Magazine 2018

Coming in through the front door, you will be struck by the beauty of the foyer and through the window see our well- maintained gardens and some happy learners socialising across the campus. If you choose to go South, you will be met by our friendly and helpful reception staff and moving down the passage be able to visit the office of Mr Knaggs, our Director of IT who is always investigating the latest developments in technology, and Mrs Steyn’s office where there is a bowl of chocolates for visitors. Tilt your device to travel East and find Mr Mayers, Associate Principal (Innovation), meeting with educators about subject collaboration through innovative use of technology and Mrs Vosloo, Associate Principal (Academics). Mrs Vosloo will have learners visiting her to discuss subject choices or strategies to achieve optimum results. At the end of the passage, Mr King, Associate Principal (Digital Curriculum and Learning) will be meeting with subject leaders about useful content to post on the Parklands Intranet site, accessible to all learners at anytime from anywhere. The sphere ball can make a u-turn, travel back to where it started, past our Head of Administration, Trudy Clayden, and go North to explore the IT department. Here the virtual traveller will see our team of Apple-trained technicians, under the capable leadership of past learner and Network Manager, Cavan Lang, configuring devices, assisting with queries, training those who are new to the College and meeting with experts in the broad field of technology equipment and services. Going upstairs to the Resource Centre, our librarian with a master's degree in Information Systems, Mr Zinyeredzi, will guide you through our traditional, as well as our digital library. We have thousands of books in our digital library, which can be accessed through the Snapplify platform. Leaving the Administration block through our stylish staffroom and sending our sphero ball South, we arrive at the first of our Academic houses, Edison Block. On the ground floor you will pass two laboratories, equipped with 25 iMacs each. In the first you may find EGD learners using AutoCad to produce professional looking drawings and objects printed on our 3D printer. In the second there are thousands of pieces of Lego, used for building robots to be programmed by our learners, coding these robots to complete challenges on the robotic competition mats. On these iMacs learners will be busy using Design software like Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Pausing in the quad, the visitor will hear IT programming, Mathematical, Physical Science and Life Science terminology permeating through the air. Sounds of celebration may be mixed in with that, due to our extraordinary success in the Olympiads and Expos in which our learners are encouraged to participate and where some have reached international level. Going upstairs the College’s commitment to hands-on experience will be evident in the many practical experiments happening in the four well-equipped laboratories, and Mathematics educators will be using their iPads and iPencils and an app like Explain Everything, projecting onto an HD TV screen. Back on the ground the sphere will pick up speed travelling West to Fleming Block, house of the Arts. Exhilarating and creative projects will be on display in the Design and Visual Arts studios. The 3D printer may be busy printing African masks designed on iPads using the Morphi App. Going for a quick visit into the ablution facilities, the visitor will be impressed by the immaculate condition of the showers, the change rooms and the white basins. Water saving measures will be evident here, as well as around the campus where we are harvesting rainwater into tanks and using recycled water in our gardens. With another tilt of the device, the sphero will be heading for the Dance Studio with its sprung floor, mirrored walls and ballet bars and natural light streaming through big doors that can be opened into the garden. Ballet, modern and jazz dancers will be working with our professional dance teachers in this venue, while the tap dancers could be heard in the adjacent venue with its special Cocolium floor. Upstairs in Fleming Block the two Drama Studios will be abuzz with young actors and actresses preparing for Eisteddfods, Trinity Speech and Drama Exams, the Shakespeare Schools Festival, the biannual Parklands musical production, or simply having fun in subject drama. Next stop is our highly sophisticated Sound and Film studios, where Mr Holly may be assisting trainee sound engineers or the Flashmob Media Club may be filming an insert for assembly, using some pretty impressive equipment and software. Learners use the audio studio to record music and voice overs for personal pursuits, projects, productions and promos. The live room has acoustic diffusers to improve the acoustic quality of the room for recording. The room is large enough to fit a large band and has instruments and equipment ready to be used by the musicians. The live room is connected to the control room via 2 multi-core connectors which allow up to 16 inputs and 8 returns. These are connected to the recording console, which is connected to the computer via FireWire and which allows it to be recorded into Logic Pro X. Those recording in the live room are able to monitor themselves with the returns using the AIAIAI headphones which are powered by the PreSonus headphone amplifiers. The control room monitors use the JBL monitoring system. The microphone collection offers a variety of microphones which support the recording of a band to voice overs. 100. 21st Edition