Whole School News
WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS - including WURUN CAMPUS
BOOKWEEK 2024
Book week - 19th - 23rd August 2024
"I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…" – Sharon Creech
Our annual Book Swap parade took place on Wednesday 21st August.
It is always a favourite event on our calendar. Children are given the opportunity to dress up in character. Primary children all gather at the front oval and in their class, they walk around parading their costumes. It is a fun and exciting morning.
During the day, the students come to the library where the book swap is held. They then have the opportunity to purchase a book for a gold coin donation. There are hundreds of books to choose from. Many thanks to the families who donated books for our book swap. Thanks to you all, we raised $511- for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
Thank you
Alina&Silvana
LETTER FROM INDIGENOUS LITERACY FOUNDATION
Hi Alina,
I am pleased to confirm we have received your kind and generous donation of $511.45. Please see your donation receipt attached.
We are so grateful Collingwood College chose to support our Foundation and hope all those involved in your book swap enjoyed fundraising for us!
The college's fundraising efforts will gift over 51 culturally relevant books to children and families in remote Communities through our Book Supply program, which is amazing! We currently have over 50% Indigenous authors and/or illustrators in our book packs that range in age groups from babies through to young adults as well as books that families can all read together. The desire for books like this is so strong and ever growing because it allows kids and families to see themselves and their cultures reflected in the stories, helping to build a sense of connection, belonging and pride.
Thank you for your wonderful support!
Kindest,
Marj
Marj Hutchinson (her/she)
Fundraising Officer
Indigenous Literacy Foundation
Rotary Interact Conference
On the 2nd of September, Sadhbh, Blazey, Percy, Jai, Isha, Danah, and I had the opportunity to attend a Rotary conference at Camberwell Grammar as representatives of the Collingwood College Interact Club. At this conference, students from various Rotary Interact Clubs shared the projects they had completed and those they were planning to undertake. I was excited to attend and learn more about what other Interact Clubs were doing.
The conference was highly educational, and I gained a deeper understanding of Rotary and its mission. The event featured guest speakers, breakout sessions, and club reports. The breakout sessions were particularly interesting, as I learned about the various initiatives Interact Clubs have been involved in or are planning. The club reports echoed similar themes. Some of the activities mentioned included fundraising for operational toilets in India, organising food drives, hosting events like dances or trivia nights, and conducting silent auctions with donations from local businesses. My favourite part of the conference was the guest speakers, as they shared so much valuable knowledge.
A memorable aspect of the excursion was the advice offered by the speakers, especially on how identifying and sticking to your values is crucial.
I took away valuable lessons from the conference, ones I will likely carry with me for the rest of my life. I'm looking forward to attending more Rotary events to continue learning.
Written By Lucy Firth
Swing into Spring
Collingwood College was buzzing with excitement on Friday 13th of September, as our volunteers came early in the morning to help with our Swing into Spring. The pizza oven was fired up, buntings decorated the front oval, and the kitchen was in full swing. This is truly, an event made possible, by the beautiful community we have here at Collingwood College.
This year, we ran our Swing into Spring a little differently by getting every class involved, from Prep to Year 10. It has been absolutely heart-warming to see teachers, students and families giving their time and effort to make this event special and magical. We can't forget the many important people who have helped massively behind the scenes and on the ground, with special thanks and appreciation for Hannah Marshall and Geoff Rundell.
Till our next Swing into Spring!
Dear Parents/Carers,
This is gentle reminder regarding our voluntary Family Financial Contributions request for 2024.
Whilst Government funding is provided to every public school to fulfil the standard Victorian curriculum, it is contributions made by parents/carers that help ensure that our can continue to offer the best possible additional opportunities, facilities, and resources to develop to foster student learning and a passion for education.
With your continued financial support, we will be able to achieve this by contributing to the cost of consumables and resources that our students require throughout the 2024 school year. Any financial contributions you make will also assist in the development and maintenance of our school programs, our library and our buildings and grounds.
You can make contributions to the school at any time via Compass course confirmation, located in the top right corner of the Compass Parent Portal. You can also contribute over the phone, or in person at the school office.
If you need any assistance with this, please do not hesitate to contact us at the office by phone 9417 6681 or via email Collingwood.co@education.vic.gov.au
If you have any queries, would like to set up a payment plan or need support for any payments, please contact our Assistant Business Manager Kristina Smith.
Angela Watters
Acting Principal
Staff Profiles
Staff Profiles
Each newsletter, six staff profiles will be included to help families get to know the staff at our college. Enjoy finding out about the expertise, passion, and life experiences that our staff bring to teaching and learning at Collingwood College.
Sarah Powers
Teacher of Steiner and English
Year Level Coordinator
My passion for Steiner education brought me to Collingwood College, where we provide this alternative pedagogy in a mainstream setting. I completed my Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Indiana University and spent a decade teaching, volunteering and travelling overseas. When I moved to Melbourne to study the Advanced Diploma of Steiner Education and discovered Collingwood College, it became apparent that this is where I’m meant to be. I enjoy teaching English and Humanities in the Steiner stream, as well as my role as Year Level Coordinator. My job allows me to be creative, curious, and build strong connections with the amazing people in our community.
Mary Utter
Arts, Design and Tech Teacher
Home Group and Respectful Relationships Coordinator
I love doing all things creative and am passionate about learning, so after 20+ years in mental health I made the switch to teaching. I studied Fine Arts and Psychology at University of New Mexico, and then did a Masters in Art Therapy at Marylhurst University. During Covid 19 I did a Masters in Teaching Secondary at Melbourne University. When I am not at Collingwood College helping to develop our social and emotional learning programs, making or cleaning up creative messes, I am at home gardening, cooking, sewing, painting, or going out to music, art events and travelling-both near and far all over this amazing world.
Felicia Peh
Acting Leading Teacher
EAL, ELC and International Students
Growing up in a family of teachers and code-switching between five languages, I have always been fascinated by language acquisition, the linguistics of different languages and the ways to make language learning accessible. Having graduated from University of Auckland with B. Ed TESOL (Hons), I have been teaching with different leadership positions in various educational settings for nearly two decades, in three different countries. My teaching journey has brought me to an Islamic school, the indigenous community of the Temiar tribe in Gua Musang, elite schools, Chinese-vernacular schools, a Catholic high school, community language schools, and several public schools. Every teaching experience has been enriching and has helped me to be a better language teacher, enlarging my capacity to empathise and understand various learning and cultural needs. I have been with Collingwood College for 7 years (and counting) – and am currently an Acting Leading Teacher who oversees three different programs - English as an Additional Language (EAL), International Student Program (ISP) and our English Language Centre. Collingwood College is a very special place that embraces and celebrates diversity.
Josh Whelan
Student Wellbeing Coordinator
Despite an early interest in becoming a chef (a childhood love of baking), studying Psychology in VCE set me down the path of working in the mental health field. I completed my four year Honours in Psychology, and then went on to complete a Masters in Clinical Counselling. A number of placements in school settings highlighted how much I value being able to support young people in achieving their full potential. This all led to my current role as Collingwood College’s SWC, allowing me to support young people in so many amazing ways. I’m a big advocate for discovering your own means of self-care, so when I’m not at Collingwood, you can usually find me practising my photography, listening to music on vinyl, or nerding it up with board games and video games with friends. I love Collingwood College celebrates the uniqueness of each student and encourages them to embrace their authentic selves.
Simon Dix-Draper
I started teaching 8 years ago in a 50 child 1/2 class with Sormeh. And I’m still here! I had done a Bachelor of Arts in writing and literature at Deakin University in the 90’s while I took breaks from working in the public service. I had thought I would then study teaching, but stayed in the PS. Over the years a recurring feature of my work became teaching records management systems to groups of adults, writing instructions and stepping people through processes one on one. I noted that these teaching aspects of my role were very satisfying, so I went back to study teaching at Swinburne. I chose my pre-service placements at Dandenong North PS, at a Montessori school in Caulfield, and an IB primary school in Auburn South. I was looking around for a child-centred pedagogy and found Collingwood. I’ve relished the opportunity to be part of such a diverse and caring community.
Christine Park
I began 9 years ago at Collingwood College as a student teacher during my Steiner teacher training with Class 6. I loved the diversity of the school in terms of the pedagogies offered and backgrounds of children. It was especially wonderful to see how authentic yet progressive the Steiner program was here at Collingwood. Prior to beginning my teaching journey here at Collingwood, I had lived abroad for 12 years teaching English as a foreign language in South Korea and backpacking around China, South East Asia, India and Nepal. I ended my time abroad living and working in an ecovillage in Northern Thailand. Here I was fortunate to collaborate with artists, social activists and farmers working on community art projects, earthen building and organic gardening workshops and wellbeing and meditation retreats. It is here where I discovered Steiner education through a friend of the farm owners who was visiting the farm and teaching at a Steiner school in New Zealand. I am grateful for the opportunity to begin my teaching career here and to be part of this creative and vibrant community.
INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE (updated 2 June) - Contact Person - Steve Wu
Please click on the attachment below to see a list of Stringed instruments for sale. If you have an instrument for sale please email Steve at: fengchih.09@gmail.com
COLLINGWOOD COLLEGE ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM
Collingwood College is online! Feel free to follow us on:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/collingwood.college/ and like us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/collingwood.vic.edu.au/ to keep up to date with everything that our school has to offer our students and the community.