Officer Campus – 12 March 2020

Safety

The safety of our students is of utmost importance to us.  We are asking parents to regularly have conversations with their children regarding safety awareness strategies for when they travel to and from school.  Please remind your children to alert the police should they have any concerns regarding strange or suspicious behaviour. Simple things like travelling to and from school with friends where possible is one example of maximising one’s safety in public places. Students are also encouraged to speak to a trusted adult if they have felt uneasy or uncomfortable on the way to or from school for any reason.

Commencement Liturgy

On Thursday, we came together as a Campus to celebrate with our Commencement Liturgy. The students were observant and held a level of reverence for the special occasional. Reverend Deacon Graeme spoke of his journey up Mount Sanai with his wife on a trip to the Middle East. He spoke about the other challenging journeys in life and about the importance of adopting the right mindset for the journey.

Cantabile Launch

The Commencement Liturgy was also an opportunity for the Cantabile to have their debut performance. When I asked the Cantabile students what they enjoyed about Cantabile, they said:

“Cantabile is a wonderful thing to do for it enlightens the spirit, meeting new friends and helps make great memories.” Liam Shadforth – Cantabile – Officer

“Cantabile great is the inclusiveness in singing as a liturgical choir and that joy that it brings to everyone when singing through prayer.” Dehara Manuldie Geekiyanage – Cantabile – Officer

Student Testimony – Who is Jesus?

“Jesus is a light in my life. He guides me, motivates me and pushes me to do the right thing and follow God’s word whether I’m aware of it at the time or not. Jesus is always giving me signs that He’s here in so many different ways. Sometimes it’s through music, sometimes it’s in my mind or sometimes it’s through things people have told me. These all motivate me to be better as a child of God. I find it important to cherish and reflect on my Christianity and the signs that Jesus is here motivating me in this harsh world. We should all try to take the time to see the signs that Jesus is working all around us.”

Ally Rose Williams – Synan House Captain – Officer

“I have grown up in a practicing Catholic family, attending Catholic primary schools and attending mass every week, and only now I have realised that my parents and teachers can’t solve everything, and attend to my worries 24/7. Through this time of me maturing to be a young adult, I have turned more to Jesus with my worries and queries. Because Jesus doesn’t have a hidden agender, he does not judge, Jesus is there for you and only you. The Word of Jesus has only recently strengthened my independence and the way I deal with life challenges.”

McKenna O`Reilly – Year 8 – Officer

Staff News

Congratulations Elle Belbin on her graduation with a Bachelor of Education P – 12.

Officer Debating Topics

Congratulations to Jayden Lazaro, Dehara Geekiyanage and Ally Williams argued that we should limit the number of cars each household should own and won the first-round debate.

Here are the debating topics for this season:

Round 1 – 5 March: “That we should limit the number of cars each household should own.”

Round 2 – 16 April: “That we should embrace a cashless economy.”

Round 3 – 21 May: “That we should lift the ban on Russian athletes participating in international sporting events.”

Round 4 – 18 June: “That we should ban private gun ownership.”

Round 5 – 6 August: “That we should adopt an opt-out system for organ donation.”

Leesa Gordon and Vithiya Sathiavan are very proud of the way the students competed in the first round of DAV (Debaters Association of Victoria) on Thursday night at St Margaret’s. Jayden Lazaro, Dehara Geekiyanage and Ally Williams defeated St Paul’s, Warragul, by 2 points! This was Jayden’s first DAV debate. Ally was awarded Best Speaker by the adjudicator. We are looking forward to competing against Haileybury in the next round on 16 April. 

Lisa Harkin – Deputy Principal – Head of Campus – Officer

Swimming Carnival News

This year’s House Swimming Carnival was fun with a capital F. Gallagher House were able to come out on top for the 5th year in a row, and Schneider became back to back champions with House Spirit Award. Congratulations on all who participated for their House, whether it be swimming, competing in novelty activities, or cheering on your house and dressing up in House Colours.

The staff versus students’ race was very exciting and so much competitive spirit was shown. But unfortunately, Staff took out the win. Thanks to Cooper Knap, Kye De Jong, Alanna Eastick, Daniel Zammit and Holly Simmons for putting up their hand to compete.

Mary O’Loughlin – Sports Captain – Officer

Women in STEM

On the Friday 6 of March we participated in the Women in STEM morning tea hosted at Casey Tech School. In morning we heard a presentation on Cosplay and gaming by Ally and Caitlin from Shock Jockey Cosplay. We learned how Cosplay slowly evolved over the years and how we are still lacking a huge number of women in the gaming industry and how those little number of women who are in the industry are making a big impact in a male dominant industry.

After Ally and Caitlin’s presentation we were introduced to the Minister for Women and Youth, Gabrielle Williams and she talked about how we should never be afraid about our skills and abilities as long as we have a passion and drive for what we do. Once these presentations were over, we were led upstairs to morning tea where and while we were eating had conversations with other women in STEM and learned what types of Jobs, they did. Later in the day we completed our first activity in the Casey Tech Labs where we used paper that was drenched in red cabbage juice and experimented with what colours each different liquid we used would come out as on the paper.   

When we had completed our first task at the Casey Tech School, we moved onto our second activity, the VR Set. When we first entered the room, it looked far better than any other computer room. We were told that the headset, and remote control were a part of the set and help us experience the impossible. Our task with the VR Set was to explore different stars in this virtual reality atmosphere. There were many tools to extend our curious minds in this virtual spaceship such as a control lever, aging button, angle scanner, wave speed scanner and many more. We could even use a canon to explode the stars! It was nearly time to go home but not without picking out what the robot of Casey Tech School. The name was finally picked, and she was named Techna. After this experience we realized that our girl community could accomplish so much in life even if we are girls and that we should never let gender define what we can and can’t do. Girl Power!

Dehara Geekiyanage and Linuki Herath – Year 9 – Officer

LRC News

The LRC celebrated Library Lovers Day this Term, a day that is celebrated alongside Valentine’s Day. The theme for this year was Uncover Something New. The LRC celebrated through a guess who staff wedding photograph competition for the Students and Bookmarks with Little Chocolate Hearts for the Staff. Charli Hibberson-Dumergue was the winner of the guess who competition, well done Charli!

Lauren Murphy – Learning Resource Centre Manager – Officer

Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund

The Officer Campus Student Representative Council (SRC) wanted to find a way to raise much needed money for this charity. The students were offered a free dress day on Tuesday 25 February. Students were asked to wear a touch of green and/or gold and bring a gold coin donation. The students really stepped up on the day and the fundraiser was well supported. A total of around $682 was raised and this money will be presented to Lynda Bartoli from the GERF foundation later this term.

GERF, which stands for Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund, is a charity based in Gippsland. It was started on the 6th of December 1978 to help Gippsland people affected by flood, fire, storms or wind damage. Of note GERF have been working hard over the past few months working busily behind the scenes supporting FIRE affected locals in Gippsland.

Oli Turner – Year 8 SRC – Officer

Core Advantage – Year 9 Health

On Thursday 27 February, the Year 9 health and fitness students headed to Core Advantage gym located in South Oakleigh for an athletic development session. We then found ourselves inside the modern looking gym, stretching our muscles and rolling out any tight spots. We started with a session with Jacob Tober, a Core Advantage trainer, who took us through some quick theory and went through what the day was going to look like.

Jacob ran a warm up and we got stuck into some fitness testing where we tested our vertical leap (the height we can jump), agility testing (how quick our side to side movement is), medicine ball throw (how far we can throw the 2kg ball) and our dorsiflexion (how good our ankle movement/stretch is), along with our height and weight. We quickly became familiar with how the testing worked and achieved some great scores! After our lunch break, we were all thrilled to tackle the weights and get started on some exercise to increase our strength and mobility.

Some of the boys jumped straight into the 20kg dumbbells and found out that wasn’t so smart the next day. The girls played it smart and lifted the amount that was just right for them. We did many different exercises each targeting different parts of the body; some that required an added weight and some that just required a space of flat ground or a bench.

Each student learned something from each exercise, as Jacob explained what the exercise was for and how it would help us with our performance. The sessions’ purpose was to give us an idea of how our personal fitness plans (back at school) should look like, what they could include, what body parts should we start and end with, and much more information to help us create a successful plan. A highlight for me was having the opportunity to make use of the extra equipment to help with our learning and having an expert help and give us some pointers to help in our future fitness journey. 

Brody Paterson – Sports Captain – Officer

Student Artwork