It’s hard to believe that first term has come to an end.

It has been an extremely busy term one. I would like to thank all members of our community, parents and carers, students and staff for their hard work, dedication, and willingness to achieve their best. We have faced many challenges, however we have achieved many great outcomes.

There have been several successful events in the past month:

• Swimming sports
• A variety of different sporting competitions
• Open Day for the Secondary School
• Many excursions
• Parent Teacher night

Just to name a few. A very busy term indeed!

Thank you to all staff who have organised these events for our students.

Parent Teacher Interviews were held on Tuesday the 5^th of April. It was great to see so many parents attend so that they can receive feedback on how their students are performing and ways they can improve. It was also a great opportunity for me to talk to parents about Carwatha College P 12 and all of the great things which are happening.

Discussions between parents, staff and students reinforce our positive relationships and partnerships within our school community. I encourage students to take steps this term break to act on the advice and recommendations provided by our professional teaching staff at the Parent Teacher Interviews and to read their reports closely—this will make a tremendous difference to their growth and learning.

Our first Primary College Open Day will be on May 3rd. If you know of any parents in the area who have students starting Prep in 2023, please let them know the date and encourage them to attend. If people are unable to attend on the day and would like more information about the college, please contact me to have an appointment.

I have been running numerous tours and conducting many enrolments interviews every week this year. It has been great to see the interest from our community in the school and to hear the positive messages our parents and families are sharing about their experiences at Carwatha College P 12.

Thank you.

The new school council for 2022 will have their first meeting next term. It has been great to have so many parents and staff interested in joining Council and we will be having an election in week 1, term 2 to finalise our committee.

I wish you all the best for your holidays and look forward to working with you closely next term.

Term 2 will commence on Wednesday April 27th. I hope all students have a great break and return to school ready to do their best.

Pat Mulcahy - College Principal

The 2022 year has started on a positive note, despite Covid restrictions and the introduction of Rapid Antigen surveillance testing. It has been great to reconnect with students and welcome so many new students and their families to Carwatha College.

With the recent appointment and promotion of some outstanding educators and the establishment of our new House system, I am very excited and optimistic about the year ahead and the future of Carwatha College P-12.

In 2022, we will place a strong emphasis on improving students’ writing across the College. It is important for students to effectively communicate their ideas/responses in a written format. In the final years of schooling this skill is crucial in achieving excellent results.

Curriculum Area Leaders (CALs) are currently identifying five core values that underpin our written, taught and assessed curriculum. These values will drive our future direction and guide our curriculum documentation and decision making.

Secondary CALs are also identifying the ‘head, heart & hand’ of each subject – what we want students to know, do and be. This work will help us develop a strong, selective, and sequential P-12 curriculum.

Our Staff Day (student free day) on Tuesday 26 April will see the launch of the Department of Education’s Professional Learning Communities (PLC) initiative.

The purpose of this day will be to introduce and contextualise the rationale and intentions of Professional Learning Communities. Developing teachers’ understanding of the cycle of improvement which underpins all the work of PLCs.

The quality of teaching is the most powerful lever schools have to increase student learning. Evidence from high-performing school systems around the world shows teaching quality improves when teachers work together in professional Learning communities.

Our first teaching and Learning Inquiry will focus on improving our students’ writing across the College. Each PLC will examine student data/evidence and identify an area of writing they will focus on with the aim of improving students’ outcomes in this area.

We look forward to sharing the results of our work in this area with you in the months to come.

Mrs Rachel George - Assistant Principal

What a fantastic first term of school it has been for this wonderful group of Preps.

It has been a term of fun, friendship and firsts.

From the excitement of our first ever day at school to our first excursion to Legoland!

Learning letters and numbers, starting to read, write and count.

We planted flowers and herbs in our new garden, made new friends, celebrated harmony day and learned about each other’s cultures. We celebrated a lot of birthdays and let’s not forget the special addition to our classroom … Archie!

We are definitely ready for the holidays but cannot wait for the exciting adventures and learning Term 2 will bring.

Here are a few comments about school so far:

“I love making new friends”

“I love reading and our characters of the day”

“School's the best”

“My brain is getting so big and now I am really smart”

“woof, woof”

Miss Levy - Classroom Teacher and Archie

We have had an awesome start to 2022!

We have all had fun, played games and learned many new things together.

Here are a few comments from the students…

Areba – I like meeting my new friends.

Liana – I love my teacher and my class

Logan – It is awesome, I get Popsicle sticks and prizes when I do great work!

Kristian – I love coming to school to learn new things.

Sajad – I like writing, it is my favourite part of learning.

We have been busy learning to read and improving our reading levels.

Every student has tried their best to write about our experiences, both at school and on the weekend. We have been writing about some of our favourite things and describing characters.

These students love writing about…

Rizwan – I liked writing about our excursion to Lego land.

Lisa – I like writing about a dog turning red.

Annabel – I love writing about my family

Phoebe – I love writing about playing and what happens on the weekend.

Izack – I like writing about the things I play with at school.

Iris – I like Free Writing Friday, I can write about my cat.

In Maths we have been working on Place Value, Time, Counting and Addition. It has been amazing to find out what we know about particular numbers during our many number chats where we discuss all the things we know about a number.

What do you know about the number 18??

Daniel – 1 and 8 make the number 18

Luis – double 9 is 18!

Vanessa – there is one 10 in 18

Moscho – 2 groups of 9 equals 18

Amel – there are 18 ones in the number 18

Everyone has enjoyed the specialist classes and our excursion to Lego Land. At Lego Land we built relationships, built cars to race down a racetrack and used our imagination to make a season inspired scene. It was an adventure. The bus trip alone was a first for some children and everyone was exhausted by the end of the day.

Anhad – I liked the moving Lego people.

Olly – I loved the rides and building a car, then racing it against Mrs.McPhie!

Poppy – I love PMP!

Roya – I liked making a snake in Art.

The first term in our new class is almost over! It has been busy and loads of fun! I can’t wait to see how we all succeed and challenge ourselves in Term 2!

Thanks for your support,

Mrs Sonia McPhie  - Classroom Teacher

What an incredible start to the school year for 1/2A! I am so excited to be teaching our awesome students this year. They all look so smart in school uniform and have settled in quickly to the routines at school and our classroom. They are feeling safe and happy at school and are building strong friendships.

We’ve had many exciting learning experiences in our classroom this Term. We started with a huge focus on our school values and rules, and I am so proud of our students who are doing their best to follow our classroom and school expectations. I’m so impressed with how our students have been using the reading strategies they are learning, and the excellent Home Reading routine they have developed.

They love writing stories and recounts, and are so proud of their remarkable efforts. Our students have amazed me with their Mathematics abilities in Number and Place Value, Data, Time, Addition and Subtraction.

Harmony Day was such a success for us in 1/2A! We looked amazing in our cultural outfits, and wearing orange to represent harmony. We learnt so much about cultural diversity and belonging. Of course, the food we ate for our multicultural lunch was scrumptious! It was so good to see our students trying out food from different cultures.

Thank you parents and carers for your continual support in our learning programs and activities. We’re really looking forward to many exciting activities and learning next term.

Enjoy the term break!

Mrs Elaine Abraham - Classroom Teacher

2/3H have made a wonderful start to the year and have had a fantastic first Term of school!  2/3H have settled nicely into the classroom and our routines. They have shown great interest and engagement in their learning and have begun to grow as learners and as members of Carwatha P-12.

This term we have achieved a great number of things as a class. We have been building positive relationships, working hard every day on our reading strategies and our writing, and we have completed some fantastic narrative stories, along with some lovely letters about our favourite things to do at school. We have been doing some fantastic work in Maths surveying our classmates, collecting data and creating graphs.

In addition to all our hard work in the classroom 2/3H have also been working hard in their specialist classes and have received both the Art and STEM award in our last Assembly!

Earlier this term we also had the excitement of celebrating Harmony Day, our class did a great job embracing and celebrating the different cultures in classroom and school, sharing some delicious cultural foods and wearing orange or their cultural outfits.

What an eventful term we have had! We are looking forward to the many exceptional things we will do next term.

Miss Zoe Hrissinis - Classroom Teacher

We have had a very exciting start to the term in grade 3/4F.

In week 1, students had the opportunity to celebrate the beginning of the Lunar New Year – the Year of the Tiger. On the 1^st of February, students participated in various activities during class time to further their understanding and celebrate this important event with cultural and historic significance.

On the 21^st of March, students celebrated Harmony Day. Throughout Harmony week students focused on diversity, fostering inclusiveness, respect, and the idea that people of all different cultures can make a valuable contribution to society.

The grade 4’s also participated in the year 4-12 Swimming Carnival this term. The students participated in various events and competed against students from the same age group. Early next term, all students will take part in the P – 12 Athletics Carnival.

In Numeracy this term, students have been focusing on Number and Place Value, Addition, Subtraction, Data Representation and Interpretation as well as Time. Students have also been encouraged to practice their times tables at home.

In Reading this term, students have been learning about different strategies they can use to deepen their understanding of the books they read. Some of these strategies include Predicting, Inferring, Making Connections, and Solving Words. Also, in Writing this term students began to focus on Persuasive and Narrative writing.

We have focused on Civics and Citizenship for Integrated Studies this term. We spent the first half of the term looking at the levels of government and law making and shifted our focus to Global Sustainability Goals for the second half of the term.

Over the past few weeks, the grade 3 students have been preparing to sit their NAPLAN assessment which will be held early next term. Students have been participating well during these practise sessions. With this positive attitude and support from the teachers, I’m certain the grade 3’s will be well prepared to sit their first NAPLAN assessment next term.

Grade 3/4F have made a great start to the term!

Miss Shalani Fernando - Classroom Teacher

It has been a very busy and exciting term for the students in grade 4/5E.

Some of the grade 5 students have been familiarising themselves to their new leadership roles. Congratulations to all the new Learning House Ambassador Assistants in grade 5. Chelsea Jeffery (Blue), Chinnu Joshi Arvind (Purple), Madison McIvor (Red) and Chan Yoon (Green).

Another special congratulation goes to Matthew Nicolitsis for becoming the SRC treasurer. These students are dedicated to making the school a fun and safe place and I am excited to see what they do this year in their new roles.

In Reading this term, students have been learning about different strategies they can use to gain a more developed understanding of the book. Some of these strategies include Predicting, Inferring, Making Connections and Solving Words. Also, in Writing this term students began to focus on Persuasive and Narrative writing.

In Numeracy this term, students have been working closely with Place Value, Addition, Subtraction, Measuring Time and Collecting Data and displaying it on different types of graphs (bar graphs, tallies, stem and leaf plots and pictographs).

Students have been developing different strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems and they have been working with these topics to understand how they are inverse operations. Our focus for the end of the term will be working on different investigations to incorporate the four operations to encourage students to use their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

It has been an awesome start to the year in 4/5E and we are looking forward to Gala Day and Athletics day in Term 2.

Miss Olivia Edwards - Classroom teacher

Students in 6B have had a fabulous start 2022.

They have settled in to their new place as the oldest students in the school and are living up to the responsibilities that go with this position. A big congratulations to our new school captains: Chantelle Doleman and Aliyah Stasiak. They have already excelled in their role and we look forward to seeing more from them throughout the year.

Congratulations to Evie and Harley for their roles as Learning House Ambassadors. Our new Junior School Captain is Sabra Jukes, Jo Jo Hai Far is our Environment Leader and Danzon Winsley is our Wellbeing Officer. I would also like to congratulate Jacob Garrard on his role as the Art Leader and Gabi Raswoko and Andrej Trajkoski in their roles as Curriculum Leaders.

Students had a great time at the College Swimming Carnival participating in both the primary events and timed swimming events.

On Wednesday March 23, 4 of our Primary Leaders attended the National Young Leaders Day at the Melbourne Convention Centre. This was an exciting opportunity for them to participate in a conference with presentations by people with inspiring stories.



Finally, Zip, will be a member of our class for the rest of term 1. We are looking forward to having lots of fun experiences with him and his cheeky personality.

Grade 6 Art - Self Portraits

 Year 5 students were challenged to be creative with their self portrait photo. Then, cutting out a section of their face, they used a lead pencil to draw it back on.

Skills developed:

• tracing contour lines (outlines)
• shading different values of grey (lighter and darker tones)
• smudging with a tissue to blend for a smooth skin texture
• applying hair texture

Amazing work grade 6’s!

Grade 1/2 A - Pete Cromer Inspired Birds

Inspired by the artwork of Australian Pete Cromer (below), students created a bird of their own.  First, they used water colour paints and worked collaboratively to create interesting patterns on paper. Then, cutting and pasting this paper to form a body before adding an eye, beak, wings etc. with coloured paper.

Grade 2/3 H - Paper Weaving

Students learnt the art of paper weaving. They carefully cut a loom and wove paper under and over. 

Using crayons and water colour paints, they created their own abstract painting containing different lines, shapes and colours.  They tore the paper into strips for the owl’s wings, ears and feet.

Then, the students created a cylinder to form the owl’s body.  They used chalk pastels, to draw a background for their owl. Hoot, hoot!

Grade 3/4 F and 4/5 E - Maasai Paintings

Students studied the patterns and colours of the African Maasai tribal members clothing and jewelry.  They designed and drew their own Maasai women, men and animals.  They experimented with painting on calico (fabric) using water colour paints and a range of brush sizes.  Students had to concentrate to keep the paint from mixing with other colours, and staying within the shapes.

Prep L and Prep/1 M - Self Portraits

The Prep and Grade 1 students have been enjoying their weekly Art class.  They have been learning how to care for art room painting equipment and how to put on and take off their art smocks (apron).

The students painted a picture of themselves.  They then painted horizontal stripes for a background. They carefully cut around their portrait and pasted it onto their stripes. Look at those proud smiles!

In STEM students have been learning about the Physical Sciences. Students have explored the concepts of forces, including gravity, friction, magnetic forces and force as a push or pull.

Students in PL and P/1M have explored making pushes and pulls (forces) with their bodies and how pushes and pulls can make toys move. Students in 1/2A and 2/3H have been using forces to create a Rube Goldberg Machine (a contraption that does something simple in a complex way).

Students have explored different machines (ramps, pulleys and levers) that can be used to make forces and have used these concepts to make their own complex Dog Feeding machine.

Students in 3/4F and 4/5E have learnt about magnetic forces and friction. They have used their learning to create a game that works by using magnetic forces.

Students in 6B have explored electrical energy. They have learnt about how energy is transferred and transformed within electrical circuits. To demonstrate their learning students have built a model that transforms electrical energy into light, movement or sound energy.






The new Primary gardens are looking great.

Flowers are beginning to bloom, the herbs are looking healthy and our seedlings are growing well. The students are watering, weeding, planting seeds then re-planting seedlings. They have mulched and prepared garden beds for more planting. Students are able to understand the growth process, by taking care of tiny plants until they are fully grown and can be used in cooking.

The worm farm is getting regular food from each Primary classroom. All fruit scraps are re-cycled by over a thousand worms. We also have two compost bins to take the rest of the food scraps to reduce the amount of rubbish we produce per day. A big thankyou to the Grade 5 and 6 students who regularly empty bins and clean them out.

The downstairs garden is also flourishing! The lettuce, spinach, beetroot, tomato and pumpkin plants are taking off. A big thankyou to everyone who has been involved, especially Stuart Johnstone who set up all the garden beds and continually maintains the area.

All Primary Grades were involved in Clean up Australia Day this term. We cleaned up the playground and garden beds around the school throughout one week. Then we audited the bags of rubbish collected. It was amazing to count how many pieces of rubbish we had dropped, 623 in total! We picked up 90 chip packets, 55 pieces of paper, 45 plastic lids, 134 random plastic pieces, 38 straws and much, much, more! 

We shared this information at the Primary Assembly and asked everyone to think about where their rubbish goes and to please put all rubbish in the bin! I do believe there is a reduction in the amount of litter we currently see in the playground.

Our focus next term will be paper recycling in the classrooms and we will continue to grow produce and invite groups of students to cook with our own vegetables and herbs.

Mrs Sonia Mcphie and the Environment Team!

How to start a review of term 1? I think congratulations are in order to all staff, students and parents. Enough has been said of the past two years, but one cannot discount that 2022 has presented its own set of challenges and adjustments to the way in which we live, as we negotiate new isolation protocols, the changing landscape of working life and the ever-present spectre of COVID.

For many the feeling of uncertainty continues to challenge our resilience and adaptability. So, when I say congratulations, it is sincere, and in many ways undersells the achievement of completing the term successfully. Well done, and take this momentum into term 2, build for success, work hard and look out for one another.

For some term 1 has been challenging both emotionally and academically. Perhaps the work has proved difficult and at times overwhelming. Maybe the rigours of VCE, and the expectations of hard work and the reward of success have become a distraction rather than a source of motivation. This is normal, and an experience many teachers share as they endeavor to instill high expectations in all students.

Whatever the truth of term 1 is for you, know that the Carwatha community is here to support each student in achieving their potential. Reach out to your teachers, House Learning Leaders and our Wellbeing Department at any time for support.

At this time, it is probably a great opportunity to introduce our Red Learning House Ambassadors for 2022:

• Peter Vo
• Seneja Alles
• Kiki Symeonidou-Syvridou
• Kiyanna Matin

• Lana Vitor
• Joushua Grace
• Isabella McIvor
• Rudrani Balijepally

It must be said that when interviewing for these positions, what stood out was each student’s desire give back to their school Community. The welfare and success of their peers was paramount to their interest in becoming a leader. Well-done, we look forward to working with you, and watching your leadership skills grow over the course of 2022.

What else can be said of a whirlwind term 1? We have elected our House Ambassadors, kick-started our new Learning House structure and begun in earnest the search for an inspiring house name!

We have welcomed 60 new year 7 students to the secondary community and number of new staff. The annual Swimming Carnival was held earlier this term, diligently presided over by Sports Coordinator Mr Antony. Well done Mr Antony, it was an enjoyable day for all, and a great way to kick start a new era of House rivalry!

What next? Firstly, in term 2, we will announce the name of our house. If you have a patron in mind that exemplifies our school values please don’t forget to have your say. The Athletics Carnival will occur in week 2 of term 2, in addition to several other, smaller events to raise the profile of Red House and contribute to the greater school community.

I look forward to working with Red House students and encourage parents to introduce themselves at our Open Night and Parent Teacher Night. Finally a big thanks to Ms Rentzis, the Assistant Learning House Leader for Red house. Ms Rentzis has helped me transition to life at a new school with patience, compassion and a passionate focus for how great our house is now and what it can be in the future. Thank you Mrs Renztis.

Mr Landini - Senior School Leader/Head of Red House

This year has been the beginning of our new Learning House system, and term one has given us the opportunity to start to build the foundations of a successful House.

We’ve had assemblies to launch our Learning House, get to know each other, and celebrate our successes. Our Senior Learning House Ambassadors and Primary Ambassadors were appointed at the end of last year, and we are delighted to have elected our Junior Learning House Ambassadors.

Our Leadership Team for 2022 is:

Senior Ambassadors

• Bezawit Basse
• Samuel Norton
• Thu Doan
• Nilu Perera

Junior Ambassadors

• Caitlin Hamilton
• Glenn Ng
• Tianah Liagourdis
• Sofia Kaur

Primary Ambassadors

• Chelsea Jeffery
• Victor Hong-Aung

We look forward to working with this team to build our House culture and develop their leadership skills across the year.

Our first major House event was the College Swimming Carnival. It was great to see a lot of Blue coloured clothes and facepaint. We were proud of our students who jumped in the pool and had a go, as well as those who cheered on the sidelines! Congratulations to Sam Norton, Nilu Perera and Georgia Deed and Vince Mayer who were Age Group Champions.

We’ve also had some students achieve great results on their V3 Progress Reports in February who we celebrated at a House Assembly, along with awarding our February Students of the Month. The following student were awarded GPA Stars for a GPA of 3.2 for three consecutive reporting cycles: Thu Doan, Nilu Perera, Felicity Liagourdis, Jessica Ho, Christian Tran, Justin Tran, John Kalomiris, Farrell Raharjo, and Norah Hoang. We also congratulate Caitlin Hamilton and Junior Kareroa for being awarded Blue House Student of the Month Award for February!

In the final weeks of the term our students had the opportunity to nominate inspirational Australians who we could name our Learning Houses after. We can’t wait to present the shortlist and vote at the beginning of term 2 to find out our Learning House name!

Sofia Kaur (Year 9) has written below about the experience so for being an ambassador for blue house:

We selected 4 students that embrace the four school values, to be our junior Blue House ambassadors. Being a Blue House ambassador means that you get to represent the rest of the house and your fellow house members. It’s a great opportunity for leadership and to branch out and try something new. These ambassadors, along with the rest of the Blue House team are working hard to make Blue House the best house it can be.

We’ve had meetings to establish how Blue House members who aren’t a part of the team can also contribute their ideas. We decided to make a Google Doc that is accessible to everyone in Blue House and a recommendations box for those who prefer to do it the old fashion way.

The recommendation box will be placed in J Block and the Google Doc will be posted online. We want everyone to feel as included as possible. We aim to make this house feel like a family.

At some of our assemblies we created games to get to know each other. A popular game that many of our students liked was ‘get to know you bingo’. With this game the students got the opportunity to walk around and play bingo with each other’s name.

There were many boxes with different little fun facts and everyone had to go around and ask other members of Blue House if any of those facts were true about them. So if one of your boxes says ‘I am left handed’ you have to go find a left handed person and then write their name down.

The annual swimming carnival was an amazing event for Blue House. We all got together to talk about a select theme that the entire Blue House could dress up as. We had so many members in Blue House participate by dressing up, cheering from the sidelines or swimming. We won many races and some students even participated in every single race.

We can’t wait to see what Blue House can achieve together in 2022!

Mr Roberts - Junior school Leader/Head of Blue House 
Mr Brown - Head of Blue House

What an amazing start to the year for our Purple Learning House students! In the first term of our new Learning House system, the students of Purple have demonstrated incredible team work, pride and peer support in all House events and activities, but also in their daily school life.

It is this culture amongst our students that has led to hugely successful College events for us, including being announced 2022 Swimming Carnival Champions and the current Learning House Points Champions. More importantly, it is what has led to blossoming friendships between students of different year levels, with many students taking on varied and exciting new leadership opportunities and personal triumphs in the areas of academic and sporting excellence.

A focus for the start of the year has been on recognising and celebrating students demonstrating positive learning and social behaviours. The new Learning House Points has had students awarded points by staff when they model the School Values - Respect, Commitment, Team Work and Excellence – inside and outside of the classroom.

Congratulations to the following Purple students who have been identified by staff as going above and beyond in this area:

Purple Students of the Month:

Dion Upokoina (Year 7) – Dion is always looking after others and places the needs of those around him before himself

Ro Mon Lay (Year 12) - Ro Mon has worked diligently to catch up on all work and is consistently striving to do her best on assessments.

Purple Highest individual Learning House Points:

Primary – Raymond Junior Loulanting (Grade 5)

Secondary – Jazhzara Tennent (Year 7)

Also, congratulations to our Learning House Ambassadors who have shown exceptional leadership qualities in the organisation and running of Learning House assemblies, Learning House activities such as Purple Cupcake Day and competitions such as Music Trivia, Estimation Jars and Wooden Number Toss. These students are true role models of our School values.  We would like to thank them for their work so far and we are extremely excited to see their vision for the remainder of the year come to light. Well done:

Purple Primary Ambassadors – Tami Nguyen and Chinnu Joshi Arvind

Purple Secondary Junior Ambassadors – Evaline Banzoro, Zuha Mohamed Zakir, Angie Trajoska and Ivona Sukurica

Purple Secondary Senior Ambassadors – Ro Mon Lay, Cassie Lazarakis, Wyanet Bonne and Nikila Weerasignhe

An important undertaking in the past term has been the establishment of the Learning House Names and all Purple students have been actively involved in brainstorming, nominating and shortlisting potential names. Based on the community-decided theme of, Inspiring Australians who embody the School Values and who reflect the diverse cultural range of our College, Purple students spent time working together in cross year level teams to find and propose worthy identities.

The atmosphere during these sessions was fantastic with all students intent on identifying the best candidates and names like Vivian Bullwinkel, Fred Hollows, Eddie Mabo and Najeeba Wazefadost being enthusiastically discussed and judged. We are all looking forward to the next stage of the process with students presenting biographies to the community and a vote to take place. This has certainly been another example of how Carwatha Students are invested in providing their voice to decisions and being a part of whole school improvement.

The term has been packed with incursions, excursions, camps, events and carnivals, and we know like us, Purple Learning House students will be looking forward to what Term 2 has to bring. We hope all our students have a restful break over the holidays in preparation for what will be another great term together.

Ms Andrew - Head of Purple House
Ms Witt - Head of Purple House
Mrs McPhie - Primary Liason/Primary Classroom Teacher

To start off, we would like to introduce ourselves to the Carwatha College Community. The Emerald House Leaders for 2022 are:

•          Mitchell Hammond - Head of House
•          Siena Go - Assistant Head of House
•          Tracy Elias - Primary Liaison - Primary Leading Teacher

The Emerald Learning House has had a successful start in 2022 and are planning to do much more for the future. This term the Emerald Learning House have: chosen their Primary, Junior and Senior House Ambassadors, achieved many house points, been part of many assemblies, and were competitive at swimming sports.

As part of the Emerald House Ambassador process, students were required to apply and interview for the position. We would like to congratulate and acknowledge our Learning House Ambassadors for being chosen to represent Emerald as a leaders. Our Learning House Ambassadors have already made a positive impact and contribution to our Learning House. Our 2022 Emerald House Ambassadors are:

Emerald House Senior Ambassadors:

•          Angelina Baika
•          Sarah Dib
•          Nurija Hota
•          Chloe Malkocer

Emerald House Junior Ambassadors:

•          Keziah Embido
•          Hassan Hassan
•          Emania Leilua
•          Layla Widan

Emerald House Primary Ambassadors:

•          Evie Bury
•          Chan Yoon

Students in Emerald House have consistently demonstrated the four school values throughout this term. Students have been receiving Learning House points every day, making a huge contribution to the total score. Emerald currently sits in second place in the total Learning House Points tally.

We are so proud of the Emerald House for participating and getting involved in the Swimming Sports. Although we came third, students supported and encouraged each other, dressed up in green and a great number of students participated in events - so thank you to everyone that got involved. 

We have also conducted a few assemblies where our Learning House Ambassadors have presented and run activities. During our assemblies we have acknowledged our GPA stars as well as identifying the student of the month of February - well done to those who have made a positive impact on their own learning. 

We are currently in the process of choosing a name for our Learning House. During one of our assemblies, we had students in mixed year level groups collaborating together to research relevant names for the theme of a multicultural, inspirational Australian. The Learning House Ambassadors have shortlisted the options and we will be ready to choose our name at the start of term 2. 

Well done to all Emerald House Students on such a positive start to 2022. We look forward to all the exciting events and happenings to come.

Ms Go - Head of Emerald House
Mr Hammond - Head of Emerald House

Carwatha’s new Year 7 students have done a fantastic job of settling into Secondary School routines in their first term. Through orientation activities, wellbeing day, peer support and an excursion they’ve built friendships, got to know staff and learned what success in secondary school looks like.

J Block has been buzzing with activity, laughs and smiles as they have got used to their lockers, their subjects, their teachers and made friends with their classmates. Early in term 1 we had a half-day Wellbeing Day with students. We played games to get to learn each others' names and those of their teachers, and also did activities about how to be successful in secondary school. The year 7’s had a house competition with some other activities in the afternoon with Emerald coming out as champions for the day!

Two of our Year 7s, Jahzara Tennent & Jayde Bury, have written a short account of the day:

“On February 23, Year 7 students got to have a Year 7 Wellbeing Day. This was an experience for all Year 7s to get to know each other and teachers too. Throughout the day students were in groups and competed in fun games. There was a barbecue available for year 7 students at lunchtime where students got to have a burger from the barbecue and a drink if they chose. We encouraged students to participate in most events. It was an enjoyable day for everyone and everyone participated.”

We looking forward to a year filled with fun and achievement with our Year 7s this year.

Mr Roberts - Junior school Leader/Head of Blue House 

Bunsen burner certificates

All Year 7 students have now attained their Bunsen burner licences!

This was a very exciting day for many as the Bunsen burner flames get as hot as 1,500°C! Congratulations to all students for bravely using Bunsen burners for the first time. Some of you even used matches for the first time too!

Everyone demonstrated that they could identify the parts of a Bunsen burner and operate it safely in a lab. Looking forward to seeing you all use these lab essentials to heat various items over the years.

Our ovens are designed with delicate precision to produce the most efficient cooking device.

For the past week, we have been planning and designing our ovens, each oven is equally unique. The making process was quite quick, so we were able to do experiments early on. In most of our experiments, it was successful, it was able to melt butter, chocolate, and marshmallows.

By Neisen Huliganga - Student

Hungry anyone?
How about a smore cooked in a self-made solar oven!
8C has just finished our solar-oven project where us year eights built working solar-ovens with little more than foil, cardboard, cling wrap and tape. Yep, you heard me right, working solar ovens made with craft materials! Ovens that got to over 70°C, ovens that melted butter and chocolate into hot pools of liquid. For this project, 8C was split into small groups and made their own designs for solar-ovens to test and make a presentation on. Here are the solar ovens that 8C made

By: Alexander Prentice - Student

In Year 9 Timber, students have been showing their accuracy and skills using hand tools to make a 3 piece Burr puzzle.

This little brain teaser is an interlocking puzzle where there is only 1 solution to take it apart or put it back together, without breaking it of course!

Mr Qi - Technology Teacher

Our Year 10 Crime Scene Investigation students have been working hard to solve crimes this term! The focus of the class is on laboratory skills, observation skills and science communication skills.

Every Tuesday we get to hone our practical skills, which we then discuss and write about throughout the week. Students have been collecting fingerprint evidence from various items found at the “crime scene” in S1 and have learnt how to cross check these latent prints (prints accidentally left by the suspects) against the exemplar prints (those we have on a database) in order to catch the culprit.

They have also been learning about some of the other evidence that can be found at crime scenes including shoe prints and impressions. Here you can see students creating a cast from a sand mould of a shoe impression in order to match it to a shoe! These are both challenging tasks, but ones that are actually used by forensic investigators!

Introducing Year 12 Captains

Hi everyone, my name is Josh Newton, and I am proud to be selected as one of the three College Captains at Carwatha College P-12. I have been at this school since year 7, and I have tried to make the most of every year by going for at least one leadership role, and by aiming to be a high achiever. In year 12, I am finding that all of my classes are challenging, but not too difficult to the point where I cannot do well if I put in hard work.

I have also found that year 12 has been great because I get to spend my days with teachers who want and support every student to achieve the best results they can, but also around other students who push each other to doing better than they thought.  

When I am not studying to help me excel in Legal Studies, English, Computing or Health, the subjects I am studying this year, I tend to listen to music or watch movies to pass the time, or play soccer and basketball with my friends during the breaks between classes. After year 12, I am hoping that I can take up tertiary studies in business and commerce, but for now, I am focusing on making the most of year 12 and also supporting my school, being a College Captain, as I believe that I must give back to my school community.

Joshua Newton - College Captain

Hey everyone! I'm Farrell, one of the three College Captains at Carwatha College. I am one of the newer students at Carwatha, coming here at the start of Year 11, returning from overseas. As an aspiring future engineer, I find myself to be interested in technological and scientific advancements in the realm of biomechanics and biomedicine.

Hence, I strive for academic success, aiming for a high ATAR with ambitious study scores. Fortunately, this school allows me to enhance my studious habits, enabling high achievements throughout all my classes. The small class sizes prove to be beneficial in terms of developing helpful relationships with teachers, which I have found to be personally advantageous over largely populated schools that I previously attended.

So far, I have been gladly enjoying year 12 and its planning and team building activities, such as the swimming carnival. Being in Year 12 has been quite thrilling and a whirlpool of emotions, but lovely nonetheless! Personally, I have been appreciating my physics and mathematical studies with my friends and we are all motivated to excel in our studies this year!

Farrell Raharjo - College Captain

Hello! I am Génesis, the Art Captain for this year.

While I believe I am average at my studies, I have been interested in art since I was very little. People around me have supported me and have given me the motivation to improve my skills, and here I am, taking on this responsibility for my school. My aspiration for this year is to fulfill my job as a captain by creating some pieces for the V3 Centre, to give it a bit of life as well as working with the Art faculty to help organise the Art and Technology show at the end of the year. 

I would like to contribute to make this year the best one we have had so far. It has already been better than the previous two with no online learning getting in between our motivation and affecting our academic achievements. I do hope we remain pandemic free and make the most of our final year at Carwatha.

Genesis Alcaya Munoz - Arts Captain

My name is Nolwen Albert, and I am very proud to represent the international students this year as the International Captain. I came to Australia in 2017 from Mauritius and I have been at Carwatha since year 7. Year 12 is about hard work, but it is also our last chance to make a difference at our school and make memories. Which is why I was very happy to find out that I was selected as the International Captain of 2022.

I try my best to participate in most school activities to exemplify the school spirit and as the International Captain, would like to get the international students more involved in activities across the year level as well as the whole school. Since I arrived at Carwatha, I realised that the international students were not very involved around the school and school events, so this year, I hope to encourage the international students to feel more confident to participate in school events such as our athletics carnival coming up soon.

I hope to make a difference for the international students and help them feel welcomed in the school community.

Nolwen Albert - International Captain

Year 12 report

Year 12 has been a dream so far, days are just passing by so quickly and we are all just trying to appreciate and treasure every moment. We have made so many new memories and will continue to make some more throughout the year. Our amazing year level coordinator, Ms Bawa has organised many fun events for us to be involved in, firstly by kicking off the year with the fantastic Funfields excursion.

There were many rides and delicious food for all of us to enjoy. We then went on to attend and participate in our first post-covid swimming carnival and we were able to show off our new Learning House colours. It was great to see all our peers dressed up in their Learning House colours and embrace the team spirit. Recently a selection of students were taken to participate in the Girls Camp. We had a great time as we spent the days strengthening our bonds with one another and learning all sorts of new things about each other as well as ways to cope with stress.

We are currently preparing for the big Night-In, excitement is buzzing as students and teachers prepare for all the thrilling games and activities. Ultimately, we have had a great start to the year and we cannot wait to see what the future holds. 

Ro Mon Lay - Purple House Ambassador

Practicals
Year 12 Biology students have been practising their hands-on laboratory skills this term, as well as their teamwork and observation skills. Here you can see them investigating the effect of pH on catalase activity. Catalase is an enzyme found naturally in the liver that breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. It is a vital enzyme as hydrogen peroxide is a toxic metabolic by-product that needs to be eliminated very quickly! Students found that if the environment is too acidic or too basic, the enzyme is less active.

GTAC Excursion
This year, the Year 12 Biology students were lucky enough to be immersed in a real-life lab at the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC). They worked closely with a PHD student from Melbourne University and a molecular biologist. Students used their lab skills to synthesise and test recombinant plasmids from E. coli bacteria. By genetically engineering the bacteria, they can now make life saving insulin for people who live with type 1 diabetes! Fun fact: this is actually the first kind of GMO that was approved for use back in the 80s.

In ELC – Technology, students have been making wooden airplane models while also learning about safety. Students had the choice to paint their models from a range of Acrylic paints.

Year 7 Art

Aboriginal Inspired Abstract Paintings
Students studied Aboriginal abstract artworks, looking closely at the use of lines, shapes, dots, colours, symbols and motifs. 

They learnt how to analyse and interpret these abstract works. They were then challenged to design and paint their own art piece drawing inspirations from Aboriginal abstract artworks, in a monochromatic colour schemes (tints, tones and shades of a chosen colour). 

Skills developed:

- creating monochromatic tints, tones and shades.

- using a range of techniques to apply the paint.

- painting patterns, lines, shapes and motifs in a deliberate way.

- using arts language to describe their abstract art piece.

CARWATHA FOOTBALL COLLEGE GROWS TO 78 ENROLMENTS!

Carwatha students from Prep to Year 12 are enjoying our CFC program. From the Prep - 2 Mini pups to our senior student VET Sport and Rec Certificate class, everyone loves being involved with their friends. To find out more about the program and how to enrol please visit our website:  https://www.carwatha.vic.edu.au/page/232/CFC-Academy-Program

Year 7 – Coaching for Success

Year 7’s created their own ‘My Life & Career Pathway Plan’

By using POWER steps (each step was explored by using visual cards which helped to create lots of conversations 😊)

Together we explored

Possibilities – imaged our possibilities – what is motivation?

Organisation – ‘do I have a plan to get there?’

Will Power – ‘do I have the motivation’?

Emotional Skills – do you believe you can do it?

Results – take action to reach your goals

Mrs Pam Naylor - Pathways Support

Our library is dedicated to fostering a love of reading and learning.

We strive to provide activities and resources that will support students and staff to become effective life-long users of information.

My focus is on reading for both pleasure and information.

We encourage all students to borrow from our Library every week or fortnight. This invitation is for all Carwatha families’ parents and siblings.

Our books are carefully selected to meet students' reading interests and abilities, all students may request a book for our library.

Lost or damaged books, students please bring a signed note from home, so we know an adult has been involved in the book hunt.

Our Library opens at 8.30 am and lunchtime to all students, we have games, puzzles, cards and colouring, and drawing. Every Tuesday we have Storytime Tuesday.

Graphic novels for primary students coming soon …………..

Books I’ve loved

Suggested Picture Books:

Suggestions for Primary Students:

Suggestions for Secondary Students:

What we’re reading:

Photos from in the Library - Term 1 2022:



Mrs Tracey Hadfield 

The Main Office

Office Hours:         8.15am - 4.00pm

Parents should always make contact with the Main office when visiting the college. 

Office Staff:

Buisness Manager:     

Accounts:                  Roseann Bivens                        

Reception:                 Pauline Horbaczow
                                Eftayla Coskun

First Aid:                   Donna Azzopardi

Term Dates 2022

 

Secondary Contacts 2022

Heads of House 2022

Emerald House:     Mr Hammond & Ms Go

Red House:           Mr Landini & Mrs Rentzis

Purple House:       Mrs Andrews & Ms Witt

Blue House:          Mr Roberts & Mr Brown

Year 12:    Ms Bawa

Secondary Junior Leader:     Mr Roberts
Secondary Senior Leader:    Mr Landini

Assistant Principal ( Year 7-12)   Mrs George

To Speak to or book an appointment with a coordinator, College Leader  or Assistant Principal please contact the main office.

Primary Contacts 2021

Assistant Principal: Mrs Donna Beauchamp-Wylie

Primary Leading Teacher: Mrs Tracy Elias

To Speak to or book an appointment with a class teacher, leading teacher  or  Assistant Principal please contact the main office.

Prep L            Ms Levy

Prep/1M         Mrs McPhie

1/2A              Mrs Abraham

2/3C              Ms Hrissinis

3/4F              Mrs Fernando

4/5E              Ms Edwards

6B                 Mrs Bishop

Art                 Mrs McAleer

PE                  Mrs Peters & Ms Whitt

Bell Times

Attendance 

All students are expected to be punctual and regular in attendance. After each absence, a note of explanation, dated and signed by the parent/guardian must be brought to the school or absences can be monitored and/or approved online via compass. 

College Map

 

Lost Property

Lost Property is located in Sickbay. If your child has lost an item please call or see Nurse Donna in Sickbay.

Uniform purchase information during lockdown


Sustainable School Shop: 
Second Hand Uniforms & Second Hand Books

The College is conscious of the need to provide an efficient process for families to be able to buy and sell second hand uniform.

We are happy to announce the sustainable school shop website that Carwatha College P-12 has previously directed parents to use for second hand books now offers buying and selling of second hand uniforms.

Please go to

 www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au

For the best results:

• Register on the Sustainable School Shop website
• List your second-hand uniform items for sale
• List wanted ads for those items you are looking to buy
• The College’s uniform lists are loaded into the system to make listing ads easy
• The system matches the ads of buyers with sellers and notifies the buyer via email
• Buyers contact sellers and arrange where and when to trade.
• The school is not involved in the transaction
• Parents are well supported via Sustainable School Shop’s telephone (0438 743 444) and email help lines
• The system is simple and easy to use - If you don’t have a computer, internet access or an email address, please call the Sustainable School Shop for assistance.

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