Principal’s Message
Dear Sirius College Community,
I wish our students and staff a great midyear break. May you use this time to reflect, re-establish goals and prepare for Semester 2.
I would like to thank staff members for their solid work and efforts to educate our students at Sirius College throughout the semester.
We had a wonderful month of Ramadan, which is known as the sultan of the months. It is the month in which all Satans are chained and all sins are forgiven when people repent and ask for forgiveness. Ramadan is also a month in which people socialise by inviting each other for dinners ('iftar') at home. "At home" is important because Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) always invited people and guests to his house for dinner.
As part of the Pastoral Care Program most of our students invited their classmates to their home for iftar to show their hospitality.
Another social side of Ramadan is to help people who are in need. As a school, we organised campaigns to collect money for people in need by hosting iftar dinners in Cambodia. $3 was enough to feed one person. Thank you for supporting these people and being with them in their difficult time. Three of our students joined with peers from Keysborough Campus and travelled to Cambodia to deliver these food packs. This was a prime opportunity to see how our aid is being distributed and how food is supplied to people in need. This empowers our students to be more thankful and grateful for the opportunities in our country and their supportive family environments.
We will now be focusing on our Qurban Campaign. Your generous support is appreciated.
Four Sirius College teachers hosted iftar dinners for their colleges in their home this year, creating a very warm, inviting environment. I would like to sincerely thank Safiye Sertkaya, Nesrin Kurucu, Seymaa Yilmaz (and myself) for opening their homes to us. In addition, I would like to thank Inass Fayad on behalf of the Wellbeing Department for organizing an Iftar dinner at the Boathouse Restaurant in Maribrynong. Another highlight iftar dinner was organized by Ms Jenny Li. She, along with a number of dedicated Year 11 students, organised an iftar dinner for the year 11 students with a special guest Michael Leunig - a famous Australian author and cartoonist. Michael Leunig is also the author of the text they are studying in VCE Unit 1 English.
Learning by doing is Sirius College's philosophy. Our Genius Science Olympiad students performed very well this year in the USA. Three Year 11 students represented Australia this year. Mariyam was selected to present her project, Selin received a Bronze award while Year Tasneem was awarded an Honorary Mention. Well done to all students for their achievements; we are proud of you.
As I mentioned my previous newsletter, our farm studies is another example of our "learning by doing" philosophy. We have nearly 20 new residents at the farm, making Sirius College their new home. The chickens are producing nearly 20 eggs per day. Please purchase them in support of the Year 12 Pastoral Care Projects.
I am deeply saddened by the news of the loss of one of my colleagues' fathers. I pray that God will grant her family strength. I consider this man one of my family friends and I will always have good thoughts about him and the ways in which he supported our school and our community. I would also like to extend my most sincere condolences to all those who have lost.
I would like to finish with a quote from a well-known scholar "A person who sees the good in things has good thoughts. And he who has good thoughts receives pleasure from life."
CREST 2018
Hello all,
Our CREST students are busy finalising proposals and are now undertaking their projects with gusto and determination! Even our Year 7 students have finished their theory and completed their Egg-drop Challenge!
It’s great to see so many students working with industry mentors. Currently, we have industry experts from bioscience, orchid cultivation, and chicken egg production, providing knowledge and guidance as CREST students work on their experiments. We are grateful for their support! We also thank Miss Jenny Li for her supervision during an excursion to bring students to meet their mentor at Glenwood Orchids.
A big part of CREST is students presenting well written reports on their projects, so our CREST students have completed the second CREST incursion of the year, using Microsoft Office to crunch numbers, create tables and graphs, and present stunning reports. We aptly named this incursion “Bling Day” – “How to add extra “Bling” to your reports”. Miss Sumaia and I shared our best tips and tricks for what we hope will be beautiful CREST reports at the end of the year!
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CREST Bling Day Incursion photos
GENIUS OLYMPIAD 2018 in Syracuse New York
Three Year 11 EMC students, Selin Dursun, Mariyam Hussain and Tasneem Mohiddin (aka “Team Australia”), were selected as finalists to showcase their CREST projects and compete in the International Genius Olympiad 2018 in Syracuse New York. They have just returned to Melbourne this week.
Selin’s project was titled: “Hot, warm or cold brewed Australian teas – are they effective antibacterial agents?”
Mariyam’s project was titled: “Extraction of agar from Australian seaweed using domestic equipment for horticultural use”.
Tasneem’s project was titled: “Can a natural additive be added to wool when rinsed to make it more comfortable to wear?”
After trips to local sights, cultural exchange events and a gruelling day of judging, Selin was awarded a Bronze medal, and Tasneem an Honorary Mention Award.
Fantastic effort girls!
Congratulations to Team Australia, who worked many weekends to prepare for the competition and complete their amazing posters.
We’re very proud of you all!
A big thank you to:
