Good sport, Education Support Staff member Travis Ellis donned the Santa suit while Administration staff Pina and Rachael played the role of elves at our staff Kris Kringle that followed our staff Christmas lunch today.

We are very fortunate at Featherbrook to have a state of the art Food Technology kitchen. Not only do our secondary students enjoy the facilities, but so do our primary students.

Featherbrook students were invited by Mercy Health - Werribee Hospital to help to brighten the lives of those who are needing hospital services over the Christmas season, with colourful festive season-themed works of art. It took little time to decide that this was very much something the children and teachers wanted to contribute to.

Families, parents, grandparents, and friends of Featherbrook joined the Prep students and staff to enjoy a festive Prep Christmas Carol concert. The students have been working towards this day throughout the term in Performing Arts learning their Christmas songs.

How often do you think about the planning that goes into the amenity of our community? Why are parks, roads, shopping centres and playing ovals located where they are? If you were in charge, how would you cope with the massive growth of the City of Wyndham – 13 new babies are born into the locality every day!! These dilemmas were outlined for the year 8 Geography students this week.

Whilst my previous blog focussed on aspects of the mathematics curriculum, it drew on some key work at Featherbrook in response to contributing each day to making our world more sustainable. Nude food features along with a heightened awareness of how we consider our part in sustainably managing our immediate environment. Building on from our year 1 students' learning, Year 8 students have been working to inspire through the might of the 'word', specifically, in the form of poetry.

The year 1 students have been collecting data and making surveys and graphs. Today they looked at the amount of rubbish outside in the garden beds around the buildings. The students collected, then sorted the rubbish according to the classroom bin system: paper, compost, landfill and recycling. In the classroom, they worked together create a survey using tallying. Following this, the students made their own graphs using the survey results. As a class, they discussed how this data could be interpreted in regards to our college's nude food and eating habits.

The request was put to our Featherbrook College community to support the work of the local Point Cook Lions Club and true to form, our families have generously given. Already, the Lions Club have come to collect the first of the food items donated by our families. The baskets under the Christmas tree are being filled and re-filled by our families to help those who need support during the coming festive season. Thank you and please keep donating as this is a very worthwhile charity that assists the needy in our community.

The Featherbrook College inaugural disco was held last night. The rain couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of our dancers from Prep to Year 8. It was a memory making occasion as students let their hair down and really enjoyed a night of fun with friends.

Three weeks ago Year 8 students John, Yhouane and Ava started rehearsing in readiness to perform a dance for the whole school assembly. Showing commitment and tenacity, their hard work paid off today when they entertained the assembly audience with energy and skill.

We opened our Book Fair doors today for our families to enjoy a second opportunity to purchase quality books including picture story books, science books, history books, fact and fiction books.

Music was a central theme of our Year 3 - 8 assembly this week. Four of our senior students took to the stage to mesmerise and capture the imagination of the audience.

Physics

The Year 1/2 students immersed themselves in the world of engineering today. Students were provided reused CD cases and given a set of parameters to work within.

Chemistry

Environmental Science

Today students across the school visited the science lab to learn about the flora (plants) that exist within our school. Lead by Reyansh and Drake of year 7, the students were shown images, the scientific notation, common name and biological descriptions of the flora within our school.

Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge certificates were presented today at the Prep - 2 Assembly. Congratulations to our bookworms! Reading and engaging with books and literature everyday sets up our children with a skill that supports success in chosen pathways. Simply put though, reading opens our minds and imagination. Well done to our young readers!

Coding and STEM

Today the year 5/6 students undertook a STEM and coding workshop where they were challenged to appropriately code an 'm-bot' to traverse a course they were able to visualise.

Remembrance Day was observed today with students and staff gathering for a minute of silence at 11 o'clock.

Today the grade Prep students undertook an animal biology workshop planned and run by Scarlett 7B, Vaani 7B and Mahnoor 7C. The year 7’s began by presenting students with an inquiry question: “What would happen to sharks if there were no more fish in the sea?” Students concluded that sharks would start to die out due to starvation. This lead on to the learning intention of the workshop which was to appreciate the importance of all animals on a food chain.

On Friday the Year Seven students made their way to the Western Treatment Plant to further learn about valuing and managing water. Students began the day with a guided bus tour of the Western Treatment (which is equivalent to the size of Phillip Island). Students were amazed by the journey that sewerage in the West takes. Students viewed the many elements which is undertaken to process sewerage into safe recycled water for both the bay and nearby homes.

Our Prep swimming program began today and the smiles on our young swimmers show how much enjoyment they were having. The much anticipated program didn't disappoint and the remaining sessions throughout this week will allow the students to build on their skills each day of the program.

I swam, I blowed bubbles and it was fun.

Jaxxon, Prep G

I went swimming and played games. My favourite part was kicking on my back. Zavier, Prep G

We went in one group and some other people went in another group. We put our head under water for three seconds and then we come up when the teacher said three. Aryan, Prep G

We were great listeners, we stayed safe by staying in our group. Sharadhi, Prep B

Our Prep transition program at Featherbrook College is very comprehensive, beginning with opportunities for parents and children to come into our college library to enjoy the range of picture storybooks. The dedicated reading sessions are designed to support our new young students in becoming used to the school environment with their parent. Familiarity is the key purpose for the reading sessions. Transition sessions support both student and parent. While the children are enjoying a range of activities in the learning spaces, their parents are bring provided an opportunity to gain some skills and knowledge that will help them to support their child to successfully make the transition to school. Behaviour Management Educator Jenny Mackay was first to present to the parents this week.

My walks through the learning spaces at our fabulous college never fail to impress and leave me in awe of the range of exciting, challenging and engaging learning taking place. A snapshot of just one such walk-through last week privileged me with seeing how our secondary students were collaborating, as were our teachers to make music through using our newly purchased keyboards. The engagement value was very high and complemented our Carranballac rock music experience last Friday.

On Friday 1st November, the Year 8 students set off for Serendip Sanctuary. This Parks Victoria property, situated at the foot of the You Yangs, typifies the flora and fauna of the Western Volcanic Plains, and is the endemic landscape of the region and of Featherbrook College. Having had their first attempt last Friday postponed due to wind warnings, the students and their teachers boldly set off, determined to collect the information needed for their geographic enquiry studies. The students had a tight schedule to collect all the data required. Being “in the field” meant working with heat, sun glare, wind, flies and even the stench of dead possums!!! Birds were counted, landscapes sketched, observations and data noted. Students will use the collected primary data with secondary sources such as maps, weather data, history documents, to complete an Annotated Visual Display about the landscape.

Yesterday Featherbrook College was fortunate enough to receive a visit from a student band from Carranballac College. The rock band performed some modern songs and a few classic hits for the teachers. The gym was thumping from the sound of Featherbrook students as they danced away to their favourite hits. It was a great experience to see what students are capable of and undoubtedly inspired a number of budding Featherbrook musicians.

Yesterday, Ms Mac's literacy group decided to use their natural surrounds to gain some inspiration for their poetry writing. What better place to be inspired by than the local wetlands....right opposite our college. Ms Vanita Gera and classroom helper parent Siva, enjoyed the sojourn with the students. The students had a fantastically productive time noting down that which they could see, hear, feel and smell; using figurative language to describe them. Over the next week, students will be able to use these observational notes to inspire their free verse poetry writing. Students also collected rubbish that they found along the way, and of their own accord, disposing it in the bins back at school. Congratulations to our students on their community-mindedness!

As one of our teachers left school yesterday afternoon, she heard the insistent call of Plovers, and stopped to take a look. Ms Millard was delighted to see two parents with five little chicks in the grounds. One parent was at the head of the queue and the other bringing up the rear, calling all the while to keep their little charges on track!! They were clearly thriving! The students and Active Supervision teachers have been working hard over the last month to protect the Plover parents as they guarded their eggs. How wonderful to find that the babies have emerged and are healthy and happy. We were a bit worried when we saw the large lawn mowers two weeks ago, but it seems the family have survived the threats of modern life, games of chase, rugby and soccer.

Rain, sunshine, wind and more wind couldn't stop the highly anticipated Prep - 2 tabloid sports from going ahead as planned, yesterday. Whilst the weather kept our athletes, teachers and parents guessing throughout the day as to the conditions, it certainly didn't dampen the delight and excitement and real sporting attitude demonstrated by our Featherbrook students. Sprints, beanbag throwing to simulate shot put and running up to markers to jump as far as they could, the students practised the skills of long jump.

Arguably, there's no better way to celebrate Children's Week than to have a celebration that involves the partnership between the home and school. Today, over 150 parents joined their children, spending time together building a shared understanding of how to identify when we need to seek help from others and to know how to ask for help.

Featherbrook's kitchen garden had its beginnings firmly rooted in our very first year when the 2017 student leadership group supported the design of the first planter boxes. Since then, there has been numerous efforts to build up our edible garden.

The old English adage says that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and for those who were very fortunate to be in the audience for our college production 'Featherbrook's Got Talent' recently, the photos in this blog will bring back wonderful memories of the energy, skill, dynamism and talent our Featherbrook students displayed and shared on stage as they entertained the audience.

Tonight at the Wyndham Cultural Centre in Werribee, history was made.....Featherbrook College's history. As a new school with an intention to provide rich and varied experiences for our students, the school production 'Featherbrook's Got Talent' was evidential of this intent. The production was based on our school values of High Expectations, Respect, Collaboration and being Safe.

What a start to the Spring Holiday program! The sun has been shining and so have the children at Featherbrook YMCA. The children and staff began their holidays with a day at the park and a BBQ lunch. They brought their bikes and scooters along (and helmets) and showed off their skills at the skate park.

As the Summer months approach so too do some of the Summer sports available in our community. Athletics has been a focus as part of our Physical Education and Sport provision at Featherbrook this year. It was a wonderful opportunity for many students to participate in our House Athletics as it offers something for everyone.

Our senior students expertly led the assembly yesterday through entertainment, information and messages of safety and environmental care. Drawing on the work of the Green Team and the biodiversity audit they undertook earlier in the year, the students shared with the audience the importance of both preserving our flora and fauna as well as building on it through tree planting, mindfulness about pollutants such as plastics, preservation of our waterways and management of domestic pets.

The culmination of a term-long inquiry by our Prep students and an R&D project progressed by a small group of Year 8 students, was evident today. Whilst the Prep Expo and the Aurecon Bridge Building Competition may seem worlds apart, they had much in common. The prep students explored, researched and learned about the biodiversity of our local area and more broadly Australia to appreciate the importance of contributing to a sustainable future.

Today, students were provided an opportunity to see and to learn about the recently released Toyota Supra. This was a very special opportunity as it was an extension of a workshop delivered by one of our Featherbrook parents who, as an engineer/ tester for Toyota, shared her career pathway as part of Education Week earlier in the year.

Footy Colours Day was celebrated across many schools today to specifically raise funds for research into childhood cancer; a very worthy cause that was the real focus of day. Each gold coin donation made by a student who wore their favourite team's colours whether it be AFL, soccer, netball, cricket, rugby or even car racing, made a welcomed contribution to the cause. Thank you to all families who participated.

Year 5 / 6 students and teachers sadly bid farewell to the camp at Mt Morton after 4 days of fun together. Whilst sad to say goodbye to Shane and the other camp workers, the students left with memories they will cherish for many years to come.

A second group of Year 2 students enjoyed a fabulous evening of fun, science, robotics and friendship. Arriving with sleeping bag, pillow and creature comforts including a favourite soft toy or soft rug tucked under arm, the students quickly settled into their evening of firstly, a pizza dinner followed by a series of STEM activities including m-bots, beebots (coding characters), learning how to generate static electricity; and trialling the tolerance of piercing a water-filled plastic bag with sharp pencils to see how many pencils it took to eventually break the seal and so make the plastic bag leak!

Another glorious day was enjoyed by the 3/4 students at Lady Northcote YMCA Camp. Planned activities continued, with groups showing their creativity, collaboration and developing STEM knowledge and skills through group hut building and orienteering.

Boarding the bus yesterday, our senior primary students were comfortably seated for a 75km ride to Mt Morton in the leafy green Dandenong Ranges town of Belgrave South. Once there, the on and off misty rain didn't dampen their spirits. The students quickly settled into their bunk rooms and learned of their activity groups and duty groups.

The year 7 students went to Melbourne Museum on Thursday to conceptualize their taught ecosystems unit and appreciate the necessity of sustainability. Students saw, for the first time: the bones of a blue whale to scale, dinosaurs, a large array of animal species and how we took those first steps on land millions of years ago, courtesy of an ancesteral lungfish.

Thanks to the many parent volunteers today, the Featherbrook Father's Day Stall was a feature again this year. This special occasion to be celebrated on Sunday 1st September will be one remembered by dads and special people in the lives of our Featherbrook students.

To round out the 2019 Book Week celebrations at Featherbrook, published author Davina Bell worked with groups of students today to share her journey as a writer including sharing her very first book which she wrote when she was only in Grade 3.

The Book Week Parade was a colourful and exciting place to be at Featherbrook College this morning. By all accounts the range of costumes, book characters and themes being paraded around the stadium reflected the commitment by parents, students, teachers and staff to make this an event to remember.

A team of senior basketballers enjoyed a day playing their favourite sport today. Heading off on a bus at 9.30am, the boys and one girl Ava, left for the courts at Altona. One of 9 teams, the Featherbrook students had prepared well for the challenges ahead.

Featherbrook College is undertaking a review process that seeks to evaluate our progression as a (new) school in relation to student outcomes, stakeholder perceptions and program provision. Part of the process is to seek perceptions from parents, students and teachers/staff and as such, last week there were opportunities for parents to contribute to the school self-evaluation.

Today I stepped into the stadium where I noticed a varied group of students of different ages enjoying a range of activities such as quoits, using soccer goals and rebound nets to promote eye/hand coordination and activities that build on balance, judgement and agility.

What better way to begin the 'learning week' than sitting with others who like to read, get lost in a book, enjoy the wonder of words and imagine different places, time and characters through stories. This is exactly what our Prep and Year 7 students did today.

Featherbrook’s got Talent- Tickets are now on sale! Tickets available through www.wyncc.com.au and Wyndham Cultural Centre Box Office: 8734 6000 The tickets are now on sale for the much anticipated school production of Featherbrook’s got Talent! Come and join us at the Wyndham Cultural Centre on the 10th of October at 7pm for a night of fun and live entertainment.

Our Year 5 / 6 students have been fortunate to have had representatives Mufaro and Louis from the North Melbourne Football Club bring their skills to our school to conduct a number of football clinics. The students have enjoyed honing their football skills of hand balling, drop-punts, marking and accurate kicking.

Our Prep students certainly got into the spirit of celebrating a major milestone today marking the first 100 days of schooling. Students arrived at school in an array of creative, decorative, colourful and very innovative ways to display and wear the number '100'.

On the eve of the Ashes first test between England and Australia, our very own Featherbrook College Cricket Team, Year 5 / 6 students, played today as if they were battling for the iconic Ashes!

It is that time of the year and in this, our third year of Featherbrook College opening its doors to the children in our neighbourhood, we have begun to welcome next year's Prep students. Before the more formal Prep Transition Program begins, our Prep parents are invited to come into our learning spaces to enjoy reading picture storybooks with their child.

We're often presented with old conflicting sayings such as 'when you're on a good thing, stick to it' and contrastingly, 'you can have too much of a good thing.' The former old saying is apt in describing Featherbrook's return to the YMCA Camp Manyung (Mt Eliza) this year is. Our Year 7 / 8 students thoroughly enjoyed their outdoor education experience last year at the camp and so with some adjustments to the selected activities, they returned to the camp again this year.

Our Prep students braved the cold and threatening rainy weather today to venture out to the Werribee Open Range Zoo. Fortunately, the weather improved and the sun shone for most of the day. Chilly as it was, they noticed not....as the exhibits were so engaging.

Featherbrook students returned to school last week rested, relaxed and ready to learn after a 2- week break. My many chats to students across the college suggests that holiday experiences ranged from going to Queensland, Abu Dhabi and country Victoria through to visiting the sites of the Melbourne CBD: Federation Square, the museum and other city school holiday special events.

The June Whole College Assembly agenda was indicative of the range of experiences and learning that students have undertaken during Term Two.

It was with pleasure this afternoon that I took a tour through some of our learning spaces witnessing Student Led Conferences in action. How proud parents, teachers and education support staff were as students confidently shared their digital learning portfolios.

The Year 2 Dance Concert was held this afternoon. Students performed dances from the eras of 1920s all the way through to the 2000s. This was a culmination of the learning student have undertaken through the Performing Arts program involving students setting goals for themselves and rehearsing in readiness for today's performance.

I have made a number of blog posts promoting and recognising our college's endeavour to contribute to a more sustainable world in our local way, through our resource-smart focuses such as nude food, minimal use of printed paper and composting, along with separating landfill from recyclable items.

Our Year 1 students stole the show today as they took to centre stage to entertain, enthral and engage their audience of no less than 300 parents, family and friends. No stage fright either, just confidence in their creative dance flare underpinned by lots of tuition from teachers Bec Clark and Tegan Dimble and considerable practice.

I subscribe to the Australian Principal Federation (APF) and as such am afforded a broad range of professional reading and resources to build my own leadership knowledge and practices.

Part 1 - Nude Food helps to manage waste - Blog - 2 June 2019.

Part 2 - Managing the waste that got away! Whilst Featherbrook College is seeking to achieve a 5 star rating ResourceSmart school, and we have achieved 2 stars at this point in time, vigilance in taking action to look after our immediate environment is well within the realm of possibility....but vigilance is the operative word.

Today,together with other neighbouring schools including Point Cook Senior Secondary College, 5 of our senior primary students and Assistant Principal Sundram Moodley, engaged in a workshop today to progress more of our Respectful Relationships work.

Featherbrook College has again chosen to participate in Woolworth's Earn and Learn initiative. As a growing school, the need for materials and resources to complement and enrich our learning programs is ever present.

It was so heartening to see so many of our students enjoying healthy food options as I spent lunch time in a Year 3 / 4 class on Friday. The considerable number of families who have adopted the vision of the school to observe sustainability practices by simply ensuring their children are bringing their food in containers to reduce plastic wrap and other land fill waste, are to be congratulated.