Meet Sirius College's New Teachers

Elizabeth Leatherbarrow

Name - Elizabeth Leatherbarrow
Job Status- Grade 6 Teacher
Likes - Exercising, food and the beach
Dislikes- Spiders
Favourite Colour- Pink
Favourite Animal- Dogs
Hobbies- Going to the gym and days out
Hero- My dad

Elizabeth Leatherbarrow

Tina Said

Name Tina Said
Job Status – Grade 3B- Primary School Teacher
Likes – I love being creative, eating, my beautiful family and friends, travelling, watching the Bold and the Beautiful and smiling
Dislikes – I don't like being annoyed, that there is never enough time in the day, most insects and being unorganised.
Dream Job – Playing a part in making a difference in the world is ultimately my dream (being a teacher is definitely a good start )
Favourite Colour – Gold and purple (sorry couldn't just pick one!)
Favourite Animal- Elephants
Hobbies – Going to the gym, going shopping and spending time with loved ones.
Hero – My mum

Tina Said

Catherine Burbidge

Name: Mrs. Catherine Burbidge
Job Status: Grade 4B Primary Teacher
Likes: I enjoy travelling, cooking, photography, architecture, reading, art (when time permits) and spending time with family and friends.
Dislikes: Repeated sitcoms and reality television shows.
Dream Job: Working as a primary school teacher. It is very rewarding and I feel privileged to be able to teach young children.
Favourite Colour: Turquoise and aqua.
Favourite Animal: Small dogs with huge personalities.
Hobbies: I think I covered most of my hobbies in the "Like" section above! My favourite is spending time with friends and family while enjoying fine food outdoors.
Hero: Inspirational women such as Maya Angelou and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Catherine Burbidge

School Banking

School Banking Day Reminder

Don't forget that Tuesday is School Banking day and students should bring in their weekly deposit.

For every deposit made at school, no matter how big or small, students will receive a silver Dollarmites token. Once students have individually collected 10 tokens they can redeem them for an exclusive School Banking reward item in recognition of their regular savings habits.

Thank you for supporting the School Banking program at Sirius College Keysborough.

School Banking Day Reminder

Screen Addiction

Currently in Australia we unfortunately have a screen addiction epidemic sweeping through homes where it has been found that there are some children who are playing up to 18 hours of video games a day. (Sunday, March 13, 2016 Herald Sun)

The fixation that children have on 'screen time' including i-pads, phones, computers, x-box, PS etc has been the cause of children sleeping in, being late to school, skipping school, feeling tired, anxious and sad. Aggressive and hostile behaviour and difficulties concentrating in the classroom.

Other major effects of video games include:

• Children having increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and decreased prosocial helping, according to a scientific study. (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)
• The effect of video game violence in children is worsened by the games' interactive nature. In many games, children are rewarded for being more violent. The act of violence is done repeatedly. The child is in control of the violence and experiences the violence in his own eyes (killings, kicking, stabbing and shooting). This active participation, repetition and reward are effective tools for learning behaviour.
• Too much video game playing makes your child socially isolated. Also, he/she may spend less time in other activities such as doing homework, reading, sports, and interacting with family and friends.
• Academic achievement may be negatively related to over-all time spent playing video games. Studies have shown that the more time children spend playing video games, the poorer is his/her performance in school. (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Gentile, Lynch & Walsh, 2004).
• Video games may also have bad effects on some children's health, including obesity, poor posture, muscular and skeletal disorders.
• When playing online, your child can pick up bad language and behaviour from other people, and may make them vulnerable to online dangers.
• Video games can be addictive, and a child addiction to video games increases their depression and anxiety levels.
• Children spending too much time playing video games may exhibit impulsive behaviour and have focus and attention problems and difficulties in the classroom.

Tips for Parents

• Monitor video game play the same way you need to monitor television and other media. Make sure your child plays in front of you. (You should set up the gaming device/computer in the main living area so you can keep an eye on game play at all times)
• Although playing video games can be a learning experience, give your child a variety of other entertaining things to learn from, so that they will not be addicted to just one thing. Be sure to make your child read books, play sports and interact with other kids.
• Everything should be taken in moderation. It is recommended that children not spend more than one to two hours per day in front of all electronic screens, including TV, DVDs, videos, video games (handheld, console, or computer), and computers (for non-academic use). This means seven to fourteen hours per week total.
• Consider limiting your child's video game playing to max an hour a day.
• Monitor the effect of video games on your child. Observe behaviour. If it appears that your child is becoming more aggressive with their siblings or friends at school during the period that they are playing violent games, stop them from playing the games. If they become interested in history after playing historical games, then the game may be of benefit.
• Limit or put a stop to your child's video game playing when you see them spending less time doing homework and/or getting lower grades.
• Limit or put a stop to your child's video game playing when you observe them having a sedentary lifestyle, and not engaging in sports and exercise. Video games should not replace engaging in outdoor play and exercise. Enrol your child in a sport eg tennis, basketball, football. Have them learn a musical instrument, enrol in drama, art etc.
• Limit your child's video game playing if he displays sign of addiction and experience "video game withdrawal". Seek professional help.
• Always use the video game ratings to determine the violence and adult content of the game. There are ratings on a game for a reason. Familiarise yourself with the games your children are playing.

Kids Day Out

Kids Day Out

Secondary News

Maths Challenge

Maths Challenge Year 9/10

Over the last few weeks in maths challenge the students have been finalising their Getaway assignment and realising that planning a family holiday for four is an expensive task! Many students initially planned exciting interstate holidays but came to the conclusion, with flights, accommodation, car hire and budgeting for food they were blowing their budget! Luckily they were able to go back to the drawing board and plan much cheaper holidays to Lorne, Wilsons Prom and other beautiful locations in Victoria.

• Mirela Mujanic in 10G's tip for planning a holiday was 'the more you keep searching the better deals you can find'!
• Henna Sultani in 10G's tip for saving money on holidays was to take the family to Maccas for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Maths Challenge Year 7/8

The year 7/8 team have been working extremely hard over the last few weeks to finish their tallest tower project. Initially the year 7/8's thought it would be an easy task to build a 1m tall tower with 200 popsicle sticks, however they quickly realised providing the tower with structural reinforcements were vital in keeping it from collapsing. With popsicle sticks running in short supply towards the end, the year 7's and 8's had to brainstorm new designs to try and increase the towers height using minimal numbers of sticks. Overall most groups didn't quite reach the 1m goal, but they definitely created some neat designs and crafty tricks to keep it stable. Well done!

Next term we will be turning our focus to NAPLAN study for the year 7's as well as an exciting new project that will test and build the students STEM skills.

? Riddle me this ?

1. The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you die. What is it?
2. I am at 9. If you add 5 I will be at 2. What am I?

Year 7 ACMI Excursion

Year 7 ACMI Excursion

VIEW GALLERY

Year 7 ACMI Excursion

Click images to enlarge

Year 8 Boys English

The Year 8 Boys English Class has been spending the last week of term commencing study of their Term 2 text, Skellig (David Almond) - in its newly adapted play form. They will be reading the same text, in its novel form, after the holidays.

Year 8 Boys English

YEAR 10 Creative Folio Responses

Imagine that you have been transported back in time to 1930's Alabama. Write a journal entry describing a day in your new life and your reaction to your change in circumstance.

May 25th, 1933

Dear Diary,

I have come to a conclusion, that life in the 1930's Alabama is quite tedious. There are no technological devices to use; I mean, I want to check up on social media every now and then. I just stayed at home, depressingly looking outside the window, looking at the children playing happily-which was quite odd for me, seeing that in the 21st century that barely happens…