Hawkesdale P12….. a global techno College

Last year I made a contact through Twitter to Quinn McDonald (www.raw-art-journals.com) in America. She was kind enough to involve our school Year 7 class in her traveling journal project. Quinn sent us some beautiful, tough and durable paper which was given to the students to decorate and make into a journal page. The pages will be sent back to Quinn and she will then bind them into a journal. This journal will be used to foster a connection to the students in a local school nearby her home. They in turn will be making a journal to send to us. Below is one of the beautiful pages made by one of my students to be sent to Quinn.

Tags: Art Journals, Arts and Crafts

Congratulations to our school captain of 2009, Jack Keegan, who has won a Moyne Shire young citizen community award as part of the Moyne Shire Council Australia Day celebrations on January 26th. Jack has been involved in many school and community activities, including the following:-

•  an awardee of a  gold Duke of Edinburgh medal
• member of the Moyne Shire Junior  Council
• Hawkesdale P12 College School Captain 2009
• Hakwesdale P12 College SRC member
• School representative at local, district and state level sporting activities
• Successful member and player for several local sporting clubs
• Participant in the 444,000 trees project
• Involvement in the Willatook Hall and Reserve community activities

Congratulations also go to Mrs Julie Bos, from our local Post Office for the Community Award that she also received!

Tags: Australia_Day_community_awards, awards

We wish you a safe and fun holidays. These pictures were made for a large advent calender made by pupils in Grade 3-4 for 2009.

Great excitement in the school! A photographer and a journalist, Daniel Flitton,  from the  Age came to the school last week, to photograph the year 6s and Ms Murnane. This is one of our big Melbourne newspapers!

In 2008 and 2009, year 6 students of Hawkesdale P12 College studied nuclear disarmament under the guidance of their class teacher, Ms Marg Murnane. Students wrote letters to global leaders and politicians, including the Prime Minister of Australia, about their concerns and the need to abolish nuclear weapons.
This was brought to the attention of participants in a recent international conference, in Stockholm, on Nuclear Disarmament, where student comments were quoted by Mr Tim Wright,  an ICAN Board Member and International Ambassador for the campaign, currently based in Paris.

Now back to the Age photographer… The students and school were featured in a cleverly written article over a full page spread on Tuesday, December 15th, with the heading “The Bomb Squad!” You can follow the link and read all about it.

Here is the quote by Bailey from his letter to global leaders:”

Dear world leaders,” writes Bailey. ”I’m only 11 and I want to live my life to the full. We need to abolish nuclear weapons for us to be able to do that safely. As a beginning point, we need to get the nuclear weapons off high alert. At least then, there is less likelihood of an accidental bombing. After that, the countries need to get together and discuss abolishing these devastating weapons altogether.

Our local paper, “The Standard” published the same article the next day, Wed, Dec 16th. Below is the presentation on nuclear disarmament, that students made as part of their study last year. It was a featured slideshare on that site as well.

Our students have been invited to create posters and banners for  an event with the UN Secretary-General, in New York next year. This will be another amazing opportunity for the voices of Hawkesdale P12 students, to be heard on yet another world stage.

At the moment, there is much talk about Climate Change – at the Copenhagen conference. At Hawkesdale P12, we are encouraging students to make the link between certain and immediate,  catastrophic climate change in the event of the intentional or accidental launch of nuclear weapons. Our students voices are echoing across the world – I can, You Can, We Can ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS!

Tags: newspaper_media, nuclear_disarmament, nuclear_weapons, the_Age. the Warrnambool Standard

The annual school picnic at Port Fairy

Whilst the primary school sector headed north to Hamilton, the secondary portion were bussed to Killarney after tidying up the stadium from the  Final Assembly.

Students then proceeded on the 10km walk to Port Fairy using the beach sands as their footpath. It took from  1 3/4 to 2 hours to complete. Once at the Port Fairy Surf Life Saving club, and with the life savers in attendance, many students took the opportunity of the warm weather and surprisingly warm ocean, to dip their sore feet in the water. Meanwhile, many other students and staff played beach cricket, others played in the sand and yet others, enjoyed the chance to watch on and chat.

Another very enjoyable and successful day!

Tags: Killarney_walk, Port_Fairy, school_picnic

Thank-you to all the hard-working volunteers who assisted this year’s Plum Pudding Fundraiser. Over three days of measuring, mixing and boiling, 304 puddings were produced. This has been an annual event over the past 29 years which raises valuable funds for the school. Each traditional cloth-covered pudding weighs 1.5 kg, but to learn the secret recipe you will need to come along and help next year!

Grateful appreciation to the following parents, ex-students, staff and friends: Janice Anderson, Barbara Birthisel, Elaine Day, Leanne Edwards, Cheryl Gardiner, Tracy Gow, Karen Gurney, Wendy and Anna Habel, Jackie Hunter, Gail Johnson, Marlene Johnson, Helen Keegan, Margaret Trotter, Heather McKenry, Brenda Noonan, Lynne, Melissa and Madeline North and Liz Williams.

Tags: parents, puddings, volunteers

Year 6 at their End of Year Dinner on Wednesday 2nd December.

On Wednesday 2nd December, 20 year 6 students and their parents, attended a dinner which was held at the Hawkesdale Hall. The students presented a photo story which was a snap shot of 2009, and they each shared some of their funny memories of their educational journey so far. Students were presented with a photo and a pen. The dinner was catered by the Hawkesdale Hall Committee and the flowers arranged by Mrs Judy Linke. Both the meal and the flowers were magnificent, as usual. Thanks to all the people who worked so hard to make this night really special.

Tags: End of Year 6 Dinner

See the stingray in the bay stingray

What a great location we are at for our year 8 camp, in the beautiful, layback Apollo Bay township. Accommodation is at the ecofriendly Beachfront YHA – a magnificient building that is less than three years of age.

Students have settled in well, and despite the heatwave affecting the rest of the state, temperatures here have been a pleasant 27 degrees or so.

Transport

The VLine bus brought us via the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay stopping at the Bay of Islands, London Bridge, Lochard Gorge and Twelve Apostles. This gave us some early photo opportunities to catch scenic attractions. At midday, we arrived in Apollo Bay.

Activities

• snorkelling on a reef, where a huge stingray was sighted. Students were soon relocated on the sheltered side of the harbour, where the water was crystal clear. Fish, starfish and other sea living creatures were all spotted.

Out into the seaside mist of Marengo Bay

• Kayaking in Marengo Bay. Students were paired up to use kayaks to work their way to another reef, where a colony of seals swam with them and their kayaks. The rumours are that one seal was as big as a cow! Only one kayak capsized and the two boys were soon back in their kayak. Students returned to the beach area with many exciting tales!

• Surfing was the final activity of the day – one many of the students thought was the best. It was great to see some students master a short kneel or actually stand ing on the board!
• 

After a bbq tea, it was back to the wharf for some fishing. The boys were keen to catch squid. However, they were not to be found. Instead there was a huge stingray swimming around and an octopus caught on the rod. It was soon sent back to its home in the sea.

See the octopus that was returned to its seaside home. octopus at the jetty

Tags: Apollo_Bay, camps, year_8_camp

A pupil report to follow shortly…

Air ambulance crew

On Monday, October 4th, 23 CFA Junior Volunteers and CFA VCAL students were priveleged to be able to visit Warnnambool’s Air Amublance at the Warnnambool Airport. Our CFA Liaison/Junior Volunteer Leader, Ros Stewart, used some contacts and pulled some strings to all us to visit the new facility. We were met by air paramedic, Darren, pilot, Matt and aircrew Dave who showed us around the helicopter and answere many questions. Here are some facts that you may not have known.

1. The helicopter cost $12m
2. It costs $5000 per hour ro keep it in the air.
3. From Warrnambool to the Royal Melbourne Hospital takes 55 minutes
4. It has had over 50 callouts since becoming operational in July 2009
5. The biggest category of callouts is for traffic accidents involving men aged between 18 and 25.

You need to do well at school if you want to be a helicopter pilor of Mica Paramedic. Being a helicopter pilot is the best job in the world (according to Matt.

Our crew leader, Flick, gave an excellent thank you speech on behalf of us all and we headed back to hawkesdale enlightened and grateful that we have this wonderful facility in our region. We also hope that we never need its service.

This  post has been adapted by Mr Alister Lumsden the CFA Junior volunteers teacher.

CFA student volunteers

Tags: CFA_students, CFA_volunteers, rescue_helicopter