Beaconhills College

A small village in the remote part of East Timor called Dato Rua now has running water for the first time, all thanks the generosity of Beaconhills College families.

Last year our College raised around $35,000 through church services, sausage sizzles and the inaugural Family Fun Night on 15 November 2019. The much-needed funds went to the water project Dato Rua, one of the villages that our Year 10 Beacon Explorers students visit each year. Now the East Timorese school children have access to flushing toilets, instead of 180 children sharing just one drop toilet.

The project involved building pipes from a spring 5km from the town and construction of a water storage tank.

Pakenham Senior School student Baxter Stickland has just been selected for the 2020 Cardinia Shire Youth Council program.

Baxter will spend almost a year participating in the learning and leadership program, and is aiming “to gain some knowledge about how different government levels operate, how funds are allocated, and how different issues are ranked across various government areas and around various parts of Cardinia Shire”. He is also passionate about the topic of climate change.

We wish Baxter all the best for his time on the Council.

We are thrilled to share that the Beaconhills College Year 3 Collective (our current Berwick Year 4 cohort) are the winners of the 2019 Melbourne International Arts Festival Art Tram Peoples’ Choice Award! Thank you to the College community for your votes.

To honour our students achievement, the College received a commemorative framed copy of the design, which will be proudly displayed at our Berwick Campus.

The students designed their artwork to reflect Melbourne as a welcoming place, and were overjoyed to see it in person in October of last year.

Beaconhills launched the Year 8 Certificate of Excellence eight years ago with the aim of recognising more than just academic achievement.

Based on the successful Duke of Edinburgh award, the certificate sees students complete 20 hours of community service – from sports coaching, to tutoring or working with The Smith Family to help children read.

It’s been a resounding success. From humble beginnings of 20 students, the scheme now has 100 students from our Pakenham and Berwick campuses signed up this year. And with universities increasingly considering qualities such as community service or leadership for some course entry, it’s a handy addition to the CV.

Pictured is student Ava Cashmore and Beaconhills’ Head of Citizenship and Service, Clare Tuohy. Ava volunteered last year in The Smith Family’s student2student reading program, as part of her Certificate of Excellence.

Where does our food come from?

Maintenance team member, Roger, took our Pakenham Little Beacons all over the College this morning to find out. Students visited our extensive food gardens to help pick fresh fruit and vegetables to be used in our food technology classes and canteens, sneaking a strawberry or two of their own along the way!

The College is proud to donate excess produce to the local Salvos each week.

What type of a leader do you hope to become? That was the question posed to our Senior School captains who took part in the SEISA Annual Leadership weekend from 7-9 February.

The retreat helps each student define themselves as a leader and develop their own principles of leadership.

It was held at Phillip Island’s Newhaven College and included students from all the SEISA (South Eastern Independent Schools Association) schools.

To all those who contribute to our citizenship and service programs at Beaconhills College, thank you.

You are helping shape a future of greater possibility for those in need, and authentically living our College value of compassion.

Just take a look at what we achieved in 2019:

• $4000 to Blaze Aid for the Bunyip bushfires – including seven new cookery sets worth $1260 from one College family
• $47,646 to cancer research through Relay For Life
• 800kg of pasta, tinned tomatoes and plain flour to FareShare through the FeedMelbourne Appeal
• 630 towels to support animal welfare in Victorian wildlife shelters
• 231 winter coats, 50 pairs of new shoes, scarves and beanies to those in need in our local area
• 2006 gifts and Christmas hampers as well as 713 personally-decorated and written messages of kindness and Christmas greetings to the Hope for Christmas Appeal.
• more than $24,000 to research and development at the Heart Foundation
• 168 gift bags to the Share the Dignity Program, helping homeless girls and women and those fleeing domestic violence
• $4000 to the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency to support the education of Indigenous children.
Just some of the plans for 2020..bushfire appeal through Zoos Victoria to support wildlife, Relay For Life, Linen for Animals, FeedMelbourne Appeal, Indigenous community support, winter coat/used spectacles appeals and Hope for Christmas.

We are the Beacon of Hope!

Rescued joeys in blankets donated by Beaconhills College

What a momentous occasion for our Berwick Campus Senior Chaplain Kathy Mildred, who was ordained on the weekend as a deacon in the Diocese of Melbourne of the Anglican Church of Australia.

The service at St Paul’s Cathedral was the first step to becoming an Anglican priest. Rev Mildred will be priested in November this year. Families, friends, parishioners and clergy from all around the diocese attended.

There were 19 ordinands (people being ordained) at the service. Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, ordained each person by laying on hands, in an unbroken tradition handed down through time from the disciples of Jesus.

Deacons work in the church and in Anglican schools to preach, teach and serve people, and to share Jesus’ message of love, forgiveness and salvation to the whole community.

Pakenham School Captain Chloe Ward will help KickstART the work of VCE Art/ Studio Arts students across the state as a presenter at an Art Education Victoria event on 22 February.

Chloe, who completed Studio Arts Units 3 & 4 as a Year 11 student in 2019, has been invited to present her folio and an honest reflection of her inspiration, challenges and Ah-Ha! moments to help prepare students currently completing the subject for the year to come.

Chloe is pictured below with her final Studio Arts work, a stunning self portrait.