Beaconhills College

Year 8 Pakenham Campus students are experiencing the rugged beauty of Gariwerd (The Grampians) this week as part of their Beacon Explorers program.

The focus of the camp is to consolidate students’ previous outdoor education experiences in Years 5-7, to help prepare them for their Year 9 extended hiking program.

Today super heroes wandered the halls of our Berwick Campus for the first ever College Cosplay event.

Approximately 50 students from Years 7-11 dressed as their favourite characters, with a number of the students creating their own costumes in the Library MakerSpace.

Event organiser, Head of Library at Berwick Campus, Carmel Byrne said that in a world where young people can feel they lack power and voice, stepping into the shoes of a character that you admire can be very empowering.

Exciting news from the Berwick Campus dancers competing in Queensland last weekend at the Dance Star and Glee National Championships.

The Glee Down Tempo Large Team claimed a silver medal. There were also some great individual performances also from Allie Catrucco and Ruby Thornton-Mackay in the lyrical/contemporary sections.

Well done to all the Berwick Campus dancers.

The weather might be cold but orphaned wildlife are staying warm thanks to the generous blanket donations from the Beaconhills College community earlier this year to wildlife sanctuaries and shelters.

These joeys at the Rescue Rehabilitate Release shelter are pretty happy with their new blankets.

Beaconhills’ other recent major fundraiser was the FareShare’s annual Feed Melbourne Appeal. Our families donated pasta, tinned tomatoes and flour to be made into meals for those in need this winter. We are proud to announce the final tally – 770kg of donations! An outstanding effort.

The artwork of our collective Berwick Year 3 students will soon be weaving its way through the Melbourne city scape on a tram.

Teacher Kyla Whitfield submitted the colourful design as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne Art Trams competition and it was one of just eight successful entries.

Each of the unique designs are currently being applied to the trams, and will be looping their way around our city from 8 October.

Year 9 students were busy spruiking their wares today at the annual Market Day at the Pakenham Campus.

Students worked in groups to plan, budget, set up and run their stalls. All profits raised will go to various charities helping causes such as wildlife rescue, the environment, energy poverty and homelessness.

Thirty Beaconhills families from the Berwick Campus Junior School have helped fight global energy poverty by taking part in the SolarBuddy program.

Junior School students and their parents recently enjoyed a session at the College assembling SolarBuddy lights. The SolarBuddy charity group distributes the lights in developing countries, to help children do their homework and avoid the use of dangerous kerosene lamps.

This year, the Beaconhills College community will produce around 1000 lights, assembled by the Junior Schools, Year 6 and Year 9 students and those completing the Year 8 Certificate of Excellence.

Around half of the lights have already been distributed to communities the College supports in East Timor.

Donations to help buy the light kits have also flowed in from Berwick Probus Club and Edrington Park Retirement Village’s Ladies Group, the latter following a presentation by Beaconhills students Alysha Hall and Shannon Carrig.

Year 12 student Lily Pedder has thrown her love of baseball behind a project she has developed in her Systems Engineering class.

Lily has built her own baseball pitching machine, which teacher Peter Van Waart believes is good enough to enter in the VCE Season of Excellence Top Designs awards.

As a high level baseball player (she competed in the national championships this year), Lily couldn’t have chosen a better project. The machine pitches the baseball out at set angles and can be used to produce ground balls and fly balls so the user can practise fielding.

Lily has spent around 100 hours working on the machine and is now in the final stages of doing the coding. She said she has always been fascinated by mechanics, although she hopes to pursue a career in psychology.

New Campus Principal appointed at Beaconhills College Berwick

Beaconhills College has announced Sam Watson as the new Berwick Campus Principal from 2020.

Mr Watson’s appointment marks the end of a successful era of leadership for Jenny Williams, who was the Berwick Campus’ founding Principal and has witnessed the enormous development of the campus and local community over the past 17 years.

Mr Watson is current Head of Senior School at the College’s Pakenham Campus. While Mrs Williams will step down from the Principal’s role, she will continue to work for the school in the area of staff development/key projects.

Describing himself as an “approachable leader” who enjoys being actively involved in the College community, Mr Watson said was incredibly proud to take on the new job.

He believes it’s important for educators to constantly evolve their practice, mindful of the skills most important for students now and into the future.

“Technology continues to develop at an incredible pace, which gives our students some amazing learning opportunities, however we must continue to educate our students about appropriate use of technology,” Mr Watson said.

“Mental health also continues to be a challenge for many members of our community. I hope to see us continue to have open conversations about wellbeing and provide both our staff and students with the necessary skills and confidence to enhance their wellbeing.”

Mr Watson has taught Physical Education to most year levels, helping him understand the importance of each section of the College and “what makes our school special”.

“I truly believe in Beaconhills College and I am excited by the opportunities we continue to provide our community.”

Beaconhills opened its Berwick Campus in 2003 with just 346 students. Now student numbers have reached nearly 1500 in what has become a thriving, modern Prep-Year 12 campus, with the Little Beacons Learning Centre due to open on the site in 2020.

Mrs Williams has seen huge change over that time, not just on the campus, but in the local community and educational landscape.

She takes pride in having witnessed the graduation of the foundation students after 13 years of education, and talks of the ongoing connectedness to families and foundation students 18 years later.

“Beaconhills is a caring community and families are always willing to support the College in many different ways, from the early days of fundraising for chairs and curtains for the Performing Arts Hall, to donating to global and community projects,” Mrs Williams said.

From the campus inception, Mrs Williams helped forge links with schools in the Hatolia district of East Timor and the Casey-based Friends of Ermera charity group, so that the Berwick Campus had global connection. This relationship is still strong today. Mrs Williams has accompanied a number of student tours to visit and volunteer in the East Timor schools.

Watching students leave the College as well-rounded, compassionate, respectful and ‘global’ young adults has been her great source of pride.

“It has been a pleasure to be a part of the growth and development of Beaconhills College’s second campus in Berwick,” she said.