CHILD SAFETY

The School's Child Safety Policy has recently been updated to take into account the newest Child Safety Standards that came into effect as of 1 July, 2022.

This policy has now been renamed to the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy.

The new 11 standards are incorporated in this policy as well as the reference to the new Ministerial Order 1359, which replaces the original Ministerial Order 870.

An adjustment has also been made to ensure we capture child safety within an online environment as well.

The policy can be found on our website by clicking here

Information On Victoria's Child Safe Standards in more detail on what has changed can be found here.

CYBERSAFETY

Top 10 cyber safety tips

By eSmart in News

Use tech to make life better
Keep your balance
Boundaries, people
Respect others
Keep everything updated
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spammidy-spam
Keep your cool
Keep your friends close and strangers at arm’s length
Be the hero
Ask for help if you need it

To read the expansion on each of these topics, please go to the eSmart website by clicking here

ALINTA (UNIFORM SHOP)

TERM 3 UNIFORM SHOP (ALINTA) HOURS

NEW DAYS & HOURS

Tuesday: 8.00am - 12.00pm
Thursday: 12.00pm - 4.00pm
First Saturday of each month 9.00am - 12.00pm (August 6)

If you have any queries, please get in contact with Alinta.

Email: belgraveheights@alinta.com.au

Phone: 03 9754 6400 alintaapparel.com.au

AGM OF THE PARENT AND FRIENDS ASSOCIATION

The next Annual General Meeting of the Belgrave Heights Christian School Parents & Friends Association will be held in the Restaurant at BHCS on Tuesday, August 9 at 3.45pm.

Belgrave Heights Christian School is operated by an Incorporated Association consisting of eleven members (the School Council) who are appointed by the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. The School Council has the overall responsibility of governing, overseeing the affairs of, and making strategic decisions in relation to the School. The Parents & Friends Association is an auxiliary of the School Council and its members are able to nominate four parents, who are committed Christians, to be considered for appointment to the Council.

The purpose of this meeting of the Parents and Friends Association is to elect four parents to be nominated for Council positions.

The Council invites parents who are committed Christians to become members of the Association and to participate in the nomination process. A membership form for those interested will be sent out via email. All nominations must meet the required criteria as set out on the form and will need to be received seven days prior to the meeting, Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

How are members of the School Council appointed?

There are eleven positions on the BHCS School Council. All eleven are appointed by a Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria’s General Assembly, which meets once a year in October to review the Council’s membership and appoint the members for the following year.

Seven of the eleven positions on Council originate from nominations within the Presbyterian Church of Victoria (PCV). The PCV does not limit its appointments to Presbyterians and regularly includes suitable people from other Christian denominations when appropriate.

Four of the eleven Council positions originate from nominations by the Parents & Friends Association of BHCS. Becoming a member of this association is very straightforward. If you are a committed Christian, and a parent of a student, or someone interested in Christian education, you are eligible. To become a member all you need to do is attend the Annual General meeting, usually held in August each year, and register with the secretary. Registered members are then able to vote on the nominations for the four Council positions.

The school’s Constitution describes the purposes of the Parents & Friends Association as follows:-

Provide opportunity for parent involvement in the school
Support the Principal and staff where appropriate
Raise money by ways approved by the School Council
Nominate people for appointment to the School Council
Make recommendations to the School Council

At each AGM the names of candidates for nomination to the School Council are put forward. You can nominate yourself or someone else by completing a nomination form available from the school secretary.

If there are more than four names put forward, members are asked to vote at the AGM and the names of the four successful candidates are then forwarded to the PCV to be considered for the Council. To be clear, the voting for these four nominees does not mean they are automatically appointed. The nominees will first be interviewed by the PCV Committee and if deemed suitable, appointed to the Council.

Even though appointments are for one-year terms, there are several members who have been serving for many years, and this has ensured that BHCS enjoys the benefits of a stable and effective School Council.

Responsibilities of School Council members

The School Council is the governing body of the school. Members are responsible for seeing that the school carries out its activities in accordance with its Constitution and the laws of the land. As described by Independent Schools Victoria, “The essence of the School Board’s governance role is to oversee all aspects of the School, appoint the Principal, and ensure a strategic approach to the School’s future by setting major objectives, policy frameworks, and strategies. The Board must also monitor adherence to systems of risk management, ensure compliance with legal obligations and undertake periodic performance reviews.”

Council members are not involved in the daily operations of the School. This responsibility sits with the Principal alone. Council members are required to seek God for wisdom in the development of policies aimed at achieving the vision, mission, and goals of BHCS and to ensure the highest standards of Christian values continue to apply throughout the School.

To carry this out successfully, members are expected to attend council meetings, of which there are 10 held monthly during the school year, have the opportunity to serve on subcommittees, and undertake governance training arranged by the School.

If a council member has a conflict of interest in an issue, this must be declared before any discussion of the issue and the situation must be recorded in the minutes. The rest of the council will then determine whether that member can take part in any discussion or vote on the issue.

We are interested in people bringing a mix of experience in areas such as finance, education, corporate, risk management, education and interpersonal skills.

BHCS COMMUNITY AND STRUCTURED WORKPLACE LEARNING

At BHCS we run Year 11 and 12 VCAL program. Each year our students are required to participate in Structured Workplace Learning (SWL). SWL is on-the-job training in a workplace which gives the student a chance to gain skills and insight in to a job and how different organisations/ businesses run.

Our next block is from the 22 August 2022 to 2 September 2022.

This would be four days a week as students attend their VET course on Wednesdays, so in total 8 days. We are looking for local businesses/ companies in our community that would be willing to take a student over this time, in the following industries:

Beauty Therapy/Makeup Artistry --- Building and Construction---Electrical---Hospitality

Creative Industries---Digital Media---Community Services.

If you feel this may be of interest please contact, Andrew or Alison on the below emails and we will be in touch with more information.

aware@bhcs.vic.edu.au

athomas@bhcs.vic.edu.au

CAREERS NEWS

Term 3 - All about smart decisions! We are now entering that time of year when Year 12 students will be making choices about their post-school pathways.

We will have a VTAC info night online on Monday 1st August at 7pm and on Monday 8th August the Year 12 students will be creating a VTAC account. Students can also book an appointment with Mrs Whitworth (Career Advisor) on Mondays throughout Term 3 to discuss their options. These appointments can be used to ask questions, help with setting goals for the future, or talking through a choice already in mind.

Keep an eye out for the careers news. It is full of valuable information about Institutions, Courses, Open Days, Scholarships and much more!

The careers newsletter is emailed to all students from Year 10 - Year 12, on the school website and in the link below.

CAREERS NEWS

WELLBEING RESOURCES

We know that it can sometimes be hard to find the necessary resources in relation to mental health, bullying and family violence, especially when things are tough. For this reason, the School has a small webpage with links related to health and wellbeing resources. This can be found on the School's website under Other Resources or can be found here.

ISV - THE PARENTS WEBSITE

Belgrave Heights Christian School is part of the Independent Schools Victoria network of schools. Independent Schools Victoria offers an initiative called The Parents Website. Here you will find a range of articles and newsletters. To learn more, please click here.

TREETOPS CAFE

The cafe will be running every day except Wednesday for Senior School students. At this point in time, use of the restaurant seating will only be available to staff and Year 11 & 12 students. Year 7 - 12 Students are permitted to purchase takeaway food from the cafe.

BHCS CANTEEN

JUNIOR SCHOOL : The canteen is available for lunch orders on Wednesday & Fridays. Junior students (Prep - Year 4) can pre-order lunch orders via the Flexischools app.

MIDDLE & SENIOR SCHOOL: Year 5-12s are welcome to order at the canteen window during recess and lunch breaks from Tuesday – Friday.

The canteen is closed on Mondays.

Community Announcements

(Belgrave Heights, 1977)