From the Principal Class Team

Business and Community Breakfast

On Wednesday 15th June the College held its annual Business and Community Breakfast. Each year our business and community partners, together with others interested in the students at our College come together to celebrate achievements and to look for further opportunities. This year’s breakfast was a resounding success. Representatives from the Beacon Foundation, Australian Business and Community Network, The Smith Family and others met together to hear from our Beacon Ambassadors and VCAL students. The event was catered for by our Certificate III Hospitality students in the new Trade Training Centre.

Congratulations to Mr Brendan McFarland for his organisation of the event, ably supported by Ms Lynda Vo. Congratulations also to our Beacon Ambassadors and VCAL speakers Kurt Steward and Mary Maror.

If you would like to support our Year 10 students in events such as speed careering please contact Mr McFarland at the College.

Activating Student Voice in Learning

On Monday 6 and 7 June three staff, Ms Kerrie Dowsley, Mr Nick D'Aglas and Mr Craig Jennings, and two students, Ling Sun and Hannah McEniery of Year 10, attended a Thought Leadership Gathering as part of our work with Social Ventures Australia. The focus of the 2 days was to investigate ways of increasing student involvement in the learning process. The conference was attended by staff and students from over 20 schools from Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. A report from the students follows below.

"On the 7th of June, we went to Adelaide Zoo to take part in the ZooSnooze program, as well as to attend the Bright Spots School Connection Thought Leadership Gathering to learn about education in disadvantaged schools. We stayed at the zoo for two days, and in the short time that we were there, we gained and learned so much. The two days focused on developing ideas such as collaborative learning, with teachers and students co-designing their learning together. Among the key speakers were Margot Foster, Professor Martin Westwell, Hamish Curry and Tom Barret. There were over 28 inter-state schools in attendance. A year 11 student from Craigmore High School in Adelaide - Georgia Hughes - spoke about how her school had incorporated the co-creation of learning; discussing how beneficial it was as well as how much the students had grown. This school implemented a 5 by 5 program, where 5 students worked side by side with 5 teachers, and advised these teachers to create a clearer and well-rounded learning system that is adapted to suit the students. By introducing this program their school has seen students become more successful with their academic achievements, and we were also encouraged to take on board a few of their key principles to further improve the quality of our education. Many other concepts included the equality between teachers and students; how everyone is a learner (including both students and teachers) as well as promoting student voice. The ZooSnooze was indeed an atypical, yet wonderful experience - we camped out in the zoo, and had the opportunity to befriend other students from inter-states."

Ling and Hannah

Yr 10