The second half of Term 2 brought many exciting activities to the students through NLC; from VR gaming championships to smashing reading goals, and the ongoing popularity of the lunchtime clubs.

The students and staff at the College cruised through our Semester 1 reading minutes goal of 126,500 to more than double it with a grand total of 254,700 minutes! This is absolutely an achievement worth celebrating. All students should be reading widely and are able to log their minutes through the BeanStack website or app available on the NLC Homepage.

Semester 2 has a new twist to the Reading Challenge with students pitting their reading skills against the staff in a head-to-head battle for bragging rights over who can read the most. Quite a few staff have signed up to take part so the entire student will be under pressure in this Sparta-like few against many competition. Any students who are unsure of how to log should drop into the NLC for a quick tutorial.

In other reading news, there have been some winners in the competition realm with the following results:

The Term 2 Reading Challenge House winners are:

Bodkin: Year 7 Akshar Bapodra B12 with 4122 minutes.

Lynch: Year 7 Tinayieshe Chimbodza L16 with 2868 minutes.

Hughes: Year 7 Manuka Manannalage H15 with 2433 minutes.

Treacy: Year 7 Joseph Tyrrell T16 with 1270 minutes.

Nolan: Year 8 Lewis Barber N11 with 1007 minutes.

The English Class winners are Ms Finn’s 7M with 17714 minutes total (an average of 656 minutes per student)

Both Year 7 students Jonathan Jiang B13 and Thomas Sellick T13 both got Bingo in the Scavenger Hunt Challenge during Term 2.

Each term affords the opportunity to take part in several new challenges with Term 3 hosting a Genre Bingo challenge, including a poster making component. Keep an eye out for further challenges coming soon. All details in the BeanStack app.

A crack team of VR Beatsaber practitioners were fortunate enough to travel to Strathcona Girls Grammar to compete in the state level, interschool Fuse Cup Beatsaber Championships run by MindFlight7.  Year 7 Sathyan Muhunthan L16, Year 9 Xavier Tsioulos L19, Year 7 Hayden Stella B19, Year 9 Alex Stella B12, Year 7 Kaylan Ranasinghe N11, Year 7 Jordan Peiris B11, Year 7 Noah Litsos 16 and Year 7 Manuka Manannalage H15 competed in this exciting VR experience against students from schools such as Williamstown High School, Ivanhoe Grammar, Ivanhoe Girls Grammar, Sacre Coeur, and Mentone. Despite all students playing valiantly, and the Stella brothers making it through to the play-offs, we were bested by an incredible level of skill from some competitors. It was a fantastic opportunity to experience a e-sport competition and learn about online safety, with all students leaving with smiles on their faces.

16 August marks the beginning of Book Week, with this years theme being 'Book an Adventure'. Students will have the opportunity to take part in some really fun activities throughout the week, including escape rooms, trivia and scavenger hunts. Check the student messages for details.

All clubs are running as usual as follows:

Monday - Games Club in the FIRE Carrier room

Tuesday - TTRPG in the Fire Carrier Room

Tuesday - Juggling in the Heidelberg Room

Thursday - Pokemon (card players) Club in the Innovation Lab

Friday - Podcasting in Fire Carrier Room and upstairs Multimedia Lab when recording

New members welcomed at all clubs.