Books come alive! Book Week celebrations

Every year the library hosts a cast of characters who have stepped out of books. Staff and students become some of their favourite literary characters. Here is a snapshot of the day (click on a photo to enlarge:

Captain Haddock and Cruella

The Cat in the Hat

Charlie Brown

Cruella De Vil

The Famous Five

The Grand High Witch from ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahll

Gregor Samsa from Kafka’s Metamorphosis

Indiana Jones

Count Pyotr ‘Pierre’ Kirillovich Bezukhov

From Metamorphoses

Jon Snow from Game of Thrones

Julia from 1984

Not Batman!

Patrick Bateman

The picnic basket!

Big Brother

The two captains! Ahab and Haddock

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

See you next year! Can’t see which book characters come to life!!

Slam Poetry finals at Deakin Edge

What a privilege and joy to hear finalists from 5 schools (Casey Grammar, Charles La Trobe College, Melbourne High School, Northcote High, The John Monash Science School) perform at the Out Loud Poetry Slam finals at #MWF17.

Our year 9 boys from Mr Mahoney ‘s English class (9L), Ivan and Yi Ming, treated us to a powerful performance. The standard was incredibly high for all competitors and we were extremely proud of our students.

Congratulations to the John Monash Science School who won for the second year running.

Lucky students from 9L (and the 2 MHS runners-up) who attended the performance. They have witnessed the power of performance poetry and may never be the same again.
#OutLoud17 #mwf17 #performancepoetry #slampoetry

The inimitable slam poet, Emilie Zoey Baker!

Our students enjoying the performances

They are all winners!

A happy year 9 cohort! Who knew poetry could be so exhiliarating?! Well done to all the student teams!

 

 

Swimming Carnival 2017

Another great swimming carnival at the most beautiful sports venue in Melbourne.

Waterloo were the winners, followed by Yarra, Forrest, and Como. Well done everyone who participated in the events, and thank you also to those who helped out as martials, with photography, or cheering on your house in the stands.

Our friendly and hard-working officials.

 

 

Katherine Brabon, winner of The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for her first novel, The Memory Artist, launches Laureate 2016

On Wednesday, 24 November members of the school community celebrated the launch of the 2015–16 edition of the English Faculty’s literary magazine, Laureate.

In what was a very special occasion, staff, students and parents gathered in the school library to recognise the outstanding creative writing and artworks of Melbourne High School students. Australian author and winner of the 2016 Vogel’s Award for her novel The Memory Artist, Katherine Brabon, presented copies of the 2015–16 Laureate to those students whose work appeared in the magazine. In her speech, Katherine noted how impressed she was by the imagination and flair displayed by MHS writers and she commended them for their dedication to the craft of writing.

The English Faculty extends its congratulations to the students whose work appeared in the 2015–16 edition of Laureate.

Appreciation should also go to the English teachers for their tireless work in nurturing the students in their creative endeavours, providing them with advice and feedback, and also for proofreading the work submitted for this publication.

Special mention and a big thank you must go to Sam Bryant who has continued in his role as editor for the 2015–16 edition. Sam has spent many months co-ordinating, collecting, collating, reading, and editing the student work, as well as designing the layout and assembly of the magazine.

The Melbourne High School community extends its appreciation and recognition to Sam and all English staff for their dedication and commitment in showcasing and immortalising our students’ talents. In Horace’s words the English Faculty has created a ‘monumentum aere perennius’ (‘a monument more enduring than bronze’).

Copies of the Laureate 2015–16 and our past editions are available for borrowing from the school library. Access to electronic copies are available on the ‘news’ page of the English website.

– George Marotous, Head of English

It was wonderful to see so many parents attending!

A great opportunity to catch up with former students (2015)

Contributing student authors were presented with a copy of Laureate.

We are so fortunate to be supported by our assistant principals at such events!

Thank you to Katherine Brabon for inspiring our student writers!

Great job, Mr Sam Bryant! Keeping our literary publication alive and enabling our student writers to be published.

3rd Annual MHS Tea Duel

Time once again for our gentlemen to show their mettle. The tea brewed and, after the ‘Biscuitgate’ fiasco of 2015, we reverted to the tried and tested ‘Cows’. Tony Thompson – visiting author – gamely signed up to duel despite having no clue as to what he would be doing. Well played, good sir, well played.

The duellers,and many of the spectators, were conversant with the rules of Tea Duelling which ensured fair play and good spirit, as well as healthy competition. Tactics were discussed, debated and argued.

Thank you to the ‘Cosies’ who ably assisted the Tiffin Mistress (and to Ms Buckland who inadvertently became our chief Keg washer), and to Eric of 9K, Ms Morton and Ms Hainstock for being our photographers.

Congratulations to Jacob [11N] our 2016 Tea Duel Champion, and to Angus [10K] the runner-up.                                                                                                                                          Aside from a few splashes, splatters and splodges, it was a good, clean fight. gg everyone.

Setting up

Setting up

 

Let the games begin….

Our visiting author looks perplexed!

Tea Duelling is a serious sport

Tea Duelling is a serious sport

Tea Duelling is a serious sport

Some of us weren’t taking it that seriously…

Heats over, now it gets really serious

After the quarters it was down to the final four Jacob v. Nathan and Angus v. Firdavis:

And now the final…. Jacob v Angus.

It was a short, sharp final with Jacob the winner – splatter beating splash

Jacob the victor…

Angus – Tea and Biscuit

A gallant second place

Winners…

… are grinners

Jacob and Angus with the Tiffin Mistress and Tony Thompson

 

 

 

 

 

Showcasing our students’ creativity – the MHS Student Art Exhibition

Showcasing the creative work of our students is always a joy, and this year the MHS Student Art Exhibition delighted those who came to see the variety of work by students of Art, Visual Communication Design, Photography, and Media and performances by Drama students.

We were honoured to have as Guest Speaker this year Richard Roberts, an internationally acclaimed and sought-after stage designer. He has designed for drama, dance, film, television and opera. Alongside his practice as a designer, he established the design programme at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (1991- 96), was Head of the School of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts (2000-07) and most recently, Head of Design at The Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts (2013-15). Most recently he has designed a new production of Fiddler on the Roof for TML, The Last Man Standing for The Melbourne Theatre Company, Rigoletto and Don Pasquale for Opera Australia and Glengarry Glen Ross for Black Swan Theatre Company. He is currently designing Much Ado About Nothing for Queensland Theatre Company and Caucasian Chalk Circle for Black Swan Theatre Company He is the recipient of four Greenroom Awards. He won best design for Drama in 1998 for Stolen (Playbox Theatre Company), and in 2000 for Life After George (Melbourne Theatre Company) and best design in Dance in 2001 for Requiem (The Australian Ballet) and in 2004 for Molto Vivace (The Australian Ballet).

The Visual and Performing Arts studies give students the opportunity to develop skills and mindsets beyond the created work itself.

As Art educator Clara Lieu points out in her excellent article, Should we protect Arts education, “…  it doesn’t matter whether a student in my class becomes a professional artist or not. In fact, it is perhaps the students who go into other fields for whom my art class could have the greatest impact. Innovation happens when someone is willing to take a risk and try something out of the norm. Art class is the ideal environment to take risks: there are literally no answers at the back of the textbook, and so much of the creative process can be simply trial and error.  In visual arts, you have to facilitate your own path, and be willing to give anything a shot.”

Guest speaker, Richard Roberts, reminded us that creativity is not about whether you were ‘born creative’ but it’s about making things, creating something that previously didn’t exist. In this sense, the work displayed in the Art Show is a visualisation of the ideas and processes taking place in students’ minds. Richard believes that everyone has the potential to be creative but sadly we are often limited by categorisations which rank us as creative or not creative.  It is important to give young people the opportunity to spend time working through creative processes, and also to exhibit the resulting work.

The following is just a snapshot of what was displayed in the Art Show this year. As I look at the work each year and take in the names of students, I discover aspects of the students, their thinking and expression, that I had previously not known. We should be grateful to the Arts for this opportunity, and support events such as the Art Show, music concerts, Drama performances, etc., which showcase what our students are capable of.

The old light box camera!

 

 

 

Welcome Day – welcoming new students and their families to MHS

On one of the windiest days we’ve seen in many years, Melbourne High School opened its gates on a Sunday to welcome the 2017 cohort of students and their families to their new home. As they entered through the main doors of the old building, perhaps overwhelmed by its history and tradition, they were greeting with the fresh, smiling faces of our assistant principals, Pelissa Tsilimidos and Marcus Sharp.

Earlier, in the dark corridors of the same building, assistant principal, Andrew Sloan, was already rounding up the troops – students who had given up their Sunday to act as guides or help out in different parts of the school in order to showcase some of the many things the school has to offer.

Parents of existing students set up stalls in the dining hall, including Friends of Music who transformed the place into a cheery market place. How inviting were their stalls and wares!

Memorial Hall was filled many times over by new students and their families who were addressed by principal, Jeremy Ludowyke, on the theme and motto of the school, ‘More than just marks’,  as well as by the school’s registrar, Rosemary Dickson, the current school captain and vice-captain who provided a student perspective, and by a representative from Parents & Friends who provided the invaluable parent perspective.

 

The library was open from 8.30 am until well after 3pm, and hosted about 15 large groups, as well as individual family groups, all keen to see MHS library spaces, and find out how the library supported the learning and wellbeing of their sons.

Head of library, Pam Saunders, made everyone feel welcome and drew on her experiences as a past parent, sharing ‘inside’ information and advice ranging from parking tips for whole school functions (such as parent-teacher interviews) to promotion of the very special whole school music event – The House Choral Competitions. She talked about House spirit and conveyed her love of the school as she transitioned from parent to teacher librarian and head of library.

I showed the rich range of online resources developed by the library, in particular, our website (Libguides) which provides both subject- and skill-related content, as well as how parents and students might keep up with what is happening in the library and school through our social media accounts: Twitter, Instagram, our library blog, our library Facebook page and art blog.

Parents and students were keen to find out more about the Interest Groups we run in the library: Library Assistants, Book Club and Writing Interest Group (WIG). The Writing Interest Group also has a blog (Unicorn Express) in which students publish their work to a local and global readership of over 100 people a day.

Study and life skills, such as time management, goal setting, mindfulness, note-taking and other important skills are also supported in our website, and parents were happy to hear that, should they ever need support, their sons would be recommended to work with teacher librarian, Catherine Morton, in academic mentoring sessions.

All in all, a great day, and we look forward to our new students settling in next year and becoming part of the MHS community.

• Tania Sheko

 

 

 

Thanks for coming to Roald Dahl’s birthday party

Thanks to Denise for organising a successful birthday party for Roald Dahl, with chocolate decorating (and eating) activities. We had a crowd lining up for a seat in order to decorate and eat their chocolate. So many talented chocolate artists!

 

Happy Birthday, Roald Dahl!

Take a trip down memory lane by revisiting Roald Dahl’s stories by decade.

 

 

 

 

 

Slam Poetry is alive and well at MHS

Last month Year 9 English classes gathered in Memorial Hall to support and barrack for their class teams in an entertaining competition for the opportunity to perform in the Melbourne Writers’ Festival Out Loud Poetry Slam Competition.

Dynamic duo, Alex Shang and Jian Lam of 9F gave a stirring performance of The Black Dog and were chosen to represent Melbourne High. Two weeks later semi-finals were held in the State Library with teams from 14 Victorian schools.
Competition was hot and only five teams could be selected for the MWF finals.
Slam poet and organiser of the contest, Emilie Zoe Baker remarked that this was the best prepared MHS team ever.

Special thanks to 9F English teacher, Mrs Hamilton and Performance Coach, Ms Brownhill and congratulations to all Year 9 English teachers for creating such a fun and lively competition across the year level.

           

9F students enjoyed their class reward – yesterday’s visit to the Out Loud Finals at Deakin Edge in Federation Square

 

From There to Here

MHS old boy Jon Faine returned to the school on Tuesday to talk to the Year 10 students. He doesn’t generally give school talks anymore but made an exception for us.

He focused mainly on his travel memoir From Here to There, co-written with his son Jack, which relates the story of their drive from Melbourne to London.

Jon kept the students transfixed with tales of his adventure and they had plenty of questions about it at the end. He also talked about his time at the school and his subsequent career as a lawyer and in radio broadcasting. A key message he had for the students was not to be too narrowly focused in their studies and to recognise the importance of telling a story no matter what profession they are planning to go into.

– Mr Blair Mahoney

The story continues….. On 774 ABC Melbourne the morning following his visit, Jon recounted his visit to MHS. We’d presented him with a book on English industrial history as he’d been the last borrower of this volume in 1974. He also recounted visiting his Vietnamese mechanic on the way home. The mechanic told him his son had attended Jon’s talk. The next generation of diverse students continue to attend MHS.

Thank you Jon for returning to MHS and sharing your story, and to Blair for organising our Literature Festival guest speakers. They provided us with wonderful insight into the literary world.