Around The College
AROUND THE LIBRARY
BOOK WEEK 2023
The Children’s Book Council of Australia celebrated Book Week from 21st August – 25th August 2023.
The winner of the Older Readers Category this year was Neverlanders by Tom Tayler with Honour Awards going to Completely Normal (and other Lies) by Biffy James and The Other Side of Tomorrow by Hayley Lawrence. These books are in the library and available for students to borrow.
The English teachers and library staff celebrated Book Week at Brentwood with a fun filled week of lunchtime activities every day, culminating in a Fancy Dress Party on Friday.
On Monday we hosted a Quote Scavenger Hunt where students in teams had to locate a specific quote in amongst all the book in the library. This was no mean feat given that we have over 3,000 nonfiction books and a staggering 7,000 fiction books! By solving a list of riddles, created by their peers, students had to firstly discover the genre of the book, followed by the author, then the title, and finally the page the quote was on. We had 12 teams competing from year 7 through to year 11 students with a winner in each year level.
Tuesday, we hosted Blind Date with a Book. Staff and students donated preloved books to the library. The books were wrapped up with the first line of the story written on the front. For a gold coin donation, students could select a book to take home based on the first line only. All money raised has been donated to The Indigenous Literacy Foundation, an Australian not-for-profit charity founded in 2011 that works to address the educational disadvantages faced by Indigenous Australian children and young people by providing access to books and literacy programs. The event was very well supported by students from all year levels.
Thursday was the grand final of the Brentwood Spelling Bee. This was held in the year 7 TLC area and was hotly contested by all year levels. There was a fantastic turnout from both students and staff as our final competitors battled against each other to be the champion bee of spelling!
Congratulations to Julian Bella (1st Place) and Michelle Lok (2nd Place) of Year 11 for their achievement.
Book Week finished with a gala Fancy Dress Party attended by competition winners, library monitors, selected students from all year levels, the English faculty, and members of the principal class, with the main condition of entry being that all attendees must be dress up in the Book Week theme of Read, Grow Inspire. Book themed games were run throughout lunchtime and prizes given for the best costume etc. We had approximately 200 guests in attendance and a fun time was had by all.
We also unveiled our new Street libraries…but more on that in a later newsletter.
Monday activity: Scavenger Hunt - Year 7, 8 and 11 Winners
Date with a Book
Spelling Bee
World's Greatest Shave
As the final week of term three fast approaches, your college captains and student leaders are incredibly excited to bring CARES week to life. The final week of term three looks to be fun and vibrant, with lunchtime activities planned for each day of the week.
Monday, our day of Community, will see karaoke with your international captains. Also, an all day litter challenge - pick up as much rubbish as you can in exchange for house points and stamps from the SRC.
On Tuesday, these stamps will work as tickets for stalls run by the SRC, for a day based around Acceptance.
Wednesday, or Resilience day, will be the Art and Sport captains hosting two separate activities - the former holding a banner painting opportunity and the sport captains holding a student-favourite dodgeball game
Then Empowerment on Thursday; the peer support and house captains will work in tandem to create a fun series of carnival games, and the English team - our debating and library captains - will also host a series of debates and other language-based activities.
Finally, the Spirit of Friday will be based around the long awaited Music Madness!
More details are on Compass.
We hope to see you all take part!
Coming up in week 10 we have our annual Community Week-CARES. On Friday the 15th of September we are running a very special event…the World’s Greatest Shave! We have a goal of raising $5,000 to donate to those suffering with Leukemia. We are still looking for volunteers to shave their head, both staff and students are welcome to participate. If anyone has a set of hair clippers they are willing to let us borrow for the day, this would be greatly appreciated. If you are interested in shaving or willing to lend your hair clippers, please contact one of the four college captains via the teams app-Natasha Higgins, Spencer Storan, Jacinta Adams, Owini Wijayasekara or drop off your labelled hair clippers (name and phone number) to the front office.
Below is a link to a donating page for the World’s Greatest Shave for those wanting to help us achieve our goal! Thank you for helping us make a difference.
More details to come via compass on the coming weeks.
Thank you,
Natasha Higgins, Spencer Storan, Jacinta Adams and Owini Wijayasekara
Brentwood College Captains
Elephant Aid During CARES Week
Please join us during CARES week, running from September 11th - 15th, in supporting our dedicated student, David, who is taking a stand for a cause he's truly passionate about. David's stall will be conveniently located adjacent to the other CARES week stalls, and he's on a mission to raise funds for the protection of Asian and African elephants.
David's commitment to this cause goes beyond the surface; he has put in significant effort behind the scenes to make a difference.
Here's what David wants to share with you:
The reality is stark: African elephants face death every 10-15 minutes due to poaching, resulting in a drastic decline. Out of a population once numbering 25 million, only a mere 400,000 African elephants remain. Asian elephants are also in jeopardy, with their numbers dwindling to just 60,000. By contributing funds to support the conservation of these majestic creatures, we have the power to rescue these species from the brink of extinction, ensuring their inspiration continues for generations to come.
Show your solidarity by indulging in a delicious cause – purchase a delectable cookie at the Elephant Biscuit stall for only $3 each. Treat yourself to enticing options like gingerbread and shortbread. Plus, don't miss out on the opportunity to own a stunning, handcrafted elephant artwork, available for $10 each (with frames at $15). All made by David.
You can find us in courtyard east throughout the week, open during lunchtime from Monday to Friday (eftpos available Monday only). This extended availability ensures that you can seize multiple chances to contribute. Remember, all proceeds will be directed to the International Elephant Fund (IEF), a crucial organization working towards elephant conservation. Learn more about IEF's impactful efforts at
https://elephantconservation.org/.
We encourage the participation of both our esteemed staff and enthusiastic students in supporting David's mission to safeguard these magnificent creatures. Let's make a difference together and stand up for the elephants that urgently need our help.
Thank you,
Ms Saathoff David Evans
(Director of Student Leadership) (Year 8)
Brentwood's Winter Coat Drive 2023
Beginning on the 31st of July and ending on the 25th of August 2023, the first Brentwood Secondary College Winter Coat Drive has officially come to a wrap with an end count of 62 donated winter coats to be redistributed to the homeless community in Victoria.
After four weeks of collection from students, staff, and others in the Brentwood Community, I’d like to thank all of those that generously donated their winter coats to the coat drive this year, and I’d also like to thank everyone for treating the collection bins with respect and not using them for rubbish.
The Off Your Back organisation and I thank you for your generosity this winter!
Audriana Phan, Library Captain
VCE Environmental Science Excursion
On Friday, the 25th of August, the year 11 and year 12 Environmental Science classes and Green Team students attended an excursion to the Toyota Centre of Excellence, in which we were taken on a tour to learn about their new hydrogen powered vehicles, the Mirai, and their new hydrogen powered bus. Outside the facility, we were shown the new hydrogen production and refill station and generators. Inside, we were shown how hydrogen works inside the fuel cell to transform into electrical energy, we were allowed to sit in and see around one of their new cars.
We learnt that the hydrogen gets stripped from its electron, and forced along the fuel cell chamber, where it gets re-joined with its electron, there it bonds with oxygen and forms H2O (water). The energy is generated by the electrons moving through a pipe to where it gets bonded with the hydrogen atoms. This means that the car is completely renewable, if there is enough solar energy to power the generators to produce hydrogen from water by hydrolysis, and there is no pollutant run-off, it’s all just water. We learnt that there were only 20 of these cars in Victoria, and only 8 generators in Australia, with Victoria having 3 of them.
Overall, it was an amazing and interesting experience, with lots of learning, as these hydrogen cars and renewable energy will be a part of the Environmental Science curriculum. It was an amazing experience, and we are grateful to Toyota for providing us this opportunity.
Aidan Mclaren
Year 11 Environmental Science student