Around The College 

Student Leaders 2023

Big things are happening within our Brentwood community, and it is with great pride that we have the pleasure to introduce our newest student leaders in 2023. A big congratulations to the following year 7 students for their 2023 leadership appointments: 

Assistant House Captains 

Assistant Sports Captains 

SRC Year Level Representatives 

Well done and congratulations to all our student leaders. I am excited to work with, and support you, on your leadership journey at Brentwood.  

Ms. Bianca Saathoff 

(Director of Student Leadership) 

Year 7 Camp

At the start of the camp, students were randomly assigned to activity groups, which had approximately 17 year 7s, 1 year 10 peer support member, and 1 staff member. It was rewarding to meet and connect with so many new members of the school, and see the friendships formed over the course of the 3 days. When we arrived on the first day we ate lunch, settled into our cabins, and then jumped into activities. Some of the activities completed during the camp were flying fox, raft making, canoeing, laser-tag, giant swing, high ropes, swimming in the pool, visiting an optical illusions centre, and going to the beach. At first many of the year 7's were shy and being pushed outside of their comfort zone, however, through the camp they formed firm friendships and became way more comfortable around each other. On night one after dinner, we all rugged up and climbed back onto the busses to go the magical penguin parade. It was a very special experience topped off by wonderful company. Overall it was an absolutely wonderful experience to connect with the junior levels of the school, and to further develop our leadership skills. 

On the second day, we embarked on more activity rotations and connected even further with each other. Day 2 had 4 sessions of activities students were ready and eager to give them a go, and the unpleasant weather didn’t spoil the fun for the students or staff with everyone continuing to enjoy the day. It was amazing to see every student give each activity ago such as students trying the amazing swing and canoeing for the very first time. On Night 2 of camp students participated in an amazing race and Trivia which was organized and run by the Year 10 Peer Support Leaders. Every student participated and gave it a go which allowed them to enjoy the night with their friends. 

On Day 3 the students woke up earlier than normal as it was sadly departure day. Students packed up their cabins and after the cabins were all checked, the staff and students were ready for breakfast at 7:30 am. 

With the final activity session finishing at 11:30am, students and staff packed their bags into the busses and got ready to leave. On our way home, we stopped in at San Remo which to eat our packed lunch at the park with each other. At 1 pm the Busses left San Remo and began the ride back to school, during the bus ride students and even some staff got some needed sleep on the bus ride as everyone was exhausted from the 3 days of amazing fun and adventures that they experienced. Around 2:30 pm the busses arrived back at School and the mission of finding individual bags began. What an amazing camp with the year 7 students making the most out of the camp, students were respectful to each other whilst building and enjoying friendships.

 Cassie Weir & Andy Chesterfield 

Year 7 & 10 Peer Support Program

The Peer Support program involves weekly workshops for half a period with year 7s run by year 10 peer support mentors and leaders, covering topics and skills that are designed to help them make friends, build confidence and thrive in the year ahead. It also develops a culture within the school, where senior students can become mentors and ports of contact for the year 7s to seek out in times of need, overall creating a supportive environment that fosters student relationships between year levels and a more connected school community.

So far we’ve had 3 sessions running during various classes. During these sessions, a huge emphasis has been placed on flexibility and creating a safe environment where students are encouraged to share and participate. We have run activities such as “two truths and a lie,” making a class birthday chart to celebrate each other’s birthdays, and “friendship soup,” with a focus on important traits in a friend. From a peer support leaders’ view, it has been wonderful to see the year 7s flourishing from shy, quiet students into confident and enthusiastic students of Brentwood, as well as forming great new friendships with their peers. It has also been an amazing opportunity for all Peer Support Leaders and mentors to further strengthen our leadership, interpersonal and public speaking skills through facing new challenges with a really strong support network.

Our bond with the students has become even stronger after year 7 camp, which was a huge success, and we look forward to the remainder of the peer support sessions and further developing our relationships with the year 7s.

Michiko Versluis & Patrick Huang

Year 7 Dodgeball Competition

On Community Day we had 6 Peer Support leaders run and very successful Year 7-only Dodgeball competition. We had nearly 80, year 7 students sign up and participate in the dodgeball competition with students really enjoying and getting into the friendly team competition. With 4 teams going head-to-head, every student gave their very best, but only 1 team could win. So, Congratulations to Team 2 on winning their first match and the Grand Final.

We would like to acknowledge and thank Ms. Saathoff (Director of Student Leadership) for supporting the idea and allowing the Peer support leaders to run the event. We would also like to thank all the Brentwood staff that supervised the competition and also those who came to watch.

Finally, we would like to thank all the Year 7 students that participated we hope you really enjoyed the competition and we look forward to planning more activities soon.

Peer Support Leadership

Introduction to Entrepreneurship Program

On the 7th of March, Year 12 students from Brentwood Secondary College: Sayan, Chris, Hanna and Chinmayi who have participated in the introduction to entrepreneurship program with the product Vestì, got an opportunity to visit the Banyule Nillumbik Tech school in Greensborough.

Facilitated by the many skillful and wonderful staff members of the tech school, we students had the opportunity to learn a range of skills such as using a 3D scanner, working with dobots, experimenting on Adobe XD and finally pitching our project Vestì to the Tech school team and Melbourne Innovation Centre including the CEO, David Williamson.  We would sincerely like to thank the  Banyule Nillumbik Tech School and the Melbourne Innovation Centre team for coaching, supporting and guiding us through this entrepreneurial project especially for all the feedback we have gained.

Vestì is a fashion app using many new technological approaches to bring efficient, comfortable, ergonomic and sustainable fashion.

We are seeking support from members of the community who can assist us with:

• Artificial Intelligence integration

• Coding

• Marketing

• Networking

If you can support us with our endeavours in any way it shall be much appreciated.

Please contact us with the details below to gain more information about our start-up or to support us in our journey.

email: fashionbyvesti@gmail.com

or

instagram: @Fashionbyvesti

Thank you

Chinmayi, Chris, Hanna, Sayan

Supreme Court Excursion

Throughout Term 1, all three of our Year 12 Legal Studies classes had the opportunity to visit the Supreme Court of Victoria.

During this excursion, students were able to take part in a question and answer session with Justice Michael Croucher (Criminal Division), Justice Stephen Moore (Common Law Division), Justice John Champion (Reserve Judge of the Criminal Division) and Justice Gorton (Common Law Division).

Miss Bull was even lucky enough to run into and have a conversation with The Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Anne Ferguson! After our question and answer session with our respective justices, students then head to Court 12 where we sat in on a Murder trial.

After hearing the barristers 'do their thing' in the courtroom, students were treated to a tour of the Supreme Court Library. It was quite spectacular to be in the same building as Common Laws that date back to the 1800s! Students were able to take their classroom knowledge of how a court operates into a real world setting.

Miss Bull would like to thank Ms Mortimer, Ms Stenning and Ms. Cornelissen in accompanying our Year 12 students to the court. 

Community Day

Brentwood’s first community day of 2023 took place on 21st March which was a day about celebrating cultural diversity all around the world. Many students in the school partook in dressing up in their beautiful cultural clothes as well as all the stalls that were happening during lunch.

The SRC team along with VM students, the Green Team, Language Captains and the Arts executives had different activities set up for the whole school, ranging from tongue tying tongue twisters, delightful food, henna and face painting, indigenous music, as well as the epic rap battles (which was very popular!). It was great to see teachers and students having a blast as a lot of preparations were put into community day by everyone, and it was amazing to see how successful the end result was, the team should feel really proud of themselves for providing a truly outstanding day!

We’re happy to proclaim that part of the proceeds received during community day is going to the Turkey-Syria earthquake relief for extra support. Once again it was an marvellous work done by everyone and I hope everyone feels proud of themselves.

Mahima Pillai