Years 10 -12 Community

Student Leadership Summit in Sydney

Over the past decade, each year the Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) has provided 30- 40 students across Australia an opportunity to receive a scholarship that provides $7000 ($2000 in both Year 11 and Year 12, and $3000 in the first year of tertiary studies), mentoring from a member of the ABCN companies/organisation and events linking them with other students across the nation.  

In this national program we are proud to currently have two 3rd year scholars - Kamran Jaan and Jury Noe, three 2nd year scholars - Shar K’pru Htoo, Tabasom Azimi and Aziza Minani and four 1st year scholars - Jevic Mwanza, Narges Ahmadi, Omid Amiri, Farzana Hussaini.

After several years of COVID-impacted programs, on the 27-28 April 2022, our four 1st Year scholars were able to attend the ABCN Leadership Summit held in Sydney.  The event aimed to bring all of the students awarded scholarships together to learn about each other and celebrate their leadership and aspirations. 

ABCN SCHOLARSHIP - LEADERSHIP SUMMIT by Farzana Hussaini, Narges Ahmadi,  Jevic Mwanza and Omid Amiri.

Because of the ABCN scholarship that we were awarded in late 2021, we were given the opportunity to attend a leadership summit in Sydney's CBD with 42 student recipients from around Australia. 

During our time there, we participated in a variety of workshops. The first was held at the Australian Theatre for Young People, where the group engaged in a variety of icebreaker activities and grounding exercises. After the workshop, we walked back to our hotel, enjoying the sights of Sydney, including the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Later that night, we went to a formal business dinner where we got to meet a variety of people who are well-known in their fields. During the dinner, we learned about their professional lives and what it would be like to follow in their footsteps.

The following day, we had an early breakfast before heading to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for sessions led by Maree Drury and Craig Griffin. Maree is the ABC's head of programme development; she led a financial capability session in which she discussed the concept of financial capability and gave us exercises to help us develop our understanding of it. Craig is the executive director of the Macquarie Group's BFS marketing and growth. His session was memorable. during his time with us, he discussed various leadership skills and methods for developing them. He discussed creating short-term and long-term goals, as well as ways to speak more firmly to get your point across. which was very useful in a business setting where everyone has an idea that needs to be heard and time management is essential. He broke down the hours of the week that are designated to certain activities, such as school, work, and sleep, and told us that if we reduce our time spent online and goofing off, we have 38 hours left in the week to use to reach our goals. 

The leadership summit was a fantastic experience for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the other scholars from around Australia. The various sessions and workshops in which we all participated were all extremely beneficial, and we recommend applying for the ABCN scholarship if given the opportunity, not just for the money, but also from the perspective of the mentorship. Each scholarship recipient is assigned a mentor who will guide them through their journey to the end of their high school experience and into the first year of whatever further study they wish to pursue.

VCE

The VCE cohort are hard at work right now with all subjects moving into the last phase of Unit 1 and Unit 3. For our Unit 1 students the introduction into VCE is well an truly underway. The rigours of VCE means that all of students need to be working at home and also at school. Attendance and face to face teaching are vital for all of our students. The school and VCAA have a minimum requirement of 90% so we must be at every lesson we can. If a lesson does get cancelled we need our students to be working and studying as the term is a short one! So far though our amazing students have produced some excellent work across all the learning areas. 

VCAL 

Construction Pathways

VCAL students interested in construction pathways were lucky enough to attend an immersion day organised by the Master Builders Association, The Gordon and the LLEN.  The students visited residential and commercial construction sites, where they were able to talk to a range of industry experts. 

A special highlight was listening to past NBC VCAL student Jacob Marr Andrews and participating in a bricklaying workshop with him! 

Mini Golf at SVOEC

Plenty of progress is happening on the mini golf course out at our school camp in Staughton Vale. VCAL students have been managing all aspects of the project including work place health and safety. Almost time for tee off!

Schoolyard Beans update

Beautiful weather, delicious coffee and great service brought the people together on Tuesday at School Yard Beans. 

Our VCAL students have just recently completed a barista training course and are perfecting their skills each week. They have just begun learning about social media marketing so if you would like to keep updated on their journey, you can follow along @schoolyardbeans on instagram.

School Based Apprenticeships

My name is Tara Lynch and I am the SBAT Coordinator across six schools. I have been visiting all students onsite, to take photos and promote success stories. Please see images of Northern Bay students, working hard at their School Based Apprenticeships. 

Northern Bay has many students completing School Based Apprenticeships with the National Food Institute. Students are completing Certificate 11 in Warehousing Operations, Certificate 11 in Food Processing and Certificate 11 in Horticulture. 

The training involves on the job work at GDP, Make and Bake (GITTC) and Corio Community Centre. The students also complete theory sessions, to learn more about their selected industry. There will be many SBAT opportunities for students again in 2023 and some new offerings. 

For more information visit the website on: www.sbataskforcegeelong.com

Emma Horne & Ricki O'Shannessy

Assistant Principals, Goldsworthy Campus