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Bentleigh Secondary College
News
PO Box 186, East Bentleigh 3165
Telephone: 9579 1044
Facsimile: 9579 2720
email: bentleigh.sc@edumail.vic.gov.au
CRICOS Provider Code:
00861K
Issue: 4 - 20 March, 2015
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
MRS KAREN WADE
Principals’ Conference
Mr Marc Koenig and I attended the Inner Sub Region
Principals’ Conference in Creswick from Wednesday 4 March
until Friday 6 March. The theme of the conference was
‘Leaders as architects of creative organisations’. The three
days were full of thought provoking presentations from
Stephen Harris, Anthony Muhammad, Bruce Armstrong, Jane
Caro and Eric Bailey. The topics covered included:
 Leaders as architects of creative schools
 The four critical behaviours of a transformational
leader
 What makes a good school
 The power of one
The conference was a great opportunity to network with
fellow Principals and Assistant Principals and we came away
feeling validated about the way we are transforming learning
at Bentleigh Secondary College.
Bentleigh Secondary College Alive With the Sound of
Music!
This year Bentleigh
SC has an amazing
180
students
participating in the
music program. They
are committed to a
gruelling
training
schedule which results in these students showcasing their
incredible talents in the Year 7 Band, Intermediate Concert
Band, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Senior, Intermediate and
Junior Jazz Bands, Improvisation Combo, Rock Band, Vocal
Group, Saxophone Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Flute
Ensemble, Clarinet and Percussion Ensembles.
Last Monday our Year 7 students rehearsed most of the day
before performing in the ‘5 Note Concert’. To see these
students playing for the first time in an ensemble is an
absolute joy and there were many proud parents,
grandparents, family and staff members in the audience.
Our learning community looks forward to attending and
enjoying many performances provided by these students
throughout the year. This fantastic music program is a
tribute to the hard work and talent of our dedicated
instrumental and music teachers.
Student Success
Congratulations to Aryan Faghihi who
received a scholarship from the
Mona sh U niversity F a culty of
Engineering. Aryan was in the Class of
2014 and obtained an ATAR score of
95.75. Mr Raf Makary attended the
ceremony on behalf of the college on Thursday 12 March
where both Aryan and the college were acknowledged. It is
wonderful seeing our past students succeed in their chosen
fields and we wish Aryan all the best in his future studies.
International Women’s Day Recognition
On Friday 6 March an International
Women’s Day Awards Ceremony
was held at Bentleigh SC in the
Mindfulness Mediation and
Indigenous Centre. This event was
organized by Women’s Health in the
South East, Bentleigh Bayside
Community Health Service, Bentleigh
Moorabbin Central Rotary Club and Bentleigh SC.
The
Awards Ceremony celebrates and formally recognizes
achievements of local women with the Glen Eira, Stonnington
and Port Phillip, Bayside and Kingston local government
areas.
Congratulations to Sarah Radlow of Year 10 who won the
Youth Achievement Award and Mrs Vikki Elliot who received a
Recognition Award for community service.
Bayside Interschool Chess Tournament Winners
Congratulations to our students
who participated in the Brighton
Regional Chess Tournament on
Friday 13 March. Our Open
Years Team, Kevin Li - Year 10,
Austenn Harris-King - Year 11 ,
Adam Kanarek - Year 9 and
Clara Khoury-Fadel - Year 9 and they came second place.
Clara also won the 'Queen of the Tournament' medal for best
girl on the day! Our Middle Years Team, Maksym Sytnikov,
Michael Bussau, Blagoves Mirtchev and Nino Landicho all in
Year 7, came third in their division. The students competed
against Carey Grammar, Wesley Grammar and Brighton
Grammar Schools. Thank you to Mrs Boukouras who
organised this event for our students.
Parent Teacher Interviews
The focus for our students at Bentleigh Secondary College is
to achieve their very best and to continually improve their
learning. An important part of this focus is the partnership
between school and home, between teacher and parents/
guardian and student. Parent teacher interviews play a key
role in this partnership where all three parties meet to discuss
the student’s achievements, progress and strategies for
improvement. Students will be dismissed at the start of
lunchtime on this day allowing them to attend interviews with
their parents. The first parent teacher interviews for 2014
will be held on Thursday 26 March from 2.00-4.30pm
and 5.00-7.30pm in the Learning Centre.
‘BEING THE BEST YOU CAN BE’
JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
MR ANDREW BATCHELOR
Parent Access to Compass
All parents can access our online portal Compass. This system is
used by the school to distribute information to parents, track
attendance and approve any time absent from the college, set
learning tasks and provide feedback and assessment grades on
these, to write reports and publish these via Compass, to set up and
publish information about college events such as excursions and
camps including the ability for parents to provide consent and make
online payments, and to maintain a holistic view of each of our
students. If you are unable to log on to Compass, please contact the
college via the following email address:
compass@bentleighsc.vic.edu.au
Parent/Teacher Interviews and Term 1 Interim Reports
As previously emailed and notified on Compass, bookings are open
for our upcoming Parent Teacher Interviews on Thursday March 26,
which will be held in the Library and Learning Centre between 2pm4.30pm, and 5pm-7.30pm. Interviews with your child’s subject
teachers run for 5 minutes each and you can choose to book
interviews with all or some of these teachers. Term 1 Interim
Reports will be published electronically via Compass on Friday March
20 and a hard copy will also be sent home with your child.
Collecting Students from School
Whenever students need to be collected from the college by
parents/guardians, the process is for the student to present a signed
note to their Head of Year Level at the start of the day, which will
then be signed and returned to the student to show their classroom
teacher at the time of leaving. The student will then need to follow
normal sign out procedures, that is, signing out using their Student
ID Card by scanning this on our Compass Kiosk situated at the
General Office area.
Transition
It is pleasing to know that the vast majority of our students in Years
8 and 9 have made smooth transitions into 2015 and are making
good progress with their learning and development. Our Year 7
students have had the added difficulty of making the transition from
a primary school setting to a larger secondary one. I am pleased
that all of our Year 7 students are settling in well and are feeling
welcomed by the Bentleigh community. As part of ensuring these
students make a sound transition, I have made visits to our local
primary schools with our Transition Co-ordinator, Ms Rebecca
Gemmola, our Head of Humanities, Mrs Christine Rowe, our Head of
Junior School, Ms Amy Ogdin, and students who once attended
these primary schools. These visits have been a great opportunity
and I thank Ms Gemmola, Mrs Rowe, Ms Ogdin, our student
representatives, and the primary schools for being so welcoming of
us into their community.
Student
Accident
Insurance/Ambulance
Cover
Arrangements and Private Property Brought to Schools
Parents are reminded that the Department of Education and
Training does not provide personal accident insurance or ambulance
cover for students. Parents and guardians of students, who do not
have student accident insurance/ambulance cover, are responsible
for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students,
including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other
transport costs. In some circumstances, medical or other expenses
will be paid by the Department where it is assessed that it is likely
that the Department is liable for negligent (careless) acts or
omissions of its staff/volunteers.
Private property brought to school by students, staff or visitors is
not insured and the Department does not accept any responsibility
for any loss or damage.
For more information about the claims process please go to:
h t t p://w ww. e du ca t ion . vic. gov . au/ sc hoo l/ pri nc i pal s/ spa g/
governance/Pages/claimsprocess
Attendance
Except in cases of illness, family emergency or other good reasons,
students are required to attend school every day. This includes
sporting carnivals, excursions and school activities.
Any student absent from school needs to provide parent approval
for them being away from their learning program. We request
parents/guardians to complete this via logging onto Compass and
completing this online. If there are difficulties in completing this,
parents/guardians can call the General Office by 9:30am to inform
us of any student absence. Students must also bring a relevant
medical certificate or note on their return explaining their absence
and hand this to their Head of Year Level who will follow-up and
approve those absences. Students must also be at school and arrive
to all classes including Home Group on time every day.
Year 8 Camp
Mrs Natalie Cumming - Head of Year 8
The Year 8 Anglesea camp was fantastic. 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 and half of
8.4 attended from the 2 – 4 March and 8.5, 8.6, 8.7 and the
remaining half of 8.4 attended from 4 – 6 March. We were very
lucky with the weather, even missing the large storm that hit
Melbourne.
A great time was had by all that
attended. Congratulations must go to
all the students for their enthusiasm,
positive outlook and participation rate.
The camp involved archery, mountain
bike riding, surfing, kayaking, an
initiatives course and some smaller
activities. The most popular activity by
far seemed to be the surfing and most
students managed to stand up on the surf board by the end of the
lesson.
Each activity ran for 2 hours and there were challenges within each.
On the middle day of the camp the students completed 3 of these
activities which meant 6 hours of exhausting activity. We all slept
well that night. The initiative activities were interesting. The
students broke into smaller activity groups of about 6 for these
activities. It was great watching the development of the students in
each group over the 2 hours, learning how important it was to
communicate ideas and adapting strategies to enable the challenges
to work.
The night walk on the first night was picturesque with a beautiful
sunset and a long walk along the cliff tops around to where the river
meets the sea. On the second night the trivia challenge challenged
students in a broad range of knowledge areas and there was also
lots of laughs to be had.
I would like to thank the staff who attended the camp, as without
the dedication of the staff these camps cannot run. They give up
time with their own families and spend a considerable amount of
time prior to leaving for camp organising work for the classes they
are leaving behind.
Gnurad Gundidj - School For Student Leadership
Mr Paul Dean - Student Leadership Coordinator
Over the past seven weeks,
seven of our Year 9 students
have had the privilege of
attending Gnurad to develop
leadership and teamwork skills.
Aiden Sutton, Jack Blight, Emily
James, Emma Lindsay, Sean
Nelson, Michelle Antcliff and Willem Anderson have undertaken a
number of challenging and motivating activities designed to test
them as leaders and foster a range
of strategies that develop them into
the leaders of tomorrow.
The students have undertaken first
aid courses, safe food handling,
hikes requiring team based decision
making, the development of a
Community Learning Project and
much, much more. In doing so, these
students have also had to deal with the
challenge of being away from the family
home for an entire term.
No doubt the students will undergo some
major personal growth during this time,
and have many skills and ideas to both
help them in achieving their future aspirations, and also in making
contributions to many programs at Bentleigh SC on their return.
SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
MR MARC KOENIG
Students Driving to School
During the year your child may be turning 18 years of age, and after
successfully obtaining his or her driver’s licence, will be able to drive
to school. As part of our pastoral concern about our students’ safety
and wellbeing, Bentleigh Secondary College has strict guidelines
regarding students’ use of vehicles while travelling to and from
school.
The Head of Year 12 Mr Luke Brookman has a consent form
available to students, which provides parents with the opportunity to
give consent to their child driving to and from school.
Students are not allowed to transport other students as passengers
when travelling to and from school without the written consent of
the other students’ parent(s). This includes travelling to any outside
destinations during the school day. Students are not to park in the
college car parks.
I thank you for your assistance in ensuring your child’s safety as a
responsible probationary driver. If you have any further queries,
please do not hesitate to contact me during college hours.
Green Brigade
The Green Brigade help keep the school grounds neat and tidy. Four
students from Year 8 will be rostered on Monday to Thursday during
P5 for their school community service. Students will not miss more
than four periods in a year or more than 2 from any one subject.
They will be provided with safety vests, gloves and a garbage bag.
“My Brother Jack Awards 2015’
The 2015 My Brother Jack Awards are open to people who live, work
or study in the City of Glen Eira. There are prizes for short stories
and poetry in the categories of Primary School, Junior Secondary
School, Senior Secondary School and Open. There is also an Open
photography category.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the My Brother Jack
Awards and the Centenary of the Gallipoli landing, any short story or
poem set in or around World War One will be eligible for a special
prize of $1,000.
Opening date:
Tuesday 17 March
Closing date:
Monday 27 April, 5pm
To enter visit:
www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/MBJ”
Link for the Conditions of entry:
http://www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/files/a9f23074-a709-4df1-99bea43e00dfd79f/MBJ_2015_Awards_conditions.pdf
Pun and Puzzle
Dr Wendy Taylor - Head of Mathematics and Numeracy
Pun: “I’ll do algebra, I’ll do geometry and I’ll even do
statistics, but graphing is where I draw the line!”
Puzzle: Three decimal points are missing from the sum
below. Where do they go?
999 + 9999 + 99999 = 1109.89
Solution to last puzzle: 10 and a half kg must be half the weight,
and so the basketball weighs 21kg.
Totally Wild
We would like to inform
you that the Totally
Wild story "Bentleigh Secondary College" will be going to air on
Saturday 28 March at 8:00am on channel Eleven.
Unfortunately, we are unable to supply copies of our show, so we
encourage you to make your own arrangements regarding viewing
and/or recording this episode.
After this episode goes to air, it will then be available to watch
online. Just visit our website http://tenplay.com.au/channel-eleven/totally-wild
Feel free to share this link on social media so that your friends &
family can also see the finished story.
MUSIC NOTES
Mr Andrew Albanis - Head of Music Program
The Symphonic Wind Incursion on Wednesday
11 March was a great success. Workshops and the intensive
rehearsing was beneficial to students. The performances were
exceptional. Well done to students and teachers involved.
The 5 Note Year 7 day got off to a great start. Students were very
enthusiastic to play through each piece to their best ability. The
performance at the end of the day proved that students had
prepared well and that this Year 7 Band is well on their way in
becoming an excellent ensemble. Fantastic effort by students and
teachers.
On Monday 23 March we will be having the Jazz Incursion for the
Senior and Intermediate Jazz bands. Students will get the
opportunity to workshop and rehearse pieces. We are looking
forward to another day of intensive playing.
On Tuesday 21 April and Wednesday 22 April we will be holding our
annual rehearsal camp to Rutherford Park (Blampied). This will
involve the Year 7 Band and the Intermediate Band.
SPORTS NEWS
Mr Nathan Rogers - Head of Sport
Kingston Division Swimming Carnival
On Thursday 4 March, approximately 30 students
participated in the Kingston Division Swimming
Carnival against other schools within the region.
Students represented Bentleigh SC extremely well
displaying high levels of skill, sportsmanship and
team work.
Congratulations to George Galiatsatos who won
the Age Champion for U16 boys and to Sam Hosie
and Taylah Allanby for winning their way through
to the South Metro Region carnival on 26 March.
Thank you to Mr Pearson and Mr Mahoney for
assisting on the day.
Pit Stop Parenting Program for Men
Kingston Family Support Services together with Better Men Australia
are joining to bring a new Pit Stop Parenting Program for Men to
Clarinda.
Pit Stop was created by men for men, to get a better handle on
what fathers can do to help raise happy and healthy children. The
program would provide fathers with:
 strategies how to develop a healthy parenting style
 Improve family communication and closeness
 How to steer children through stressful stages
 How to discipline children
 Provide evidences why dads matter to children
 Balancing life, work and family
 Motivate dads to be committed, confident, capable and caring.
Pit Stop has something for every dad no matter how old the children
are.
Recycle Uniform Shop
Ms Christine O’Keefe - Recycle Uniform Shop Coordinator
The Recycle Uniform Shop will be open the last Friday of each
month from 8.00-8.45am in the PAC foyer. Dates for Term 2, 2015
are 24 April, 29 May and 26 June.
If you have any uniform items and bags you wish to donate please
drop them off to the General Office. All donations will be gratefully
accepted as monies raised will be utilized by the school community
for charitable endeavours.
IMPORTANT DATES
TERM 1 2015
Monday 30 January - Friday 27 March
MARCH
Monday 23
- Jazz Incursion
- Senior Round Robin
Tuesday 24
- Year 10 OES Trees Adventure - Lysterfield
Wednesday 25
- Pink Stumps Day
- 2016 Gifted & Talented Program
Information Evening - 7.30pm in the Library
Thursday 26
- Parent/Teacher Interviews
- Southern Metropolitan Region Swimming
Carnival
Friday 27
- Last Day of Term 1
APRIL
Monday 13
- Term 2 begins
Monday 13 - Thursday 30 - Year 8 Inquiry Based Learning
Tuesday 21 - Wednesday 22 - Year 7-9 Rehearsal Camp
Thursday 23
- Debutante Ball
Friday 24
- Athletics Carnival
Saturday 25
- ANZAC Day
TERM 2 2015
Monday 13 April - Friday 26 June
TERM 3 2015
Monday 13 July - Friday 18 September
TERM 4 2015
Monday 5 October - Friday 18 December
The JSN Program is aimed
to engage high school
students of government
schools with their Jewish identities as well as
establish a connection to the Melbourne Jewish
Community. We will be attending Bentleigh
Secondary College fortnightly on Wednesdays
at lunchtime in room P43. Our programs will
be engaging in topics such as; Jewish Identity,
values within society, the community, Jewish
Holidays, and alternative interactions with
Judaism. Please feel free to come along and
have some fun.