The culmination of Book Week was the annual Costume Parade in the Library.  To reinforce the theme “Reading is my Special Power” we were lucky enough to have members of the 501st Legion Desert Scorpion Garrison join us as special guests and judges, dressed in costumes from the Star Wars franchise.

These Imperial guards seemed to have a mind of their own as, on their way to the Library, the Storm Troopers and Tie Fighter Pilots deviated from the path and invaded some of the classrooms, catching students by surprise!  

The walkway to the library was heavily decorated with varying flags and super hero paraphernalia, the most impressive item being a hand-made seven-foot-tall talking Groot!!  

​As students filed into the Library for the annual Book Week Costume Parade during Lunch 2, excited chatter filled the room as they spotted our special guests. Students and staff had the opportunity to pose for photos before the intergalactic judges chose the winners of the best costume in each year group.

As part of our Book Week activities, Dianella Secondary College has entered a team in the annual national "Write a Book in a Day" Competition, run by The Kids' Cancer Project.  

Ten of our Year 7 students will write a book in one day for children’s cancer research.  This morning, students were given a brief and now have six hours write, illustrate, bind and submit a storybook of up to 5000 words. Each book is then donated to children undergoing treatment in hospitals around Australia.

The Kids’ Cancer Project is an independent national charity supporting childhood cancer research and since 1993, thanks to strong community support, has contributed tens of millions of dollars to scientific studies to help children with many types of cancer.

“This is an event that inspires collaboration and community spirit while students have fun writing and illustrating a book,” said Karalee Blake, English Teacher.  

“Not only will our pupils develop leadership skills, engage in teamwork and creative problem solving, they’ll be covering key English curriculum requirements to set them up for life.” 

​From 150 teams in the state wide competition, 10 WA schools were chosen to compete in the Just Start IT State Final.  After pitching their idea of a school-based social app for students, aptly named “Buddi”, the team of six Year 12 Dianella Secondary College students were selected to represent WA and their school at the National 2019 iAwards to be held in Melbourne.
 
Based on personal experience, the girls recognized the anxieties that challenge immigrant students entering a new school or tertiary environment, in a new country.  Introducing Buddi… an app focussed on helping immigrant students settle into Australia and their new school.  The app assists immigrating students prior to landing in Australia by matching them with a buddy in their new school, based on same cultural backgrounds and language, hobbies and interests.  The app also features chatrooms with you and your matching buddies. Users have the ability to rate how they feel after chat room communications using emoji’s, enabling the school to monitor interactions, while bad language will see users banned from the app. A virtual map of the school provides locations and directions to each facility and an event calendar will keep students up to date with both school and local area events. 
 
Dianella Secondary College is the only WA school to deliver the Just Start IT program as part of a Certificate II in Business.  Promoting critical thinking, problem solving and the development of resilient 21st century skills, experienced mentors help teams of students to take an idea from concept to product, creating a viable technology start-up.
 
The Dianella Secondary College team will compete in the national finals at the 2019 iAwards at Crown Melbourne on 29 August. The category winner will then represent Australia at the international awards to be held in Vietnam later in the year.