Ryde Secondary College

Telephone02 9809 4894

Emailrydesc-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

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Music

Concert Band

Our largest ensemble attracts instrumentalists who play Brass and Woodwind instruments as well as Tuned Percussion, Electric and Bass Guitar, Drums, Timpani and Keyboards.

Meeting every Wednesday Morning at 7:45 am the Concert Band perform a wide range of works and have enjoyed Eisteddfod success and opened the 2011 Ryde School's Spectacular at the Opera House.

Regular attendance is essential and College instruments can be hired through the music department.

String Ensemble

Ryde Secondary College has a large population of string players and our ensemble is thriving.

Guest conductors are regularly employed and all Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass players are able to engage in this group.

Friday morning rehearsals afford us the opportunity to perform on Friday assemblies with ease.

Choir

This large ensemble is open to all students who are interested in singing, are able to commit to 7:45 am Thursday rehearsals, concerts both during and after school. Reliable attendance is essential and singers will need to rehearse regularly at home.

students playing musical instruments
students playing guitar

This ensemble has enjoyed Eisteddfod success and performs diverse repertoire from traditional to modern and from around the world.

On special occasions Choir members sing solos and have accompanied HSC music performances.

Jazz Band

This small ensemble rehearses on Monday mornings from 7:45 am and is open to selected students who currently play in the College Concert Band.

Musicians have enjoyed huge success coming second in the recent Ryde Council Eisteddfod and performing in the Opera House foyer in 2011 Ryde Schools Spectacular.

Daily practise and regular attendance is essential.

Drama

Drama students learn to collaborate and develop skills in communication. Drama teaches students to use their imagination, think creatively and critically and allows them to develop confidence. Students work on a variety of different approaches to theatre performance. These include: physical theatre, characterisation, commedia dell’arte, absurdism, improvisation, political theatre and Australian theatre.

At Ryde Secondary College, Year 8 students are given the opportunity to experience Drama through collaboration with the English faculty. Students spend one lesson a cycle studying Drama in tandem with their English course.

Ryde Secondary College offers Drama as an elective in year 9-10 and as a HSC subject. Former students have successfully applied to attend tertiary dramatic art and film schools, with one student premiering her own production in 2012 at the Sydney Fringe Festival.

student performing

Ryde Secondary College has a drama studio as a teaching space. HSC performances are presented in the studio each year as part of Performance Night. Building and planning is underway to improve the space and to modernise the sound and lighting system in the MPC to allow for large productions.

Further information on Drama Courses offered at Ryde Secondary College.

Dance

Dance is currently offered as a House Sport.

Students with a strong interest in Dance are also encouraged to participate in regional Dance competitions and in our College Ryde Idol Event.

Public Speaking and Debating

Year 7 students complete a unit in English introducing Debating and Public Speaking. This culminates in the selection of 2 students from each class to participate in the year wide Public Speaking Competition. Judged by the Year Advisor and the Principal, three awards are presented to students for speeches they have written and delivered. This competition offers Year 7 students the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills and prepares them for future oral assessment tasks and debating.

The NSW Premier Debating Challenge is offered to students from Years 8-12. Students participate in debates against schools in the zone, region and state. 2012 has been a very successful year for debating students at RSC. Year 8 won their zone and are now in the regional semi-finals.

Opportunities also exist for students to participate in the Legacy Plain Speaking Competition and Ryde Rotary Debating. Previous and current participants in these competitions have been successful and have used this experience to further their opportunities in student leadership.

Visual Arts

At Ryde Secondary College, we encourage our Visual Arts students to develop their understanding of visual communication, learn to think creatively and analytically and become self-motivated learners. Students have the opportunity to explore a broad range of artistic experiences in making and studying art. The compulsory course in Year 7 and 8 includes traditional art forms such as drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture as well as contemporary art forms such as digital photography and film-making.

In the elective courses in Year 9 to Year 12, students may also explore other art forms such as darkroom photography, animation and computer graphics, installation and documented forms and textile and fibre works.

Ryde Secondary College also offers two additional courses in the Visual Arts:

  • Years 9 and 10 Photographic and Digital Media
  • Year 11 Photographic and Digital Imaging.

These subjects explore both traditional darkroom and digital photography in depth, from a practical and theoretical perspective. Students engage with their school and local community through extra-curricular activities. Some of the exciting experiences in recent years have included:

  • College mural projects; collaborative class paintings and sculptures

students appreciating art
art gallery
student painting

  • Production of a class magazine; the establishment of the RSC Photography Gallery
  • RSC's 'The Hub' Art Gallery in collaboration with the school’s Youth Work program.

In 2007, students curated and hung the first of Ryde Secondary College’s Year 12 Art Exhibitions. Students have worked on cross-curricular projects such as set-making for drama productions, the annual RSC Fashion Show and studio and on-location fashion shoots with Textiles and Design classes. Students are inspired to make art with excursions such as oil painting by the Parramatta River, drawing at the Field of Mars, photography at Taronga Zoo, The Rocks and The Royal Botanic Gardens and printmaking and life-drawing lessons with professional artists.

Students also engage with the art world with excursions to the Art Gallery of NSW, The Museum of Contemporary Art and other Sydney galleries.

Science Competitions

Each year students from Ryde Secondary College participate in the ICAS Science Comptetition, the Science Olympiad and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Chemistry Quiz and Titration Stakes.

The Science Competition is one of the ICAS Competitions run Australia-wide. Students sit a multiple choice exam specific to their year group. The exam consists of questions from a variety of sciences incorporating skills as well as knowledge and understanding. Each year between 150 and 240 students sit this exam.

The Science Olympiad can incorporate Chemistry and/or Physics and involves year 10 and 11 students participating in acceleration classes after school for a few months before the date of the exam. The classes and exam give year 10 students an opportunity to accelerate their science knowledge and access concepts from senior subjects.

students creating science project

The Royal Australian Chemical Society runs the Chemistry Quiz annually. The multiple choice exam challenges students to answer questions based on Chemistry.

The Titration Stakes are a practical competition based on a chemical principle where teams of three students compete against other teams from around Australia to determine the concentration of an acid or a base.

Traditionally, our students have performed well and the Science Faculty look forward to running the science competitions in 2018.

Religious Education

Special Religious Education (SRE) classes are provided for all years 7, 8 and 9 students; Year 7 students receiving 1 period each week and years 8 and 9 students 1 period each fortnight. These classes are presented by teachers employed by Ryde Area Christian Education (RACE) representing local churches of most Christian denominations:

  • St Anne's Anglican Church Ryde
  • North Ryde Anglican Church
  • Ryde Baptist Church
  • North Ryde Community Church
  • Macquarie Chapel Presbyterian Church
  • Marsfield Community Church
  • C3 Church Ryde
  • Holy Spirit Catholic Church North Ryde

 

Students not attending SRE classes will be supervised in the Library.
 

If you would like to change your child's participation in religious education, please download, complete the Permission form and return it to the office.

The NSW Department of Education Policy on Religious Education

Voluntary Student Activities of a Religious Nature in Schools (VSA)

There is currently one voluntary student activity group being conducted at the college - Strands of Unconditional Love (SOUL) coordinated by the Interschool Christian Fellowship. The group meets every Thursday at lunchtime. Students must have written parental permission to participate in the activity. The permission forms may be obtained from James Lee (Ryde Area Christian Education), who can be found in the library every day except Tuesdays. More information is provided on the permission forms.

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Ryde Secondary College is in Wallumattagal Country. We would like to pay our respects and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and also pay respect to Elders both past and present.

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