Around The College

World Vision Youth Conference

On May 25, a group of fellow SRC members and I had the privilege of attending a World Vision Youth conference. The event was primarily concerned with educating attendees on the hardships present in the world and how we can solve the refugee issues present in our current world. We discussed the refugee crisis and together we all brainstormed several solutions while role playing as countries.

We also had the honour of listening to some truly inspiring stories from former refugees and learnt about their past and current living qualities and how they have adapted to their new home. The entire experience enlightened us on all that we should be grateful for and how lucky we are to live in such luxury compared to other regions of the globe. As an audience we came to the conclusion that we must unite to fight this issue and as a school we chose to participate in the 40 hour backpack challenge.

As the SRC, we will attempt to involve as many people and raise as much money as possible to donate to World Vision, which they intend to use to finance vital infrastructure, goods and services in areas of need.

I encourage you to get involved in this inspiring and educational movement. The 40 hour Backpack challenge will be held over the weekend of the 17-19 August. More information will be available next term.

Emil Dommenget, SRC

Career Expo

On Friday June 22, Brentwood held our annual Career Expo for all Senior School students.  This event was very well attended and the feedback from staff, parents and students, to date, has been very positive.  We had a large number of past students return to Brentwood for this event and engage with our students through their inspirational and motivational presentations about their pathways since leaving Brentwood.  We would like to thank the following past students: Anton Briganti, Kylie Chan, Mala Damardi, Mudit Dhami, Venus Farid, Simon Giang, Katie Martin, Gemma Matchett, Sean Newtown, Elsie Richardson, Alex Rodriguez, Carlin Stephenson, Stella Tsakiris, Amy Yap and Joel Yap.  We encourage all past students to consider participating in such events as we thoroughly enjoyed welcoming our alumni back.

Year 12 students began their day with guest speaker, James Lynch, presenting about Interview Skills.  The students were attentive and active participants resulting in an engaging and worthwhile session.  Subsequently, they attended the Expo where a large selection of tertiary providers were in attendance.  The tertiary providers included Monash University, University of Melbourne, Victoria Police, Deakin University and Holmesglen to name but a few.  The Year 12's finished their day listening to past students present about “Life After Brentwood.”

Year 11 students began their day with guest speakers from Monash University and Connect Ed.  Next up, it was their turn to be inspired by the tales of our past students.  They concluded their day with a session facilitated by our Wellbeing Team that focused on resilience and their journey through VCE thus far.

 Year 10 students and parents attended the Expo for periods 5 and 6 in the Hall.  Each faculty at Brentwood presented informative and engaging stalls where students were encouraged to speak with VCE teachers about their possible options moving forward.  Many parents and students commented on the positive environment and the approachability of both Brentwood staff and the tertiary providers.

We are continually striving to improve and enhance our events at Brentwood and have included links to surveys on Compass for Year 10, 11 and 12 students to gain their insightful feedback.  We would appreciate all students taking the time to do this.

An event on this scale does not happen without a collaborative and supportive approach and I would like to sincerely thank staff, students, parents, past students, tertiary providers and the Careers team for their participation and enthusiasm.   It was a wonderful event and I hope our students have lots of information to mull over during the holidays to help them make the right decisions about their future pathways, both at Brentwood and beyond. 

Ann-Marie Mackay, Director of Student Pathways

Salvation Army Breakfast

The Waverley Salvation Army provides a free breakfast to all our students every Tuesday morning. Under  the leadership of Wilf Smith, many volunteers brave the cold early morning start, to provide fruit juice, hot chocolate, muesli bars and hot toast.

In recognition of their support of our students, the SRC donated vegemite, honey and jam for the students to enjoy in the up coming term. 

Brentwood Makes National Newspaper Appearance

This story reprinted courtesy of The Australian.

School Tree Day

Schools Tree Day marks the beginning of a long-term environmental program and is a reminder of the importance of nature in our daily lives. The Brentwood Green Team had participated in planting natives in previous years and helped in improving the biodiversity at the college.

This year’s Brentwood Tree Day is going to be held on July 27 (Friday) from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm in K16. Parents are invited to participate in this event and help the Green Team plant nearly 40 natives on the college grounds. It’s a nice opportunity for parents to come and witness the Green Team in action and provide their suggestions/feedback on how we could improve the environment at the college. Parents will also have the opportunity to interact with student leaders, name the plants they are going to plant, win prizes and take home goodies. To ensure we are adequately prepared, please RSVP to this event by clicking here. We look forward to your participation at this year’s Schools Tree Day.

For any enquiries related to this event, please email us at: greenteam@ict.brentwood.vic.edu.au

The Brentwood Green Team

Japanese Primary School Visit

On Wednesday 27 June, Gennie Kim, Siwon Na, Cao-Tri Luong-Thanh and Nicholas Villani of 7F hosted an incursion at Glen Waverley South Primary School. Whilst we were there, we talked through all the different exciting activities and highlights of learning Japanese at Brentwood. We also created a fun and exciting Kahoot titled 'How well do you know Japan?’ This was an opportunity for the grade 6's to participate in a fun, interactive activity that determined how well they knew Japan.

This small incursion was a great experience that helped with building and improving our leadership and communication skills. We all enjoyed having this pleasant opportunity and it was great fun getting to know how other students feel about Japan and learning Japanese. We also talked about the Japanese Exchange student programme, which really got their attention. They were all astounded at how great it sounded. We told them of some of the highlights of the trip including trips to Disneyland, Hiroshima Peace Park, Osaka Aquarium and Tokyo’s famous shrines and temples. They get to go to a Brentwood’s sister school “Ono” and spend time with the students and finding out about how a Japanese school is different to an Australian school.

It was an honour to have the opportunity to take part in this wonderful experience and we would like to thank Pollock Sensei and Glen Waverley South Primary school for inviting us on this incursion.