Beaconhills College

A film by two Year 10 students from the Berwick Campus has made it to the finals of one Australia’s largest short film festivals – the National ACMI ‘Screen-IT’ film competition.

Jake Cawfield and Kai Van Leeuwen’s film A1 will be judged in the Senior Live Action (Year 9-12) section of the festival.

Media teacher Nick Zomer has helped Jake and Kai work on the film during lunchtimes, as a co-curricular activity, and said making the Screen-IT finals was “an incredible reward for effort from these two boys”.

Winners will be announced at a gala event at ACMI in mid-November.

This year ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) received a record-breaking 829 entries from more than 3000 students.

Kai Van Leeuwen (left) and Jake Cawfield

Some of the incredible art, textile, photography and technology work created by Beaconhills College graduating students has been on show this week at both campuses.

Pakenham Campus launched its VCE Visual Arts and Technology exhibition last night, while Berwick Campus held its opening night for the CRE8 exhibition on Tuesday.

Here is a gallery of photos of the some of the works on display.

Beaconhills College’s Head Tennis Coach Mark Stevens recently travelled to China where he gave a presentation at the Shanghai Masters Tennis Conference.

Mr Stevens spoke on the topic of transitions from ground strokes to net play. He’s pictured here (second from right) outside the futuristic Qizhong Tennis Centre, which has a retractable roof featuring eight sliding petal pieces to represent a flowering magnolia.

The annual Little Beacons Learning Centre camp held on the weekend was another huge success.

It was the second year of the camp for the College’s four and five-year-olds, held at Camp Jungai in Rubicon, Victoria.

Little Beacons introduced the pre-schooler camp last year, believed to be an Australian first. This year 39 children took part, travelling to Rubicon in the afternoon and joined by their parents later on for a sleepover.

The Jungai program is based around Indigenous learning and includes activities such as a cultural session and nature trail walk.

Head of Little Beacons, Vicki Reid, said parents loved the opportunity to spend time with their child on camp and connect with other families.

She said due to popular demand, the College is considering extending the camp to two days next year.

The Early Explorers program at the centre is the first step in Beaconhills College’s huge outdoor education and global program – Beacon Explorers. It begins with four year olds and builds to longer and more challenging experiences, including visiting and volunteering in destinations such as East Timor and Vietnam.

Year 11 student Jamie Mita will represent Australia at the World Dressage Challenge event held at Boneo Park next week (16 October).

Jamie, who began competing at the age of five, has already won four state and three national championships. She is a member of the Victorian Young Rider ‘A’ squad and was chosen to represent Victoria earlier this year at the 2017 New Zealand Young Rider Championship.

She also was selected as one of the top three finalists for the role of 2017 Young Dressage Ambassador of the Year. She hopes to represent Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Jamie said while competing in dressage was nerve-wracking, it was also exciting to be able perform in front of an audience and show people her love for the sport.

“I also believe one of the most challenging parts of dressage is to develop the horse’s trust in me as a rider,” she said.

“They are naturally flight animals so to educate them to be active and responsive but still relaxed in a big environment is the biggest challenge.”

Jamie is pictured here on her horse Carabino. She will compete on Carabino and her other horse Westewind in the upcoming event.

Ha ha ha, ho ho ho!

The 2017 Lyrebird Youth Awards have been announced, and we are thrilled to say that our Pakenham production of Wizard of Oz has received nine nominations!

Best Lighting- Youth Production: Amara Jensen
Best Costume- Youth Production: Amara Jensen & Louise McMahon
Best Cameo Performer- Youth Production Musical: Laura McMahon & Eleanor Plunkett
Outstanding Dancer- Youth Production Musical: Elijah Brooker-Johnston
Best Supporting Actor- Youth Production Musical: Indra Liyanaarachchi
Best Actress- Youth Production Musical: Christina Keen
Best Choreographer- Youth Production: Michelle Salewski & Ruth Taylor-Madin
Best Director- Youth Production Musical: Amara Jensen
Best Production- Youth Musical

Some happy snaps from our Year 6 students currently on camp in Canberra and Jindabyne.
They are have been keeping busy, visiting the National Library and War Memorial in Canberra as well as hiking, bike riding and canoeing.

Beaconhills families now have access to new recycling bins at each campus where they can deposit clothing and electrical goods.

Clothing, handbags, accessories, toys, shoes and any electrical goods that have a cord can be deposited for reuse and recycling.

The bin company, SCR Group, partners with more than 14 Australian Disability Enterprises to give people with disabilities an opportunity to work and earn an income. The group also partners with Whitelion – a not-for-profit Melbourne organisation that helps youth at risk.