Preshil Weekly – Term 2 Week 5

Hello Preshil community,

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly!

One of the absolute highlights of this week has been our Year 9 and 10 students engaging in a thoughtfully curated week of wellbeing initiatives and activities.

The program offered a rich and diverse range of experiences, all designed to deepen our young people’s connections with each other, with themselves, and with the wider world they’re growing up in. These sessions supported students in navigating the complexities of adolescence, while enhancing their sense of belonging and wellbeing at Preshil.

As a school that places relationships at the heart of everything we do – because we believe in the fundamental importance of human connection and a compassionate, student-centred approach to learning – this dedicated time has been a powerful extension of that commitment. It’s been deeply rewarding to see the way our students have embraced the opportunity, and the benefits they’ve taken from it are already evident. Stay tuned for next week where we’ll share some photos and more insights of the events.

I’ve also had the pleasure of seeing our Arlington children preparing for National Reconciliation Week, which begins next week. Their thoughtful engagement has included the creation of a large-scale banner that will be proudly displayed at the front of the Arlington campus, with the word Reconciliation boldly visible for all to see.

Likewise, our students at Blackhall will be working on their own banner this weekend, ready to display at the front of the Blackhall building. These acts of creativity and acknowledgment are powerful ways for our students to reflect on and honour the ongoing journey of reconciliation in Australia.

Warmly,

Aaron Mackinnon
Principal

Headbangers / Caprellidae Unite!
The students and teacher of the “life under the microscope” activity have been amazed at what has been found in the specimens collected from Port Phillip Bay by David. On Wednesday mornings, David collects plant samples from the bay and puts them in a container without really knowing if anything of interest will pop up. It is an expectant time when the lid gets taken off and the junior scientists get a first glimpse of what is inside. 

The first week we were amazed to see something none of us had ever seen or imagined before…Hanging on to seaweed we found dozens of strange beings writhing about in a most upsetting manner! These things were quickly named ‘demon creature’ and microscopic examination only served to reinforce that idea. The ‘demon creature’ had claws for ‘feet’ (see image below) which they used to firmly hold them to the weed so they could head bang to their own strange internal ocean rhythm (video evidence available upon request). Secondly, we observed a female with many babies stuck to her back – all moving and writhing in a fascinating and eerie manner (see image below). After sending the images to the local network of Port Phillip Bay enthusiasts, these creatures were identified as “skeleton shrimp”. However, they are not really shrimp but from the family Caprellidae order amphipoda phylum arthropoda (see image below from Wikipedia, “Caprellidae”). We all learned many new terms with a favorite being “gnathopods” which is the word for the strange forearms and very strange mouth arms that we could clearly see. It turns out we are not the only ones that have thought these creatures are highly amusing and alarming. There are many amazing videos including one from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium which is an hour long segment of various caprellidae set to a heavy metal soundtrack.

We have really enjoyed learning more about these creatures and look forward to what will next come from the deep!