Around The College
Student Leaders for Multicultural Inclusion Program
As we all know Australia is a multicultural country. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are 7.3 million migrants in Australia, representing 29 percent of the country’s population. In addition, we have nearly 900,000 international students who are studying in Australia and thanks to them, and others, Australia has become one of the most culturally diverse country in the world. However, Australia is still a “foreign country” for many newly arrived migrants and students. This is mainly because of the loneliness they experience, the language barriers they face and most importantly, a culture gap which may create prejudice and misunderstandings.
Therefore, the Department of Education implemented a “Student Leaders for Multicultural Inclusion Program” that is intended to bring schools together, and each school is represented by four Year 10 student leaders. Luckily, I was one of the student leaders that represents Brentwood. I attended the program along with Natalie Han, Rachel Chang, Ari Golpinarli and Mrs Singh. On the day all the students from different schools gathered together in the Department of Education to train with the staff and volunteers from the Victorian Student Representative Council. They told us what it feels like to be an ‘outsider’, what culture is about and how to make our school more inclusive. After the day long program I realised the importance of this program because it is not possible to form a strong, harmonious community without the acceptance and respect for cultural diversity.
To respond to the initiative of the Department of Education, I believe the following things should be done at our school:
- To have more understanding of different cultures
- To have celebrations of traditional festivals and foods
- To create a Culture Day
- To put educational posters of different cultures around the school
- To educate students the importance of culture diversity.
By working with the Leadership Team at the school we will help them, and the school community, learn more about the diverse ethnicities that are in our school community.
William Chen
Valentines Day at Brentwood
It's been an incredibly busy week for Brentwood's dynamic English faculty as they continue to create engaging opportunities and drive creative events throughout the school community. Last week four year 10 English classes were fortunate enough to have their Shakespearean poetry published and used as the cards to accompany roses sold and delivered by the student executive team for Valentine's Day. I would like to acknowledge the assistance from the teachers and their respective students; Mr. West, Ms. Thompson-Boyd and Miss Kimpton - we could not have done it without you!
Furthermore, a heartfelt thank you to Ms. Barbary and Mr. Van Vliet for the phenomenal amount of organisation they contributed to the roses being delivered! What a fantastic collaborative effort to all involved, and well done to our Captains and House Captains for the initiative for selling out and raising close to $800 for charity!
The faculty also held a Valentine's Day quiz for the students up in the TLC space and I'd like to thank all staff involved especially our dedicated quiz markers; Miss Bradley and Miss Kimpton.
To top it all off, the Brentwood staff dressed up for the occasion - and we even got a visit from Mr. Darcy himself!
Thank you wholeheartedly to all involved, what a tremendous effort!
We look forward to what 2020 has to bring!
Miss Kononen on behalf of the English Faculty