Winter Walk for Homlessness

Am I so dependent on technology?

As I sit on the plane on my way to another Principal's meeting in Adelaide, I am experiencing an eerie sense of insecurity, given that my Laptop Computer is sitting unresponsive in my office and awaiting first aid and possibly transportation by air ambulance to an intensive care unit at Microsoft Hospital!

Now all is not lost as I do have my iPad to accompany me to Adelaide and of course my telephone is actually a very powerful computer in its own right. But at times like these, you do realise how much we all rely on technology and how much it complements our learning, living and celebrating. I also lament not having placed more of my files in the cloud, and I am thankful for the OneNote documents which I can access from anywhere and at any time. Who would have thought that I would have been talking about such a way of working even five years ago?

Such is our current existence, rapidly evolving, reliant and complemented by the wonders of technology and the talents of people who have sought better ways to process information, refine approaches and assist people to collaborate. Times like these when you lose access to the technology which has become such an intrinsic part of your lifestyle, make you also thankful for the way our College community is harnessing technology, and I offer thanks to our IT Team, Colin Langford, Craig Neumann and Sam Williams, for their leadership and service in this space. I also offer thanks to the College 's ICT Committee of Alex Nicholson, Kirby Turnbull, Alex Window, Liza Couzens, Scott Dickson, Colin Langford and Craig Neumann for their leadership of the College community in navigating the range of opportunities and icebergs in an ICT enhanced learning community.

Similarly, I am very appreciative of our staff who in their teaching and support services are exploring deliberately and creatively the way technology can complement service to our students and families. As an example I am delighted to see that teaching staff, with the support of Rowena Ulbrick, ICT and Learning Consultant, are utilising 21st century learning tools to complement student collaboration, inquiry and voice in the classroom. In such a context you can powerfully see the importance of our bring your own device strategy from years 8-12. I look forward to our Staff Conference during the Show Day, 20 October, when we will celebrate some of the learnings gained by the staff's deliberate action research into the learning environments they are creating, and the wonderful ways technology is enlivening learning in the classroom.

So now, back to the demands of the day. Where is that pen stashed somewhere in my bag...

On Sunday night after the Youth mass, we were fortunate to host a ‘Raise Your Voice’ forum which enabled the young people of our parish to have their say on things they like about the Church and things they would like changed. This was hosted by Peter Bierer from the Catholic Archdiocese for Youth and Young Adults who will report this back to Archbishop Wilson along with discussions from other parishes around the state.

On Monday, Peter spent some time with the group of 18 students who will attend the Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Sydney in December and helped them begin their preparations for this event. On Tuesday he joined us for the Whole School Mass before heading back to Adelaide. We greatly appreciate this visit and look forward to ongoing communication and collaboration with Peter and the COYYA team.

Family Games Night  - Friday 1 September  
Join us for a fun family games night on Friday 1 September, upstairs in the PRC. The evening has been organised by students attending the Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Sydney in December. The night promises to be loads of fun for all ages. BYO supper and drinks. For more details and to RSVP, see the poster that has been included in this newsletter.

Parish Mass
A reminder that Parish mass is held each Thursday of the term (except Week 1) and is led by a different class or year level each week.

Mass is held at 9:15am in the College Chapel and all parents, grandparents and friends are welcome to attend.

The roster for Term 3 masses is:

• Thursday August 17   Year 7
• Thursday August 24  Year 6
• Thursday August 31  Year 11
• Thursday September 7  Year 10
• Thursday September 14  Year 8
• Thursday September 21  Year 12
• Thursday September 28  Year 9

Michelle Coote | APRIM - Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission

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Friday 25 August (Week 5) - 9.00am in the Barrie Holmes Stadium. ELCC – Year 7.

Book Week 2017 asks your children to ‘Escape to Everywhere’; an exciting invitation with a world full of possibilities. One of the greatest joys of reading, for children and adults alike, is the opportunity to escape! Delve into our guide of ideas with your child to help decide their Book Week costume: will they escape to the past, a fantasy land or perhaps even another universe?

Escape to… the skies!
What better way to escape than to be the pilot of your own aircraft! The possibilities are endless; grab your pilot hat and fly away to an exotic island or perhaps even Antarctica!

Escape to… the past!
Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the prehistoric era, amongst the dinosaurs? This book week you can find out! Grab your best dinosaur outfit or skip brushing your hair to be the perfect caveman. Other historical characters perfect for book week include Vikings, queens or knights in shining (or alfoil!) armour.

Escape to… Neverland!
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Peter Pan! This Disney favourite is the perfect character to escape with this book week; easily recreated with tights and some green apparel. Or perhaps adorable fairy Tinkerbell is more your cup of tea – or Captain Hook!

Escape to… Mars!
Escape to another planet by dressing up as an astronaut! An alien or even a rocket could be other excellent space escape options.

Escape to… fantasy!
Don’t fancy time or space travel? Why not escape to a fantasy world and transform into a unicorn, an elf or fairy for book week!

With the magic of books comes endless possibilities! Where will Escape to Everywhere Book Week 2017 take you?

Chris Lloyd | Teacher Librarian

Meet our Library friend Bookie! You can see he is desperately escaping to everywhere.

Story writing
Write a short story about Bookie titled ‘The amazing escape’. Make sure you use lots of interesting action verbs. e.g. wriggling, tumbling, squeezing, swerving, sliding, clambering, crawling, grasping

Making
Use a variety of materials to make an escape vehicle or some other escape gadget for Bookie
Or
Use Minecraft (or another program) to design the place that Bookie needs to escape from. Make it extra dangerous. Take a screenshot and print it or send to Ms Lloyd.

Drawing
Design an escape map for Bookie to follow. You can draw it or use a computer program or app.

Please make sure you have your name and class on your entries, and submit to the Library by Friday 25 August.

Chris Lloyd | Teacher Librarian

Last Friday 11 August, some of our 8/9 music students entertained their junior schoolmates with a mini rock concert! The crowd enjoyed the show, plus the bands took advantage of the stage time to work on their performances, in preparation for their 'Rockband Tour' which begins next Wednesday.

The Scholastic Book Fair will be coming to Tenison Woods College again this term. It will be open to families for one week, from Thursday 31 August to Thursday 7 September.

Held in the staffroom, the Book Fair will open weekdays during two time slots each day; at 8.15am to 8.30am and re-open again at 3.20pm – 3.45pm.

There is always a great selection of books and stationary to purchase, and we have both cash and credit card facilities available.

Tenison Woods College receives a percentage of the sales which we can use to purchase items / books. The sales from last year bought a large selection of big books for the Junior School to use.

Should you have any questions, please email me at oppet@tenison.catholic.edu.au

Tina Opperman | Year 3 teacher, 3-5 Wellbeing Coordinator

Three of the Year 7 MacKillop House Leaders represented our College community at a Mass and celebratory activities at Mary MacKillop Memorial School last Tuesday 8 August. Jordan Stephens, Noah Sims and Alyssa Duncan were wonderful ambassadors for our school.

On Tuesday 8 August, a number of our Year 12 PE students travelled to Adelaide to compete in the SESSSA Open Boys and Girls Volleyball Pool B Tournament which was held on Wednesday 9 August at the Mars Sports Complex.

Within Year 12 PE, the students are able to choose which sports they would like to focus on throughout the year, and are assessed on both the theory and practical side of each sport chosen. This year one of the summative sports selected was Volleyball, and as the Year 12 students have their practical moderation at the end of Term 3, a Boys and Girls team was entered into the knockout volleyball tournament as competitive practice for the students. Although both teams didn’t win any games, they were able to gain skills to their serving, digs, sets and spikes, positions and most importantly team cooperation and working together on the court.

It was a great opportunity for our Year 12 PE students and we wish them the best of luck with their moderation and end of year exams.

Monday 21 August

• Book Week begins (until Friday)
• SSSSA Open Hockey
• Timor Leste Immersion Presentation Evening, 5.00pm, PRC Lecture Theatre

Tuesday 22 August

• 2018 Year 8 subject finalisation, Naracoorte, 5.30pm
• SSSSA 8/9 Hockey
• NAPLAN School Readiness Test

Wednesday 23 August

• Road Safety Training, 11.50am, PRC
• Year 8/9 Boys and Girls Football
• 2018 Year 8 subject finalisation, Mary MacKillop Memorial School Penola, 5.30pm
• Year 8/9 Rockband Tour begins (until Friday)
• SSSSA Open mixed hockey

Thursday 24 August

• 2018 Year 8 subject finalisation, Saint Anthony's Primary School Millicent, 5.30pm

Friday 25 August

• Book Week Parade, 9.00am, Barrie Holmes Stadium
• Junior School Assembly, 2.15pm, Barrie Holmes Stadium
• SAPSASA Regional Basketball Day, Mount Gambier Basketball Stadium
• Year 8/9 Boys Soccer
• 2018 Year 10 Web Choice selections

Sunday 27 August

• Youth Mass, 5.00pm, Saint Paul's Church

From 28 - 30 July three Year 9 students Dylan McCarthy, Liam Moulden and Edward Layzell participated in GovHack at Mount Gambier Library.

GovHack is now an annual volunteer run international competition and community development event, which brings together technology creatives and innovators from the private, public and government sectors with government data to explore and discover new ways to help create a better society. In 46 hours hackers form teams, identify problems to solve, build working prototypes, publish their code as open source, and make a short video showing what they did and why. Projects can include web, mobile or augmented reality applications, new analysis or even 3D printed visualisations to understand data and patterns.

Dylan, Liam and Edward named their team ‘56K’ and their idea was to create an application that taught children under the age of 13 how the iconic Great Barrier Reef is getting affected. The app is called Reef Dom. In the game the way you would level up is by buying more coral and getting experience from collecting the rubbish generated by the tourists visiting coral reef. Students implemented the app prototype in less than 40 hours and presented it as a video.

The educational aspect of the app are the random popups telling about events that are happening at the great barrier reef at the present time while this game is played. For example, a popup might say “Cleanup group cleaning waste from the great barrier reef”.

Their app prototype and the idea behind collecting the app data was highly appreciated by the organisers at the concluding ceremony. This game app idea has been included on the local, state and national prizes to be announced later in August.

We wish the team the best of luck in the competition, and congratulate them for their efforts on this project.     

Dylan McCarthy, Liam Moulden and Edward Layzell | Year 9 Students

The sound of argument filled the air at Wehl Street Theatre last week as the Mount Gambier Eisteddfod Debating unfolded across four days. Tenison Woods College fielded four teams: two in the Senior Secondary Division and for the first time, two in Primary Division 1.

The Senior Division was held on Wednesday 9 August. Our first team, consisting of debating debutante Matt Dell’Antonio and experienced debaters Alex Brodie and Evangelia Wichmann were up against Grant High School, debating the negative on ‘that the terrorists have won’. Despite our wide ranging definition and strong rebuttal, Grant emerged victorious. The second team of Portia Holdman (in her first debate), Caitlyn Poel and Baie Perryman successfully debated ‘that we are more prepared for a zombie apocalypse than a major natural disaster’. In a tightly fought debate, our use of humour with fact and well-researched rebuttal proved a winning combination.

The Primary Division 1 was held on Thursday 10 August, and we entered two teams of Year 7 students, none of whom had any experience or exposure to debating. Nevertheless, these students were keen to take on the challenge and to push themselves, which was fantastic to see. The topic was the same for each team: ‘that there is too much emphasis on fitness in schools’, with the teams taking up both affirmative and negative stances against Mulga Street Primary School. The affirmative team of Reuben van Eyk, Aiden Mustey and Alexa Balog controlled their nerves well to deliver well-prepared speeches, and were rewarded with a win. The negative team of Maddi Stevens, Sari Mutton and Edie Jones spoke with confidence and logic to effectively dismantle their opponents’ arguments and secure another victory.

The most pleasing aspect of the process this year was the number of new debaters willing to step up and learn some new skills, and the advice given by the experienced debaters to younger members. These skills will continue to develop the more they are used, and I encourage students interested in extending themselves and their confidence to try out the Debate Club, which meets every Friday at lunch, upstairs in the PRC.

Pictured (from left) : Aiden Mustey, Alexa Balog, Reuben van Eyk

Adam Taylor

School Photographs for 2017 will be taken on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 August. All students will have their photographs taken for school records. All students must be in their correct full winter uniform which includes

the Tenison Woods College jumper. A catch-up photo day has been scheduled for Monday 4 September.

ORDERS
Envelopes to order photographs have been distributed to students, with extra envelopes and family forms available from the Front Office. Students from Reception to Year 5 can bring back their photo envelopes prior to the day and pass on to their class teacher. Students in Year 6-12 are asked to bring their envelopes to the photographer on the day of the photos.

PAYMENTS
Payments can be made online (www.msp.com.au) quoting your child’s unique Shoot Key found on the envelope), or by cash in the envelope. If paying by cash, please enclose the correct money as no change will be given on the day.

FAMILY PHOTOS
Family photo envelopes need to be returned to the Front Office by Friday 18 August so times can be scheduled.

Next Monday 21 August at 5.00pm, the students who travelled to Timor-Leste in July, will be making a presentation in the PRC Lecture Theatre. Everyone is welcome to attend, particularly those who may be interested in being part of the 2018 immersion trip.

This is a scholarship sponsored by an anonymous benefactor from the St Pauls Parish. It is available to any current or prospective student of Tenison Woods College who is an 'active' member within the Mount Gambier parish.

The scholarship offers full tuition fees for the coming school year for the successful applicant.

Application forms detailing the qualification criteria can be obtained from the front office of the college and must be returned by the 8 September 2017.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an interview later in September.

Any questions can be directed to the Business Manager of Tenison Woods College, Mr. Neal Turley.

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An information evening for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) will be held on Thursday 24 August from 7.00pm-8.00pm in the ‘Gathering Space’ of St Paul’s Church.

If you know anyone who would like to know more about the Catholic Church, or who would like to become a Catholic, please ask them to contact Fr Michael Romeo beforehand on 8725 6566 or fr.michael.romeo@bigpond.com

Rev. Fr Michael Romeo | Assistant Priest
Mount Gambier Catholic Parish

• Tuesday 8.00am - 12.00pm
• Thursday 1.00pm - 5.00pm

Monday - TBA
Tuesday - Cassie Edwards
Wednesday - Emily Hart
Thursday - Lyn Wilson
Friday - Teresa Cain

Tenison Woods College
Shepherdson Road (PO Box 965)
Mount Gambier South Australia 5290

t: (08) 8725 5455 (Main Office)
f: (08) 8724 9303
t: (08) 8724 4650 (Senior School)
Absentee Line: (08) 8724 4659
OSHC Line: (08) 8724 4633

e: news@tenison.catholic.edu.au
w: www.tenison.catholic.edu.

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