10 minute read
Senior School
Year 12
It was important to do what we could to finish the year off well for our Year 12s. PLC Archivist Jane Dyer made sure the girls did not leave empty-handed as they headed home and into lockdown on Monday 3 August, taking with them the contents of their time capsules and so many happy memories of their time at PLC since Year 7.
After the completion of the General Achievement Test (GAT) on 7 October, the students received their special gift boxes and Year 12 jumpers and made a special sociallydistanced recording of the Leavers’ Assembly so parents will be able to watch at home instead of gathering on-site for the traditional final assembly.
Life at PLC continues on during lockdown
Whilst many people would think a Stage 4 lockdown means that everything stops, at PLC there is always something happening. Many people behind the scenes ensured academic learning was presented in new and exciting ways, our boarders enjoyed their third holiday period in lockdown and staff flexibly changed course to support the running of the College in new ways.
Boarders found so many ways to enjoy lockdown with campfires and camping on the Boarding House lawn, hide and seek in the Senior School building in the dark, breadmaking, pool parties and dressing up in an amazing array of costumes for dinner, were amongst some of the activities they enjoyed.
Many staff changed their regular work to support student supervision of assessments and off-site staff had daily deliveries of marking and resources by our wonderful Maintenance team.
PLC Activity Days
Bringing Joy and Raising Spirits
As the PLC Senior School settled into Melbourne’s first COVID lockdown and a daily routine of home isolation and online classes via Zoom, a small team of creative teachers got together to explore how the arts could enhance student wellbeing. To combat screen and Zoom fatigue, process challenging feelings associated with lockdown, improve physical activity levels and strengthen student connectedness to school and each other, the team developed a variety of engaging and unique activities that were collated into a WYSE website page. On Thursday 21 April, students and staff were given the day off from formal classes and the first ever PLC online Activity Day went live! As such a large scale, creative online project had not been facilitated at the College before, much thought went into creating activities that were inclusive and captivating for students from Year 7 right through to Year 12. Providing students with choice and freedom to select and participate in activities in a way that appealed to them was crucial to the day’s success. Some students chose to complete tasks individually, in Zoom friendship groups or in Zoom house groups. The creation of a live gallery, categorised into Houses, provided a platform where all shared work could be viewed instantaneously. Students were rewarded with a sense of achievement, positive peer review, community and house spirit. Activities ranged from outdoor scavenger hunts, to lip sync challenges, drawing and sewing activities, cooking bake offs and colour challenges. Each of the activities had clear, concise instructions and only required everyday materials found around the home. It was a delight to see the fun, quirky student work pop up on the website as the day progressed. The first activity day was so successful that three more activity days were held spanning right through to the end of lockdown 2. Congratulations and thank you to the team of teachers and IT support staff who made the magical days come alive: Jen Rivett, Amanda Snell, Cath Garrett, Ben Hudson, Elissa Payne, Victoria Turner, Gary Lang, Richard Squibb and Ramin Mehrpouya.
Jo Stackhouse Activity Day Team Leader
Poster by Alina
Year 9 Community in Action Outlook Program
The aim of this project was to encourage Year 9 students to engage in community service. Form and Social Action Captains began hosting zoom sessions where we discussed the importance of volunteering and how to narrow down the fields of actions which would be of interest to each individual. We planned our actions in our diaries and stated what we were going to do and why. We then collaborated with those who chose a similar field of interest for volunteering and began to plan ways that we could make a positive contribution.
Various actions chosen included writing letters to people in hospitals, creating workbooks for entertainment, picking up litter, designing posters to share and spread awareness of COVID, and making bags filled with essentials that were given to shelters.
The purpose was to lift people’s spirits, connect with those we may not have met before, inform others about ways to be safe and spread hope that next year would be a little brighter than this one!
Geographers
Geographers are always adapting to new environments and so it was that field work shifted online with Year 7s exploring their local community and reporting via Zoom and the Year 11 students completed an entire day exploring the Mornington Peninsula without leaving their desks. They investigated the impacts of coastal tourism and its future challenges on the Mornington Peninsula Shire by virtually exploring a large region of the coastal destination. They dived straight into map-reading and spatial skills by using topographic maps and navigating the Mornington Peninsula on Google Earth Pro. In groups of two and three, they parted ways to explore two different sites with their partners. Some virtually investigated Mornington and Mount Martha, another group explored McCrae and Rosebud and the final group visited Sorrento and Portsea. The girls met with Point Nepean park ranger Holly Langton on Zoom to ask questions about the impacts of tourism, learning about the endangerment of the Hooded Plover due to peak season disturbances. Pallavi Shridar, Honours graduate and former PLC alumnus, was the next Zoom guest and she discussed her thesis on this topic as well as the many considerations that go into data collection and analysis.
Writers Unite
Many literary events occurred online during lockdown. The keenly anticipated third edition for this year of the student newspaper ‘The Rumble’ edited by Keya Murty and Simran Khera (Year 11) was released. This edition gave us wonderful tips about surviving in isolation with great music, App and movie reviews, delicious recipes, and some wonderful contributions of writing and artistic works from across the Senior School.
Book week celebrations in the Junior School encouraged a love of reading and highlighted some much loved characters in the children’s costumes. 8C English contributed to ‘Love in a Time of Covid’ which was a chronicle/ website setup by New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera. He had high praise for our girls’ work:
“Your students’ contributions are perceptive, ingenious, and I like the way they articulate the views of Year 8 students. The sketches are subtextual, I like the way they make you think. What will be enormous is that the material gives the site an opportunity to reach out to other young women and men around the world and to inspire them to express themselves too. Tell the young ladies I am totally thrilled and do thank them all. I hope they enjoyed the process, and had fun, as much as I did looking at their work.”
– Much aroha, Witi
PLC Years 10-12 Poetry Competition
Our annual Senior Poetry Competition attracted an exceptionally high standard of writing. The pandemic meant that students explored complex ideas, and connected with others in that deeply human way which poetry makes possible.
The competition has been sponsored for a number of years by poet and Old Collegian, Anne Carson (1974), with the aim of encouraging and recognising budding PLC poets. Two Year 10 students, Faria Hosein Qazvini and Aarabi Kugathas, tied for equal first place. Faria wrote a moving poem about the deep roots of her culture, ‘Land of Poems and Pomegranates’. Aarabi took on the myth of Icarus and daringly rewrote it as a love story. Both winners received a $100 book voucher, provided by Anne Carson.
Britney Pham (Year 12), our school Vice Captain, and Simran Khera (Year 12) were highly commended. Britney’s poem gave voice to Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello, showing a stunning command of language. Simran’s poem took a moment familiar to every PLC student, ‘the usual stampede/of girls in blue’ at a music assembly, in a haunting exploration of pain and the power of music. In Year 10, Cassie Tudge’s poignant poem about death and new life was commended, along with a second poem by Faria Hosein Qazvini, which celebrated the love of books across time.
We took advantage of COVID-19 to hold a Zoom session where awarded poets met with English department staff and Anne Carson. Girls read their poetry to the group with beautiful poise and sincerity. They were able to receive feedback from Anne, Henry Jones, Patricia Shiel and Cathy Altmann.
It has been so encouraging to experience, in Anne’s words, ‘the sincerity and deep feeling of the girls’ work’. Each poet’s voice came through strongly, and it was a privilege to read their work.
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PLC Literature Festival 18 – 21 August 2020
It was great to see two Old Collegians amongst the special guest authors presenting at our PLC Literature Festival. Rebecca Lim (1989) and Anna Morgan (2008) joined a stimulating line up of writers and illustrators of children’s and young adult fiction who gave online presentations. Anna’s second book “Before the Beginning”, a novel for young adult readers is now available. It was a special honour to have Ursula Dubosarsky, Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020-2021 to open the much-loved annual Festival.
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Did you know, Ursula’s PLC Melbourne connections with the College stretch back to 1913, the year her great aunt, Olga, enrolled at PLC East Melbourne? It was also the year the PLC East Melbourne library opened.
Excerpt: Patchwork, Dec 1913. Source: PLC Archive “Many of these original PLC
East Melbourne Library books, were transferred to Burwood Senior School
Library in 1957 and relocated to the PLC Archive in 2005.” “It’s been a collaborative delight to enrich the
College’s corporate history and celebrate the combined legacy of memory, archives and libraries.” The Costello Family has maintained links with PLC from 1913-2020. PLC Archivist Jane Dyer has documented the many links over the decades between the Costello family and PLC.
1918
1994
1999 2003 2005 2011 2020 2020 Olga’s twin sisters, [Marion] Tasma and Norma, began their first year at PLC East Melbourne. Ursula Dubosarsky’s and Tanya Costello’s first cousin once removed, Jim Davidson AM, published a biography of Old Collegian Louise Dyer, “Lyrebird Rising”. Louise Hanson Dyer is the renowned founder of the French music publishing house L’Oiseau Lyre. Copies of Jim Davidson’s book are in the PLC Archive. One of the school choirs and the new home of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music are named in her honour. Ursula’s sister, Tanya Costello, served on the PLC Council Board (1999-2010). Ursula and Tanya’s grandmother was Norma Tiernan. Olga and Tasma were their great-aunts.
Source: https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/
venues/hanson-dyer-hall/ Jane Dyer was Tanya’s daughter, Madeleine Costello’s PLC Form Teacher Ursula’s niece, Madeleine Costello graduated with the PLC Class of 2005 Ursula’s niece, Phoebe Costello (School Captain) graduated with the PLC Class of 2011 Phoebe Costello joined the Old Collegians’ Association Committee Madeleine Costello employed as a teacher of Legal Studies at PLC. She was also one of the Old
Excerpt: Patchwork, May 1914 Source: PLC Archive
