Student Stories, Achievements & Community Updates

Student Stories

Melbourne Holocaust Museum Visit

As part of the Year 10 History curriculum, study of World War II and in particular The Holocaust, our students visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick. 

Our students took part In Touch with Memory program, where they received a guided experience of the Everybody Had a Name exhibition, participated in a workshop where they engaged with high-quality replicas from the museum collection, met with a Holocaust survivor and engaged in a Q&A session. 

We had the privilege of hearing survival stories from Paul Grinwald and Professor Henry Ekert AM. Both gentlemen had powerful messages that have remained with our students. 

“There's no such thing as race, we are all one human race

and no different from one another.” 

Paul Grinwald

"We are all fellow humans. 

There is no need for tolerance because respect for others is a common necessity 

for peace and prosperity."

Professor Henry Ekert

Our students share their experiences.

"We had the opportunity to learn about the experiences and injustices inflicted on the Jewish people during the Holocaust, from one of the survivors Paul Grinwald,  who told us his experiences in hiding in France during the War.  

 

Throughout the visit, you are confronted with personal artifacts, survivor testimonies, and powerful photos that left a lasting impression. We also participated in a group inquiry activity after a guided tour, where we were given artifacts and we had to match these with key themes, such as propaganda, discrimination and dehumanisation.

 

It was a very interesting day that allowed us to engage in discussion, be educated about the past and it left us all very moved." Rohahn MJ and Edoardo M 

 

"The Melbourne Holocaust Museum was an eye-opening experience into a part of history that is not often talked about. Not only were we able to view the Holocaust through real life artifacts from the time, but also listen to it from a Holocaust survivor Paul Grinwald, who revealed his harrowing experience in France under the occupation of the Nazis, but also the important lessons he learnt from it. 

 

We were able to walk through the museum with the help of an insightful tour guide who helped us better understand the many stories of the Jewish people, and memories from a slowly disappearing section of the past. The experience was invaluable and one I cannot forget. I look forward to many other students experiencing the same journey of understanding that I got." Daniel A

National Blood Donor Week

This month, some of our Year 12 students donated blood for the first time in St Bede’s College LifeBlood Team. Their donations occurred during National Blood Donor Week, so it was great to see students assist the Australian Red Cross for its life-saving work. 

LifeBlood needs more than 1.7 million donations every year to meet the demand for blood and blood products. These students are just some of the roughly 100,000 Australians who donate for the first time each year. Thank you to our donors, Liam, Jayden, Liam, Daniel, Liam, Will, Serhii, Thomas, Harvey, Nathan and Michael Bohan.  

“I decided to donate blood because it felt like a simple thing I could easily do that would have a big impact on another person and potentially save a life. I also found the idea of donating blood interesting as I like biology and thought learning about my blood type would be fascinating. The free snacks were a nice bonus as well!” Liam J

“I decided to participate because it was a good opportunity to give back to the community. I found the experience to be very positive, as the nurses were lovely and extremely competent throughout the whole process. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to donate to do so.” Jayden C

“I chose to donate blood because I am in good health and have no reason not to. It is a great cause and it feels good to know that my simple actions are able to help many people. I would recommend that anyone who can donate blood, should. There's also a few snacks after donating for any additional motivation to donate.” Liam McG

Drama Victoria Connections Festival

As part of National Reconciliation Week, our Bentleigh East Campus hosted the Drama Victoria Connections Festival, where we welcomed attendees from Kilester College and Penleigh and Essendon Grammar. 

Bentleigh East students from our Year 9 Drama class took part in the performance. Across Term 2, the drama students worked with art piece Shades by Christinaray Weetra, to connect with the artwork, challenge our thinking of pathways and connections to the land and create a meaningful piece of art. 

Working with a deeper understanding of Australia Day, 1938 Day of Mourning and Jack Patten’s legacy, students worked to consider the pathways of the Aboriginal people in our community and country. 

"Getting to see how other schools took the same starting point and created very different performances was a great experience. It was also fun to be able to host schools and do a live performance in our theatre." Lincoln E 

 

"It was great to work with our class and perform, even with some people having to learn things on the spot. I enjoyed seeing the other schools' performances, particularly with the famous Aboriginal people and their role in society." Vinny M 

Drama Victoria Festival Director, Danielle Hradsky was delighted by the performances.

"As an ensemble, your use of physical theatre was outstanding! Excellent use of exaggerated movements and storytelling without words. Well done! Your themes were communicated clearly and effectively. I liked your exploration of how words can be used both to hurt / alienate and inspire/comfort/challenge." 

Congratulations to the class and Rachel Urquhart on the wonderful, thoughtful performance.

Student Achievements

Science Sensations

Congratulations to our students who were selected to represent the College in the annual Big Science Competition.

Our students outperformed the country for every domain! Areas included Science Inquiry Skills, Science as a Human Endeavour, Science Understanding, Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth and Space Sciences and Physical Sciences.

To all the students and their Science teachers, we're so proud of you for your outstanding efforts.

Australian Schools Cyber Challenge

Congratulations to our St Bede’s College team with its amazing result, placing 3rd in the National Final of the Australian Cybersecurity Competition last weekend! 

Well done Daniel B, Harvey P, Alexander S, Kiaan S and Christopher K, our skilled team of five from Years 8 to 12, who fought their way for three months to qualify for the final against 500 students and 125 schools. 

Held in Brisbane, our team performed to an outstanding level in a tough competition amongst three other top teams head-to-head in a 3-hour, live-fire challenge. The scenario-based challenge, saw students race to complete a live investigation of a compromised system.

This is a wonderful effort that showcases how truly talented our students are in a diversity of fields. 

"This was a great experience that allowed me to work as part of a team and learn a great deal about cyber security. Thank you to the staff who entered our College for the competition and gave their time to help us train for the finals. 

I strongly suggest any student who is interested in cyber security should join a team, as this will greatly benefit you. If you are thinking of pursuing a career path in IT, Computing or Cyber Security, you will gain knowledge that is up to industry standard.” Daniel B (Team Captain) 

"It was a very fun and interesting challenge as I learnt many new skills that may help me out later in life if I were to pursue cyber security. I highly recommend this challenge for those interested in learning about what hackers and pen testers do” Kiaan S

“The first round had three challenges, password cracking, finding information on a person using the internet, and a decryption and hidden file task. The second round had two challenges both in a virtual machine, one challenge was searching through a compromised system to see how it was compromised and the other challenge was searching an SQL database for the number of compromised accounts. For the final challenge we had to answer 3 questions, how was the program running? Where was the attacker? And what was the attacker's name? I really enjoyed the experience." Harvey P

Many thanks to staff Tom Hubeek, Stephen Anderton and David Cracknell who did an excellent job in assisting the students across the competition.

Community Updates

In Memoriam

Our deepest sympathies are with our College Community as they experience the loss of their beloved family members.

Father in law of Erin Napier and grandfather of Liam (Year 12), John Napier. 

May God's comfort and love be with you and your families in this time of need.