Term 3 has been nine very busy weeks – more so than usual due to the celebrations with the school’s 95th anniversary!

Some of the recent big events for students have included the VCE VM “Big Freeze” fundraiser where the principal team and other staff got ice buckets poured on them, “Write a book in a day” over five days with over 300 students participating, interschool debating, Year 10 Movie Night, the VSMF Concerts, Year 10 Momentum Volunteering Day, Year 11 Geography Camp, Year 11 Social, Year 11 vs Year 12 Footy game, interschool Maths games days, and parent teacher interviews.

The sub-schools and wellbeing teams also organised a number of important life skills workshops and presentations this term including visits to Headspace in Box Hill, mental health Batyr Program for Year 11s, Elephant Ed respectful relationships for Year 9s, and guest performer Scott Darlow.

Please take 15 minutes to complete the Parent/Carer Opinion Survey (closes on Friday 19 September). The link is below (the school PIN to log in was emailed to families on 18 August - please contact the school if you need it re-sent):

https://research.orima.com/parent

95th Anniversary

What a celebration this was for the school community and for our alumni!

My idea over a year ago of organising a historical expo and art show simply could not have happened had it not been for the generous, creative and dedicated team of staff who gave up countless hours to plan, develop, and present such an amazing historical overview of the school.

On behalf of the school, I wish to formally acknowledge the contribution of Jenni Campbell, James Taylor, Emily Collins, Kylie Pearson, Nathalie Brewer, Shareen Bottrell and Jess Sheppard.

Berni Sweeney and her Tech Support Team also stepped up and made the exhibition a technical success.

There were other staff members who also volunteered each day to support the alumni tours and the official opening event. Of special note also were our impressive student leaders who made us so proud – many alumni and special guests praised our students for their friendliness and respect.

Special guests included Karen Money (DE Regional Director), Erika Bienert (DE Area Executive), School Council President Kaajal Fox (pictured below left), Richard Welch MP (pictured below right), Deputy Mayor Prue Cutts, Kate Mitchell and Bob Jenkin (past principals), past school captains, past SC Presidents, and many alumni and retired staff.

Thank you also to School Council members who attended to support the school. Over the week we also had all the classes come through the historical exhibit and take part in a scavenger hunt, and many parents also came along to look at the school’s history after school hours.

As a result of all this work over the last year and a half, we now have an established alumnus of past students, a documented history of the school, an archive register of historical artefacts, a photo library and many other artefacts that will enhance the celebration of the 100th in 2030.

The 1930s day was also a fun day with an old-fashioned school day, dress-ups, lunchtime games and activities. Thank-you Greg Breese for working with Domain leaders and other staff to run this day. We are really looking forward to the upcoming Jazz Night – another great opportunity for community connection and celebration. Thank you to Michael Oaten and Thomas Williams for all their work organising this exciting event too.

VCAA Student Leadership Awards

Last Friday, I attended the VCAA Student Leadership Awards to recognise the leadership of our School Captain Amiya Cameron. This is the first time one of our student leaders has been selected and there are only eight in the state chosen for this award. Amiya also had a role in the State School Spectacular on Saturday which was an impressive achievement.

Music Ensemble successes

VSMF Intermediate Strings with Paul Hwang (awarded bronze)

VSMF Concert Band with Troy (awarded gold)

VSMF Wind Symphony with Adam (awarded gold)

Royal South Street Society Eisteddfod - Wind Symphony with Adam (awarded 2nd place)

Sporting success

Well done to our superstar teams this term in recent interschool team competitions:

Year 8 Girls Netball - Regional Runners Up

Year 7 Girls Netball - Regional Semi Finalists

Year 7 Boys Soccer - Regional Runners Up

Year 8 Boys Table Tennis - Division Champions

Addressing Racism at Box Hill HS

Racism is not tolerated in Victorian Government Schools. Racism has significant detrimental impacts on mental health, learning and engagement, and contributes to disadvantage and isolation of young people.

All students have been informed that there is no tolerance for racist language and behaviour at our school, and we will follow up and investigate reports. We expect families to help us prevent racism. There will be consequences for students found to be consistently using language that vilifies or defames others based on race, including withdrawal from class and suspension. Educational material will also be provided to improve understanding of impact and community values.

Retiring Staff

Guy Parkinson has decided to retire at the end of Term 3 after 40 years of teaching at Box Hill HS. He has been Math and Science teacher and VCE Chemistry teacher, achieving a significant number of 40+ scores in his classes resulting in many years of consistently high VCE average study scores in this subject. He has been Math Coordinator and Year Level Coordinator, and an active contributor to whole school sport carnivals and camps (including the end of year horse riding camps, ski camp, surf camp) over these years, and was at every school community event including Open Nights and VCE Expos. He has shared his expertise as an educator through mentoring preservice teachers and early career science teachers, and presenting high impact VCE strategies to staff to improve results for students. Guy was also a staff representative on School Council at the time when the SEAL program was introduced into the school. Guy is also a strong union member.

He is passionate about the importance of doing science, not just reading and writing about it, and has ignited many a budding scientist over the years with his demonstrations of chemical reactions and explosions. We thank Guy for his many years of service to public education, and to science education, and wish him many years of happy retirement travelling, listening to music, and engaging in his outdoor hobbies.

BHHS Altiora Alumni