Issue #4/2021

May 2021
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BORONIA K12 COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

Yr ( Camp 1
Photo taken on our Year 9 Camp

KEY DATES

TUESDAY 1 JUNE: Instrumental Music Concert 6.30pm

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE: Year 5/6 Sports Round Robin
Year 12 GAT Exam

TUESDAY 15 JUNE: Eastern Region Cross Country

WEDNESDAY 16 JUNE: Secondary Exam Catch Up Day

THURSDAY 17 JUNE: Year 11 and 12 Senior Basketball

WEDNESDAY 23 JUNE: Year 5/6 Winter Sports Round Robin

FRIDAY 25 JUNE: Last Day Term 2

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

    It is hard to believe that we are now more than half through Term 2. We have continued to be busy at the College with many activities happening across all year levels.

    This week in response to the Victorian Government announcement face masks have been reinstated whilst indoors.
    What this means for our community is:
    • School staff and secondary school students aged 12 or older must carry a face mask at all times and wear a face mask indoors when at school, including when attending an Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) program, unless a lawful exemption applies
    • Children under 12 years of age and students at primary school are not required to wear face masks when at school, or when attending an OSHC program.
    • Face masks are mandatory for all school staff and school students aged 12 or older on public transport and when in taxis or ride share vehicles. This includes travelling to and from school on public transport or in a vehicle with others not from your household.
    • Teachers and education support staff are not required to wear face masks while teaching, but those who wish to do so, can.
    Whilst not ideal, this measure aims at giving health authorities the best opportunity to stop the spread of the virus in our community. As I write this we are putting in place arrangements in the event that further restrictions are announced, however, I am hoping that we do not have to act on them.

    Inclusive Schools Fund – Running Track
    Progress on our running track is now really ramping up, I can’t wait for it to be a useable feature of our oval. I am confident that it will enhance our health and physical education programs and be a great addition for students during recess and lunchtime. I look forward to inviting Jackson Taylor (State MP for the Bayswater District) along to race some of our students when it is finally handed over to us for use.

    NAPLAN
    Congratulations to our Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students who completed their NAPLAN testing this week.
    It was great to see how focused our students were across the week, I am confident that they have done their best. It is important that we don’t lose sight of the purpose of these tests, they are a diagnostic tool that assist teachers to plan curriculum that will enable student growth. We should never lose sight of the fact that NAPLAN is a moment in time assessment and does not always reflect the capability of every individual student.

    Exams are around the corner……
    With the exam period now just around the corner I have been impressed with the focus of our all of Students (Middle and Senior School) during their class time. Our Senior School student’s use of the Study Centre continues to be representative of their commitment to their studies. I have observed students working independently and collaboratively both with and without teacher support. There is no doubt that putting additional effort into your studies provides you with more choices at the conclusion of your secondary education. That effort needs to start in the Middle School, as that is when the learning behaviours necessary for success are developed and refined.

    Boronia Revitalisation Board
    Through my engagement with state government representatives and advocacy for the Boronia K-12 school community I have been asked to contribute to the Boronia Revitalisation Board which has been established to work with Knox Council and State Government advisors to:
    • Develop a strategic vision
    • Commit approximately $1.1M to $1.2M of revitalisation project funding
    • Develop priorities for the remaining $0.8M - $0.9M
    This is a great opportunity to build pride in our local community and a number of big ideas are being put forward. These include things such as: streetscape renewals, pop up events that will draw people in and support local businesses, façade upgrades for local business, wayfinding/branding strategies, street light upgrades murals and more. It is great to see so many passionate and local leaders around the table all advocating for a better Boronia.

    Uniform in the Senior School
    Unfortunately I have noticed that uniform standards in the Senior School have slipped. I have spoken with the Sub-School Team and they are currently developing a strategy and response to this. I need all parents and carers supporting the uniform policy at this point in time. Please make sure that your child has the required items and is wearing them to school. Cold weather is not an excuse for not wearing school uniform. If you need financial assistance for uniform please contact the school. We will be taking a very hard line on this in coming weeks.

    Meagan Cook
    Principal

    ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

          Term Two is often a term of assessments. So far this term we have had NAPLAN with the Grade 3 and 5 students and Year 7 and Year 9. The students took on the challenge with a real sense of purpose and “can do” attitude. Later in the term secondary students have an opportunity to sit their exams to show how much they have learnt across the semester. We wish the students well with their exams.

          There are three main frameworks that we use to frame our Wellbeing programs. Berry Street Education Model, Restorative Practice and the new Respectful Relationship program. When we work with the students we are always applying these lenses to our work.

          On Wednesday 26 May, Wellbeing Wednesday for all Year 7 students was delivered by the Wellbeing and Middle School Team. The day was an opportunity to build positive relationships with all our students while delivering some important wellbeing messages. The definition for Well-being is:

          /wɛlˈbiːɪŋ/
          noun
          noun: wellbeing
          the state of being comfortable, healthy, and happy.

          The topics that we covered were:
          • Growth mindset
          • Resilience
          • Emotional intelligence
          • Problem solving
          The topics were chosen as they are important areas in the Berry Street and Respectful relationships frameworks. We used this day as an opportunity to present many key ideas that help to build student wellbeing. The students were placed in groups and rotated through the different topics across the day.

          In the last session the students were put together to build their own Wellbeing First Aid Kit. This kit provides strategies and tips on how to have a healthy wellbeing.

          One of the key ideas around Growth Mindset we covered was around changing the language around their learning. Instead of saying this…… try thinking of this……
          Wellbeing Wed
          Wellbeing 2
          Another of the key messages we presented in the Emotional Intelligence is the bucket and dipper theory. This theory reminds us to:
          • Consider how other people are feeling
          • Be careful not to dip from other people’s buckets
          • Act with kindness to fill other people’s buckets (especially if they are feeling sad, low or depleted)
          We discussed the importance of being Resilient. We defined resilience as
          • coping well with adversity and recovering quickly from set-backs and difficulties​,
          • growing and learning from positive and negative experiences
          • a daily mindset and process.
          But unfortunately, the human mind is such a good story teller. We are so quick to jump to our negative thoughts because
          • The human mind is very sensitive to negative information.
          • People are more able to recall negative memories than positive
          • People are more sensitive to negative feedback than positive feedback.
          It is important that by mindfully noticing times when our thinking is unhelpful, we can cultivate healthier and more resilient patterns of thinking. ​ Some strategies to defuse our negative or unhelpful thoughts are:
          • Naming the thought ​
          • Noticing the thought through simple sentence prompts​
          • Seeing thoughts like floating beach balls (the harder you push down the more the thoughts pop up).​
          • Saying ‘Thanks Mind!’​
          • Singing the unhelpful thought to a popular song​
          Shifts in the way we react, think, feel, manage and respond to our feelings and emotions can improve our mental health. Some simple ideas that we can all use to support our children’s wellbeing could be:
          “You are not good drawing YET”
          “You are not good at writing a story YET”
          Build your child’s emotional literacy. How many different words can you think of instead of angry?
          When your child has negative thoughts encourage them to give it a name, give it a form (black cloud)
          Encourage your child to have a high resilience approach to a situation instead of a low resilience response. For example, a student performs poorly on a test. Low resilience response would be “I am no good at maths anyway”. Whereas a high resilience response would be “If I revise my work next time I am sure I will do better”

          Across the rest of the year we will provide similar opportunities for other cohorts.
          Wellbeing Wed 3
          Wellbeing Wed 5
          Wellbeing Wed 4
          Wellbeing Wed 6
          Wellbeing Wed 7
          Wellbeing Wed 13
          What is Respectful Relationships?
          Respectful Relationships is about tackling family violence through education.
          Just like other major social and health issues such as smoking and the road toll, evidence shows that family violence can be prevented by working across the whole population (in this case, all schools) to address the attitudes, beliefs and knowledge that support family violence.

          In response to the Royal Commission into family violence the Victorian Government is investing $21.8 million to deliver Respectful Relationships. As a part of this initiative Boronia K-12 College will be supported to review our practices and policies, and model respectful relationships and gender equality across the whole school community.

          At Boronia K-12 College we believe that becoming a positive member of society - knowing how to build respectful relationships is key to achieving this. When young people build positive relationships with their teachers and peers they feel safer and happier at school, are more resilient and have positive social attitudes. Positive relationships increase a young person’s sense of connectedness and belonging to school and family and result in better health and learning academic outcomes.

          An Action Plan for the implementation of Respectful Relationships has been developed. Teachers will be supported to deliver the content with age-appropriate teaching and learning materials. These evidence-based materials are designed to enable teachers to develop student’s social and emotional capabilities, build positive, healthy and respectful relationships, make responsible decisions and create positive gender relations. At the moment the students are answering a survey that will identify how well we approach gender equality, how well students and staff are treated, and how well our school values align with the respectful relationship framework.

          As we deliver the focus areas to students we will share some of the material with families so that the messages can be discussed at home.
          Respectful Relationships
          Adrienne Tanner
          Assistant Principal Wellbeing

          MOTHERS DAY

          The Mothers Day stall was a big success with many students excited to purchase something special for their Mum.
          Mother Day Stall 1
          Mothers Day Stall 3
          Mothers Day Stall 2
          Some photos of our ELC Mums enjoying the Mothers Day Afternoon Tea we held on Friday 7 May for our fabulous Primary and ELC Mums.
          Mothers Day 2 ELC
          Mother Day 1 ELC
          Mothers Day 4 ELC
          Mothers Day 5
          Mothers Day 3 ELC

          SECONDARY ART

          Year 10 students are completing a design process to produce a garment. This process is modelled from the VCE Studio Art curriculum, ensuring they will be ready to tackle Art next year if they choose to. Their final product is printed from a hand cut lino piece onto a t-shirt or tote bag.
          Secondary Art 1
          Secondary Art 3
          Secondary Art 2
          Secondary Art 4
          Secondary Art 8
          Secondary Art 7

          ART CLUB

          We hold an Art Club each Friday Lunchtime in Room T2.
          All Primary and Secondary students are welcome!
          Students are able to work on any project they like. A great place to get creative!

          JUNIOR SCHOOL

          It has been an exciting month for the Junior School. The SRC and Student Leaders enjoyed the opportunity to go to the cooking room and make cookies for the Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea It was also amazing to have all the special people in for the Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea and having parents back at assembly.

          In Foundation this month there have been many exciting things happening, Ms. Wright brought her dogs in for the preps because the word of the week was ‘dog’. They were very excited to go to the high school cooking rooms to put jam on scones when “jam” was there word of the week. The foundation students have also enjoyed having the ELC visit their classrooms once a fortnight and having Daisy visit for the week.

          In 1/2 this term, they have been focusing on different ways of saving water and how that may affect animals in their environment. They have also been looking at helping the environment and how that can be an impact on animals in their environment especially in the ocean. They even enjoyed a walk around the block as part of this investigation.

          The 3/4 students have also had a very exciting term in their learning. They have been looking at Time and the Year 3s have recently experienced NAPLAN for the first time. They have also been looking at growth mindsets and how that helps their learning and future in education. In writing, they have been looking at persuasive texts and their different features. They have also been investigating the best inventions to help with their central idea.

          The 5/6s have been enjoying the first part of Term 2. They have recently been practicing for the 5/6 Winter Sports, they are Netball, Soccer, and Football. The Grade 5s have recently finished NAPLAN as well as the Year 3s. In Buddies, the Year 6s have been making Board Games for their Buddies.

          By Year 6 College Captains - Tori and Aine

          STUDENT OF THE WEEK

          Student of the Week and Specialist Award winners for Weeks 4 and 5.

          Week 4 Student of the Week –
          Caleb, Berry, Rohan, Isla, Chelsea, Scarlett, Jaxon, Summer, Oliver and Izzy
          Week 5 Specialist –
          Spanish – Noah
          PE – Scarlett
          Week 5 Student of the Week –
          Maya, Jett, Matthew, Connor, Declan, Mia, Aaliyah and Jordan
          SOTW and Specialist Week 5 (002)
          SOTW Week 4
          Week 4 Specialist –
          Spanish – Laken and Taryn
          STEM/STEAM – Ava
          Art – Jett and JJ
          PE – Tahlya and Liam
          TLI – Archer
          Specialist Week 4

          WELLBEING & INCLUSION

          I CAN Network Mentoring Program Parent Night
          Monday 17 May 2021

          In 2019, we started our journey with the I CAN Network and Chris Varney. The I CAN Network is Australia’s first social enterprise founded by people with Autism. The team run a mentoring program to empower people on the Spectrum to have an ‘I CAN’ attitude and inspire their peers with the ‘awe’ in Awetism.

          We have a number of students across Years 5 to 12 that participate in the program on a weekly basis and on Monday 17 May 2021 we held our first Parent Night to celebrate the program and the students.
          I CAN 3
          ICAN 1
          I CAN 7
          I CAN 6
          Chris Varney from the I CAN Network spoke about his journey from school to starting up a company and the joys of seeing his idea come to life in supporting young people across Australia.

          One of your students, showcased an I CAN talk which gave him the opportunity to talk about his favourite Anime, My Hero Academia. Xander showed courage and bravery in speaking in front of a crowd of peers, parents and staff.

          I invited our students to showcase their interests and talents where we had tables of pokemon, art, craft and lots of Walugi while also attempt some tower building! It was a great night showing parents and staff what the program is really about and an opportunity for parents, students and staff to connect.

          MIDDLE SCHOOL

          What a busy start to term it has been in the Middle School!

          Our students have hit the ground running in their classes, as this term we are placing a focus on our school value of Achievement. Students will receive nominations from their teacher to receive a CARL award for their achievements for Term 2. At Boronia K-12 College Achievement means:
          • We have high expectations in all that we do
          • We set goals and take risks to achieve our personal best
          • We seek Feedback to reflect and improve
          • We celebrate and are proud of our successes
          Our Year 7 and Year 9 students recently completed their NAPLAN testing. Our message to all students was quite simply ‘try your best’ and it was extremely pleasing to see the was our students conducted themselves – well done to all for participating.

          In addition to this, we have had several students participating in a variety of interschool sports days and attending the Melbourne Youth Leadership Conference. Our Year 9s have been particularly busy this term with camp, Morrisby testing and participating in bushwalks, gym sessions and sports programs as part of their ‘B-Active’ course.

          The Year 7 students participated in a ‘Wellbeing Day’ on Wednesday 26 May with the Wellbeing team and the Year 8 students will be given an opportunity to participate in the college’s ‘Buddy Program’ – stay tuned for more information.

          School for Student Leadership
          After a thorough application and interview process, 7 students have been successful in their application to attend The School for Student Leadership, Alpine Campus in Term 4 2021.

          The School for Student Leadership is a government school initiative where Year 9 students spend a term in a remote setting that develops their leadership skills. Students will be involved in a program that offers extensive outdoor adventure opportunities, development of leadership skills, environmental learning projects and community learning projects. Outdoor adventures include surfing, canoeing, mountain biking, bushwalking, and bridge building. Students develop leadership skills through planning and leading overnight expeditions and running daily activities around campus. Real life skills covered in the program include food handling certificate and first aid training. Students plan a major community learning project while they are away and deliver it to the Boronia community upon their return.

          This term, we will meet regularly with our team and help them prepare for their Community Learning Project (CLP). In Term 3, our team will then start working directly with The School for Student Leadership in preparation for Term 4.

          A big congratulations to the following students:
          • Ashlee E
          • Jade Di B
          • Miah P
          • Oliver J
          • Gabriel G
          • Bailey D
          • Jaxon B
          Lyle D’Rozario
          Director of Middle School



          YEAR 9 CAMP

          Please find below more amazing photos from our Year 9 Camp.
          Yr 9 Camp 3
          Yr 9 Camp 4
          Yr 9 Camp 2
          Yr 9 Camp 5
          Yr 9 Camp 7
          Yr 9 Camp 6

          SENIOR SCHOOL - VCAL

          Intermediate VCAL students have ventured into the timber workshop this term. Using their numeracy and work related skills to mark out and measure materials in preparation for some interesting upcoming projects. Watch this space!

          VCAL 2
          VCAL 1
          VCAL 3
          VCAL 7
          VCAL 4
          VCAL 5

          LIBRARY NEWS

          National Simutaneous Storytime
          Wednesday 19 May 2021

          NSS is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year in May, a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country.

          National Simultaneous Storytime is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

          The title of the book read for this year's event was Give Me Some Space! written and illustrated by Philip Bunting. One of the activities available was listening to NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Walker read Give me some Space! from the International Space Station.

          Below are just some of our ELC and Junior School students enjoying participating in this years event.


          Kinder Storytime
          Library 1
          Library 2

          ATTENDANCE ON COMPASS

          Attendance at school is vitally important for all students. Please see instructions below on how to mark attendance for your student on Compass. If you have any issues, please contact the General Office on 9760 4900.

          Entering an Attendance Note
          From the Compass Home Screen (or from your student’s profile), click the Add Attendance Note item. From the pop-up window Select the reason. Enter a brief description of the absence. Select the start and finish time Click the ‘Save’ button.
          Attendance Note 1
          SMS Link
          If your child is marked as absent without prior approval you will receive a message containing a link at 9.45am. When you follow the link, you will have the opportunity to explain the absence.
          The link will expire after you have clicked it, meaning that it cannot be used to explain unapproved absences in the future. You will then need to login to Compass and use the instructions above.

          Attendance Note 2
          Boronia K12 College Pop up Shop
          The Pop Up Shop for the school will be postponed. We will update you with a new date.
          CAMP Australia