Beaconhills College

Beaconhills College’s Equestrian Captain Shaylyn McNeill has won both the Medium and Advanced Dressage at the Horseland Interschool Combined Training and Dressage Day at Boneo Park last Friday. Great job Shaylyn!

That’s much how much pasta, tinned tomatoes and flour the Beaconhills community has donated to charity FareShare’s annual Feed Melbourne Appeal in May and June. Thank you! Your donation will help support those struggling to put food on the table this winter.

FareShare says the College community donations will now be made into meals for distribution, with children and teenagers now accounting for a quarter of those seeking help.

The campaign is not over yet. Beaconhills College’s Head of Citizenship and Service, Clare Tuohy, said more donations were still on the way early in term 3, so stay tuned for the final tally.

Three Beaconhills College students returned home with medals from the Oceania Athletics Championships held 25-28 June in Townsville.

Congratulations to Pakenham Campus students Sophie Coughlin (pictured) and Cam deBruin, as well as Berwick’s Amiru Chandrasena for their outstanding results:

Cam deBruin –1st Men’s U20 200m (21.50sec), 1st Men’s U20 4x100m and 2nd Men’s U20 100m (10.79sec).
Sophie Coughlin – 3rd Women’s U18 2000m Steeplechase (7:35mins)
Amiru Chandrasena – 1st Men’s U18 Long Jump (7.33m).

Beaconhills’ combined campus chess team played some competitive chess last term at the annual Association of Co-educational Schools (ACS) tournament held at Thomas Carr College in Tarneit.

The team finished a credible fourth, but were excited to win three out of six games against the eventual first-placed team, St Leonards.

Player of the day was Aryan Mittal, winning five games, while Sam Sail, Cooper Lambert and Taiji Ogawa all had three wins.

Beaconhills students have won two awards at the Casey Fresh Words Writing Competition ceremony held last night.

Zitong Ren from the Berwick Campus won his poetry and lyrics section and delivered a passionate recital of his poem, ‘We Want Change!, to an audience of more than 200 people. Pakenham Campus student Shae Li won the English as an Additional Language section, also reading her wonderful creative piece titled ‘Life of a piece of paper’, Both students are in Year 8.

Congratulations to other College finalists Sandra Gao, Madeline Turner, Lachlan Taylor and Thomas Nguyen.

Maggie Dent: keynote speaker at the Beaconhills conference

Having a small backyard or living in a flat shouldn’t stop parents from encouraging their children to experience the natural world, says parenting author and educator Maggie Dent.

Ms Dent is a keynote speaker at Beaconhills College’s upcoming Beyond the Boundaries conference for early years’ educators on Saturday 29 June. She is also holding a parent session on the same day.

Ms Dent said while not everyone had a natural play space on their doorstep, parents had to “get creative” to get their children active and outdoors.

“It does make it more difficult for parents to just send the kids outside to play when they don’t have a backyard, or even have a very small backyard. But it’s not impossible,” she said. “Nature is always just outside wherever we live so it’s a matter of stopping to engage with it, to give kids moments of awe and wonder.

“Take them out to see the full moon, or notice the setting sun and how it casts colour in the sky. Stop to look at ants or butterflies… grow flowers or herbs in pots in whatever space you do have.”

Known as the “queen of common sense”, Maggie Dent’s experience includes teaching, counselling, and working in palliative care/funeral services and suicide prevention. She is an advocate for healthy, common-sense raising of children in order to strengthen families and communities.

She believes that in our homes, early childhood settings and schools we should be incorporating nature into activities as much as possible – putting in nature playgrounds, mud kitchens, encouraging loose parts play and getting kids out into nature.

The outdoor classroom

Head of Little Beacons, Vicki Reid said Beaconhills’ Beyond the Boundaries conference for educators, on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 June, would highlight the possibilities of taking children “out of the safety of four walls, to explore nature and connect to the community.”

“Taking risks, building resilience and supporting the capacity of educators to do this will be the focus,” Ms Reid said.

“It’s so easy to stick to what we know, but actually going outside the boundaries creates endless opportunities and endless rewards – for children and staff.”

To book tickets to hear Maggie Dent speak at the educators’ conference, or parent session, go to the College Shop or to find out more email CEAD@beaconhills.vic.edu.au

The conference venue is Beaconhills College’s Pakenham Campus at 30-34 Toomuc Valley Road, Pakenham, Victoria.

Wintry weather didn’t dampen the performance of our teams competing in today’s South Eastern Independent Schools Association (SEISA) junior finals, with Beaconhills claiming five premierships.

Congratulations to the Pakenham boys’ footy team for their convincing win over St Paul’s, as well as the girls who defeated Berwick Campus in the footy. Pakenham’s mixed hockey and girls’ soccer teams were also victorious. Berwick Campus junior boys celebrated their win in the soccer finals.

Give one of our Year 9 students one term to pursue their passion and what do you get? A Personal Best project – representing hours of planning, creation, solving problems, overcoming hurdles and documenting progress.

These are just some of the inspiring results that went on display last week at the Berwick Campus. Congratulations to all students for their incredible efforts.