Students from Year 7 presented to about 200
mathematics teachers on Thursday December 4th at
Latrobe University. Their presentation “lesson” was
part of a KEYNOTE address given by Sue Ferguson,
(from The Learning Federation), at the Annual
Conference of the Mathematics Association of
Victoria. Using an interactive whiteboard students
demonstrated effective use of digital learning
objects that are now available to Australian
teachers. The question that remains is whether the
students demonstration will encourage maths teachers
to utilise the wonderful digital learning objects
now available? Certainly the teachers who were
listening to these students seemed to be convinced!
So Mathematics teachers, it’s now over to you! Well
done Brooke, Daniel, Michaela, Paul and Jessica for
your inspirational presentation!
Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike
Launches Intel Skoool at Kambrya 18th
November2008
At Kambrya College on Tuesday, Victorian Education
Minister Bronwyn Pike, with Joe Hegarty, Director of
Operations, Intel Innovation Centres, Ireland,
launched Victoria’s partnership with Intel Ireland.
Mr Marco Pantano, Enterprise Manager, Education,
Intel Australia and Ms Anna O’Donovan from Intel
Ireland were also present to support this important
event.
Intel Skoool
is a set of digital learning objects and toolkits to
assist students in the middle years to engage in and
understand maths and science concepts.
Students in 7I, along with their teacher Alison Cox,
worked together on an investigative project using
one of the digital learning objects. They posted
their findings on the Intel Skoool forum so they
could share these with participating students in
Ireland. The forum also gave students an opportunity
to exchange cultural information about Australia and
Ireland.
The launch ran for 45 minutes with Minister Pike and
Mr Hegarty enjoying discussions with students about
what they have learned in their maths
investigations. Year 7 students Michaela and Brooke
coached the Minister in the use of an interactive
whiteboard for learning probability. They even had
her do an interactive probability test that they had
prepared. The girls proved to be excellent coaches
with the Minister scoring 100%!
Far from being a highly formal occasion,
conversations between the Year 7 students and
Minister Pike and Mr Hegarty were animated and
informal. Everyone had a thoroughly good time. The
picture sums up the mood of the visit!
Mayoral Reception at the City of Casey Chamber 6th March 2008
Ben Forbes, Tara–Leigh Dowler (10C), Harley Tindal (10C) and Ruth Scott attended a Mayoral Reception at the City of Casey Chamber on Thursday 6th March which was organised to recognise and thank the schools in the City of Casey for their support of East Timor.
The Mayor, Cr Janet Halsall, presented participating schools with framed certificates and small gifts for the students.
Students from Kambrya College have raised funds in a variety of ways since 2002 for the Australia East Timor
Friendship Schools Project, The Friends of Ermera and our partner school the Escola Pre Secundaria in Letefoho.
Funds have gone towards stationery, musical and sporting equipment and the provision of running water in the village.
Ben Forbes and Anna Nguyen also wrote a unit of work for our Year 7 curriculum which has been widely recognised.
This year, we are planning to hold a staff Trivia evening and a gold coin lunchtime student concert to raise funds.
The Kambrya Friends of East Timor welcome any suggestions and support from our school community.
Ruth Scott
Co-ordinator AETFSP
Kambrya College
Partnership between Kambrya College and Melbourne Zoo. 2nd August
In 2004 Kambrya contacted the Melbourne Zoo and offered to grow a plantation, specifically for the use of Zoo, within the college grounds. The plants, Acacia saligna, were selected in late 2004 after negotiation with the zoo and with Casey Council (to ensure the species we used was suitable for the Zoo but not listed as “weeds” by the council). You can read details of how this all came about at the college environment club website at
A few months back Zoo staff assessed the plants as ready for their first harvest, which took place last Thursday. A truck load of foliage was taken to feed the elephants at Melbourne Zoo, although the plants will be used for a range of animals. From now on the plants will be harvested at regular intervals, (every few months as they have been selected as a fast growing species), with the life of the plantation being about 15 years. This means that the partnership between the Zoo and Kambrya is expected to be a long one!
Melbourne Zoo horticulturist James Fitzpatrick and browse coordinator Richard Robertson generously gave their time to explain to students Tim, Jesse and Jonno (Year 7D), Jaymi (Year 8I), Tara (Year 9O) and Talicia (Year 9I) about the importance of zoos and the issues relating to feeding exotic animals. They explained that the Kambrya grown “browse”, as Zoo personnel call it, will be used for two purposes: as food and for “enrichment”. As food it is used for hooved animals such as giraffe, buffalo and zebra. (The species was selected for its high nutritional value, as it is particularly high in protein, and for its fast growth rate.) As enrichment it is used for primates, specifically for gorillas. James explained that they like to nibble off any flowers and then run around the enclosure “whacking each other” with the branches for play. Orang-utan like to build nests with it and will also spend hours carefully peeling the bark from branches and playing with the strips. So our plantation helps with both the physical and mental wellbeing of the animals at Melbourne Zoo.
After the briefing, the students took James and Richard to our plantation and were instructed on how to properly harvest branches. An arrangement has now been made for the students to go back with the Zoo staff and actually feed the animals (this will be giraffe next time.) Very exciting! Students are planning to extend the plantation, under the supervision of zoo staff, so that Melbourne Zoo will be a regular and permanent part of the college program for students.
We believe that authentic links with the community provide powerful learning opportunities for children. Working with experts in their fields, such as the staff from Melbourne Zoo, helps children to develop deeper understanding of the complex world around us. We also hope that experiences such as this will encourage the young people in our care to be active and responsible citizens – to understand that they, as individuals, can make a real difference to the community they live in.
Melbourne Zoo Horticulturist James instructs Jonno and Tim on how to properly cut a branch so that it minimises the stress on the tree and encourages regrowth.
Talicia and Tara with Melbourne Zoo Browse Coordinator, Richard
Zoo staff brief the students on the importance of browse plantations for the wellbeing of the animals at Melbourne Zoo.
East Timor Curriculum Units Official Launch 23rd July 2007
Four curriculum units written by teachers in Victorian Primary and Secondary schools were officially launched at No.2 Treasury Place on Monday 23 rd July by the Minister for Education Services, Ms Jacinta Allen.
Ben Forbes and Anna Nguyen from Kambrya College wrote one of these units: “Timor Leste: future scenarios” for our Year 7 term 4 unit “Designing the Future”.
The four units have been made available for schools throughout Australia to use.
Ruth Scott and Anna Nguyen (and baby Mia) represented Kambrya College at the launch. Kambrya College has been a Friendship School partner since 2003.
Pic. From left: Mrs. Terry Bracks (wife of the Premier);
Mrs Ruth Scott (Kambrya contact Australia East Timor Friendship Schools Project);
The Honorable Ms Jacinta Allen ( Minister for Education Services);Mrs Jan Trezise ( President, Friends of Ermera )
Facing Africa & NOMA Sufferers 30th June 2007
From 28 th March to 7 th April 2007, in the name of Facing Africa, a team of young men donned the group name The Buena Blister SocialClub , and ran the Marathon de Sable, a marathon spanning over 220 kilometres across the Moroccan desert.
Viva , in support of Kambrya College asked staff and Viva patrons to blister the night away and raise funds for Facing Africa at the Buena Blister Social Club on Saturday June 30th, 7:30pm
Facing Africa seeks to help children with NOMA, a gangrenous disease which targets the face, causing the flesh to become perforated. Ninety percent of these children will die. Ten percent will survive but are usually ostracised by their community. NOMA is preventable with antibiotics and Facing Africa aims to provide medicine, care and reconstructive surgery for the children.
Buena Blister Poster
Please see this website for photographic evidence of why these kids need our help: www.facingafrica.org
Cog Bike Cafe
Bike Hire, Service And And Coffee
4 Clancy Road, Mt Evelyn
www.cogbikecafe.com.au
Historic eLearning Voyage 22nd March 2007
STUDENTS at Berwick’s Kambrya College have applied their skills and knowledge to a virtual journey aboard an 1813 convict ship – thanks to the Intel®Teach Essentials course.
Working in teams of four in the semester-long activity, the Years 7, 8 and 9 students were assigned roles as captains, navigators, cooks and surgeons on a ship on its way from England.
The curriculum unit, developed by Alan Thwaites, a mathematics teacher who is the eLearning co ordinator at Kambrya College and an Intel senior trainer, encouraged students to explore the question “Why Take Risks?”
Virtual voyage: Kambrya College students Justin Rutter, Cassie Smith, Karlie Claussen, and teacher Alan Thwaites, whose virtual alter egos have manned a convict ship from 1813.
The role play, based on the theme 1813 – Destination Australia, integrated mathematics, English, humanities, communication, ICT, thinking, interpersonal development and personal learning.
Mr Thwaites used the Intel Teach Essentials Course – which has been completed by 11,000 Australian teachers and four million worldwide – to develop the unit, which was enthusiastically received by students.
He is now developing a unit based on life in 2050, where students will again use literacy, numeracy, problem-solving and research skills as well as leadership abilities.
Mr Thwaites said the 1813 – Destination Australia unit was an ideal match for the curriculum structure of Kambrya College.
“That’s why this program is so effective – the flexibility of the Intel Teach Essentials allows any teacher from any school to develop a rich, high-impact curriculum perfectly adapted to the needs of their students in their school,” he said. “It is very powerful professional learning.”
He said Intel Teach Essentials emphasised 21st Century learning and focused on effective pedagogy
and assessment practices, higher order thinking, and provided strong support material. All are woven into the curriculum and use technology available to students and teachers in their schools.
Embedded through the entire Intel Teach Essentials program are assessment practices ‘for learning’, ‘of learning’ and ‘as learning’. Ongoing feedback mechanisms from teachers and students are particularly emphasised.
At Kambrya College, the students researched their roles. The navigator learned about the instruments and how they worked. The cook kept an inventory of supplies and recorded daily usage. The captain learned leadership skills and kept a detailed log. The surgeon studied ailments of the day and how to treat injuries based on the instruments and medical knowledge of 1813.
The captains were mentored by a humanities teacher and the surgeons discussed their role with a registered nurse. The cooks worked with a food technology teacher, who helped explore historic food handling and preservation techniques, and the navigator worked with a mathematics teacher.
The students were given daily updates of weather, wind speed and
direction and any incidents on their ship (such as a convict dying in childbirth or low water supplies).
Mr Thwaites said the students particularly enjoyed the integration of learning domains and there were vigorous debates over issues they had to solve.
Cassie Smith, who was one of the captains, said she had to develop leadership skills through the unit.
“I learnt a lot about cooperating with other people – and writing in my log was difficult because they spoke differently in those days,” she said.
The Intel Teach Essentials Program is being implemented in Victoria by the Department of Education as part of the eLearning professional development strategy, in conjunction with Intel.
The program follows a ‘train the trainer’ model. Trainees undertake 40 hours of training across five days to become master trainers. Each teacher who becomes a master trainer is required to return to their school/cluster to train 10 participant teachers.
EAST TIMOR VISIT 16th March 2006
TWO Berwick teachers have headed off to East Timor to share the Australian way of life with their sister school.
Kambrya College teachers Ruth Scott and Ben Forbes flew to East Timor on Sunday and will spend just over a week visiting the college’s friendship school in Letefoho.
Ms Scott said, ever since Kambrya College opened in 2002, it had been associated with the Letefoho school and the schools had formed a strong bond.
She said the Australian East Timor Friendship Program had matched the college with a junior secondary school called 20 de Mai (20 May), named after the country’s Independence Day.
The school is located in the mountain district of Letefoho, south west of the capital of Dili.
Last year Kambrya College sent a friendship banner to the school as a sign of their new relationship.
Ms Scott said they were looking forward to collecting a reciprocal banner on their trip.
The librarian said both she and Mr Forbes would meet students and teachers at the school and help in the classroom with various activities, including English conversation.
The pair will take AFL Auskick footballs in a bid to share some of Australia’s culture with the teachers and students, and will also make Aussie damper.
They will take films and photos of their trip and have been asked to present these at a forum of the Australia East Timor Friendship Program in May, which will be attended by Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the ex-Melbourne woman married to freedom fighter and East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao.
Ms Scott said Ms Gusmao was devoted to improving the conditions of the people of East Timor, especially women, and she was looking forward to giving their presentation.
She said the pair expected conditions in East Timor to be very different from home but she believed it was Australia’s duty to help the new country rebuild and grow.
Ms Scott admitted that she was extremely excited but very nervous about the trip and they had enlisted a driver to help break down the language barriers.
“I have never been to East Timor and it will be difficult as it is a volatile political place with limited infrastructure.”
There is no phone, no Internet, no water and no electricity in most of the rural areas.
“Australians owe it to East Timor as we have treated them not so well in the past and we have a debt to them. Because of this we need to take part in their rebuilding.”
Ms Scott said during the trip the teachers hoped to find ways that Kambrya College could further help their friendship school.
In July, two school sport teams from the Ermera District in East Timor will visit Berwick to compete in volleyball and soccer in the Edwin Flack Games.
Ms Scott said the Timorese students would hopefully be billeted in homes of students from Kambrya College, further promoting ties and friendship between the schools.
New title ‘better than being Prime Minister’ 9th March 2006
PEACE, harmony, respect and reconciliation.
These are the values the new senior elder of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal clan hopes to share with the community following his appointment.
On Monday Murrundindi visited Kambrya College in Berwick to speak of his new role and talk to year 10 and 11 students about these values and the need for more respect within the community.
Last month Murrundindi was named the new ngurungaeta, or head man, of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal clan of Melbourne following the death of former senior elder Jimmy ‘Juby’ Wandin at the age of 73.
New Head Man of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal clan Murrundindi visited Kambrya College in Berwick on Monday to talk about respect. From left: Principal Ian McKenzie, school captains Priyesha Naidu and Kyle Mayes, Murrundindi, Ashley Pappas and Ashleigh De Vent.
Before his death, Mr Wandin officially passed his title, via a statutory declaration, onto Murrundindi who found out about the new role at his ‘uncle’s’ funeral.
This week Murrundindi said he was deeply honoured to be named the new head man.
Murrundindi said the former head man’s body had been smoked down with a sacred fungus and his spirit had been taken away with the breeze.
He said more than 1000 people of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal descent had turned out to the Wurundjeri elder’s funeral in Healesville.
Murrundindi was the fourth-eldest member of the Wurundjeri clan and a direct descendent of William Barak, the last full-blooded Wurundjeri elder.
He said his aim was to serve his clan members wisely and maintain his work of educating all about the traditional ways of the indigenous Wurundjeri people and promote respect and racial harmony among all people.
Murrundindi said he would also serve Wurundjeri people as a ceremonial figure, as an official spokesperson and as an advisor regarding protocol and due process on behalf of his people and representing them wherever appropriate.
“I just feel so honoured and proud,” he said. “To me this feels like going past the Prime Minister.
“I feel like I have passed that level and gone to the head man.”
Murrundindi is in the process of having a traditional possum skin cloak made to wear in his new role.
He said he spent a week each year at Kambrya College talking to year eight students about respect and achievement and he felt very welcome at the Berwick school.
On Monday at a special assembly he chatted to year 10 and 11 students about one of the values he holds most dear – respect.
“There is so much respect here at this school and it is the best school I have ever taught at,” he said.
“I tell these students that they are at the prime of their lives and can achieve whatever they set their minds to.”
The Wurundjeri clan covers Berwick, Narre Warren, Hallam, Endeavour Hills and Doveton.
Larissa nervous but excited 9th March 2006
SPORTS-mad teenager Larissa Wood dubbed her run with the Queen’s Baton the most exciting but nerve-racking experience of her life.
The talented 14-year-old Kambrya College student was nominated for the relay by sports teacher Jacque Winter.
Ms Winter said Larissa was an “all-rounder” and a high academic achiever as well as a great sportsperson, and was heavily involved in the school community.
She said it was her proudest teaching moment when she saw Larissa grasp the baton.
Larissa plays netball in the Peninsular State League as well as district netball with Cranbourne.
The Narre Warren resident takes part in many other sports but has set her sights on becoming a professional netballer and playing for Victoria.
She said she was “over the moon” when she received news she had been selected.
Talented netballer and 14-year-old Kambrya College student Larissa Wood ran with the Queen’s Baton Relay last Thursday.
“Everyone was announced ages before me,” Larissa said. “I thought I would not get it because there were so many nominations.”
Proud family and friends flocked to Mordialloc to watch Ms Wood run with the baton and the year nine student said some of her classmates had watched her live on the Internet from school and rushed home to check the news.
Larissa said she was looking forward to keeping her official Commonwealth Games uniform as a keepsake and holding on to the memories of her run forever.
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