Clyde North Campus News

International Women's Day

As the end of term fast approaches, the activities and energy of our students and teachers certainly has not slowed down or shown any signs of fatigue as illustrated by the many activities covered in this newsletter.

Clyde North Campus celebrated International Women’s Day to acknowledge the hard work of the women at St. Peters and around the world. Male staff kindly organised a morning tea for staff. Students took the opportunity during tutor groups last week to write messages of appreciation to women who have and continue to play critical roles in their lives. The word mum and mother featured very strongly in many of these wonderful expressions of love and appreciation which are displayed in the window of the library. Thank you to Mrs Rowland and Mrs Young for the beautiful and inspirational display celebrating the lives of many courageous and influential women. And of course thank you to the male teachers for a wonderful morning tea. We look forward to celebrating International Men’s Day on 19th November.

Peer support

The last session of this term’s peer support was celebrated with a sausage sizzle. VCAL and year 10 students were involved in the organisation along with some of our staff members. Year 7’s enjoyed the day and showed their appreciation to their seniors for guiding them and helping them settle at our College. 

Project compassion

Project Compassion plays an important part in our Lenten observances in a Catholic school. It provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our faith journey through the lens of charity and helping others. All houses are becoming fully immersed in fundraising projects that not only raise money but also smiles, and support our ability to focus on our faith.

The students of Augustine House decided that actively participating in an activity to raise money for Caritas was something that was integral to its success. It highlighted for them, one of the central tenets of Caritas, that of giving something of themselves so that those who have nothing may know the care and compassion of those that have.  To this end they organised a BBQ with Glowrey House and a car wash for the staff.

In organising the BBQ, the students from both Houses, created flyers to post around the school, planned, set up, cooked and sold the sausages and drinks, raising close to $300. The camaraderie and sense of community was tangible as they worked as one. Conscious of the need to raise as much money as possible, the students worked to sell every last sausage, so that those people whose lives have been destroyed by war and violence would know they were not forgotten.

The annual Augustine House Caritas car wash was next.

During the past two weeks, many of the students have put their hands up to be part of this activity.

In particular, Lochlan, Joshua, Ashlee, Jamaya, Agnes, Matthew, Eliza, Kaleb, Max, Tamara and Dominic have been regulars with the sponges and chamois’ each lunchtime, ensuring the high standard of cleaning and polishing expected by the staff has been met. A special mention to Ella for her tireless work as chief House photographer.

Marian House launched its Egg-citing Easter Egg Hunt this week and we look forward to fun and laughter that is guaranteed with this event.  It has been a privilege to observe the dedication and commitment these students have shown to all of our current and future fundraising activities. I also would like to thank the House Leaders and Learning Advisors who are very much involved in every fundraising event.

Year 7 camp

The weather may not have been kind, but it certainly did not dampen the enthusiasm or energy of our year 7 students and staff. I would like to sincerely thank Mrs Olivia Barrett and her team that went above and beyond to ensure the very best experience was possible for all students. Please enjoy some wonderful reflections from the students themselves.

"This year, the year 7's went to Forest Edge Camp and it was amazing. My friends and I participated in the talent quest and we did a contemporary dance, which we came 3rd place in. I made heaps of new friends. The food was also very tasty. Camp was tremendous and fun and I will never forget it!"

- Methasa

"Our  camp will be the one that I'll remember because it was my first one in high school and it was exciting." 

- Declan

 "I really enjoyed river sledding because it was lots of fun to go in the river. The activities were super fun and I loved meeting new people and the cabins were really good as well and I just had an amazing time." 

- Xena

"The Year 7 camp excursion to Forest Edge was an amazing experience. As the whole year level got to spend time with their friends and making new connections with others. I completely enjoyed hanging out with the girls in my cabin, since it was an opportunity for us to goof around and relax."

-  Nicaella

Thank you to all of the students who sent me their reflections and I am sorry I could not publish all of them, but they are saved and will go in the 2020 edition of our ROCK magazine.

Bullying No Way

I thank Mrs Clare Ziino for her work on producing an interactive, informative and critical program that our students are engaging in this week during Tutor Groups. Over the week we are asking students to use and consider how effective kindness can be to ‘crush’ bullying and violence. We challenge our students and ourselves to stand up every day against bullying and violence in our society. Please have the conversation with your son and daughter.

SRC Training Day – a cross campus event

The SRC training day, Monday 16 March 2020, was a day where the SRC students from the Clyde North and Cranbourne Campuses came together to work in teams to further develop their skills as leaders of the college. There were aspects of the day which we all really enjoyed in particular the Corporate Challenge facilitators, Brendon and Ruby’s PowerPoint on effective communication. Communication featured strongly throughout the day and it was clear that this was to develop our skills and confidence in this important aspect of effective leadership. We are now more aware of how to use formal dialogue to present critical information to our peers and our teachers including the Principal and the Deputy Principals.

The training day was filled with collaborative activities that taught us how to work as a team. Bringing the Clyde North and Cranbourne SRC students together enabled a sense of common purpose to be developed which supported connections and positive relationships to be forged. It was refreshing being outside for the teamwork activities with the facilitators as this provided us with another venue to bond over shared learnings.

The final activity of the day was spent with our own campus SRC group. This was incredibly useful for the year 12 leaders as we were able to work more closely with younger year levels. We gained a better understanding of their perspective as young leaders and of their hopes and dreams of building a united, skilled and effective SRC. We are now energised and ready to become effective, committed and above all servant leaders of the College.

Our sincere thanks go to Ms Cathy Michael and Mr Ernie Rijs who facilitated the day and provided us with great support, humour and a wonderful lunch.

- Brendon, Josh, Sophie, Rochelle, Jessica

Harmony Day

Clyde North Campus celebrated this year’s Harmony day with a number of activities and festivities. It started with a wonderful drum performance from students of St. Theresa Primary School Cranbourne. We also witnessed amazing traditional Mauritian Sega Dance and Bollywood Dance. For the first time we had a panel of students who were in a conversation with the principal Mr. Black.  They shared their extraordinary stories/journeys to Australia and settling in a diverse and multicultural society. During lunch time students enjoyed a variety of traditional foods prepared by our hard working VCAL students and staff. Finally, we ended the festivities with a nerve-wracking and very close game of basketball between staff and students. After a competitive game, staff took the win by 2 points (19 -17). Overall, it was a great day which reminded all of us again of how amazing and diverse community we have here at St. Peters College. 

A couple of reminders

• St Thomas the Apostle Primary School has closed access to the drive way next to our oval. Each day a staff member from the primary school opens and closes the gates for pedestrian access only. It is not acceptable for our students to climb over the fences or gates in this area. This is dangerous and students have now been informed of this several times. Parents will be called should their son or daughter continue with this dangerous and wrongful behaviour. I call on parents to support us with a conservation with their son or daughter cautioning them of this behaviour.
• The driveway entrance to the Clyde North Campus on MacKillop Way is not a parent drop off or pick up zone. Please support this request as we are continually seeing parents ignore this direction and we are very concerned for the safety of your children.

I wish you all a safe and productive week.

Julie Banda

Deputy Principal - Head of Clyde North Campus