College View

From the Headmaster

Premiers Awards

Continuing to build on traditions of excellence, Beaconhills is thrilled to celebrate the achievements of its 2007 VCE cohort with three students receiving a Premier’s Award for their outstanding academic achievement. Students were presented with their awards at a ceremony on Thursday 2nd May held at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne. The College community extends congratulations to:

• Matthew Meyer for Systems Engineering
• Alex Milenkovic for Systems Engineering
• Michael Oechsle for Visual Communication and Design

Mark Tory-Head of Technology, Alex, John Irving–Head of Visual Arts, Michael and Matthew at the Premier’s Award Ceremony

Teaching Staff – Salary Increases

As headlines in recent media articles have highlighted, Victorian teachers are to be awarded significant salary increases.  At this time, however, not all details of the agreement have been finalised.

Although our staff are employed under a different industrial instrument, and therefore are governed by different employment conditions, increases to the salaries of teachers in the state system would have significant implications for Beaconhills teaching staff.  Unfortunately Beaconhills does not expect to receive additional funding from the Australian Government to assist in meeting the cost of salary increases.

We have outstanding staff at Beaconhills, and we will strive to ensure that the conditions under which they are employed are appropriate to attract and maintain the best staff possible.

Reconciliation Week

The week of 27th May - 3rd June is National Reconciliation Week.   Our community is rarely touched by the difficulties encountered by the First Australians and we have little contact with indigenous Australians in the City of Casey and Shire of Cardinia.   Generally the aboriginal communities are situated a long way from where we live and we only read of the difficulties experienced.  

We do not see the appalling conditions in which Aboriginal children live.   We do not experience the lack of opportunities, the low literacy and numeracy skills, the unemployment and poor conditions in which these Australians live.   We need to be more aware and learn more about fellow Australians who do not have the same magnificent life style that other Australians enjoy.

What is Reconciliation Week?

National Reconciliation Week offers people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation, to hear about the culture and history of Australia's Indigenous people, and to explore new and better ways of meeting challenges in our communities.

National Reconciliation Week is a time for us to renew our commitment to reconciliation and to think about how we can help turn around the continuing disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

National Reconciliation Week, which was initiated in 1996 to provide a special focus for nationwide reconciliation activities, is a time to reflect on achievements so far and on what must still be done to achieve reconciliation.

National Reconciliation Week coincides with two significant dates in Australia's history, which provide strong symbols of our hopes and aims for reconciliation.

May 27th marks the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum in which more than 90 per cent of Australians voted to remove clauses from the Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous Australians. It also gave the Commonwealth Government the power to make laws on behalf of Aboriginal people. June 3rd marks the anniversary of the High Court of Australia's 1992 judgment in the celebrated Mabo case. The decision recognised the Native Title rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and overturned the myth of terra nullius - that the continent was empty of people and the land unowned before European settlement in 1788.

The following is an extract taken from the Reconciliation Victoria website, written by Professor Eleanor Bourke & Dr Mike Leahy.   The summary gives a clear definition of reconciliation in Australia and goals for Victorians.

Reconciliation has become understood as a general term for the process of addressing the causes of division and misunderstanding between Aboriginal and other Australians and, therefore, promoting and educating for positive race relations between all Australians.

RecVic believes it is important to specify certain elements that it considers essential to a genuine ‘Reconciliation’ between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

1. A genuine Reconciliation must embrace the spirit of all the clauses of the Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation, including the acknowledgment that this land and its peoples were colonised by the British ‘without treaty or consent’.
2. A genuine Reconciliation must include land justice for Aboriginal peoples, including appropriate compensation for those whom the colonisation process has forced off their lands.
3. A genuine Reconciliation must provide reparations to the ‘stolen generations’, including a commitment on the part of government and other relevant bodies to facilitate the tracing of roots.
4. A genuine Reconciliation must recognise the traditional elders as the rightful authorities with whom Australian Governments must deal in Aboriginal land and cultural issues.
5. A genuine Reconciliation must facilitate the determination by Aboriginal people themselves of the place they wish to occupy in this nation, including a commitment to overcoming the huge social problems that are a legacy of colonisation.

Finally Reconciliation Victoria has set out the following values for Victoria in the second decade of reconciliation:

• RESPECT for the diversity of cultures, and the rights of all Australians;
• Increased understanding of Indigenous RIGHTS and heritage;
• RECOGNITION of the unique status of Indigenous peoples in Australia.

Broadly Reconciliation Victoria expects that these goals may be achieved by

1. Educating and growing the reconciliation movement in Victoria;
2. Promoting the concept of reconciliation as part of good race relations and eliminating prejudice, and;
3. The inclusion of Indigenous people in the building and strengthening of community action through a broad range of partnerships.

Tony Sheumack
Headmaster

From the Business Development Manager

Building Development Programme

Village Campus Stage 7
Human Movement Centre/Food Technology Centre

The next stage of development of the Village Campus is now well underway.   This stage involves the construction of a double court indoor stadium, aerobics and weights rooms, changing facilities and amenities. A new Food Technology Centre will be located on the lower ground floor of the building.

Parent Contribution Programme

Thank you to all of the families who are participating in the College’s Family Contribution Programme.   Through this programme the assistance of parents adds an enormous amount of resources to the College.

In particular, the recent parent Working Bees have been very successful.   The work undertaken on landscaping our newly developed areas has made an immediate impact on the presentation of each Campus.

Parents add mulch to the gardens around the new Senior School at the Valley Campus

Future Working Bee dates:

David Young
Business Development Manager 

Finance Department

The Finance Department wishes to make all families aware of Account payment requirements:

• Fees are due for payment within I week of a statement being issued.   If you are unable to provide this payment, please submit a payment schedule to the accounts department without delay.
• Sundry payments are due within 1 week of statement being issued.   Please note that Direct Debit options Do Not Cover payment of Sundry Accounts unless specifically arranged with the Accounts Department.
• Sundry payments remaining unpaid by the final week of term will result in the College suspending activities and/or services listed on the Account until satisfactory arrangements for payment are in place.

Please contact David Hilton or Lea Broadbent in the Accounts Department if you are experiencing difficulty with payment of your account and require assistance with preparation of a payment schedule.