Happy Autumn Days to our School Community!

I hope that all our families have started Term 2 well – these first three weeks have been full of school events and student activities!

From Term 2, we plan to produce three newsletters a term so we can communicate school news and updates to our families more regularly.

Open Night and our Enrolment Management Plan

We were so pleased to see many local families come along to visit the school and hear about our vision, our curriculum programs and support services on Monday 22nd April – we had blue skies and happy faces!

I would like to acknowledge all our wonderful student leaders who made the day such a success. They demonstrated initiative, great communication skills and positive attitudes – we are so proud of them! Thank-you to Sabrina L, our school captain, for sharing her positive experiences of being a Box Hill High School student over the last five years, and also to Ryan B and Vaahin N who spoke so well in front of a full hall of families.

We have also run numerous tours over the last eight weeks to showcase the school, and provide families with the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about what we do. Thank-you to these students for superb tour-guiding: Keisha B, Ryan B, Seyun C, Benjamin H, Rauf H, Vaahin N, James R, Arin S, Evelyn S, Mingtong X, Nainika C, Nicole D, Micah G, Alexander H, Harsh K, Chloe M, Isabella P, Hamish R, Kirsten V, Ria V, Julien Z, Fatima A, Annabelle D, Imogen F, Sharanya G, Yashvir N, Ishwin K, Daniel L, Marco M, Albert S, Claire S, William B, Katrina E, Genevieve P, Edward S, Zichen W, Olivia Z, Cheryl C, Victoria W, Luvleen C, Tiyahni D, Arabella G, Sabrina L, and Liv P.

Applications for Year 7 in 2025 close on Friday 10th May.

Enrolment Management Implementation Plan for 2025

Due to current enrolment demand and capacity pressures, Box Hill High School is required to actively ensure that only students who meet the approved entry criteria are placed into Year 7:

Students who live within the school zone (guaranteed entry)
Students with a sibling attending the school at the same time (priority 1 of the priority order of placement).

ANZAC Day ceremony at Box Hill

Ms. Sarah Weyenberg and Mr. Aaron Leeson took a group of students from Year 7 to Year 11 to Box Hill Gardens, to see the RSL members who were both current serving defence personnel and veterans in addition to other community groups to show respect and commemorate the ANZAC spirit and the sacrifices made in war.

After an Acknowledgement of Country and key speakers addressing the crowd, students from both primary and secondary schools alongside members of the Victorian Police Force and Box Hill RSL were invited to lay a wreath at the base of the Box Hill War Memorial.

Box Hill High School students were complimented on how respectful and reverent they were in observing and participating in the event.

Thank you to those students who attended the event: Fatima A, Elva A, Minnie C, Nainika C, Nicole D, Milly F, Sharanya G, Justin H, Genevieve P, James R, An S, Leo U, Anjali W, Han Y, and Mohammad Z.

Respectful Relationships – a whole-school approach

Box Hill High School is a Partner School in the Inner East Respectful Relationships Program and our Wellbeing Leader Felicity Shiel-Jones leads this important initiative in our school.

A whole-school approach encourages schools to review their existing procedures and culture to ensure that they model respectful relationships and gender equality practices across the entire school community.

Cultural and procedural change means schools and their communities look at staff practices, classroom management, school events, sport programs, formals and other occasions, to ensure all aspects of a school’s operation and culture are underpinned by respect and equality.

A whole-school approach to Respectful Relationships recognises that schools are:

a workplace where all staff should feel equally respected, safe and valued and have equal opportunities
a safe space where young people can learn about gender equality and respectful relationships, in and out of the classroom
part of the wider community that can model gender equality and respectful relationships.

More than 1 in 3 Australian women aged over 18 has experienced violence since the age of 15 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). A 2013 VicHealth study found that of Australian young people aged 16–24:

almost a quarter believe that partner violence can be excused if the person is so angry they lose control
only half knew where to get help if they were faced with a problem about violence against women (VicHealth, 2013).

The evidence supporting Respectful Relationships is overwhelming and comes from respected institutions such as the World Health Organisation and The Royal Commission into Family Violence. Helping children develop an understanding of healthy relationships and respect is key to preventing family violence in the future.

Year 7-9 RESPECT classes incorporate this program material into some of the units run at each year level.

More information can be found at Respectful Relationships | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)

Well done to our students who ride, walk or scoot to school!

And finally, congratulations to all our students (and staff) who ride, scoot or walk to school each day – it is so good to see so many are doing this and we encourage all our students to regularly exercise by walking or riding to school – such a good way to get fit and also stay mentally healthy!

Cross Country news

by Mr Tim Snow