19 June 25 June 2014 Newsletter 14 Volume 37

t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Steet, Southbank 3006 Victoria Austalia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au






News bulletin: 2 June 2014 From the Department

Victorian students will receive more mental health
support thanks to a new program that gives teachers
and parents the tools to understand how mental health
issues affect young people.

SAFEMinds aims to identify and intervene early in
mental health issues in primary and secondary school
students. The $750,000 program has been developed
by the Department in partnership with headspace
National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

SAFEMinds will educate and empower the whole
school community including parents, teachers and
school leaders to recognise the signs that a young
person is dealing with mental health issues, and to
know when and where to refer them for professional
support.

By the end of 2014, 3500 Victorian teachers and school
staff will have completed the SAFEMinds face-to-face
training program. Parents will be able to access online
and face-to-face training sessions in the second half of
2014.

Headspace Chief Executive Officer, Chris Tanti, said
SAFEMinds will build on the work headspace is already
doing in Victorian schools through its national school
support program.

Young people spend a huge amount of their time at
school, with teachers and school staff, so it makes
sense to have this type of training designed specifically
for school communities. The earlier issues are
identified, the faster the young person can get the
support they need to get things back on track, Mr Tanti
said. A number of mental health organisations were
involved in the development of SAFEMinds, including
beyondblue, Orygen, CYMHS, Centre for Adolescent
Health, as well as Independent Schools Victoria, the
Catholic Education Office, the Victorian Association of
Secondary School Principals and the Victorian
Principals Association.
From The Principal

We are quickly coming towards
the end of term and the winter
vacation. This has again been a
really busy term as we brace
ourselves for Term 3.

Next week are key performances
and exhibition preparation in our
programs. On the VCASS program
side, dance, music and the visual
arts all have events planned. We
have Dance Studio Performances
and the Warrnambool Tour, in
music Winter Jazz (this will sell out please book fast) and
our first Year 12 Exhibition at the VCA Student Gallery is
confirmed for 15 July. The NICA students are preparing
Rouge et Blanc for early July, and the ABS students are
continuing their work on Australian Ballet School 50
th

Celebrations. Look for our Special Newsletter focussing on
the Australian Ballet School next term. Diving and
Gymnastic students have just finished their competitions
with great success. This of course is on top of the normal
academic program work students do. Next week we are
collaborating with Melbourne Recital Centre to present a
Kings Singers Masterclass here at the school. This is one
of the key ways our place in the Arts Precinct delivers
quality experiences to students.

On Friday next week we will issue semester reports. These
are again being done in the Compass system. I have read
many and am impressed with students efforts overall.
Parents and students need to be able to log in to download
the PDF of reports. I will also send out a Ready Reckoner
in the Compass Newsfeed. Make sure you store this PDF
in a safe spot you can always access after you download it.
Last year I recommended you purchase some nice paper
and print it out for your paper records. I appreciate the
effort staff have put in to deliver comprehensive and quality
reports to parents.

I want all of our students to have some rest time over the
break, some time to do non-school related things is never a
mistake at this time of year. My sincere thanks to you for all
your work this term and to the year 12s, never forget the
sometimes challenging effort you are putting in is so worth
it. I told some year 12s this week of the most invigorating
feeling I had when I walked out of my last examination in
year 12. That feeling was reward for all my hard work.

I look forward to working with you in Term 3.

COLIN SIMPSON
Incororating What's on


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t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Steet, Southbank 3006 Victoria Austalia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au

Incororating What's on
Music
On Monday 2

June we
welcomed tutors from
the Australian Chamber
Orchestra to VCASS to
conduct their annual
Secondary Schools
String Workshop. Zo
Black (first violin, and
VCASS alumni), Ike See
(second violin), Nicole
Divall (viola) and Melissa
Barnard (cello), with
Education Manager Vicki
Norton rehearsed with
10 VCASS students and
20 other students from
various schools in
Respighis Ancient Airs &
Dances, plus a
traditional Finnish work Lundgren. The final concert for
parents and teachers was a joyous demonstration of what
can be achieved by high-performing students and tutors in a
short time period. Congratulations to all students, and a
warm thanks to the ACO for their continuing great work, and
collaborations with us. Pictured: Nicole Divall

Musical Society of Victoria

In May 2014 the MSV held their annual competition for the
Olwyn Game Chamber Music Award, adjudicated by Eidit
Golder. Congratulations to VCASS students Helena Wang
(violin), Oscar Jiang (piano) and Keaghan Kennedy (cello)
whose piano trio took third place, and have been awarded a
masterclass with the Firebird Trio. Equal second place was
awarded to two trios of tertiary students, each including
VCASS alumni; our congratulations to Camille Stevenson
(cello), Ling Ling Chen (piano), and separately Jovan
Pantelich (cello). First place was not awarded this year.

Melbourne Recital Centre's Bach Competition

Congratulations to Miles Johnston who performed as a 2014
finalist in the Melbourne Recital Centre's Bach Competition
on the 15
th
June. Miles performed Bachs Prelude and
Allegro, BWV998, and received an Encouragement Award.
The competition was adjudicated by Dr. Richard Mills AM,
Lin Bender AM, Ben Opie (oboist), Caroline Almonte
(Sutherland Trio) and Leigh Harrold (Syzygy Ensemble).

Older VCASS students may be interested in entering the
Recital Centre Great Romantics Competition which is now
open for applications. Entrants must be 18 or older by
November 2014.





MICHAEL SARGEANT
HEAD OF MUSIC
Jazz in Germany
I have recently returned from a musical tour of Germany
and Luxembourg with The Andrea Keller Quartet, who I
have performed with since 1999. The tour entitled
Melbourne Meets Cologne was a reciprocal tour following
an initial collaborative project, presented at the
Wangaratta Jazz Festival with the Christina Fuchs Quartet
in 2012. In May this year, we performed in Cologne,
Berlin, Luxembourg, Munich, Dortmund, Dresden and
Wuppertal, and were well received by the audiences. It
was an amazing experience, filled with some inspiring
musical exchanges, opportunities to perform in some
fantastic venues, and some very long trips on the train
system! A big thanks to VCASS for their support during
this time.

IAN WHITEHURST
IMPROVISATION COORDINATOR

Visual Arts

Sean Peoples at DARK MOFO

Visual Arts Program teacher Sean Peoples is participating
in a project with collaborator Veronica Kent at MONAs
DARK MOFO this week. The sold out event, Motel
Dreaming, is for one night only, and sees a 1950s-era
motel near MONA transformed into a large scale sleepover
and 'dream incubator'. Using sound, lighting, video and
performance, artists will augment the existing features and
ambience of the motel rooms, buildings and grounds to
create an immersive, dream-like environment for guests.
Veronica and Sean have been working together as The
Telepathy Project since 2005 devising and presenting
collaborative works that engage with alternate ways of
knowing and being together. Their projects have been
presented in private and public galleries and festivals in
Australia, USA, Germany, Spain, France and India. These
projects have often been realised collaboratively both
between each other and with other artist collectives such
as A Constructed World and with the general public,
students and exhibition audiences taking forms as diverse
as; musicals, dream recitals, remote international drawing
projects, epic sleepovers, telepathically curated
exhibitions, collaborative paintings and institutional
interventions.


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As a recap, here are some of Veronica and Seans recent
works focused on dreaming:

Dream Work, 'Reading Solaris to the Great Moorool',
Tarrawarra Biennale 2014 (forthcoming)
Dream Recital, White Night Melbourne, National Galley of
Victoria, 2014
Dreaming the Collection, Melbourne Now, National Galley
of Victoria, 2013/14
Dreaming The Arabian Sea, (en)counters festival,
Mumbai, India 2013
Dream Paintings, Gertrude Contemporary 2013
Dream Studio, Gertrude Contemporary 2013
20 Nights of Dream Telepathy, Barcelona OZCO apartment
Spain and West Space, Melbourne 2011

ANDREW LANDRIGAN
HEAD VISUAL ARTS

RAD @ VCASS
Examination Results
The Session 1 examination results are due to be posted
during the term break. These will be distributed at the
beginning of Term 3.

Year 7 Students
Welcome to Year 7 students who have commenced classes.
For those not yet enrolled, please complete your enrolment
forms and return to the school office as soon as possible.
One or two classes weekly may be taken during Term 3.

Advanced 2 Girls New Syllabus
From Term 3 new work only will be taught in this class. Any
students wishing to take their exam in old syllabus in
October will need to undertake a private lesson for this work.
This lesson will be held on Mondays 5.45 7.15pm. Please
see me as soon as possible to indicate your interest.

Dates to note
Entries for 2
nd
Session exams close 25

August
Entries for Spring School close 1 September. All students
taking exams in the 2
nd
session should attend Spring School.
Non exam students are also welcome to attend.

Term 3
Term 3 commences the week of the 14th July. Please be
sure to pay fees by the due date or call the school office if
this is not possible.

JANNE BLANCH
RAD@VCASS COORDINATOR
EMAIL: BLANCH.JANNE.J@EDUMAIL.VIC.GOV.AU
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A LEADING VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND EDUCATOR AND TRAINER OF SECONDARY AGE GIFTED AND HARDWORKING
VISUAL ARTISTS, DANCERS AND MUSICIANS
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t 03 8644 8644 f 03 8644 8699 57 Miles Steet, Southbank 3006 Victoria Austalia victorianarts.ss@edumail.vic.gov.au www.vcass.vic.edu.au
Date /
Month
Day Event Time
25 June Wednesday School Tour
Music Winter Jazz
9:00am
6:00pm
26-27 June Thursday-
Friday
Dance Studio
Performances
6:30pm &
8:30pm
27 June Friday Semester 1 School
Reports

Last Day of Term 2