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30-34 Toomuc Valley Rd, Pakenham VIC 3810
92 Kangan Dr, Berwick VIC 3806
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Learning that Matters
Our congratulations to Berwick Campus Senior Chaplain, Revd Kathy Mildred, who was ordained as an Anglican Priest on the weekend.
Due to COVID-19, the ordination took place at St James Anglican Church, Pakenham, in a service with family and friends.
Revd. Mildred is one of two chaplains at the Berwick Campus. Revd. Steve Terrell is a Uniting Church Minister. She is pictured here at her ordination ceremony with Berwick Campus Principal Sam Watson (left) and Headmaster Tony Sheumack.
Revd Kathy Mildred at her ordination with Berwick Campus Principal Sam Watson, left, and Headmaster Tony Sheumack.
Pakenham performers put their best foot forward for the Annual Dance Concert. This year in the style of 2020 there was, of course, a COVID safe twist. Rather than performing to a packed auditorium, the showcase was filmed and will be sent home for families to enjoy.
Students performed jazz, contemporary, musical theatre, ballet and hip hop numbers to enthusiastic applause from their classmates side stage. After a year of ups and downs, it was truly heartwarming to see the passion from our staff and students at the event.
Berwick Year 9 students contemplated the value of human rights in the context of the Jewish Holocaust in WWII by engaging with a firsthand account from Holocaust survivor, Paul Grinwald, recently over Zoom.
Born to Jewish parents in Paris 1933 (the year Hitler was made Vice Chancellor of Germany) Paul told our students his account of life during the Nazi occupation of France 1940-1944 and the decay of human rights that resulted in the systematic deaths of around 6 million Jewish people in Europe.
His message was that there is only one race, the human race, and we should all value the wonderful diversity this brings to our lives.
Last term’s lockdown was no fun, but did produce some of the most creative Year 9 ‘Personal Best’ projects we’ve seen yet.
Pakenham Campus students proudly displayed their projects last week, the results of hours of planning, design and creation.
Keen equestrienne Olivia Bartlett applied her love of horses to building an amazing horse sculpture, made from 184 individually-buffed horseshoes and fencing wire. Jackson McNeill spent 38 days doing up his 1993 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T, which he now plans to use for legal drifting.
Many projects required students to learn new skills. Ava Cashmore’s decision to make a bamboo water feature meant she had to learn how to use a welding tool. She said: “I wanted to learn to weld and do something creative – so dad taught me how to use different power tools.”
Personal Best gives students one term to create project representing their personal passion. Along the way, they document their work in a folio, including sketches, budget consideration, materials and tools used.
With all the pollen in the air at the moment, busy bees might want to check into one of these bee hotels for a bit of R & R.
Year 8 Essential English students got a real buzz today learning about bees in Australia. They discovered that the native bee population is at risk and accommodation is in short supply! So students got stuck into building some bee hotels to install in our College community gardens. The hope is the bees hang about to help pollinate our veggies, fruit and flowers.
It’s all part of our CAL (Community Action Learning) program, where service activities are integrated into our teaching and learning.
Year 8s at work on a bee hotel
The Beacon Explorers team are determined to finish the year on the high with some great experiential programs planned for the remainder of the school year.
A series of long-day outdoor education programs are set to go at Gembrook’s Gilwell Park for students in Years 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, along with children from Little Beacons.
The team has run a variety of on-campus activities since lockdown ended, including bushwalking, setting up tents and science activities. This exciting ‘silent crate climb’ challenge in Pakenham’s Junior School last week had the adrenaline pumping for our Year 9s.
Beacon Explorers staff manage all global, outdoor and co-curricular programs at the College.
We are sad to hear of the passing of one of our Beaconhills College House patrons, Neville Clark.
Neville and his wife Carole have been an integral part of Beaconhills College since its inception in August 1980.
Neville and Carole were founding parents of the College who volunteered their time, labour and expertise to ensure that Beaconhills was a success. As members of Pakenham’s St James Anglican Church, they were both keen to see a Christian school established in the local area. They attended the 11 March public meeting in 1981, aimed at gauging local interest in the school and promptly enrolled their three children.
Neville played a critical role in preparing the school site in Toomuc Valley Rd for the construction of the first buildings and was responsible for building the semi-circular driveway and preparing the earthworks for the portables he had helped obtain.
Both Neville and Carole were closely involved with Beaconhills through the 1980s and 90s and in 1993, Clark House – one of two new College Houses added to the original six – was named in their honour. In recent times Carol and Neville have remained actively involved, attending many Clarke House Church services and Annual General Meetings of our College.
I often refer to the notion of ‘standing on the shoulders of those before us’. Neville exemplified those founders who took that all-important leap of faith in our school. His contribution to our beginnings will not be forgotten and his ongoing participation in our school life will be sadly missed.
If you would like to attend the service for Neville Clark, it will be live-streamed on Monday 16 November, starting at 1.30pm. The stream will be activated shortly beforehand.
https://www.davidwbull.com.au/funeral-notice/richard-neville-clark/
Neville is survived by his wife Carole and two of their children, Russell and Greg. Their daughter Michelle, who was a College Dux in 1991, sadly passed away in 1992. The Michelle Clark Scholarship was established in her memory.
Spectacular work from two Beaconhills College VCE Media students is currently being celebrated as part of the annual TOPshots awards and exhibition through the Monash Gallery of Art.
Berwick Campus student, Julia Batchelor, created a mise en abyme, to explore a deep appreciation of feminist views. Challenged through body and mind, she aimed to immediately appeal to those who have a pre-existing appreciation for these themes and thus develop greater value for this in others.
Pakenham Campus student, Molly Stapleton, used stroboscopic photography to capture the range of motion of an athlete, in this case, a cricketer. The work explores the precision of the athlete, who over time, has trained to develop and refine their skill and technique in batting. The stroboscopic photography method uses a single image, capturing the subject’s movement over a one second period of time, illuminated only by the succession of strobe flashes.
The TOPshots 2019-20 exhibition can be viewed online here: https://www.mga.org.au/education/topshots-2019-20/.
Growing back as thorns – a piece by Julia Batchelor.
Cricket in motion – a piece by Molly Stapleton.
Year 4 Berwick Campus student Vidusha Kodagoda has just celebrated his tenth birthday a little differently to most children his age. Rather than receive presents, Vidusha has used his extraordinary artistic talents to help those in our local community doing it tough this Christmas.
Using the art he created during lockdown, Vidusha staged his own art exhibition and raised around $600, which he is donating to the Vinnies Food Van. The funds will buy gift vouchers, Christmas cookies, cakes and Christmas decorations for distribution to people in need.
Year 9 at Pakenham Campus was a hive of activity last Friday as students teamed up to tackle a project in the ‘Common Good’ Program.
Students could choose between six different options to support a different cause. They helped build possum boxes for bushfire-affected areas, knitted beanies for premature babies, made art smocks for children in hospital, sewed animal pouches for rescued animals, made play equipment for the Junior School or built a community garden.
The session was also a way for Year 9 students to reconnect with each other after the long period of lockdown.
Emmi Webber with her aprons
Alan Tian and Henry Yu work on cardmaking
Connor Gilbertson joined the knitting team
Ava Cashmore tries her hand at knitting for Common Good
Ethan Day and Ash Hart were busy on the community garden
Georgia’s Top Art
Home away from home for international students
Callum’s top talk
Art student to help curate exhibition
Academic excellence across the board at Beaconhills
Donation of hope to the Monash Health Foundation
Aboriginal artefacts donation
Valedictory for the Class of 2020
College families give hope for Christmas
Congratulations Revd Mildred
Annual Dance Concert goes digital
Lesson on human right from Holocaust survivor for Year 9 students
Get set for the new Community Arts and Recreation Centre
Vale Neville Clark
World Teachers’ Day
7 key questions to ask when choosing a school
The importance of regular school attendance
Combatting racism starts with education
Get ready for a return to school
Supporting our community through crisis
Term 2, with a difference
Online Learning to continue into term 2
Support for health care workers
From humble beginnings
1300 002 225 | Int: +613 5945 3001
reception@beaconhills.vic.edu.au
Pakenham Campus
Berwick Campus
Little Beacons
Gate C, Syme Rd, Pakenham VIC 3810