Principal`s Message - The McDonald College

No. 3 2015
BEHIND THE SCENES
Principal’s Message
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Principal’s Message
Prompt Corner
Acting Report
Library News
Congratulations
Junior School Music Showcase
Short Story Competition
Write4Fun Writing Competition
Sports Report
Athletics Carnival Results
History Incursion
HSC Dance Guest Workshop
Art Department
Culinary Challenge
Youth Canada Bay
Creative Writing for Youth
Cool Schools
Term Dates
We are in the midst of auditioning and enrolling
new students for entry into the College in 2016.
Specific years of entry are Year 3, Year 5, Year 7,
Year 9 and Year 11 but there are positions available
in most other years. If you know of a child who
would benefit from our unique education please
direct them to our Registrar, Melinda Edwards. I anticipate that boarding
places in our new Boarding House will be in demand in 2016.
Our students continue to achieve in all areas of performance and
academia. I began to congratulate them in this message but realized
there were far too many to mention individually. I draw your attention
to these well-deserved accolades in this edition of BTS and offer my
personal congratulations to each and every student who has achieved
over and above that expected or them in the classroom or studio.
My congratulations and thanks extends to our Trivia Champions – the
Admin Team comprised of Maryellen Ryan (and husband), Trish Davis
(and husband), Kerry Paterson (and husband), Colette Downes (and
husband) and Lynda Wong who were the winners on the night. An
evening of competition and friendly rivalry was enjoyed by all present led
by our President of the P & F, Ian Fenwick. Thank you to the parents who
contributed many hours of organisation making this event a success.
Thank you to Lili Award (Kameko Yr 8 & Keanu (Yr 5) who ran the
Mother’s Day Stall providing a valuable opportunity to our students
enabling them to buy beautifully presented gifts for Mum. The stall
raised approximately $650.
Mothers Day Stall
Income
945.00
Trivia Night
Income
4,139.97
Expenses
-309.27
Expenses
-449.97
Net result
635.73
Net result
3,690.00
The P & F have also provided the opportunity for families to purchase an
Entertainment Book raising approximately $600 for the College.
All funds raised by the P & F this year are being directed towards
enhancing our IT learning opportunities for students. These funds are
vital and I thank everyone who has joined these P & F fund raising efforts.
I hope you have an enjoyable evening at the Premier State Ballet (PSB)
Gala Dinner on Saturday night. You will be guaranteed an evening of fun
and friendship whilst supporting the performance fund for PSB.
Prompt Corner
Can’t really believe we’re half way through the year
already, where have the months gone? Yet we’ve
achieved so much in such a short time.
We really do attract the vibrant, noisy, energetic and
exciting students into the Musical Theatre Stream
and every day we are blessed that these students
want to be here and love to come to school.
We began Term One with an intensive on the
composer Cole Porter, his significant shows and
volumes of brilliant music. The students learned
everything they could about the era, the dance and
vocal styles, culminating in the showcase “Broadway
in the Blackbox” where we featured Porter songs
and routines we’d learned as well as a collection
of fantastic solo and duo numbers, chosen by the
students.
Nearly 50 of us boarded the train for the trip into the
city to the Capitol Theatre in May for the matinee
performance of “Les Miserables”. What an epic
show! It was fantastic to see two ex- students in the
company Zoe Goetz (Yr 12’01) and Hugo Chiarella
(Yr 12’03) and an ex music teacher Trevor Ashley as
Monsieur Thenardier – brilliant performances. Both
Zoe and Trevor came out to meet with the students
after the performance and a note from Hugo said
that he missed us by seconds.
Caitlin Dennis (Yr 10) has hit the ground running
since arriving in Sydney from Adelaide. In February
she auditioned for Sydney Youth Musical Theatre’s
production of “42nd Street” the Broadway Musical
and won a principal role as Lorraine Fleming. She
has been in rehearsals every Saturday learning lines,
songs, and the very intensive tap routines. There will
be six performances from 3 – 11 July at Hornsby RSL.
The Years 7 – 9 group are in preparation for their trip
to China after the school holidays. Along with their age
group from other streams, 23 students in all will spend
their school holidays in rehearsal for our half hour
show – this year depicting the wonderful heritage of
Australian music. We fly to China on July 22 to attend
the Tianjin International Youth Arts Festival. This is
an amazing trip and we know the students will relish
the opportunity to not only show the other 50 or so
countries of children our love of Australian music but
also how proud we are to have been invited. Look out
for our Facebook page while we are away.
BREAKING NEWS: Our esteemed tap teacher
Christopher Horsey and his gorgeous wife Lucy Durack
(star of Wicked, Legally Blonde etc.,) have just had a
gorgeous little girl Polly. No doubt another budding
performer and a potential McDonald College Musical
Theatre student.
Mrs Dolores Dunbar
Head of Musical Theatre
Acting Report
We have had a mighty performance schedule at the College during Term 2 as the Acting students presented
their production work to appreciative audiences.
The Year 7-9 ensemble set the ball rolling with …
ERNIE’S INCREDIBLE ILLUCINATIONS by Alan Ayckbourne
Ernie’s incredible imagination is alarming his parents. They go to the doctor in search of a cure. Once they’re
there, they discover Ernie’s ‘illucinations’ are more powerful than they realised. Everything Ernie imagines –
from secret agents to a boxing granny – becomes real.
Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations played in the Black Box theatre at the College from Wednesday May 6th to
Thursday May 7th at 5pm and 7pm.
The enthusiastic cast of students relished the opportunity to present this story under the guidance of Ms Ana
Maria Belo.
The Primary Actors presented great mirth and merriment with ….
CALLOOH CALLAY!
Callooh Callay!’ was presented in the Black Box Theatre on Thursday May 14th at 5pm and 7pm.
This production outcome gave students an opportunity to work with scripted drama and playbuild as they
presented nonsense poems by Lewis Carroll. The performance was directed by Mrs Kaye Lopez and Ms Ana
Maria Belo.
Finishing the production performances was ……
LUKE LLOYD: ALIENOID By John Armstrong
Luke is smart, funny, shy and highly imaginative – but has no friends at school. In fact, he feels like he’s not
even of the same species as the other kids in his class. But that isn’t surprising, because he’s not.
Luke’s father (whom he never met) came from a distant planet – which makes Luke half human, half alien.
He’s an Alienoid! Which explains a lot, thinks Luke.
Year 10/11 Acting ensemble presented the play to enthusiastic audiences which included the playwright, Mr
John Armstrong. It played Wednesday June 3rd @ 7pm and Thursday June 4th @ 5pm and 7pm in The Black Box
Theatre and was directed by Mr Peter Eyers.
A big thankyou to the audiences who supported these performances and the students who presented
excellent work. Congratulations and thankyou to the dynamic staff who create these experiences – Mrs Kaye
Lopez, Ms Ana Maria Belo, Mr Peter Eyers, Mr Peter Eirth and Mrs Carol Condran.
STOLEN excursion
As a requirement of the ‘Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice’ topic studied in HSC Drama, students
examine two plays. These are ‘Stolen’ by Jane Harrison and ‘Life Without Me’ by Daniel Keene. This topic
informs the Drama exam in which students are required to write an essay on this topic, using both plays.
On Thursday June 11th, HSC Drama students took the opportunity to see a rehearsed play reading of ‘Stolen’ at
the Parramatta Riverside Theatres.
Students reported the value of seeing live performance in supporting their Drama studies.
Mr Peter Eyers
Head of Acting
Acting
Report
@
The College Library plays an integral role in The McDonald College
learning community. In the 21st century learning environment, the
library is a learning hub that aims to empower and engage students with all kinds of information and literature in varying formats. We teach students to become information literate in accessing technology and using resources effectively and efficiently. The
end goal is to give students the skills to train themselves to become information literate and independent life long learners of
the future.
Did you know that you can
access a range of free
Information Skills
Web 2.0 resources
7-12
for the classroom
Senior Lunch Time Sessions
from the
Yes we subscribe to Facts on File!
Tuesday
Library Portal in McDig?
Facts on File
(at school and home)
Wednesday
Thursday
Accessing ClickView TV Online
Contact Us
Bring your lunch!
How do I access it?
From McDig/Library/Topic 1
What is the Username and Password?
Accessing ClickView Online
1:00—1:15 pm
It is a suite of 6 research databases covering our
core curriculum subjects. It contains full text journal
articles, book chapters, primary sources, encyclopaedia and lots more.
The information contained is peer reviewed and of
academic quality for use in assessment tasks in the
senior school.
Creating Bibliographies using
‘References’
(at school and home)
What is it?
Username: mcdonald
Password: college
Can I access from home and school?
Yes you can!
We run lunch time sessions every Tuesday @ 1pm.
Come along, bring your lunch and learn more!
9752 0519
A great big Thank you so much for all of the
fabulous book donations we receive in the library.
you
YOU
Many families have donated numerous books to our
library. Our staff and students are very appreciative
of such wonderful resources. We have a terrific collection which really reflects the needs of our community.
With every donation we insert a book plaque inside
the book that states: Kindly Donated by:
Congratulations
All three Koulos boys have succeeded in their first ever
Eisteddfod.
Arthur-Lucas Yr 11 performed in the Senior Song only 15yrs &
over (Musical Theatre includes Disney) event and placed 1st
performing “Santa Fe” from the Broadway hit “Newsies”.
Jordan Yr 7 performed in the Junior Song only 11 &
12yrs (Musical Theatre includes Disney) event and placed 3rd
performing “I Want to Make Magic” from the Broadway hit
“Fame”.
Alexander Yr 8 had the toughest job. He performed in 3
events against a high number and calibre group of dancers in
an open age group, with dancers a year or so older than him.
Congratulations boys, what a fantastic start.
Congratulations to Alex Chorley Yr 9, who received an A+ High
Distinction for his AMEB grade 6 Drama and Performance exam.
The examiner wrote in summary that it was “an outstanding
presentation by a candidate with very special artistry and skill”
which was very complimentary!
For the exam he had to give a presentation consisting of
memorised verse, prose, drama and a talk, along with learning
10 poems and background knowledge on aspects of acting
technique and voice production.
Also, in the Sydney Eisteddfod, Alex received another first place
for the 15 yrs character monologue, 2nd for the 15 yrs prose and
3rd for 15 yrs verse and also received Highly Commended for
the drama/ individual section.
Grace Gibbs Yr 10 was part of the Qantas
Choir (Australian Girls Choir) gig held on 20
April 2015. The Australian Girls Choir was
recently invited to perform at the Qantas
A380 hanger to commemorate the ANZAC
centenary.
The girls performed the National Anthem in
front of the Prime Minister, Governor General
and the Premier as well as 10 ANZAC widows.
It was an honour for the Australian Girls Choir
to be a part of such a special event.
Congratulations
Bravo to the following students who won Battle
of the Bands on Sunday, May 24 at Petersham. I
understand that they were a cut above the others
in every area of their performance:
Aidan Glover Yr 9
Caleb Gaha Yr 9
Omri Aruch Yr 9
Yannick Koffi Yr 10
Well done to the Music Department. Students from
other schools were certainly asking where they
came from.
The McDonald College Ballet stream
continues to shine on the international
stage. During the break Ryu Bautista
Yr 10 competed in the prestigious
Youth America Grand Prix, held in
New York.
We are excited and proud to announce
that Ryu has been awarded Junior 3rd
Place. Bravo!
The eisteddfod season has begun with another
accolade to the Ballet Department.
Jane Kesby’s Under 14 years group were awarded
1st place at the Northern Beaches Eisteddfod on
May 9. They received a mark of 99/100.
Well done Jane and congratulations to all
concerned.
Congratulations to Jack Reason Yr 6,
who has been cast in the Australian
Premiere Season of ‘Matilda The
Musical’, which opens in Sydney in
July.
Congratulations to Erin Davidson
in Yr 10, who was selected for the
2015 NSW Rhythmic Gymnastics
State Team that competed at the
Australian Gymnastics Championships
in Melbourne. Congratulations to the Guberinic family on
these wonderful eisteddfod results:
BJ in Year 12 (his first eisteddfod)
Sydney City Eisteddfod
Third place in event Monologue/Character (17-21
yrs)
Victoria in Year 9 (her first eisteddfod)
Inner West Eisteddfod
First place in event Duologue in Costume 1316yrs duo with Mikalya Melo
Milan in Year 7
Northern Beaches Eisteddfod
Highly Commended for Character Recital 12yrs
Inner West Eisteddfod:
Very Highly Commended in event Verse
Speaking 11-12 yrs
Very Highly Commended in event Character
Recital in Costume 11-12yrs
Very Highly Commended in event Improvisation
11-12yrs with Hugo Rumore
Sydney City Eisteddfod
First place in event Verse speaking 12yrs
Highly Commended in event Monologue in
Character 12yrs
Our Tennis boys continue to dominate!
Ethan Lye Yr 8, won the Under 14 Medibank
Tennis competition held at Homebush on April
15.
Dylan Loru Yr 11 was runner up in his Finals in
the same competition.
The other boys all did very well too progress
through their matches.
Well done to the boys and their coaches.
Correction:
Congratulations to Jordan Kim Yr 9, who advanced
to the Semi Finals round and not the quarter finals of
the Alaina Haines Competition in Wellington, New
Zealand over the Easter weekend. Well done Jordan.
JUNIOR NEWS
Junior School Music Showcase
Students in the Junior School were busy preparing
items for the Junior School Music Showcase on
Tuesday, May 26.
Each class performed a curriculum item to
demonstrate some of the Board of Studies learning
experiences which included performing (playing,
singing, moving), listening and organising sound.
The Performing Arts Music Ensembles (rock bands,
strings, woodwind/brass and percussion) also
rehearsed their feature item for the concert and a
few students were selected to perform as a soloist
at this concert. The concert will featured an opening
and closing item performed by the entire Junior
School.
The Junior School Music Showcase was held on
Tuesday 26th May at 7pm in the Conference Centre.
Jacqui Sherer
Junior School Music Teacher
Short Story Competition
Congratulations to Tigerlily Gledhill in Year 4
who was awarded 3rd prize in The Footpath
Library Epic! Short Story Competition. Tigerlily’s
story titled “Clarence the Garden Snail”, was
one of 600 entries in the competiton.
Clarence the Garden Snail – T. Gledhill
Clarence was a perfectly normal garden snail. He had
long antennae and a tiny mouth and a light brown
shell. The garden he lived in had long, lush green grass,
big fat juicy leaves and lovely blossoming flowers from
soft bright purple to glowish funky orange in colour
(a snail’s paradise). But Clarence had a big, horrible
problem: he was claustrophobic. He envied the other
snails who went around with no worries about going
inside their shells.
Years passed and Clarence’s sadness and worry got
bigger and bigger. His friends tried whatever they
could to help but it never worked. Then one day his
friends abandoned him in frustration, so Clarence was
left friendless and still scared of his own shell.
In sadness, Clarence ran away from the beautiful
garden he loved. As weeks lagged on, he got dry, tired
and thirsty and most of all he missed the garden. One
day, a snake nearly killed him by snapping his huge
jaws at him! Three weeks later, a bat lost its balance
on a tree and nearly flattened him! And all of this
time, he was still scared of his own shell.
One morning, just when he thought things couldn’t
get any worse, he was sliding along when he heard a
loud squawk and saw a giant black crow with wicked
red eyes, long sharp talons and a long spikey beak
diving towards him. Clarence knew that he would have
to hide in his shell but he was too scared. As the bird
got closer, Clarence realised he had no choice so he
rolled into his shell and held his breath. Soon he felt
himself relax and as he did so he realised that his shell
was not something to be scared of but a safe place to
call home.
Well done Tigerlily!
Grandparents Day - Tuesday, 21 July
We would like to advise that the Junior School will be holding Grandparents Day on Tuesday, 21 July at
11:00am and not Friday, 24 July as appears in the College calendar.
Tickets for Grandparent’s Day will be available via the College Online Box Office from 8:00am on Monday,
22 June 2015.
Write4Fun Writing Competition
Congratulations to the Junior School Writing Elective students who
entered the Write4Fun writing competition last term. An added
congratulations goes to the following students who received
Achievement Awards, Isabella (Year 5), Ashley, Amilia, Baxter and
Lucia (Year 6).
Sports Report
CDSSA Soccer Gala Day
The College will be taking a Seniors Boys Team to
the Gala Day on Wednesday 16th June to be held
at The International Football School. We wish the
team luck.
AICES Cross Country
The following students attended the AICES Cross
Country Carnival at Sydney Equestrian Sports Park
on June 4:
Jasper Musgrave – Year 9
Sedonna Legge – Year 10
Both students competed and represented the
College admirably.
CIS Teams Tennis
PDHPE HSC Enrichment Day
Year 12 attended the HSC Enrichment Day run by at
The Wesley Conference Centre in the City. It was
a most valuable day for our Year 12s to consolidate
their knowledge and understanding of concepts with
Industry Professionals and Doctors in their respective
fields. We found it to be useful in preparation for our
upcoming HSC trials.
Mrs Murphy
Congratulations to our Number One Tennis Team:
Dylan Loru (Yr 11), Mark Papadopoulos (Yr 10) ,
Ethan Lye (Yr 8), Ali Moin (Yr 11), Louis Lu (Yr 10)
on competing with the final four schools at the CIS
(state) teams tennis tournament. This was held on
Friday, 12 June at St Ignatius, Riverview. The other
competing schools were The King’s School, Oakhill
College and Trinity Grammar.
Dylan and Mark won their pool matches against The
Kings School, but Ethan and Ali narrowly went down
to two strong players, knocking us out of the Final. The boys then went on to beat Trinity Grammar in the
playoffs.
We are proud to announce that The College has
finished 3rd overall, meaning we are the 3rd best team
of all Independent NSW Schools. We are very proud
of you all.
Athletics Carnival Results
Age Champions for 2015 are as follows:
AGE
BOYSGIRLS
12
JORDAN KOULOS
GABRIELLE KENNEDY
13
LEO BELZ
KAMEKO AWAD
14
ALEXANDER KOULOS SHADY WAGNER
15
ASHLEY LAUWERIKS ERIN GREEN
16
JOSEPH JANG
LUCINDA VAN RAAD
17
LUCA GODWIN
AYESHA MADON
18
FINN MCAVOY
LANA DOMENEY
100 METRES CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS RACE RESULTS
BOYS CHAMPION – JOSEPH JANG
GIRLS CHAMPION – MIA CASTILLO
OVERALL ATHLETICS COLLEGE CHAMPION FOR 2015 ALEXANDER KOULOS
Well done to all Individual performances
HOUSE POINT RESULTS
WAR CRIES – WINNING HOUSE WAS HELPMANN
TOTAL POINT SCORE TALLY
HouseCompetitionWarNoveltyHelpingTotalPlace
PointsCriesPointsPoints
FALKIRK
2007
60
20
-4 2083
1st
HELPMANN
1961
100
20
-5
2076
2nd
ROBERTS
1575
40
20
40
1675
3rd
SUTHERLAND 1193
80
20
12
1305
4th
Well done Falkirk!
History Incursion
Year 9 History students were treated to a vaudeville Our students behaved impeccably, and their questions
at the end were both thoughtful and respectful.
show entitled “Fightin’ the Kaiser”.
The actor Brett Hunt takes on the reality of fighting
in WWI and the impact it had on the returned
Australian soldiers. The show challenged the myth
and glory of war, as the script was entirely based on
the diary entries, journals, letters and his own family
history. The tragedy and futility of war was evident in the
accounts of the war, and the heart wrenching horror
was palpable as Bill, the character, struggles with
alcohol abuse, ongoing medical trauma and a life
time of memories of pain, loss and friendship.
HSC Dance Guest Workshop
Sue Healey, choreographer of Fine Line, a set dance work on DVD studied by all HSC Dance students in the
state, came to the College on Friday June 12 to give a practical workshop and talk about her work.
The students found Sue engaging and charming, and they enjoyed immensely the activities which involved
making “house” structures with fine lined cord, similar to the “set” in the DVD.
The workshop ended with Sue showing examples of her work including Fine Line, and answering very
intelligent questions from students about it.
They all expressed how beneficial working with Sue was, broadening their understanding of the piece.
Art Department
The Visual Arts
department
desperately needs
glass jars and plastic
containers (that have
lids) for paint storage.
If you have spares
please feel free to
drop them off at the
collection tub outside
the Art Library.
Thank you!
Year 7 Technology students modelling their Pj shorts and tie dye t-shirts
Culinary Challenge
The McDonald College Wins HTN Inter Schools
Culinary Challenge!
challenge and also participated in a secret
ingredient challenge.
Congratulations to Callan Smith and Corie-Lea
Forsack (Year 11) on their outstanding performance
on June 11, cooking up a storm to win The HTN Inter
School Culinary Challenge 2015.
Together, Callan and Corie-Lea then competed
against the other schools in the preparation of a
predetermined dish (Spatchcock presented with
potato lyonnaise, creamed spinach and roast dutch
carrots) and one blind ingredients dish.
Callan and Corie-Lea observed cooking
demonstrations, completed an outlined cooking
Bravo!
Students in Year 6-12 are invited to take part in celebrations of our exciting
Youth Canada Bay logo official launch party. Join us at Concord and Five Dock
for a fun filled afternoon with slushies, pizza, music, cake and more!
Youth Space
Youth Drop-In
Where
Concord Library
Where
Five Dock Library
When
Tuesday, 23 June
When
Wednesday, 24 June
Time
3.30 - 4.30pm
Time
3.30 – 5pm
For more information, please contact our Youth Services Specialist on
9911 6314 or visit: www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au
Concord Library, 60 Flavelle St, Concord NSW 2137
Five Dock Library, Level 1, 4-12 Garfield St, Five Dock NSW 2046
Tel 9911 6210 (Concord) or 9911 6310 (Five Dock)
www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au
Stay connected @canbaylibraries
Fantasy creative writing for youth
Join Lynette Noni, author of ‘Akarnae’, in this fun hands-on workshop to learn how
to create magical worlds and write great characters. With an engaging interactive
style and obvious passion for her craft, Lynette will help younger aspiring writers
develop confidence in their storytelling approaches – from making the impossible
seem possible to the importance of keeping characters in character!
Creative writing prize pack to give away!
Delicious lunch provided to fuel creative minds.
Bookings are essential so book now to secure your place!
When:
Time:
Where:
Suitable for:
Cost:
Contact:
Monday, 6 July 2015
11am – 2pm
Concord Library
Ages 11 - 18
Free
Concord Library on 9911 6210 or book online at:
www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au
Concord Library, 60 Flavelle St, Concord NSW 2137
Tel 9911 6210 Fax 9911 6550 www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au
Stay connected @canbaylibraries
Term Dates in 2015
TERM 2
End of Term 2 Friday, 26th June
TERM 3
All students commence End of Term 3 Monday, 20th July
Friday, 18th September
TERM 4
Labour Day Public Holiday All students commence Speech Night
End of Term 4
Monday, 5th October
Tuesday, 6th October
Monday, 30th November
Wednesday, 9th December