Around The College

Camps, Excursions and Events

Year 12 Camp

From Wednesday 29th January to Friday 31st January the Year 12 cohort attended our Orientation Camp to Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. We had a wide range of guest speakers that included; Declan Fay, Dr Marcus Robertson, Tristan Miller, Abdi Aden and Skye Melki-Wegner. Back at Ormond, students had a range of sessions that included careers and pathways, team building, study skills and a session on pacing themselves through the year. On the final day, they spent time as a House and worked on goal setting and thinking about their year ahead.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following staff for their work on ensuring the success of this camp: Tracey Campion, Sarah Jolly, Carla Caminiti, Sonja Ardley, Katherine Mills, Andrea Palm, Brian Clements, Ben Franklin, Tryone Ingham, Danni Mortimer, Cathy Hunter, Vee Anrep, Phil Van Ginneken, Chad Abersteiner, John Ballagh, Evan Miller and Jen Chanter.

Consenting for Camps, Excursions and Events

Brentwood Secondary College introduced a minimum two school day cut off for events and excursions. For Camps, the consent is due much earlier due to the planning stages. In 2019, we will be adding events such as Formals to the consent process.

It is vital that all parents/carers ensure they are frequently logging on to Compass and checking to see if there is a camp, excursion or event that requires payment or consent and ensure this is completed ahead of time. Recently, there were a number of students who did not have the consent required for an excursion or event and they were not able to participate.

Why do we require consent ahead of time? Department policy dictates and requires schools to ensure effective planning and preparation is undertaken. The following information is extracted from the policy:

Principals are responsible for the conduct of all excursions and must ensure:

• excursions are planned, approved and conducted in accordance with Department policy and requirements.
• compliance with the Safety Guidelines for Education Outdoors, which are mandatory for excursions requiring school council approval.

School staff involved in school excursions, must be prepared for a detailed examination of their planning, actions and the curriculum role of any activity.

All camps, excursions and events require us to be able to take into account:

• Educational purpose of the excursion and its contribution to the curriculum
• Department approval requirements for excursions and staff travel
• Maintenance of full records, including documentation of the planning process
• Suitability of the environment and/or venue for the excursion
• Informed consent from parents or carers
• Adequate student and staff medical information
• Student preparation and behaviour
• Requirements for any adventure activities (these involve greater than normal risk - there are additional considerations associated with these activities

On top of this there is a level of emergency and risk management that we must be able to demonstrate:

• Assessment of excursion risks
• Procedures in the event of an emergency
• Arrangements are in place if the excursion needs to be cancelled, recalled, or altered (for example: severe weather conditions, changes to DFAT travel advice, or students returning early due to illness/serious misbehaviour)
• Completion of an online notification of school activity as mentioned earlier
• First aid requirements

In the event that a student is not able to attend an excursion, event or camp the college requires adequate time to ensure an alternative program is offered back at the school for those not attending to ensure they are able to work back at school. This information cannot be ascertained without us having the knowledge prior to the day of the excursion, event and/or camp.

We are asking all parents or carers to ensure their contact details are up to date and that they are able to access Compass. Please contact the main office if you require your Compass login details to be reset if you have forgotten them. It is vital that parent login and password details are not shared with students. So if you feel your student does have these details, please log on and reset the password under the settings cog.

Joel Batalha, Head of Blue House – Year Level Events and Student Programs

Programming challenge for Girls (PC4G)

PC4G is an event held by the University of Melbourne. Two of our year 9 students; Siobhan Bragge and Ida Lichtwark have been chosen to represent Brentwood for a programming challenge which is comprised of three two-hour workshops and one full-day finale.

It is designed to encourage junior high school girls to take up computer programming. There is a progression of activities designed to teach students about the programming language we use, Alice. No coding experience is necessary, and students learn to create animations, build interactive narratives and program simple simulations and algorithms in 3D.

Leading up to an annual finale at the end of the year, students are invited to enter the “challenge” as teams of two and put their coding skills to the test in the PC4G finale. PC4G wants girls to experience the fun of programming and encourages learning through creative exploration. It is designed to given student practise in the following areas.

• Basic object-oriented programming
• Sequential and parallel processing
• Computational, design and system thinking
• Computer simulations
• Algorithm design and development

We look forward to seeing how Siobhan (Bonnie) and Ida progress with their 3D animations.

Workshop activity: Detecting sick penguins in a population using k-nearest neighbours anomaly detection algorithm

Anna Crow, Head of Information Technology/Systems

Top Gun Aviation Program

This week was a very exciting week for the students participating in the college's aviation program. The past three weeks of theory was put in to practice where all students jumped in to their aircraft with an instructor to take flight and pilot an aircraft for the very first time.

It is an exhilarating feeling as a teacher to see the students land and observe their faces for the first time after participating in, and achieving something they have never done before. The excitement on their faces is certainly stronger than words.

Their first flight consisted of experimenting with the different controls and their effects. This consisted of rolling the aircraft with the ailerons, pitching the aircraft with the elevator and yawing the aircraft with the rudder. This particularly flying lesson was gelling together everything we have covered in class and allows the students to experience first-hand the primary and secondary effects of controls.

Throughout our journey, each week they will participate in a new aspect of flight. Next week we will concentrate on Straight & Level flight. The theory aspects are conducted in the classroom at school and their knowledge is re-tested in the classroom at the airport prior to their flights taking place to ensure the theory has been understood before the practical lesson takes place in the aircraft.

We are very fortunate that next week (Monday 25th of February) the Air Force are once again coming to the school with their FA-18 Fighter Jet simulator on the back of a truck. Students are briefed in the classroom and then taken to the simulator that is calibrated to fly exactly the same as the real aircraft. In years past, this has always been an exciting day. They also get to try on G-Suits, helmets and mix with the RAAF crew.

Following on from this, I was able to secure tickets to the Avalon Airshow for each student. We will have unrestricted access to the airshow on Friday 1st of March before the public is permitted to enter, meaning no queues to contend with and lots of opportunities to get up close to a wide range of aircraft on display at the show.

Brentwood are now very fortunate to run VET courses in Aviation Sciences. This is the first year we have run a VCE/VET class in Year 11, which will continue through to Year 12. Students participating in these VET courses work towards a Commercial Pilots Licence.

It is great that from Year 10 onwards, a positive career path has been put in place. It allows keen and enthusiastic students participating in Year 10 to continue their training in Year 11 & 12 and work towards a very rewarding career in aviation. All of the training conducted in Year 10 is credited to their Year 11 course which puts Brentwood students at a distinct advantage with their already acquired knowledge and experience.

If you have a son or daughter in Year 9 that may wish to participate in the program in 2020, please send me an email and I can fill you in with all the details. My email address is barry.chris.b@edumail.vic.gov.au

Chris Barry, Aviation Teacher