2015

Issue 4 Term 1 & 2 Saturday 21st March- Thursday 9th April Frontiers of the Future USA tour. Harmony Day Friday 27th March: Last day of term 1 Monday 13th April: First day of term 2 Select Entry Curruculum Day No students required Monday 20th April: Social Service Awareness week Year 10 VCE Information Evening in Hall Wednesday 22nd April: Information evening prospective. Year 10 Legacy rehearsal services Thursday 23rd April: Legacy service Chamber Concert Friday 24th - 26th April: Music camp Saturday 25th April: ANZAC DAY Tuesday 28th April: School Tour Wednesday 29th April: Parent student teacher interviews Wednesday 7 May: Parent student teacher interviews

Newsletter

Principal

2015 marks the anniversary of 70 years since Sir Macpherson Robertson passed away (only 11 years after the opening of the school he generously funded). At present we are working collaboratively with researchers from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria to contribute to an exhibition to celebrate his life and contribution to Victoria. Our archivists, Mr Peter McCallum and Ms Jill Scobie have been gathering artefacts that will form a significant part of this exhibition which will open on the 14th July. For his time, we know that Macpherson was a very modern and future focused individual. In 1933 he contributed to the Melbourne centenary celebrations, including £40,000 towards the establishment of the Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School and that he contributed towards other public works projects as part of the centenary celebrations including the Mac.Robertson Bridge over the Yarra River and a fountain in front of the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance and the herbarium in the Royal Botanic Gardens. However, this year as part of my discussion with researchers I have also discovered that in 1929 he financed the combined British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson who named Mac. Robertson Land in his honour (Mac. Robertson Land is the portion of Antarctica lying southward of the coast between William Scoresby Bay and Cape Darnley). Robertson’s 1932 first knighthood specifically recognised his support for this expedition. He received a second knighthood in 1935 for philanthropic services to Victoria. He created his own airline; Mac.Robertson Miller Airlines and he sponsored the world’s greatest air race at the time from London to Melbourne and provided the prize of the equivalent of $75,000. His wealth was entirely self-made and he was also a keen inventor and croquet player – a very colourful character for our school to be named after! The History Teachers’ Association is also partnering with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria to develop an online exhibition and education kit on the life and work of Macpherson Robertson. The final piece will contain a series of interviews of a range of the Robertson family members, former employees, historians and curators for this project. The videos when complete will appear alongside the digital exhibition on the Culture Victoria website http://www.culturevictoria.com/

School Council

Our new council met on Tuesday 18th March. The elected office bearers for 2015 are: • President: Mrs Alison Patrick • Vice President: Dr Sonja Hood • Vice President: Dr Hans Schneider • Treasurer: Mr Victor Singh The Sub Committee members for Finance, Education, Buildings and Grounds and Promotions and Development Committees will be finalized early in Term 2. Congratulations and thank you to those committee members who accepted nominations for the positions of office. These positions can be both challenging and rewarding, but all require a commitment of time and dedication to the good governance of the school.

The creation of the Mac.Rob Foundation At the 2014 Speech Night, our President of School Council, Ms Alison Patrick spoke about the shared vision of School Council and the Palladians to establish a philanthropic trust known as The Mac.Rob Foundation. The primary focus of the foundation would be to advance the education of young women within the Mac.Rob community. The visioning behind this has taken many years to come to fruition - for the Mac.Rob Foundation to become an established philanthropic organisation, well known by the Mac.Rob community in enabling the education and advancement of young women in scholarship, educational opportunity and enhanced tertiary pathways. As a foundation it is eligible for income tax exempt status or deductible gift recipient status under any Commonwealth Taxation Act, ensuring that all proceeds go to funding students of Mac.Rob. Ms Mary Sheargold, one of our alumni, has agreed to contribute her legal work pro-bono and all establishment costs are being funded by The Palladians. In this initial set-up phase The Mac.Rob Foundation is seeking assistance from our community for a corporate tax accountant or corporate tax lawyer who is willing to work in the establishment of tax deductable status. If you have these skills and are interested in supporting, please contact Palladian, Ms Debra Knight at [email protected].

78th Annual House Choral Festival The spectacular 78th Annual House Choral Festival was held on the evening of Wednesday 25th March. This was my third Choral Festival attendance and each time it has been an equally impressive event. – it may just be my favourite! The performances were sensational with a multitude of creative costuming and an intelligent play on themes. The overall winning house was Nereids with the highest result for their performance in Chorals of ‘Revolting Times’ and also for the winning Madrigal performance for ‘And so it goes’ and ‘Bumblebee’. Congratulations to Ms Minnie Zhang (Naiads) who won the award for best madrigal conducting and to Ms Yang Tong He and Ms Natasha Pangestu (Oreads) for best musical conducting. A very big thank you to our talented technical crew and ushers who made the night work, to our young women who entertained us and to our Drama Captains, Ms Tulsi Kavar and Ms Eadie Pocock, Music Captain, Ms Yan Tong Ye and Concert Manager, Ms Carly Lu for hosting the evening. A special note of appreciation to our Directors, Conductors and House Captains for their combined stellar leadership. Although this event is student designed and driven, it is supported by a very special team of teachers and especially Mr Edgar Wegner, Ms Jo Howe, Mr James Richards, Ms Jo Patocs and Mr Sonny Chua. In addition, I would like to thank our Parents Association for supporting this evening. Congratulations to… Mrs Rochelle Pargetter and her husband, David on the birth of Edmond (Ned) on Friday 13th March. Our thoughts are with them at this very special time. Our whole staff, e-Learning Committee and Director of e-Learning, Mr Micah Wilkins for a successful Digital Delivery Day on the 12th March. The feedback and evaluation of this day has been highly positive.

Professional Learning Ongoing professional learning is vital for all educators to ensure that we keep developing capacity and are up to date with the latest educational theory and practise. The annual combined Inner City Edge Network Conference which focused on differentiation to meet the needs of individuals was highly successful. Thank you to our Domain Leaders and Acting Director of Curriculum, Mr Shungo Sawaki for their fine contribution to the success of the day. The Mac.Rob Professional Development Day held on Friday 13th March was another opportunity for staff to share their visioning for the future. The teaching staff met at The Chapter House, Flinders Lane and worked on the Annual Implementation Plan for 2015 and the beginning of our self-evaluation for our year of review in preparation for designing our Strategic Plan 2016-2019. As an academically ambitious school days such as this provide an opportunity to ensure that we are all on the same page. The next pupil free day will be on Monday 13th April, when the annual combined Academic Select Entry Network Conference (Mac. Rob, MHS, Nossal, SCHS) will be held at Melbourne High School. Early in Term 2 the parent/student/teacher interviews will occur over two sessions on Wednesday April 29th and Thursday May 7th and will be conducted between 2.30 and 8pm. I encourage all parents to make a booking on Compass to connect with their daughter’s teachers. If you would like the support of a language translation service for this evening please do not hesitate to contact Ms Janet McCutcheon, Assistant Principal on 98647700. As we complete a very positive Term 1, I wish all of our community a happy and safe holiday. I want all of our students to use this time to renew, reenergise and return prepared for another action packed term of scholarliness. Yours in learning, Dr Toni E. Meath

Reports & Parent Teacher Interviews At the end of Term 1 we distribute Interim reports for all students who are new to the school this year, as well as for a small number of individuals for whom we feel it is necessary to provide feedback prior to the Parent/student/teacher interviews. The interim reports give an indication of students’ progress, attitude and application in class, organisation and completion of homework in each subject. The interim reports have been made available online and I encourage all parents to log in to Compass to view their daughter’s report, if applicable. At the beginning of Term 2 there are two scheduled evenings of Parent/student/teacher interviews – Wednesday April 29 and Thursday May 7, from 2.30pm to 8pm. On each of these days students will be dismissed from classes at 1.35. These sessions provide an opportunity for parents and students to meet with class teachers to discuss course requirements and student learning to date and can provide insight into areas for further improvement and extension. Appointments are for five minutes and are currently available to parents for booking via Compass. Please endeavour to leave time between appointments to enable you to move from one meeting to the next. This helps the interviews to run according to schedule and minimises the building up of queues. If you are unable to find your log in details for Compass, please contact Ms Frances Hansen at the Compass helpdesk ([email protected]) for assistance.

Safety The safety of every member of the school community is very important to us. As we all move through our lives it is important to be aware of how to keep ourselves and the people in our lives as safe as it is possible. Below is a link to the Victoria Police website that offers suggestions about personal safety in a variety of life situations. Please take some time to investigate this website and consider how you can best look after yourself and others in your life. http://www.police.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=38489 If you have any concerns about these or other issues please contact Gillian Baldock the Student Wellbeing Coordinator on 9864 7713. Gillian Baldock School Counsellor

Middle School News Morrisby Report On Tuesday 24th March the Morrisby Information Evening was held for all parents of year 10 students. This information session is integral for parents and students to understand the information contained in students’ individual Morrisby Report. Earlier in term one, year 10 students sat the Morrisby Test. ‘Career Anaylsts’ are the company in Australia and New Zealand that offer a testing process that is designed to assist students in making decision about career choices and subject options. The test forms an important part of the vocational guidance offered at MacRob; all students receive a comprehensive report which identifies student strengths, potential careers interests and some aspects of their personality. Barry Darnell from Career Anaylsts attended this information evening and guided parents and students through the report with his expert knowledge. The Morrisby Report will be used to assist students when commencing VCE course counselling late in term 2, early term 3. If parents or students were unable to attend the evening, individual reports can be collected from Ms Puszka in the careers office.

Cybersavvy On Wednesday 18th May Mac.Rob hosted leading Melbourne psychologist and cyber safety expert, Ms.Tena Davies, to discuss issues around online behaviours with year 9 students. The presentation followed a series of focus groups and surveying of year 9 to identify the issues that are important and relevant to the current cohort of year 9 students. Tena discussed information around cyberbullying, digital citizenship, procuring a digital identity and protecting your digital identity. Most importantly, Tena spoke to students about the need for reduced screen time at night and, most importantly, the need for adequate sleep (teenagers require almost 9.5hrs per night). Tena encourages parents and students to discuss the issues that were raised in the presentation on this day. Tena will return to speak with year 10 about similar topics in term 2. Ms. Michelle Pride Head of Middle School

VCE Parent Information Evening Parents of Year 10 students are invited to attend the annual VCE Information Night in the school Hall on Monday 20th April 2015. This information night is essential for parents to understand the subject selection process for year 10 students as well as the VCAA policies and expectations. Our Careers Practitioner, Irene Serpless, will be on hand to inform about career pathways and tertiary study options. Mr Marcus Sharp, Director of Senior School, will host the evening and discuss VCAA requirements, study scores, ATAR and scaling. The information session will commence at 7pm in the theatre. More information is available via Compass.

World Challenge On Sunday 15th March, the Nepal World Challenge crew participated in an ‘Amazing Race’ around Melbourne CBD. Students worked as a team against other World Challenge groups who have outbound journeys booked for this year. Some activities involved fitness challenges, solving puzzles and finding objects in various parts of the Melbourne CBD. Teams moved from the Fitzroy Gardens to Melbourne Central, the Arts Centre, Etihad Stadium and the MCG. The Mac.Rob team led most of the day and came a very close 4th after a few challenges with reading maps and navigating the city using MYKI cards. The day was a huge success and further strengthened the connections that are developing within the group. In November 17 students and 3 staff will depart for a 21 day World Challenge adventure. Nepal is the destination chosen for this journey. The trip will see students undertake a 6 day hike in Annapurna staying in a mix of tent and tea house accommodation; a 7 day residential project with an orphanage in Kathmandu and participate in a number of adventure activities in Pokhara. Students have been preparing as a group and require great physical stamina and endurance to undertake the hike at high altitude. The group is excited to work in the orphanage with local disadvantaged children, challenge themselves physically on the mountains of Kathmandu and enjoy the beauty of the spectacular Pokhara area. Michelle Pride Head of Middle school

Digital Delivery Day

Digital Delivery Day beats F1 noise conundrum Originally published on March 19, 2015 in Teacher, ACER’s online article database. Written by the editor of Teacher, Jo Earp who interviewed Micah Wilkins on Mac.Rob’s first Digital Delivery Day. The sound of roaring engines may be music to the ears of Formula 1 fans, but it's caused an annual headache for one school on the edge of a world famous racetrack ... until now. The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School is just a few hundred meters from Melbourne's Albert Park circuit - in fact, one of the public entrance gates for the race is on grassland the Year 9 to 12 government school uses as its sports oval Although the big race takes place on a weekend, Ferrari and co put the turbocharged cars through their paces on the Thursday and Friday. Traditionally, the school has used those days for offsite staff professional development or sports events. This year however the sound barrier was broken by delivering lessons online - live. All the staff delivered their lessons from the school - giving them a chance to experience the F1 noise firsthand. 'Thursday was the first time in my five years here that I've been here for one of these days, because normally they take us off site somewhere,' Director of eLearning, Micah Wilkins tells Teacher. Olivia Jones (11J) – learning from home on Digital Delivery Day. To continue reading, please go to this website: http://teacher.acer.edu.au/article/digital-delivery-day-beats-f1-noise-conundrum

Rotary Exchange

Last year I had the incredible experience of being a Rotary Youth Exchange student in the beautiful country of Finland. Leaving in January 2014 and returning home to Australia in January this year, I was lucky enough to spend my exchange year in Lempäälä, a small town around 200 kilometres north of Helsinki. The Rotary Youth Exchange program offers students between the ages of 15 and 18 the opportunity to experience life in another country. Over the course of the year, students stay with three different host families, attend school in their host country and hopefully learn another language! When I left Australia, I knew almost nothing about the country that was going to be my home for a year. Since then, so much has changed. I gained a culture, a language and many friends from all around the world that I will keep for the rest of my life. Over the year, I adapted to life only a few hundred kilometres from the Arctic Circle. With this came many culture shocks, not least the fact that in winter temperatures dropped to almost -30 degrees! I had so many incredibly experiences I would never have dreamt of before last year and I’m so thankful to Rotary for allowing me the chance to live in Finland. I was lucky enough to go on three Rotary-organised tours with the other exchange students living in Finland and Estonia, to St. Petersburg, Lapland and ‘Euro tour’. Euro tour was over the summer, and basically it was 83 exchange students travelling through eight countries in 19 days, accompanied by two Rotarians and four Rotexes (returned exchange students). We visited places like. Paris, Monte Carlo and the Dolomites, and it was absolutely the best three weeks of my life. The Lapland tour was a totally different experience. Lapland covers the northernmost regions of Sweden, Norway and Finland, and since the tour was in November, the snow-covered landscape was like another world. On the tour, we learnt about how the Sámi (the native people of Lapland) traditionally live, as well as participated in activities such as reindeer sledding and skiing. Rotary District 9800 is currently seeking applicants to go on exchange in 2016. This district offers exchanges to Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland, Hungary, Taiwan, Japan, the USA and Brazil. If you are even considering a year-long exchange, I highly recommend applying for this fantastic opportunity. The selection process involves several interviews and a selection camp near Bendigo. For more information see http://www.rotaryyouthexchangeaustralia.com.au or speak to me if you have any questions! Applications for 2016 close on the 2nd of April. To quote the exchange student cliché, “Exchange is not a year in a life, but a life in a year”, or in Finnish, “Vaihto ei ole vuosia elämässä, mutta elämä vuodessa.” Taken from the kitchen window of my first host family

Girls in Volunteering With numerous volunteering opportunities already up and happening and the selection of the newly formed GIV cabinet, GIV has definitely had a busy start to the year! As the term draws to a close, we reflect on both past and upcoming volunteering opportunities implemented by GIV at Mac.Rob. These include a variety of charity fun runs such as the March Against Melanoma the Colour Run, the Neon Run, the Red Cross Appeal and our most anticipated event of the year, the Good Friday Appeal These events always prove popular amongst our students as they have such a relentless passion for volunteering and are always willing to give others a helping hand. We really appreciate all the girls getting up early and coming into the city on their days off - small things really can make a big difference! Our upcoming event, the annual Pied Pipers’ Good Friday Door knocking Appeal, will most certainly prove itself as the GIV event of the year, as it has been for many years! Always a huge favourite, this year we have approximately 270 volunteers signed up and ready to go to provide their utmost support to the Royal Children’s Hospital. We hope our combined efforts will allow us to win back the trophy for highest amount raised by a school group. We’ve also had a great start to the year with our community connections; the GIV leaders also recently underwent a training program, the Youth Ambassador Program, with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. They were given an insight to blood donations and how they could use the resources provided to promote such opportunities for students. This year also marks the beginning of a GIV cabinet, headed by the four GIV leaders, and supported by two senior school executives and two middle school executives. The creation of this cabinet also falls in line with our goal this year – to provide a number of diverse volunteering opportunities whilst spreading more awareness, to encourage and welcome maximum participation, and to provide an enjoyable environment that encompasses all year levels. Hence, forming a cabinet with students of different year levels has allowed us to discuss and share different views amongst each other, as well as reach out and communicate with a wider audience. We have also been brainstorming new and innovative ways of volunteering that we cannot wait to introduce to the Mac.Rob community! Congratulations to… Our Senior School GIV Executives - Manisha Metlapalli (11A) & Julia Zhu (11D) Our Middle School GIV Executives - Karuna Chalapati (10E) & Karen Lu (10H) Our sincere thanks to… The many organisations we have had the pleasure of working with so far. To Ms. Howe for assisting us in all aspects. And of course, last but definitely not least, the students of Macrob. Without you, GIV would not be possible! We look forward to a happy year of volunteering! Molly Wang, Monisha Gunawardena, Olivia Jones and Connie Huang, on behalf of the GIV Cabinet 2015

Interact Club If asked to describe the typical Interact Club member’s activity over the past nine months, the answer would be their participation in fundraising and volunteering for different charities. This included 40 students volunteering for the City2Sea event in November last year As organised by the international committee within Interact, members have been busy promoting our petition demanding that India’s High Commissioner takes further measures in the country’s protection of women against violence. We currently have just over 400 signatures, and if you would like to make a difference and sign it the link is at the end of the article. In addressing our concerns for asylum seekers in Australia we organised a movie screening for The Good Lie. Funds raised were donated to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, which delivers legal, health and counselling services to asylum seekers. We anticipate visiting the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) to increase our understanding of asylum seekers’ experiences in Australian detention centers. We also look forward to volunteering for the Sacred Heart Mission Op shops and soup kitchens. There is an ambiance of almost palpable excitement as we seek opportunities for further contribution to both local and international communities. Of course, the work of the Interact Club would not be possible without the ongoing commitment from the board committee and supportive individuals, including Ms. Howe and Ms. Geraldine Charles from the Rotary Club of Port Melbourne. We take this opportunity to thank them for their contribution in helping the Club to flourish. Link to petition to stop violence against women in India: https://www.change.org/p/high-commission-of-india-inaustralia-stop-violence-against-women-in-india Gloria To, 11G

Leos Club There is nothing more fulfilling than helping young students in learning the alphabet, reading storybooks or calculating addition sums. Fourteen Macrobbians have had the privilege of doing this throughout term 1. Being involved in Leos Club, we enjoyed the chance to volunteer as tutors for a homework club in Prahran, supervised by Ms. Katherine De Los Rios, where we work with students aged 5-12. Twice a week, tutors sit in a cosy hall tucked in the nest of community housing grounds. During the session, a productive hour is filled with reading and homework assistance. For me, perhaps the most rewarding part of this experience was teaching a Year Four student how to divide. It took twenty minutes, tinged with slight frustration on the student's part, to master the art of finding how many times twenty-four marbles can be split into six groups. Yet, seeing him able to figure out those math’s problems in the end made the process all the more worthwhile. Of course, these volunteering opportunities would not have been possible without the leadership and guidance of the Leos Captains Shiva Sridhar and Angela Pan, as well as Katherine. We thank you so much! Gloria To

Celebrating Success of our Graduates The Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School is proud to celebrate the success of our 2014 graduates: Ms. Nuoyu Fang, Ms. Laura Steve, Ms. Victoria Ear and Ms. Jennifer He, who were awarded a Monash University Engineering Scholarship for 2015. Pictured are Laura, Victoria and Jennifer accepting their award from Professor Frieder Seible, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Monash University and Dr Mirela Magyar representing the Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School on the 12th March 2015 at Monash University? Congratulations! Dr Mirela Magyar

Congratulations to Serra Mohammed 11J Serra has been selected as the state winner in the Simpson Prize essay competition for 2015. The Simpson Prize is a History essay competition for year 9 and 10 students, and encourages participants to think about the meaning of ANZAC day and its importance to our nation. The question for 2015 was “To what extent did Australians enlist in 1914 to defend the ‘Mother Country’?” The prize involves two trips: one to Canberra and the other to Turkey. Serra attended an awards ceremony held in Canberra from the 15-17 March, 2015. In April, Serra will be travelling to Turkey with the other state and territory winners where she will take part in events commemorating the centenary of the landing of Australian troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Ms. Marina McAlpine Director of Transitions and Wellbeing

Lions Youth of the Year Quest In the middle of February this year, I participated in the Lions Youth of the Year Award, which was held by the Lions Club City of Melbourne. This is an annual competition for Year 11s and 12s and consists of many rounds, the first prize being a fully paid overseas trip. The competition is made up of two rounds – the first being an interview process and the second being the public speaking section. The interview was held on Sunday the 15th February and the public speaking was on the night of Tuesday 17th February. The interview process was a great experience and good practice for future job interviews or university interviews. The interviewers were kind and friendly, asking me questions about my life, school work, contributions to the school and community, general knowledge as well as trying to find out more about my personality. The interview lasted for about 25 minutes but it felt as if I was talking to two old friends as I was quite comfortable around them and they were not the least bit frightening. Personally, the public speaking night was the more daunting part of the competition. It was nerve wrecking and I felt butterflies in my stomach the entire night, as I was about to give a five minute prepared speech and answer two impromptu questions regarding our society today. This section of the competition was a formal event, with a three course dinner and some important guests, including the Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University and several CEOs of established companies. As I had no prior experience to public speaking, I felt especially unprepared for the impromptu segment and was terrified that I would make a fool of myself in front of these significant guests. To make matters worse, I was the first up to answer the two impromptu questions. The first question was to do with the Bali Nine pair that are on death row and how I felt about this situation. The second question was to do with the importance placed on sport in Australia following the death of Philip Hughes. I answered them to the best of my abilities, but still felt as though it was not sufficient to match up to the other two competitors who were both eloquent and knowledgeable. Following the impromptu, we were called up to present our five minute speeches. Knowing that I had done as much preparation as possible, I picked myself up and gave a speech about ‘Mental health stigmas in our society today’. This is an issue that is close to my heart and I hope that I brought across the severity of the damage that can be done by having stereotypical views and opinions on people with mental health issues. The prepared speech was a success for me as the Lions Club president even asked me for a copy of my speech! In the end, there could only be one winner. Unfortunately, I did not take home the cup for Mac.Rob. The winner was a Year 11 boy from Wesley College and he truly deserved it as he was very confident, expressive and fluent in the public speaking section. He was also an amicable guy who I befriended on the night and I was glad that he won. Overall, it was an extremely eye-opening experience for me and I have definitely gained more interview skills and confidence. I have also learnt how to tackle public speaking and impromptu questions as I picked up some tips from the fellow competitors. It was great to be pushed out of my comfort zone and I am so happy that I was given this chance to improve my life skills. I would like to thank Ms Howe for nominating me for this competition and the Lions Club City of Melbourne for hosting this event. I would definitely recommend this competition to anyone who is nominated! Natalie Tan 12I

Sport@MacRob

Senior Cricket Result: Runner Up in Southern Metropolitan Competition.

The Senior Cricket Team played matches against Casey Grammar School and Hallam Secondary College on Tuesday 17th March 2015 and finished Runner Up in the Southern Metropolitan Competition. Mac.Rob batted first against Casey Grammar School and scored 109 runs for 4 wickets. Janet Zhong was the top run scorer with 36 followed by Emily Clayton 27 not out and Erika Quinn 22. Casey scored 85 for the loss of 6 wickets with Erika Quinn 3 wickets for 12 runs and Janet Zhong 2 wickets for 5 runs. Hallam Secondary College batted first and scored 165 runs for 2 wickets. Janet Zhong and Serah Balasuriya were the wicket takers and Erika Quinn bowled well without success. Mac.Rob opened the innings confidently with Janet Zhong scoring 18 and Serah Balasuriya 11. With their dismissals the runs slowed and the wickets began to fall. Thejaani Aran remained not out on 13 with a score of 85 for 6 wickets at the end of 20 overs. The competition was played in an excellent manner with the VSSSA convenor commending all teams for their sportsmanship. Mr Russell Webber Senior Cricket Coach

New Bikes at Mac.Rob

Over the last few years, the PE, Duke of Ed and Sport programs have strived to get a class set of bikes to be used by students for fitness, bike education and to allow access the fantastic surrounding bike paths for health and wellbeing. This year we have been very fortunate to purchase the class set of 25 bikes and 25 helmets, along with a new bike shed that has been put together behind our current gymnasium. This is going to allow our students to learn about bike safety and will be used in the PE program as a means to facilitate both education and fitness. The bikes are for every student to use and will be maintained throughout the year so that they can be used for many years to come. Mr. Mannix Sports Coordinator

Careers

Palladian’s Legal Circle – Careers Symposium

On Wednesday 18 March 44, students attended the first Legal Careers Symposium organised by the Palladian’s Legal Circle. They first heard from convienor of the circle and barrister, Ms. Leonie Bird, who gave the keynote address on trends in the law. Following this they divided into small groups to spend three sessions talking with different legal practitioners and current law students. Everyone then adjourned to the conference room for afternoon tea, where some lively discussions continued and links were forged between current students and the legal alumni. Plans were made for further events involving guest speakers and excursions to workplaces and courts. Our thanks to Leonie, for her initiative and drive in organising the event, and to our alumni who gave up their valuable time to assist the students. They included: Ms. Mary Sheargold, Ms. Bridgette Kennedy, Ms. Jenny Taing, Ms. Raweesa Rawal, Ms. Helen Fatouros and Ms.Nawar Hassan. Additionally current law students Ms. Dilusha Ms. Jayasekara and Ms. Justine Cheong (Monash), Ms. Dana Harding (Deakin) and Ms. Hannah Ekers( Melbourne) contributed to this engaging afternoon. Thanks to Ms. Puszka and Mrs Kelly for their assistance with the organization and catering. Ms. Irene Serpless Careers

Mac.Rob International Ball – Saturday 9th May The Mac.Rob Parents Association annual International Ball will be rocking St Kilda Town Hall again this year in May. We’ve just had a fabulous poster designed for the Ball by Mac.Rob students Charmaine Chin and Sharon Li. Tickets are available from April 1st through: trybooking. com/126363 Parents, friends and students are all welcome to attend. In addition to the fabulous food and music the Parents Association will also be holding our mega-raffle, so we are now putting the call out for items that can be raffled on the night. You don’t have to attend the event to buy a raffle ticket – but it’s more fun if you do! If you are able to donate any suitable items please contact [email protected] to organise drop-off or collection. Gift cards and vouchers are very welcome. The success of the raffle depends on the generosity of the community and all money raised by the raffle go directly towards supporting Mac.Rob students. In the past the Parents Association have used their fundraising to provide grants for: Year 10 writing project, Mac. Rob Week, the Year 11 and 12 formal, the Winter Sleep Out, Cheerleading, the Breakfast Club, Music Department equipment, Speech Night Prizes and more. Once again we are offering Entertainment™ Book for sale both online and through school reception office. If you would like to make an Early Bird purchase (with bonus vouchers) please contact [email protected] for details. Early Bird bonus offer purchases close on 15th April. All purchases of Entertainment™ Book through Mac. Rob help with fundraising for the school. If you would like any information regarding the Parents Association, or you would like to become a class representative, please contact Madeline Getson on [email protected] or phone 0412 015 911