Brentwood Newsletter

Around The College 

Scotchmans Creek Water Watch excursion

On the 18th of October, the year 11 Environmental Science class participated on an offsite field trip to the Scotchman's Creek Trail and Valley Reserve. With the assistance from the Friends of Scotchman's Creek and Valley Reserve (http://scotchmanscreekfriends.org.au/), our class got the chance to experience various environmental tests to indicate the health of the environments.

 

After looking at water quality, pH levels, biodiversity of macro-invertebrates, water temperature, and many other physical, chemical and biological indicators, we got the chance to assist in evaluating by scoring habitats by ourselves. Surprisingly our evaluation being almost the same as the ones the FoSCVR had scored it as. Despite the harsh rain we had experienced in the past few days, overall, the reserve was an amazing environment filled with many fascinating macroinvertebrates, animals and a mix of various native and introduced plants, overall granting us many memorable experiences and a fantastic day for us students to learn from experts.

We would like to thank the Friends of Scotchman's Creek and Valley Reserve for allowing us to join them and for giving us such an amazing opportunity to further our knowledge.

House and Community Day

We are excited to inform you of our combined House and Community Day that is being overseen by the six School for student leadership students together with the Year 7 - 10 Student leaders as detailed below:

 

When: Tuesday 15th November

What: Fun Aspire Activities

Theme: Friendship

Dress: Casual Dress with a $2 donation

BYO: Picnic rug to share with friends

All funds raised will be donated to assist those Victorian's affected by the recent floods.

 

Casual Dress Day guidelines:

  1. No Single tops
  2. No Thongs or open shoes
  3. Clothing should be appropriate for a school setting (no inappropriate logos, words, or pictures)
  4. Footwear and clothes should not inhibit student participation in their scheduled program on the day (such as Physical education classes)

During Aspire, in the classroom, students will engage in an original game devised by the School for student leadership students. Thereafter, all students will move outside to the oval where they will have the opportunity to partake in a range of active games, listen to music, dance and converse with friends.

The games include

  • Obstacle course
  • Ring Toss
  • Running races
  • Giant Skipping rope
  • Limbo
  • Hula hooping

We can't wait to see you all then.

Mrs Cain, Andy Chesterfield, Michiko Versluis, Anna Jin, Satvik Srinivas, Mackenzie Eitzen, Antonios Plokamakis and the Year 7 - 10 Student Leaders.

Free Food Pantry Trial 

As a part of the Unit 2 Outcome 3, the year 11 Environmental Science has introduced a free food pantry in the library to address food insecurity at the college. 

 

What is a food pantry?  

A food pantry is a small “pantry-like” shelving space where various items of food can be donated/ placed so that those who need the food can access it, in turn we as the community rather than wasting food, can place the items within the pantry.  

 

What can you donate?  

The food that you donate must be:  

  • Packaged food  
  • Have Ingredients clearly listed  
  • Not half-eaten food 
  • Unopened 
  • Not homemade food 
  • Preferably non-perishable 
  • Foods that do not have any temperature/storing requirements 

Some examples of food we aim to collect that are commonly wasted within the school community are:  

  • Fresh fruit (bananas, apples etc)  
  • Juice boxes 
  • Up & Go  
  • Muesli Bars  
  • Chip packets  
  • Woolworths pre-packed food (that doesn’t require refrigeration) 
  • Pre-packaged Lunches (Instant noodles, Instant Mac & Cheese) 

 

Where is this pantry located?  

The pantry shall be placed in the library with a sign and shall run between the 31 October to 18 November as a trial period.   

 

How can we use it?  

We urge everyone to donate food pantry or take the items from the pantry for free.  

 

How can a food pantry help?  

There are 3.1 million deaths per year of children over the world due to food accessibility/security related issues. Over the past 12 months, 15% (3.6 million) of the population have suffered from food insecurity just in Australia alone. Furthermore, upon surveying wellbeing, around 5% of the Brentwood community have approached wellbeing due to food accessibility issues in 2021. A food pantry can help those who need it and just to satisfy everyone's hunger in general. You never know who around you are feeling hungry or cannot access food.  

 

If you would like to also help in our research endeavour, please fill out this anonymous survey!   https://forms.gle/1FzJ5bKrixLSe8Qb6