From the Head of Campus

Term wrap

It’s been a wonderful start to the academic year and our secondary campus has been a hive of activity. Schools are generally busy places and, to put it into perspective, following is a quick glimpse of some of what we covered in Term One.

We welcomed 51 new students and seven teaching staff to BK this year.

Camps

Remember camps? It feels already so long ago. In week three, students and their teachers headed off for the week: Years 7 & 8 to Canberra, Years 9 & 10 to the Grampians and Years 11 & 12 to University of Melbourne.

Busy for families

For families, we’ve had a number of events including our 3-way conferences, DP and MYP information evenings, five-week interviews for new students, school tours and open mornings and the Elevate Education study skills session for DP parents.

It was lovely to see so many of you at the Family Welcome Picnic; special thanks to the classroom parent reps who did a wonderful job meeting and greeting everyone.

The bake sale, which was an idea raised and driven by parent reps at one of our meetings, was a huge success with $1000 raised for breast cancer research. Year 11 sisters, Rosie and Lily, worked hard all afternoon selling the baked goods that were generously made and donated by families. It was truly overwhelming to see the amount of community-donated goodies; a huge thank you to everyone who contributed in one way or another.

Student voice

Student voice was present and strong throughout the term. On Friday 22 February, several of our students joined the Fitzroy High School Feminist Collective, a day of panels (including notable speakers such as Clementine Ford), workshops and entertainment designed to inspire young people to create a community to deepen their understanding of feminism and to contemplate changing the world.

The Climate Change march occurred on Friday 15 March and many of our students took action by refusing to attend school and joining a collective international voice in the Melbourne CBD.

One of our Year 8 students, Alia Ferdowsian, was selected during Melbourne Design Week as a finalist to speak at the NGV Design Challenge on the topic of waste. You can read Alia’s interview in Student Buzz further on in the newsletter.

Finally, back at school, International Women’s Day was celebrated on Friday 8 March with the painting of a group mural.

Beyond the school gate

Excursions have featured in abundance this term including a visit to the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Escher X Nendo exhibition at the NGV, a workshop with famous voice coach Patsy Rodenburg, a Leisa Shelton Masterclass, a visit to the Monash Engineering department, an excursion to the Chinese Museum, a seminar for our IB Visual Arts students and a jazz session with Wynton Marsalis.

Notable notes

Music continues to be a platform to bring our community together. Earlier this month Karoline Kuti accompanied a group of students to WOMAD in Adelaide. Back at school there have been open mic sessions, the musical tasting plate, choir practices each Wednesday morning and entertainment at the picnic.

Electives

A unique feature of our timetable for students in Years 7-10, the opportunity existed to participate in a diverse range of activities including fashion illustration and design, theatre sports, ply by design, salsa dancing, viva fitness, soccer fundamentals, programming and electronics and careers.

A restful break is now well-deserved for everyone! I hope you can take time out to enjoy the glorious autumn weather and I look forward to seeing our students on Wednesday 24 April relaxed and ready for the new term.

Jen Buchanan

Acting Head of Campus (Secondary School)

jen.buchanan@preshil.vic.edu.au