MAC News 9 2022
Principal’s Report
Dear MAC Community,
Term 4 was a very busy term indeed and one with many highlights. I would like to thank the student leaders for organising a range of whole school and house activities this term, and in recent weeks, events such as Karaoke Competitions, Halloween Scavenger Hunt, Cultural Day, House Spirit Day, and Staff versus Student Netball and Volleyball Matches.
The MAC Annual Awards night was on 28 November. It was great to be back at the Clocktower and to celebrate in person. I would like to thank Stephanie Balaburov and the team of staff working behind the scenes, the student leaders hosting the evening and all students involved in performances and presentations on the night. A huge thank you to all our community partners for their support of our students and their generous financial support. I would like to congratulate all our awards recipients once again.
I would like to thank the Year 11 Formal Committee for an outstanding job in organising the Year 11 Formal. Our College Captains Rea and Luke did a great job in hosting and running the activities on the night including Karaoke, Staff and Students dance off, fun awards and of course some dancing! It was a great night and wonderful to see students dressed up and enjoying themselves after many hard months of SACs, exams, and orientation classes.
I would like to thank Michael Buckingham for his organisation of the Year 11 Study Camp at Ormond College. A big thank you to all the staff who went along and led presentations. It was a big ask given the time of the year and how much planning and preparation they all still must do for Orientation and 2023. I am looking forward to working with our Graduates of 2023 and I know their best is yet to come.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Richard Van Rooyen who has been the Learning Specialist Literacy Improvement for the past four years. Richard’s work has focused on writing improvement and leading staff professional learning, focusing on classroom strategies for staff to implement in their classes. This work has paid dividends as we have seen a marked improvement across the school. At Year 7 and 9, we have seen significant gains in NAPLAN writing; NAPLAN data for writing has seen an improvement from 71% to 82% and 55% to 81% respectively, of students at expected or above expected level. This is an incredible achievement. Congratulations to Richard and all the teachers.
I would also like to thank Stephanie Balaburov for her role as the Acting Leading Teacher in Student Leadership and Empowerment. Stephanie has done a great job working with our student leaders in reigniting school and house spirit after two years of disruption to schooling. She has increased the number of leadership programs and opportunities as well as increasing the number of community partnerships and scholarship opportunities for our students. Congratulations and well done!
We are farewelling a number of our beloved teachers. Ally Curtain started as a graduate teacher at the start of 2020 working in the humanities faculty. It has been a joy to watch Ally develop. She is loved by the students and staff and will be missed. Ally is leaving us to take a position with Virtual Schools Victoria. We also farewell Jonathan Sherlock. Jonathon has been at the college for 10 years and also began as a graduate teacher. He has been the Humanities Teaching and Learning Leader for a number of years and has made significant contributions for the curriculum, developing many of the Humanities electives from the ground up. We will miss his passion and enthusiasm and wish him all the best as he takes up a role at Essendon Keilor College.
We also farewell Konrad Sosnowski. Konrad has taught music, maths and more recently PE. He has also been the Apollo Head of House; a role I know he has enjoyed and cherished. We will miss Konrad’s energy, unwavering care, and support for not just for the students in Apollo but for all students who have crossed his path in his time at MAC. We will miss his outrageous costumes and sense of fun at all house and school events. Leaving MAC has been a hard decision, however moving to a school closer to home will give him more time in a busy life of teaching and bringing up two very young children. We wish him all the best.
We also farewell Lynn Bentley, who is retiring after 43 years in education and at MAC! Lynn has had many, many different positions in the College from Year Level Coordinator, Program for Students with Disability Coordinator, to more recently, Leading Teacher Student Wellbeing and Engagement, a role which has been a career highlight. Lynn has been an inspiration to generations of students and teachers. Her dedication and commitment to the school has been outstanding. We will all miss her energy, incredible sense of humour, compassion, and care for our students. We thank her and hope that the next chapter of her life is equally fulfilling.
Sadly, former student Hashim Mohamed passed away in a tragic accident on Sunday 4 December. Our thoughts are with his mother Ashir, younger sister, Ilyas, two older brothers and all students, families, and members of our MAC Community.
I would like to thank you for your continued support and would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday.
Dani Angelico, Principal
Farewell Lunch for Lynn Bentley
Hello everyone,
Today we are gathered here to celebrate the time and dedication of our one and only Ms Lynn Bentley. Lynn has contributed so much to the MAC community in her 43 years of service in the Education Department. She has worked with students as well as their families to make education fun and more successful. She has changed so many families’ lives, especially families from the horn of Africa. We want to say thank you for taking care of our children.
As a community, we have seen the amazing work you have done, ensuring that every day our kids get the best assistance and education and contacting us when needed. Thank you for your hard work and making a difference. We feel blessed to have you at MAC and that you were their teacher. Thank you for being so patient in teaching our teens and future doctors, teachers, and engineers that will change the world for the better.
When we send our kids to school, we know that teachers are like their parents and will help us into moulding and shaping our kids into a better version of themselves. You are someone who this community will never forget and will be remembered forever. Best wishes to you. We hope you enjoy your retirement. You will be missed deeply.
Written by Halima Malaakh and Zeituna Hussein, spoken by Awatif Taha
Awards Night Celebrations
Congratulations to ATHENA for winning the 2022 House Cup!
APOLLO House Values Awards
Community and Engagement – Aj Abdou
Respect and Integrity – Anna Liddament-Ross
House Spirit – Olivia Del Rio
ARTEM
IS House Values Awards
Community and Engagement – Sam Carlisle
Respect and Integrity – Nash Davie
House Spirit – Rutav Potnis & Dhruv Potnis
ATHENA House Values Awards
Community and Engagement – Jacinta Klassen
Respect and Integrity – Cooper Thomas
House Spirit – Rocky Lai
POSEIDON 
House Values Awards
Community and Engagement – Charlotte Cook
Respect and Integrity – Georgia Treacy
House Spirit – Harry Morgan
ACADEMIC AWARDS
English Academic Excellence – Gigi Manley, Olivia Radebe, Luke Vella
EAL Academic Excellence – Sakaria Wahani, Aaron Chen, Habon Sani
Humanities Academic Excellence – Anna Liddament-Ross, Muhammed Rizvi, Ella-Lucia Ferella
Languages Academic Excellence – Jiner Nguyen, Jack Dowell
Arts Academic Excellence – Archer Slattery, Emily Labas, Tahlia Dowell
Technology Academic Excellence – Samuel Lundgren May, Sean Posar, Ruby Walter
Mathematics Academic Excellence – Zoe Schnabel, Rowan Tonissen, Zoe He
Science Academic Excellence – Olivia Del Rio, Shona Pokle Sen, Riley Walsh
Health and Physical Education Academic Excellence – Marie Karanatsios, Jack Phelps, Sundus Mohammed
ACADEMIC DUXES
Junior School Duxes
Entry: Radha Butters
Above Entry 8: Kam Valachovic
Above Entry 9: Olivia Radebe
Senior School Duxes
Above Entry 10: Hannah Klugman-Kerr
Graduate 2023: Alanah Hoyle
Growth DUX – Dylan Page
VCAL Dux – Yasmine Van Halen-El Sayegh
VCE College DUX – Zoe He
Student Work
Awards at Assembly
Graduates of 2023 Study Camp at Ormond College
Graduates of 2023 Formal
Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL)
VCAL Reflection
I expected it would be a little challenging due to the two campuses from the beginning of this year and the end of last year. I’m in Year 11 VCAL this year, therefore I took almost all my classes there in Debney Meadows Primary School, except for mentoring, which was in MAC. However, it wasn’t as difficult as I had predicted because it was enjoyable to be on the Debney Meadows Senior Campus, to be around with Year 11 and 12 students and undoubtedly to be around Ms Elizabeth because she was so welcoming down in the office.
Safiah Osman, Graduate of 2023
Cultural Day
Spirit Day
Languages and Humanities
Chinese
Shenglin (Aaron) Chen, Chinese First Language Category, Victorian Interschool Impromptus Writing and Speaking Competition
Philosophy
The Trolley Problem
Arts and Technology
Media
Tahlia Dowell’s short documentary Not All Men has been shortlisted for the 2022 Top Screen Season.
Not All Men is a docudrama that explores the lingering effects of toxic masculinity on young men and society. This product follows the narrative of a young queer man who struggled to be accepted by his peers while attending a Melbourne Private Boys School; and the role of a facilitator who works with young men to challenge the ideals of what it means to be a man in contemporary society.
Julie Stephens, Arts and Technology Teaching and Leading Learner, Media and Drama Teacher
The Drone Age
In Media, we were using a drone to help film some cool shots for coursework.
Lola Lane Tan, Above Entry 10
Studio Art
Theatre Dioramas Inspired by Fairy Tales
Our Diorama features characters from the story of King Arthur. Within this piece we have King Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere and Morgana, accompanying a sword in a stone, a dragon and some other features. In this diorama we have our characters as travellers with sleeping bags and an open fire. We designed all of this in our theatre studies classes, using materials from the art room. For example the sword is made out of icy-pole sticks, stabbed into polystyrene, whilst the dragon is made out of clay.
Rebecca Mitchell, Bella Birch, Amelia Wiemels, and Audrey Cassar Horsfield
This is our diorama of princess and the pea. We faced challenges of making things stand up, using wires to make various decorations and accidentally getting hot glue on ourselves.
Carla Francis, Georgia Treacy, and Keira Schnabel
Pizza per tutti!
Music
Karaoke Contest
Round 1
Winners:
1st – Dina Mohammed
2nd – Eva Luna Sowerby
3rd – Jhayzee Tumang, Jasmine Ellis, and Rocky Lai
Round 2
Winners:
1st – Rocky Lai
2nd – Lola Salazar, Gabriella Desta, Amra Coke, and Max Mitchell
3rd – Sarah Alman and Tenisha Leigh Deleo
4th – Charlotte Cook and Lorena Dos Santos
Lunchtime Concert
Robotics: Rocky Lai and his Infinity Gauntlet
Victorian Coding Competition
On 17 November, MAC won second place in the Victorian Coding Challenge (VCC) held at Docklands. VCC is a statewide challenge run by the Mathematical Association of Victoria where schools across Victoria come together to compete in coding challenges. There were 18 teams that participated.
MAC fielded two Year 7-8 teams, respectively: Mark Lubansky & Katsuki Yamanaka (Team 1) and Samuel Lundgren May, James Westcott & Edward Williams (Team 2). A Year 9-10 team comprised of Ruben Carra, Ayden Schnabel & Will Barrelle Scott. The Year 7-8 team of Samuel, James & Edward placed second for MAC.
The teams were ably supervised by Katherine Gu, traveling together by train to the Docklands venue. After warm-up exercises, the teams competed in two segments, challenging their programming skills in Python and data encoding skills. The MAC teams also had an enjoyable time with Katherine Gu traveling back to school.
Samuel Lundgren May, Entry
The Coding competition was challenging and fun but there were multiple technical issues so I feel like they could have prepared it better but overall it was a fun experience.
Katsuki Yamanaka, Above Entry 8
Mathematics
MYLNS Initiative
ASX School Share Market Game
Once again, the game experienced some very difficult times with the prospect of recession looming over the world and markets down considerably over the course of the second game for the year.
Nevertheless, there were students in Australia who did very well. Sixteen syndicates finished with over $60,000 with the top performer with a value of nearly $66,000 from the starting amount of $50,000.
Rutav Potnis was our top performing student. Rutav turned his virtual $50,000 into $51,628 in the 10-week period of the game. He traded in ASG and NAB making small losses and gains, but his major holding was in NHC, the big coal miner. As well as an improvement in price of the share, NHC also paid a big dividend during the game which substantially added to the overall increase in the portfolio. Rutav invested conservatively and had over $45,000 in cash at the end of the period. If he had invested more in NHC, his value would have been much higher.
Rutav was our only player who finished the game in the black. Other players finished with small losses. The average syndicate value in the whole of Australia was $49,013 with only 27% of syndicates in profit.
There will be another game next year running from 9 March 2022 to 18 May 2022. This will be advertised and made available to all MAC students.
Graeme Morgan, Teacher of Senior Mathematics
Science
GTAP Car Building Project Competition
In GTAP, our last assignment was making a car move by only using a balloon. At the time we were studying Newton’s laws. After we made the cars, we raced them. The reason why I won was because I added a cone at the front to reduce air resistance and I also made the car light.
Patrick Harrison, Entry
Science Incursion
On 21 November, some science classes took part in University of Melbourne’s science incursion program – Science Delivery.
Science Delivery is presented by Bachelor of Science students from the University, who present exciting science demonstrations and activities, talk about their backgrounds and stories of success, and act as role models for students.
Some of the demonstrations included:
Testing the colour profile of different metal ions, using technology in scientific research via drones, dissecting a real lamb’s brain, Ruben’s Tube to represent sound waves in fire, cloud making in a bottle using everyday items, tour of the University’s Tieg’s museum exploring different animal skulls.
Miriam Berkovich, Science Teaching and Learning Leader
During the Melbourne University Science incursion, I liked how we could interact with everything and ask questions about how stuff works. The stations we got to work at included the drones, brains, evolution skulls and learning about the periodic table. My favourite was the drone as we could code for what the drone would do; it was able to move left and right and do back flips! It also allowed us to put the distance in. The Melbourne uni speakers were uni students and gave great advice to us. Garred shared with me that even though you don’t know what you want to do after high school it is ok to explore and figure out!
Nour Awad, Entry
In the Melbourne Uni science incursion, we got to guess which animal belonged to which skull, which was my favourite out of all four activities. We also learnt about brain anatomy, and what makes them up, by poking at a lamb brain. I learnt that science is something that takes place in almost every job.
Zoe Schnabel, Entry
I thought that the lesson was one of the best as I genuinely had fun and there were many interactive activities to experience. Not wanting to sound cliché, but I think the best way to learn is through hand-on activities instead of just theory and this opportunity allowed us to do just that.
Felix Forbes-Rolfe, Entry
The incursion was really fun and interesting. The people from Melbourne Uni were really nice and they showed us experiments that were beyond amazing.
Adrielle Clement, Entry
Clubs and Societies
Drawing Club
I drew the 3 main characters from the show “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared,” only using highlighters.
Zoe Schnabel, Entry
Student Wellbeing
Valley Youth
Basic Life Support
As part of the orientation program for 2023, students undertaking VCE VM in 2023 participated in a Basic Life Support Lesson. Student gain knowledge and skills required to provide support to someone who is needing basic life support. Information also included demonstration of the recovery position and the reasons why this is required.
Students gained knowledge in Danger, Response, Send for Help, Airway, Breathing, Compressions, and Defibrillation before practicing their compressions on the squeaky hearts for two minutes each.
Mindfulness and Smiling Mind
Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and without judgement.
Mindfulness practice helps to:
- Reduce worries and distress
- Create a sense of calm
- Learn how to relax and regulate emotions
- Improve concentration and increased productivity
- Develop a sense of empathy and connectedness
- Enjoy better health and sleep
Why not give it a go today! All you need is 10 minutes a day to see changes!
Smiling Mind is a free website as well as mindfulness app that has been developed by educators and psychologists to help bring mindfulness into people’s lives.
References and further information:
https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
Michelle Hynson, School Health Promotion Nurse, Monday and Tuesday
Resource Centre
Holiday Cheer in the RC
Borrowing over the school holidays
Thank you to all the students and staff who have returned overdue books. There are still a number outstanding from earlier this year. Please check your emails for correspondence from the Resource Centre and bring the books to be returned or renewed ASAP.
The Resource Centre now offers the option to borrow books over the summer school holidays. If you have a book that you would like to read over the holidays, bring it to the circulation desk in the Resource Centre and I will get that organised for you.
Do you know we have ebooks and audiobooks?
The Eplatform has over 2500 ebooks and audiobooks that you can read or listen to with new books being added every day. You can access it by downloading the app on your device and signing in with your school details in the Single Sign On (SSO). Find out more here: mountalexandercollege.wheelers.co
Carla Iannarella, Resource Centre, Communications and Marketing Manager
MAC Parents and Friends Association
MAC would like to thank Bronwen Jefferson and the team for their generous efforts at the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser on 11 December. They have raised a collective $1800 to help support our MAC Community.
Rotary Club
The boys learned extra life skills outside the curriculum: how to prepare auctions, set the price, etc.
Ching Chan, Chinese and Japanese Teacher
Charity Event in Yarraville
