Beaconhills College

This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Beaconhills French exchange program with our sister school in Laval.

Fifteen students from Laval are visiting the College until 1 March, staying with Beaconhills host families. They have joined classes with local students and visited tourist attractions such as Sovereign Hill and the Great Ocean Road.

The cultural and language enrichment program began when 15 Beaconhills students and two teachers first visited Laval in western France in December 1999. The following year, eight French students reciprocated, stay with host families for three weeks.

Head of French at the Pakenham Campus, Yelena Pinchuk, said “so many strong friendships” had been forged over the past 20 years between the two schools. Many of the French students had returned later to Australia to reunite and even travel with their host families.

College students pictured on the 2004 exchange.

A students from Laval participating in a College Art class, 2019.

A SUPER effort today from our Pakenham Junior School students, ahead of the Cardinia Relay for Life event tomorrow evening.

Year 3 student Daniel Super organised a ‘Beyblades’ tournaments for his classmates, and raised more than $300 for the fight against cancer.

Daniel was rightly proud of his efforts, and is pictured below with his parents who volunteered to help with the fundraiser.

Our updated ‘Green Report’, just released, shows huge steps towards achieving a greener school. We now have a total of 630kW of solar systems across two campuses. Solar electricity generated has surged from 350 MWh in 2017 to 516 MWh in 2018. SCR Group bins saved 2.6 tonnes of clothing and 1.5 tonnes of electrical wasting from going to landfill last year.

Check out some of Beaconhills College’s great green achievements and 2020 targets in the Green Report on the Resources page.

Harrison Pinney, Berwick Middle School Captain, has been awarded the Upper Beaconsfield Young Citizen of the Year for his services to the local community.

Harrison is a very active Scout having completed his Grey Wolf Award and is about to finish his Australian Scout Medallion. He is also a junior CFA member and aside from undertaking firefighter training, he is always assisting with any brigade activities. He has always been involved with sport and assists with coaching the young 6-7 year olds at his basketball club and also umpires junior football. Every year he participates in local community events such as Clean Up Australia Day, National Tree Day, collecting for the Good Friday Appeal and our local Anzac and Remembrance Day services. For the 100th anniversary of Armistice last November, he worked hard to raise $500 in donations from local supermarkets and wholesalers so that he could provide goods for his whole Scout Troop to make 30 care packs to send to Australian Defence Force personnel who were deployed overseas for Christmas.

The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) offers are out! We are delighted to report that 97 per cent of our graduates from the Class of 2018 who applied for a tertiary place have now received an offer.

Once again health sciences and sport were the most popular field of study, appealing to just over 20 per cent of students, followed by business, commerce and management (17 per cent) and society and culture (15 per cent).

Monash University topped the list of tertiary institutions of choice (27 per cent of applicants), followed by Swinburne (20 per cent), and Deakin (19 per cent).

Overall, 77 per cent of students from the Class of 2018 chose a university pathway, three per cent a TAFE, two per cent an independent tertiary institution while 18 per cent preferred workforce/other.

A Year 10 Beaconhills College student has developed a unique app to help thousands of participants in the upcoming Cancer Council’s Casey Relay for Life event.

Aaron Sharpe volunteered his time to develop the app over the past four months. He used Swift coding, teaching himself the developer skills from watching Youtube videos.

The ‘Relay for Life Casey’ app has met Apple’s stringent requirements and is now available for free on the App Store.

Its features include real-time notifications during the event, a button for direct donations, an event schedule, kids section, information on ceremonies, auctions, entertainment and food as well as maps and news.

Aaron, who attends the Pakenham Campus, is delighted to see the app up and running and said it was a “big job over the holidays”.

“It’s been an amazing experience and I’ve learnt many skills from it. I love knowing that my work is going towards something like this,” he said.

The Casey Relay for Life committee has invited Aaron to the 1-2 March event at Berwick’s Akoonah Park where he will help maintain the app.

Beaconhills College’s Head of Citizenship and Service, Clare Tuohy, said she was thrilled to see Aaron’s work recognised.

“His individual work and commitment is an example of why we are so proud of Beaconhills students,” Mrs Tuohy said.

Each year the College is a major contributor to Relay For Life events at Casey and Cardinia. Last year the College raised more than $45,000 to donate to the Cancer Council and earned two research awards.

Huge congratulations to Year 12 students Cael Fisher and Christina Keen whose outstanding drama auditions have earned them a place in Top Class – part of the VCE Season of Excellence awards.

Both will perform on Tuesday 12 March at the Playhouse Theatre in the Arts Centre. Their solo pieces were developed as part of their Unit 3/4 Drama performance exam, with judges giving them a perfect score. Cael performed ‘The Phone’ and Christina ‘The Raven’.

Well done also to Jaime McIntosh, Year 12, who received a perfect score for her solo ‘The Parent’ and was also invited to audition.

Top Class presents 11 concerts by outstanding VCE performing arts students who have completed Drama, Theatre Studies, Music Performance, Music Investigation, Music Style and Composition, Dance and VCE VET Music Industry and Dance.

For tickets go to https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2019/theatre/top-class

Jordan Zdimirovic is a shining example of where a Beaconhills scholarship can take you.

The Year 12 musician says his scholarship has given him the chance to perform in more places, more often – and in front of more people.

Jordan’s musical interests are diverse. He’s the male lead vocal and rhythm guitarist for a Fleetwood Mac tribute band called The Chain, working with accomplished musicians such as pianist Adrian Scott (original band member from Air Supply and former musical director for Kylie Minogue). He also performs with his parents in trio band HitZone Entertainment at weddings, birthdays and other events.

Jordan is now studying for AMEB Classical Piano Grade 6 and doing VCE Music Performance this year. He said his scholarship had allowed him to experience a wider variety of music, including orchestral and theatre. His sight-reading skills had vastly improved.

“Through my scholarship, I have met interesting and inspiring people, many of who will likely become life-long friends,” he said. After Year 12, he plans to study software engineering/computer science at RMIT, but dreams of running a music teaching business or performing in a band.

Stay tuned for details of the 2020 Beaconhills College scholarship program in term 1 on our website’s scholarship page