Beaconhills College

Pakenham Campus now has the second best junior boys’ netball team in Victoria.

The junior boys’ team was runners-up in the finals of the Victorian All Schools Netball Championships held on Friday 26 August.

Coach Fiona Scarborough said it was an outstanding achievement for the team, comprising players Ethan A, Dakota D, Corbin B, Bailey C, Benjamin C, Jasper H, Luke L, Jy M, Joseph N, Aidan P and Liam W.

“This was a brilliant result,” Ms Scarborough said. “The boys proudly conducted themselves on the day and learnt so much as they developed their skills throughout the tournament.”

Winning team

Year 11 Beaconhills College student Joshua Hall is set to take his hockey umpiring skills to the next level.

Joshua was delighted to be chosen to umpire the grand final of the School Sport Australia (SSA) girls’ under 16 national championships earlier this month.

Now Hockey Australia has just selected him to umpire at the under 13 boys’ national championships in Perth in late September.

Joshua has worked hard to achieve his high level in the sport and said the pressure to perform at what was his second SSA event helped him enjoy his umpiring even more.

“All in all, SSA Melbourne was lots of fun,” he said. “I made so many great new friends and I’d be overjoyed if I get selected again next year.”

Joshua was asked to become a leader in the umpiring group and said it gave him the chance to teach other umpires a few new skills.

He is now looking forward to further honing his own skills through the feedback he gets from specialist Hockey Australia umpire coaches, during the Perth championships.

“I am excited to be spending the 12 days in Perth with some of my best mates, umpiring the game I love,” he said.

He added that he hoped to come back “a more skilled umpire” and could continue to umpire the top levels of Victorian hockey next season.

Joshua umpiring at the recent under 16 girls’ SSA final

Looking for some school holiday action for your children?

Beaconhills College is offering a choice of tennis, basketball, floorball, netball, gymnastics, t-ball or soccer as part of a Multisport Holiday program at Berwick or Pakenham campuses.

The program is available to school-aged children and runs from 8.30am to 4.30pm.

The Pakenham Campus program is from 19-23 September, while the Berwick Campus program is 26-29 September. The cost is $55 per day and all children are welcome, whether or not they attend the College.

For bookings go to the Beaconhills College Shop, or for queries email Melanie.Thompson@beaconhills.vic.edu.au

A large contingent of Beaconhills College HPV (Human Powered Vehicle) enthusiasts descended on Bendigo last weekend to compete in a nine hour race.

The EEV/HPV event is a warm-up race to the huge RACV Energy Breakthrough race in Maryborough on November 16 and 17. EEV means Enhanced Environmentally-friendly Vehicles.

Year 9’s Graham Broderick, who co-ordinates the College program, said that while the school team wouldn’t compete at Maryborough this year, the huge turn-out out of students and parents showed growing enthusiasm in the program.

“We had our four vehicles going, with 24 riders and about 50-60 Beaconhills community members, which was fantastic,” Mr Broderick said.

“The program now has about 40 students from both campuses – it keeps going from strength to strength.”

He said the race ran from 1-10pm, giving the students a chance to test their skills during night-time. The next race will be an eight-hour event on 8 October at Casey Fields in Cranbourne.

The HPVs at the start of the race

Year 6 Berwick Campus student Daniel S was raring to go

Junior School students from Beaconhills College’s Pakenham Campus bid a colourful farewell to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games with their own version of the closing ceremony.

Each student dressed in a costume representing their ‘country’ and took part in a class parade starting from the Junior School quadrangle.

Five Beaconhills College teams have won the finals of the SEISA (South Eastern Independent Schools Association) winter competition.

The winning intermediate and senior teams are the girls’ hockey, senior football and intermediate netball B teams (Berwick Campus) and the senior boys’ hockey and intermediate girls’ netball A teams from the Pakenham Campus.

The Berwick senior football team won the competition for the second year running, while the girls’ hockey team dominated, despite never having won a game before this year.

Coach Kendall Edens said the team beat Gippsland Grammar 1-0 and demonstrated some good early-passing skills and teamwork.

“It was a great team effort and nice to beat the team we lost to in the early round game,” he said. “All players should be proud of themselves.”

Pakenham’s intermediate girls’ netball A team beat Berwick Campus 39-20, while the senior boys’ hockey drew 2-2 against Gippsland Grammar but won on penalties. Senior girls’ soccer also drew 1-1 but lost on penalties to Newhaven College.

Berwick’s Years 9-12 girls’ hockey team

Intermediate B girls’ netball team, Berwick Campus

Pakenham’s intermediate girls’ A netball team

Senior boys’ hockey, Pakenham

Unbeatable: senior boys’ football, Berwick

Two Beaconhills College netball teams have won a place in the finals of the Netball Victoria Schools Championships.

Berwick Campus’ senior girls’ netball team (pictured) were undefeated, while Pakenham’s intermediate girls’ team also finished on top and qualified for the finals. Pakenham’s junior boys’ team also played well, placing second and narrowly missing a finals qualification.

The state netball title finals are on Thursday 8 September at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.

The winning Berwick senior girls’ netball team

Beaconhills College will join schools and organisations across Victoria to implement new Child Safe Standards mandated by the Victorian Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

The standards build on existing requirements for schools to ensure the care, safety and wellbeing of students. They move to embed a zero-tolerance approach to child abuse.

Every school must submit a Statement of Compliance by today (10 August) showing each stage of implementation and an action plan where further work is needed.

Headmaster Tony Sheumack said the school had already briefed staff and College Board members on the new requirements and had submitted its compliance statement.

“We have explained that these new standards are an opportunity to build on the policies and procedures that we presently employ – to ensure students are safe and well cared-for in our community,” Mr Sheumack said.

He said that the College already has – and will continue to develop – ‘best practice’ standards.

“However, the new standards are an opportunity to review many aspects of our policies and procedures to ensure our child protection program meets and exceeds industry standards,” Mr Sheumack said.

The new standards fall into seven categories, covering issues such as screening, supervision and training of staff, processes for responding to and reporting abuse and strategies to promote the participation and empowerment of children.

The Minister for Families and Children, Jenny Mikakos, said: “This is an important step in ensuring all organisations that deal with children can better prevent and respond to allegations of abuse and misconduct.”