Aspire and Inspire. How can you make a difference? This simple question was developed by our student leaders as the theme for Emmanuel College this year. This theme seems especially appropriate for 2019 - an Inspiring Alumni induction year. Our College community has become familiar with the Inspiring Alumni – past students whose stories exemplify to our students that as members of this educational community, they too can go on to achieve, contribute and inspire. In August we welcomed Cheryl Hicks, Melissa Patterson, Michael Owen, Stephen Lee, Fr Barry Ryan and Helen Ridgwell into the Inspiring Alumni.
Some of our alumni are also achieving highly in the early stages of their careers and are making significant contributions to the community. A new initiative this year is the addition of the Young Alumni Achievers awards. We would like to recognise these younger alumni, aged under 35, to allow their examples to inspire Emmanuel students past and present.
We thank all who responded to the call and helped us to discover these amazing young people by nominating them to be included in the first cohort of Young Alumni Achievers. A wealth of very worthy nominations were received and the task of reducing these to six awards was difficult. Ultimately the number of recipients was increased to seven with several nominations being held over for consideration in the next intake in 2021. Congratulations to Peter Cho, Edwina Goodall, Virginia (Moloney) McCormick, Emma (Cameron) McDowall, Liam O’Keeffe, Nathan Sobey and Aimee (Uebergang) Timpson.
At the Evening of Inspiration inspiring current students were also welcomed on stage for their outstanding achievements across a wide range of endeavours, from public speaking and academic achievement to high-level sporting success, music, arts and culture, volunteering and even stand up comedy.
‘Grow with us’ was this year’s tagline in the promotion of Emmanuel College but how do we measure growth? NAPLAN is one way to demonstrate this tagline is based on evidence. We talk about being on a path of continual improvement at Emmanuel and about growth for every student and it has been really encouraging to see that what was once an aspiration is a reality backed by data.
NAPLAN measures the growth of students across a range of areas and the last three years of data shows consistent and significant growth of Emmanuel College students that is above the mean growth of Australian schools. Writing is an area in which Emmanuel students have shown amazing growth, exceeding the average growth rate in comparison with other schools in our area and the state. Numeracy has also been a strong area of growth. We have been tracking the growth data of our students from Year 7 and following the results of that cohort to Year 9 where we can see they are experiencing improvement that is beyond what is experienced by students of like schools and above the state average.
Another measure of student academic success and growth is VIctorian Certificate of Education (VCE) results. Through Individual Accelerated Learning Pathways at Emmanuel we have seen 50% of students accelerate in a VCE subject. The results achieved by Year 10 students making a head start on VCE have been particularly encouraging. In 2018 several of our Year 10 students studied a VCE Unit 3/4 sequence and achieved study scores of 40 or more with one of those Year 10 students achieving a perfect score of 50. Year 10 students were also awarded the Dux in Japanese and Mathematical Methods. 35 students in 2018 achieved study scores over 40, in particular Outdoor Education which had 6 students, Biology with 5 students and Psychology with 5 students achieving scores over 40. Our College Dux of 2018, Alexandra Klem, accelerated through VCE, completing Biology in 2017 with a score above 40. We look forward to analysing the 2019 results and seeing further growth.
What the data shows is that our educational programs are really value-adding for our students. In the initial years of secondary school we are achieving significant growth in key areas like writing and numeracy. These are foundational skills for lifelong learning and they underpin the development of more complex skills such as critical and creative thinking. We continue to build on those skills and see students accelerate through their secondary education.
With recognition of inspiring achievements, great results and outcomes for students and excellent facilities (see the opening of The Stage in this edition), Emmanuel College is truly a place to aspire and inspire.
Earlier this year Sarasa Deguchi received a Premier’s Award for her perfect result in VCE Languages; an achievement made all the more outstanding by the fact that Sarasa was a year 10 student at the time of completing these units.
The Emmanuel College Voice Choir (a spoken word choir) won their section at the 2019 Frayne Festival, competing against schools from Melbourne and Geelong. Hours of work and preparation went into this performance, under the guidance of their teacher Ms Brigid Foard. The group has now been consistently performing to the highest level following second placing at last year's Frayne Festival. Well done!
Nina Fitzsimmons won the regional section of the Next Tech Girl Superhero program, competing alongside girls aged from 7 to 17 from Australia and New Zealand to design and develop an App. Nina was then matched with a female tech mentor who met weekly with her via video call for 12 weeks. Nina identified a problem in our local community, then: researched and documented a solution in a business plan, built a working App prototype and pitched it in a public video. This is a great program with a real-life outcome at the end. Nina also worked at lunchtimes in Emmanuel’s Digital Technologies Exploration Space with Emmanuel’s Digital Technology Coordinator (Dr Cindy Baulch Brown) nearby to help with any questions. She learned to block code using MIT APP Inventor. The end result is Nina’s mental health App for adolescents – Health Spot, which is currently available for Android phones and devices. The resources in the Health Spot App include meditation and mindful music audios and strategies on how to stay mentally healthy and cope with stress. Although Nina is just approaching the halfway mark in her secondary education, she is already thinking about the Health sector for her future study and career.
Photo by Morgan Hancock courtesy of Warrnambool Standard
Year 11 student Caitlin Garner was announced as Warrnambool’s Young Citizen of the Year on Australia Day. Caitlin is a youth councillor for Warrnambool City and is passionate about her involvement in many of Warrnambool's community groups including Holiday Actors, The Warrnambool Theatre Company, the Warrnambool City Youth Council, the Emmanuel Singers, the RSL Youth Choir and Young Vinnies.
Caitlin also put forward the successful suggestion for the name of Emmanuel’s centre for the performing arts, The STAGE, which stands for Student Theatre for Arts and Growth at Emmanuel.
Earlier in the year a keen group of Emmanuel students chose to participate in the Australian History Competition and the results are in. While the results of the whole Emmanuel group of participants were particularly strong, Jace Nepean, Ben Pennington, Ross Surkitt, Jeff Collins, and Jackson Dancey received High Distinctions. Congratulations to all of the students who chose to do extra and take on this challenge.
Emmanuel College punches above its weight in a number of fields and endeavours. This is particularly true at the moment of the renascence in public speaking and debating. After competing in the Rostrum Public Speaking State Final in Melbourne and gaining first place, Louise Tamer travelled to Hobart in July for the National final and placed second. This is an amazing achievement by Louise who was also the winner of the junior division of the Emmanuel Public Speaking Competition. Communication skills are rated as one of the most valuable skills by employers and while not all jobs entail public speaking, the confidence and the know-how gained from public speaking are a wonderful asset to have.
