lessons and loved to perform at any given moment. I also used to keep a journal and write down anything that I was feeling so I wouldn’t forget. When I was in about Year 6 I decided to venture into songwriting. I realised I had so many journal entries and I knew how to play piano, so one afternoon I sat down at my piano and started to write. Looking back at that song it is definitely not the best song I have ever written, however it was a
start and I was hooked. A couple of years later I received my first guitar for my birthday and after teaching myself the basic chords I wrote another song. There was something very different about guitar and I loved it just as much as piano. Fast forwarding a few months I knew I had written all these songs and I was determined to find a way to get them out and into the public. So with a demo recording of me singing and playing piano, I sent it off to any indie and major label I could think of that accepted submissions. Obviously I did not receive a response, so I then started to beg my parents to allow me to start putting my songs onto YouTube until they finally relented with a strong warning. After putting my songs on YouTube and doing YouTube for a while, I began to receive some views and feedback. I also uploaded my (very bad sounding) recordings of songs to any platform where I knew I could be heard. Then one day out of the blue I got an email from this guy who claimed to be an A&R person (the person who finds and nurtures new talent) from an independent production company who wanted me to independently write and record with them and organise a meeting. My mum and I showed up to the meeting and
before I knew it I was in the studio writing and recording my own three track EP. The whole experience was so rewarding. Since then I have been busy writing for an album, had radio airplay, have recently been to local radio for an interview and kept in contact with some exciting people in the business. This is currently my life outside PLC Sydney. As I mentioned, it can get very busy at times, but it is something I have found very worthwhile pursuing because if you don’t take up these opportunities you don’t want to ask yourself the question of “what if”. Claire Protas, Year 11
Scan the QR code with your digital device or visit iTunes (https://itunes.apple. com/au/album/wanted/ id859041359?i=859041403) to listen to and/or purchase Claire’s music.
Curgis, Mrs Hendriks and Mr Wishart took Emma Carnuccio, Isabelle Hooton, Catherine Taylor, Natalie Teh, Hayley Ng, Averlie Wang, Madeleine Maloof and Cailin Pascoe. Countries from around the world such as India, America, Britain, Russia, Mexico, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Australia gave presentations about their scientific ideas relating to current world issues suiting the theme ‘Science, Creativity, Life’.
We presented three projects: the effect of Xenical on the inhibition of lipase; the effect of greywater on mung bean sprouts; and the SMART Tree project. All three projects deal with current concerns in our world such as obesity, effective water use and climate change. The standard of the foreign presentations were extremely high, particularly the students from Saint Paul’s Coeducational College, Hong Kong; The Doon School, India; and Tonbridge
From 11 October to 18 October, eight students travelled to Tianjin in China to represent PLC Sydney at the 10th International Student Science Conference, hosted at Tianjin
School, United Kingdom who produced innovative and creative projects such as stem cell and heart regener≠ation, brain computer interfacing and investigating the effect of halophilic bacteria on the growth of salt-stressed barley. We also attended two scientific lectures titled The Quantum Touch of Bit and High Temperature Superconductors which gave us an insight into professional sciences in the world. During our trip, we developed close friendships with students from around the world, and were also able to immerse ourselves in Chinese culture. We visited cultural monuments such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and The Emperor’s Gardens. Other attractions such as the Boeing Composites Factory and the Tianjin Natural History Museum also contributed to our scientific knowledge of the production of aircraft materials and of prehistoric fossils.
We all thoroughly enjoyed visiting the cultural markets, as we all improved our bargaining skills and bought many souvenirs and traditional street food. We were fortunate enough to visit the Great Wall of China, where we took hundreds of photos of the breathtaking views and watched Madeleine play the bagpipes on the seemingly endless steps. Travelling to China was an eye-opening experience, as we left behind our westernised traditions and realised how privileged we are as a country after struggling with things such as the squat toilets and the pollution – features that are part of Chinese daily life. Not only did we learn about Chinese culture, we also learnt traditions and new phrases in different languages from the various countries that attended this conference. It was particularly amusing when we convinced the international students of Australian legends such as ‘drop bears’. Our highland dancer Cailin, and our bagpipers, Madeleine, Isabelle and Emma were privileged enough to perform Scottish pieces in front of Nankai’s student body, the international students and important school leaders as a part of the school’s 110th Anniversary celebrations.
Gwendalyn being presented her Gold award by Mr Tom Alegounarias, President of BOSTES
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This conference was an amazing scientific opportunity – not only did we share our scientific ideas, but we were also able to learn new ways to deal with international issues by using the insights from other schools.
PLC Sydney / camphora
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT SCIENCE CONFERENCE