SMYL Community

College Yearbook

2016

Staff List

Administration Jo Bednall Principal Danielle Rickard School Registrar Thea Phillips Receptionist Leena Mishra Information Technology Support Sinead Poumako Canteen (Until Term 2)

Student Support Anne Thomson Campus Manager / VET Co-ordinator Kirsty Low School Counsellor Tony Vickers Mental Health Worker

Advisory Teachers Jane Loncar Emily McCracken Ian Mitchell Emily Godrey Alan Greenwood Louise Attley Jesse Hutchinson (From Term 4) Mavis Tahere (Until Term 4)

Education Assistants Kristy New Leona Verdell Rom Mauri (Until Term 2) Jesse Hutchinson (Term 2 and 3)

OLNA Results 2016

Numeracy Reading Writing

Year 12 16% increased to 52% 22% increased to 85% 25% increased to 89%

Year 11 16% increased to 49% 36% increased to 76% 32% increased to 71%

Year 10 15% increased to 27% 24% increased to 37% 3% increased to 27%

OLNA Results showing % of students Attained National Standards in Literacy and Numeracy

Principal’s Notes Welcome to the 2016 SMYL CC Yearbook. Our aim is to present a snapshot of the year at the College in words and photographs and to highlight the all that we are proud of within our school community. We started the year with record enrolments and we have maintained strong numbers with two classes in each of years 10 and 12 and three classes in year 11. Jane and Em worked very hard with the year 12s this year to get them to graduation on October 28th. It was a wonderful night with a highlight being moving speeches from graduating students, Maia and Jye. 26 students completed year 12, 17 of them with a Certificate II, 15 of them with successful OLNA results and seven of them with their full WACE certificate. We are all looking forward to seeing what this resilient and charming group of young people will achieve in the future. The year 11 advisory teachers continued their work with Big Picture Education and broke new ground by using the design principles to help their students to undertake the WACE courses of English, Maths, Health and History along with a range of endorsed programs. It has been a steep learning curve for the teachers and students alike and it has been wonderful to see the developing maturity and commitment being demonstrated by this year group. The undoubted highlight of their year was their camp at Hillarys. The students behaved supremely well and they have set a very high benchmark for future year 11 camps. As with all year 10 students at the College, the 2016 group arrived at the start of the year nervous and uncertain about what they were coming to. And, like all new students, once they learnt to trust the staff to treat them with respect and to help them to learn, they really started to fly. This group in particular became very engaged around completing the Certificate I in leadership and in their chosen project of preparing care packs for homeless young people. They raised money through a sausage sizzle, they asked for donations, they put the packs together and then delivered them to a local refuge. They were very positive ambassadors for the school and a credit to themselves. In fact, over the course of the year students from the College have earned many positive comments from the public. Groups of students have continued to help at K.9 Rescue, Malibu School and Tanby Hall and in addition they have started helping at Riding for the Disabled and the Autumn Centre. Students also became involved in the Castaways Sculpture Competition and the Headspace Art Exhibition, participated in interviews with researchers from the Commissioner for Children and Young People, helped the organisation Urban Indigenous at an event at Murdoch University, helped at the Mandurah Careers forum, made dream catchers for Headspace and hosted a group of visiting students from Singapore. The students who have participated in each of these activities have been praised for their care, respect and good humour. There is no doubt that 2016 has been another enormous year for the College - growth in numbers of students and staff, increased interaction with the community and very positive growth in student learning have all contributed to the developing size of the College’s positive footprint within the community. As Principal, I am very grateful to be working with staff who have enormous hearts and a selfless willingness to use their considerable skills in the interests of our students. I am also very proud of the strides that our students have made and I value the way in which they support and care for each other- they can also be a lot of fun!

Year 12

The Year 12s have had an extremely busy year completing their WACE OR WASSA, Certificate II’s in a variety of industry areas and OLNA’s in order to meet Graduation requirements. They finalised their Year 12 Assessments by undertaking an Exit Interview with the Year 12 Advisory Teachers Em and Jane to present their final Career Portfolio of achievements. We feel our young adults have gained the essential tools and strategies to enable them to enter the world of work or continue to build on their TAFE qualifications. We are extremely proud of all of you...thanks for a brilliant year!

Graduation We were so proud to celebrate the array of achievements of our year 12 graduates on the 28th October 2016. Each student had their own individual story and challenges to overcome. It wasn't’ always an easy ride however they rose above these challenging situations in order to achieve their individual goals and develop strong resilience. . Their determination and self-belief has allowed them to flourish into the beautiful group of adults we are so proud to call our SMYL graduates for 2016. We wish you well in your next journey into tertiary studies or employment.

Award Winners: WACE Academic Excellence Maia Nepia VET Trainee of the Year Maia Nepia Excellence in VET Kira Bell and Jye Tattersall Personal and Academic Growth Marco Henning Endeavour Award Bree McDonald Resilience and Maturity Award Jordon Kavangh-Cone Respect and Perseverance Tanieka Gray Jake Durrant Scholarship Kira Bell

Year 11 This year has gone by very quickly; the weeks have simply flown by. On reflection, we as staff have witnessed the massive change in maturity and attitude in the students. In February there was an air of apprehension as the new Year 11 students ventured into the great Senior School unknown. They had heard from their peers how academically challenging their final two years in school would be. Their collective and individual responsibilities in the community as year 11 students were outlined by the principal and reinforced by their advisory teachers. This was all new and they quickly realised that there were in the final run into adulthood. We have had a great year. The students have been excellent throughout and went about their work enthusiastically. In February we concentrated greatly on the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessments (OLNA) as students focused on developing their writing, reading and numeracy skills. This effort was rewarded as a large quantity of year 11’s reached the required grade 3. Students who haven't reached the requirement at that stage had the opportunity to re-sit the assessments and again, after much hard work, most of them improved significantly on their previous scores. The WACE has challenged and stretched everyone, but the payoff has been the development of skills in employment and further education. Our weekly excursions provided practical experience of our subject areas; Visits to national parks, historical Noongar sites and various museum exhibits expanded the students’ world view. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the year 11 camp at Ern Halliday in Hillarys. We did everything from abseiling to caving. The students bonded and came back from camp with a whole different attitude. A highlight of working and studying at SMYL Community College is the building of relationship; excepting the diversity of personalities and providing support through the hard times. Without doubt, we have the greatest year group in the school and we look forward to working with them through to graduation next year. Huge thanks to the parents and guardians for supporting us in our endeavours this year.

Year 10 The year 10’s have had a great year, the Community project was a great success in terms of planning, completing and reflecting on how they can be positive members of the local community. The students also revisited the homeless shelter and volunteered some further time to help bag up oats and talk to the people they were helping. Students have participated really well in Bush Rangers practical activities, we have been to Kings Park, Mundaring Weir, Serpentine Falls, various beaches, lakes, waterfalls, rivers and regional parks to complete the practical elements of the course. It’s been great to hear complaints from the students that the walks need to be more challenging, as well as seeing the difference in the students when they are exploring the environment and learning outside of the classroom. Class work has also been very positive with the students really settling down in the last two terms and focusing on their own development. The career workshop has provided them all with the skills to develop their own resumes and cover letters, as well as giving a clear expectation of what is expected in the workplace and interview situations. The students are very well prepared and placed to begin year 11, their WACE and Big Picture courses of study. They should be really pleased about how far they have come this year; the growth in all of them has been really impressive.

VET Vocational Education and Training

YEAR 12: The VET program at SMYL allows Year 12 students to progress through industry recognised certificate courses on-the-job. This year 17 students completed Level II certificates in the following industry areas:

Retail Building and Construction Community Services Hospitality (Kitchen Operations) Hairdressing Congratulations to Reece, Tanieka, Indi, Maia, Matt,, Tesha, Jordon, Jye, Zane, Jasmin, Kira, Shannon, Marco, Daytona, Adam, Liam and Bree on your industry qualifications! YEAR 10 AND 11: As part of the SMYL VET program Year 10 and 11 students are given the opportunity to complete a Certificate 1 in LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT which gives them an opportunity to connect with the community through a group project. All of the certificates offered through SMYL contribute to the students Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) and help them develop the employability skills required in today’s labour market. During the year several students undertook a TRY-A-TRADE through TAFE in the following industry areas: Building and Construction Automotive Sport and Recreation Metals and Engineering This experience gives students the opportunity to try different trades and provide them with employability skills. I am looking forward to helping students achieve their VET goals in 2017 and developing employability skills through VET opportunities. See you in 2017! Anne Thomson — VET Co-ordinator

Bushrangers All students at SMYL Community College are becoming responsible citizens in WA by taking part in an endorsed Bushrangers program. This is a conservation and community development program specifically for youth. It supports young Western Australians to take an active role in the conservation of the natural environment. Bushrangers has given our students opportunities to undertake personal development training while developing their conservation skills and knowledge through involvement in practical nature conservation projects. Bush Rangers WA encourages young people to take action for positive change! This year all Year 11 participated in a Bushrangers Camp at Ern Halliday Recreation Camp at Hilary's in order to fulfil their practical component of this endorsed program. Students enjoyed a range of activities including: Orienteering Abseiling Archery Caving Giant swing Crate building

Counselling News “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping themselves...” Ralph Waldo Emerson Two of our SMYL students attended the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) this year. ASIST teaches participants to recognise when someone may be at risk of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety. Communicare delivered ‘Breathing Space: respectful Relationships Program’ for the year 10 boys. This was a 4 week program covering boundaries, respect and health communication, understanding and managing emotions, cyber safety, sex and laws. The City of Rockingham delivered a similar program for our year 10 girls. We had Jeremy Tucker from headspace come in and talk with all the year 11’s about what headspace can offer and also about the importance of having a yarn. Paul Litherland from Surf Online Safe came to give a whole school presentation covering topics in-cluding: cyber bullying, digital citizenship, online footprints, social networking, online gaming, sexting and sexploitation and the law. SMYL students created giant dream catchers to hang in the trees outside of headspace Rockingham for Mental Health week. They looked spectacular. Its been a wonderfully creative year. Many students are using mindfulness practices such as drawing meditation to relieve strong emotions. The art room is filled with these expressive art works. Have a safe break, have fun and do what creates the happy chemicals in your brain. See you in 2017. Much warmth, Kirsty Low, School Counsellor.

Headspace Mental Health Week

Electives The students at SMYL Community College were given the opportunity on Monday and Wednesday afternoons to select electives in order to try and explore various interests areas. This enables our students opportunities to try to experience a wide variety of situations with other students and advisory teachers across years 10 to 12. This builds relationships and teamwork skills and assists in engagement whilst building confidence and self-esteem. Some of our electives this year included: Sport and fitness – Netball, court sports, beach sports, gym, golf, volleyball, badminton,

fishing, snooker and body boarding Technology - cooking Arts – Comedy Workshop, art, photography, hip hop and rap with Trooth, music and

Crafternoon Community Service - K9 Rescue, Malibu School and Tanby Hall Aged Care Self development – Hair Beauty Bushrangers and Outdoor Survival

SMYL Crew

Art In art this year SMYL students entered (and sold) work in the ‘headspace’ Rockingham Art Exhibition And also entered the ‘Castaways’ sculpture awards. Our sculpture is a celebration of something exquisite and misunderstood, previously thought of as little better than junk. Junk DNA is the part of the genome that does not contain any genes. Genes make up 2% of our DNA. The other 98% was labelled ‘junk’, but now research has shown that junk DNA is absolutely full of life. In our original brainstorm for this sculpture, one of the students suggested we “alter the helix shape, morphing, exploding and extending it to represent our student’s hidden or unnoticed unique and creative abilities and that their differences are beautiful and useful too”. Urban Indigenous came to our school and discussed some of the symbols used in cultural paintings. Netta Knapp (a local Aboriginal elder), designed a huge canvas based on the dreamtime story of Rockingham Lakes, and we are currently working on this and another huge canvas (using a dot style of painting and symbols to tell a story). Local Community member Mary Anne Rath came in to teach us all about weaving, weaving stories and baskets and dream catchers.

Jasmin Blessing SMYL Crew

Junk DNA “Hidden Treasure”

Maia Nepia

Jasmin Blessing

Marco Henning

Community Service K9 Dog Rescue The Dog Rescue elective has been running for over a year and is one of the most popular choices. We help out at the rescue centre in Nambeelup on a weekly basis, developing our dog-handling skills through a formal training session and then continually building relationships with traumatised animals and their volunteer carers. Our duties vary from week to week, as do the dogs we interact with, so there is never a dull moment! We help to put away donations of clothes/blankets/food; clean out the kennels; wash dogs; walk dogs and give them a bit of training and TLC to prepare them for adoption. Every now and then we get puppies so we learn how to care for the smaller, more vulnerable animals and encourage them to develop social skills through structured play, which is definitely the most popular option! Here are the most recent doggies we have cared for. We love them all!

Autumn Centre Volunteer Program

A group of girls have volunteered their time to varnish the senior ladies’ nails at the Autumn Centre (some of the cheekier men ask for their toe nails to be painted) for a few hours per week. The girls have lots of interesting conversations with these elders. When we help others we help ourselves.

Community Project - Care Packages

Year 10’s have had been involved in a community project as part of their practical component of the Certificate I in Leadership. The students raised money for a homeless shelter by holding a sausage sizzle at Bunnings Rockingham and with the funds raised made care packages to distribute amongst the homeless.

Malibu School

A selection of students have been involved in a specialist education support elective at Malibu School. It is an education support school which caters to students with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, challenging behaviours and autistic spectrum disorders. We have been working with a great group of upper primary students with a range of special needs. Our SMYL students have assisted them with a variety of different educational numeracy and literacy activities and worked along side them one-on-one. All of the students who took part in this have displayed a real sense of maturity, compassion, care and dedication to the children. In particular as a result of this passion a Year 11 student of ours Kody Christophers is now doing an Internship every Wednesday paving the way to a future in Community Services. Kody has developed a rapport with many of the Malibu students and they look forward to his visit each week. The Teacher Gemma is extremely grateful for Kody’s commitment and dedication to this Internship and we look forward to seeing where this may take him. It has been a pleasure to be part of this elective and see the efforts of all the students that have taken part. Congratulations Kody, Midi, Alyssa, Chloe and Gemma!

Riding for the Disabled (RDA) Riding for the Disabled Association of Australia (RDA) is a voluntary, non-profit organisation which provides opportunities for anyone with a disability to enjoy safe, healthy, stimulating, therapeutic, horse-related activities in Australia. There are physical, psychological, social and educational benefits of riding for RDA. SMYL volunteers make a real difference to the lives of the riders. SMYL students learn:

Emergency drills

Safety around horses

Fitting equipment

Understanding disabilities

Workplace Health and Safety

Leading and side walking

Empathy and compassion

Soul Soup Patrol

One of our students volunteered for S.O.U.L Soup Patrol, a group established to serve food, basic necessities and information on the streets of Rockingham to clients who seek them. Our student expressed an interest in helping the homeless early in the year; her incentive being that she herself had been homeless.

School Terms Term 1: Wednesday February 1st 2017 (New students only) Thursday February 2nd 2017 (All students) - Friday 7th April 2017 Term 2: Wednesday 26th April—Friday 30th June Term 3: Wednesday 19th July—22nd September Term 4: Tuesday 10th October—Thursday 14th December

Public Holidays Labour Day: Monday 6th March Anzac Day: Tuesday 25th April The College office will re-open to students and students and families on Wednesday 25th January 2017, until then, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year!

Artist - Jye Koehler