Student Newsletter - Southern Cross Distance Education

Southern Cross School Distance Education
Student Newsletter
2-40 Chickiba Drive, East Ballina NSW 2478
T 02 6681 0300 F 02 6681 0499
E sthcrossc-d.school@det.nsw.edu.au
W sthcrossc-d.schools.nsw.edu.au
Monday 24th August 2015
Issue 11
Focus on Faculty—History
History faculty news
Includes:
Things remain very busy in the History faculty as we continue to
expand with the appointment of two new permanent staff last
term. The days our staff work and their phone extensions can be
found below. With lots of visits and projects underway, email is
often the best way to contact us.
Name
Miss Tonkin HT
Ms Magriplis
Mrs Commens
Ms Yong
Mr Walters
Ms Barbour
Ms Sheldon
Phone
ext
421
422
422
409
420
423
420
Student Calendar
Please see back page for
Student calendar
 KLA specialist days
 Visits from Transition and Stage
Advisors to Centres to assist Year
10 students to chose subjects for
year 11 in 2016.
 Preliminary Exam dates
 Link to HSC Examination Timetable
Subjects taught this
year
Current working
days
Did you know that you can
make payments to SCSDE
online?
Year 10 and Modern
History
Monday–Friday
Year 8 and Ancient
History
Monday and Friday
Years 9 and 10 History;
Elective History
Tuesday and
Thursday
Years 8 and 9 History;
Ancient and Modern
History
Monday–Friday
Elective History and
Ancient History
Thursdays
We have launched a new online
payment portal linked to our
school’s website to make it easier
for you to pay for school related
payments. This is a secure
payment page hosted by Westpac.
What expenses can be paid
online?
Voluntary School Contributions,
Subject Contributions, Excursions,
Sport, Creative and Practical Arts,
Sales to Students.
How?
Log onto School site at
Years 7, 9 and 10
History
Monday–Friday
Years 9 and 10 History
Monday–
Wednesday
We are continuing to develop new learning materials for the
Australian Curriculum, working on finishing topics for Years 8 and
10 this semester. In History you will use a variety of multimedia:
lots of audio recordings and videos so it’s very important you
advise your teacher as soon as possible if your USB or equipment
isn’t working as you can’t complete your work without these
resources.
Continued on next page….
Our school stands proudly on Bundjalung land
1
http://www.sthcrosscd.schools.nsw.edu.au
Click on “Make a Payment” and
follow the prompts to make a
payment via Visa or MasterCard.
Mailroom Information
The following important information
has recently been posted to students:
 Webpage information sheet
 Years 7 and 9 NAPLAN results
 Preliminary Exams
The History faculty attempts to individualise our teaching and learning programs to suit the needs of
individual students, so it’s important you:
•
carefully read your red title pages—these instructions are tailored to suit your ability and
preferences—only send back the exercises listed
•
complete all activities and check them yourself—this helps you to know whether or not you are
understanding the topic—NEVER send these back
•
stay in regular contact with your teacher—let them know the tasks you like, those you don’t and
those you find hard or too easy
•
NEVER send back the learning material—keep it at home so you can refer back to it as you
need—remember learning is building on your prior knowledge.
With all the work we are doing revising the curriculum, the student and supervisor evaluations at the
end of each unit are vital as your feedback helps us make improvements to learning. Please make
sure you always return the evaluation of each topic to your History teacher.
We hope you enjoy learning a little more about the History faculty in this newsletter. If you have any
questions about the History courses or studying History please email or call us.
Stage 4 History
(Years 7 and 8)
Students in Year 8, our budding historians
have been studying the medieval world of the
Vikings. Movies like Thor and How to train your
dragon have revived interest in Viking society
and it was great to see students enthusiastically
complete the new unit in Semester 1. Some
examples of their fantastic work designing
Viking shields can be seen below.
Students in Year 7 learn the skills of an
historian and discover the ancient past, moving
across diverse cultures and histories. From
Ancient Australia, Greece, Egypt and China,
Year 7 students learn about the mysteries of
history.
Our students have travelled back in time to
learn about Lake Mungo and the people who
lived there 40 000 years ago. Using their
developing history skills, students have been
learning how to use evidence and sources to
discover what life was like in this site of cultural
significance.
Casey Ellis
Isabella Smith
Jamin Booth
Lakota Perry
Students in Year 8 have also been working on
a virtual site study of Angkor in Cambodia.
Their assessment task has been to produce a
tourist guide for either Angkor Thom, Angkor
Wat or Ta Prohm. Students were given a range
of ways to present their guide and it’s been
exciting to see the work that has been created.
The Diprotodon looked like a huge wombat and
lived around Lake Mungo before it became
extinct about 25 000 years ago.
2
Stage 5 History (Years 9 and 10)
Students in Year 9 have been studying the unit of work ‘Making a nation’, which looks at
Australia’s federation. Their assessment task last term gave them an opportunity to choose a
particular topic they were interested in from the time period to create a public awareness campaign
via a social media site. Students chose topics such as immigration, women’s and Aboriginal
Peoples’ rights to vote and issues surrounding federation. Using their creativity on platforms such
as Facebook, Fakebook, Instagram and Edmodo they were able to display their understanding in a
variety of ways in a medium that is relevant to their everyday lives. Some of Kyia Butler’s clever
Facebook posts on women’s voting rights can be seen below.
Students in Year 10 this semester have been doing their mandatory historical site study on
the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme and investigating the impact this engineering wonder
had on the land and people of the area. Students undertook a virtual study of the site using videos,
audio recordings, an interactive map, animation and photos and were able to deliver their findings
in a variety of ways.
3
Senior History
HSC Ancient and Modern History students are busily finishing their course work and should be
revising their summaries and practising past exams as they prepare for the HSC exams early
next term.
Year 11 Ancient and Modern History students only have a few weeks to go before all their
course work needs to be complete and they sit their Preliminary exams.
All Year 11 and 12 students have been invited to our annual Senior History minischool on
Monday 31 August which will help with their exam preparation. Students must make sure they
RSVP as per the information below to assist with our organisation.
History
competitions
There are a number of
competitions History students can
enter.
The theme this year for the
research based National History
Challenge was ‘Leadership and
Legacy’. Kirra Piper in Year 9
decided to take up the challenge
and wrote an essay on John Flynn.
For her, John Flynn epitomised the
theme ‘Leadership and Legacy’
through his foundation of the Royal
Flying Doctor Service. We wish
Kirra all the best and hope she
wins ones of the prizes on offer.
The Hills Sports High School is
hosting the 2015 History
Mastermind Competition held on
Friday 20 November. This
competition consists of teams of
four students from Years 7 and 8.
The teams will be quizzed on
topics such as: Ancient Greece,
Egypt & Rome, Medieval Europe,
current affairs and Aboriginal
History to 1900. If you are
interested in this competition
please contact your History
teacher for more details.
4
T
Gifted and Talented
he Gifted and Talented Team, at Southern Cross School Distance Education,
showcases items created by students.
If you have created or made something lately ie art, technology, invention, creative
writing etc please contact Hedda Whitfield on 66 810 352 or email
hedda.whitfield@det.nsw.edu.au - GATs Coordinator so that we can showcase your project.
The following was written by one of our students.
Steampunk anyone?
Mara’s preface
It was three o’clock in the morning, and she was this close to
losing a finger. Dress ups were encountered, ideas were
sparked, and attempted steampunk stories were written. Later
I tried to fix it and it didn’t save so imam roll down to the
bottom of the page where the drabbles are. Dear god. Dear
god this is a god damned MESS ugh. Why do I write things at
three in the goddamned morning, it’s just NOT a good idea.
Ugggggggggggggh this pains me to read, it is hurting me
deep in the heart. DEEP
FUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughughblurghleblah I just hate this
entire thing but I can’t delete it and I’m probably never going to
properly edit it so that it ISN’T complete and utter rubbish.
UGH.
Chapter one
“Name.”, the balding man behind the desk asked. The office was large, a long row of desks down the middle of the room.
“Ellis Lander.”, he replied nervously, glancing to his left. He could see people dismantling odd machines before the man or
woman behind the desk said something and they left, disappointed.
“Age?”, the man continued, snapping his attention back to his own career.
“Eighteen.”, he answered.
“Alright, you have sixty seconds to fix this.”, he set one of the odd machines he’d seen on the other desks in front of him,
pulling a stopwatch out of his pocket.
“Ready?”, he nodded, picking up the odd machine. It looked sort of like a circular hairbrush, the same sort of bristles
protruding from the upper half. “Go.”
Ellis got to work, popping open a panel to reveal a set of cogs. The obvious problem was the way the cogs were arranged, a
tangled jumble that would come apart if it was used. Keeping one eye on the cogs, he rearranged the cogs with nimble
fingers, so that they spun smoothly, the bristled head of the device rotating. He frowned, something tickling his memory. It
still wasn’t right, the device didn’t seem to be built for…whatever you would use a rotating hairbrush-like- device for. He
turned the device over in his hands, noticing another smaller button beneath the one that rotated the head. The cogs it turned
when pressed were functional, except for the fact one was missing, leaving the last cog to turn uselessly. He frowned, going
back to the previously fixed panel of cogs. A few changes gave him a free cog to put in place of the missing one, not that he
had any idea what the second button did. If it was what he thought it was, then it wasn’t like he had ever used one.
“Time’s up, Mr Lander.” the man said as he put the device back together, reaching to take it from him. Pressing the first
button, the spiked head wound up for a moment before he pressed the second button and it released. He nodded
approvingly.
“Very good Mr Lander, We’ll have you assigned to—“
“ME - I call dibs!”, a voice exclaimed from above. They both looked up in time to see one of the ceiling panels to swing open
as two boots appeared, followed by stocking clad legs.
5
“Oh dear.”, the man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. A girl swiftly lowered herself down into the room by a golden chain
attached to a large belt around her waist, landing deftly on her feet. She wasn’t much older than him, wearing a mirage of leather
and gold’s and blacks, dark magenta hair standing out in stark contrast to those. Over her left eye she wore a plain black eye
patch, making him wonder what was beneath it. Her uncovered eye was bright blue, like a clear sky on a summer’s day.
“Good job, by the way. Most people just reckon that because it spins it works, without thinking of what it’s supposed to be for.”, she
scowled, tugging the chain. It fell from the ceiling and neatly landed in her hand, a quiet whirring noise emitting from her belt as he
realized the chain wasn’t attached to the belt, but came from somewhere inside it. The chain was drawn back into the belt as he
watched, blinking.
“My mom had one of those, I only managed it because I knew what it was.” he admitted, glancing down at the old fashioned hair
curler. “Or, I thought I knew what it was.”
“You’re modest, too. Half the idiots in here would already be bragging about how simple it was by now.” she grinned, completely
ignoring his words in favour of sticking out one gloved hand. “Marissa Gates, though everyone calls me Mara.”
He nodded uncertainly and shook her hand, feeling an odd mixture of happy, glad, hesitant and, if he was being honest, slightly
frightened. He’d actually passed; he was going to work in this city. He thought about what he’d tell his worried mother and his
sceptical father back home next time he wrote.
At first light on my initial morning in the city, the sound of machinery was almost
drowned out by the thuds of the crowd bustling about the slightly decrepit central park.
Almost… the grinding of a thousand gears bigger than Ellis’ house was a hard thing to
top. Despite the accommodation and the impossibly stuffy air, he was thrilled to be
here. Gearstone, the capital city of Steam, was enough to make the overly packed
streets and unbearable noise almost pleasant.
“Sorry, sorry!” Ellis cried as someone once again knocked into him as he stopped dead
to marvel at something or other. A lady gave him an offended look through layers of
white foundation pasted on her round moon face, as she passed him by. Ellis’ papers
only allowed him up to the tenth story, where the preliminary trials were being held.
The air was clearer than the ground floor by miles, but it still held a distinct smell. The
streets reeked of oil and there was a nigh permanent fog hanging about the
thoroughfare. Trying to find his way through the hectic main road was like a salmon
fighting its way upstream—suffocating, unpleasant and disorientating. Three times did
he stop and ask for directions, and twice he was told to shove his head in a gutter. He
had come to the city in hopes of learning to engineer the great mechanical
masterpieces that dominated the skyline of the towering city of Gearstone. Ellis wasn’t
alone in his ambition; the city was swarming with young hopefuls like him. It had been
difficult to book room even months in advance. His room at the boarding house was on
the lower levels, the ones that stank of grease and smoke. The room was tiny, a bed
and a bathroom with the barest room to take two steps in between. It was to be
expected on the meagre money he’d had to offer. The park was small, a brown-green square between crowded footpaths. What
little sunlight made it past the crisscrossing bridges came in intermitted rays as the giant cogs across the sky blocked them like
storm clouds? But there was only so much of the city he could take. The grass here was the slightly unhealthy colour the artificial
sunlight from the circular lamps the trees were stunted, bent over things that skimmed
Gearstone was a huge city; towers over fifty stories, each the size of a small town in itself, reaching into the sky. Maintained by
some of the world’s most prestigious engineers, origin of some of the world’s most revelational inventions, home to some of the
world’s richest and most famous.
The Clockworks Corporation was a giant stone tower in the shape of a gear they said, if you were lucky enough to fly over it. From
the ground, it just looked like a massive, jagged chunk of metal protruding out of the ground. Ellis couldn’t afford even the
cheapest of blimps, the ones crowded with grubby tourists and the ominous wheezing where the engines should be. Instead, he
waited in line on the dirt smattered roads leading into the city, trying to maintain a polite distance between the burly man before
him and the harried mother with the crying child behind him.
He could only examine the bronze automatons on either side of the elaborate portcullis for so long before boredom began to wear
on him. This morning, he hadn’t even been able to see the city through the fog. Now, he could see the guard at the entrance
stamped sheet after sheet of paper with a bored jerk of his bronze arm. Examining that and wondering at the mechanics of the
prosthetic managed to occupy him a little longer.
He almost didn’t notice when an expectant metal hand raised in a well-practiced motion. He did; however, blink at it for a long
moment before remembering there was a world outside of two steps forward every minute. Then he hurried to supply his papers
for stamping, before the harried mother with the crying child behind him did something drastic.
The line to the apprenticeship office was long enough that he had plenty of time of wonder if he was wasting his time. If he made
the cut, he’d assigned to someone to learn from and assist. He cued up with a hundred other applicants outside, on the long
bridges that criss-crossed across each layer of the tall city.
6
7
8
9
Student Calendar 2015
Please note:
Transition and Year Advisors are visiting centres to meet with Year 10 students re: subject choices for year 11 in 2016—
Red text (Full time students only).
KLA specialist days are in blue text. (Full time students only).
Date
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Week 7
August
24
Maths and History
at Coffs
Harbourside and
Textiles at Ballina
25
Maths and History
at Grafton
26
Science at Glen
Innes/Inverell (not
at centre) and
History at
Mullumbimby
27
Science at
Tenterfield (not at
centre)
Sport/PDHPE at
Tweed PCYC
28
PDHPE at Lismore
TAFE
Week 8
August/
Sept
31
Maths at Ballina
Senior History Mini
School at SCSDE
1
Textiles at Casino,
Sport/PDHPE at
Mullumbimby
2
Mullumbimby and
Yamba
English at
Mullumbimby,
Visual Arts at
Murwillumbah,
Science at Grafton
(not at Centre)
3
Tweed PCYC and
Grafton
Maths at Byron
YAC, Science at
Coffs Harbour (not
at centre), Textiles
at Lismore TAFE
4
Ballina and
Toormina
Maths at Tweed
PCYC and History
at Lismore TAFE
Week 9
Sept
7
Casino and Coffs
Harbour
History at
Mullumbimby,
Visual Arts and
Music at Ballina
Preliminary Exams
8
Byron Bay and
Coffs Harbour
Wood tech at
Mullumbimby,
Sport/PDHPE at
Casino
Preliminary Exams
9
Murwillumbah and
Woolgoolga
Science at
Mullumbimby and
History at
Murwillumbah
Preliminary Exams
10
PDHPE at Byron
YAC, Preliminary
Exams
11
Preliminary Exams
Week 10
Sept
14
PDHPE at Balllina
Preliminary Exams
15
Tenterfield and
Glen Innes
English at Casino
Preliminary Exams
16
Inverell
Geography at
Mullumbimby
17
Inverell
History at Byron
YAC
18
Science at Lismore
TAFE and History
at Tweed PCYC
Last Day of Term 3
Holidays
21
22
23
24
24
Holidays
28
29
30
1
2
Week 1
5
Labour Day
6
7
First Day of Term 4
8
9
The Higher School Certificate starts on Monday 12th October and finishes on Wednesday 4th
November. Please follow this link to the BOSTES website to view the HSC Timetable:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/key_dates/pdf_doc/hsc_timetable_2015_web.pdf
10