OCTOBER 2015

BPC NEWS

WRITERS’ FESTIVAL

@buckleyparkco

Visit our website www.buckleyparkco.vic.edu.au

I know it feels like we’re saying this more often every year, but really, this year has just flown by so quickly. It’s difficult to believe that we’re in November; our Year 12s are sitting their examinations and Christmas is rapidly approaching, again. I think it’s just the reality of learning and working in a fast-paced, exciting school environment, in a dynamic and ever-changing world. Even though it feels like we’ve got to this point quickly, we’ve certainly achieved great things together this year and the future is even brighter again. Most importantly, our students are thriving, and that’s what drives me, and us, every day. Throughout this year, the positive, learning culture that makes our school such a special place continues to evolve, change and grow – a key driver of this being ever-increasing opportunities for students to have a voice in the school improvement process. Whether it be through focus groups with me, the development of a student-teacher feedback tool or the way we work with our student leaders, we’re committed to creating real and meaningful ways for students to provide input, big ideas and suggestions as to how to make their school better. It’s making a positive difference and we’re determined to build this further. As well as our students and staff, we’re also interested, in an ongoing way, with your ideas, questions and suggestions. Each year schools collect various forms of data which help guide our improvement plans; one of these data sets is the Parent Opinion survey. I was very pleased to receive this data set this year, as it was very affirming of our work at school and certainly pleasing to share with the staff. In every measure, the parents (randomly selected) who completed this year’s survey, collectively scored us significantly above the State and like-school means. It was great to see, and as pleased as I am with the results, we’re committed to ongoing and continuous improvement and we’re always pleased to hear from you with your ideas.

Last term, we sent a communication survey home to all families. My sincere thanks to people who took some time to provide us with this feedback. Again, there was much in these results that was affirming for us, like: Compass, teacher responsiveness and our new approach to reporting. On the whole, families were reasonably positive about the concept of a newsletter but many expressed ways of making this more effective. In the new year, we’re planning to connect our newsletter much more closely with our website, and rather than email home a large document like this, we’ll send a summary newsletter with ‘Read More’ links connecting to our website. More to come on this in 2016. Last week we farewelled the Year 12 class of 2015 at a final assembly, followed by lunch. The students were outstanding throughout this time, celebrating the end of classes at school, without losing sight of the end goal of exams still to come. Our School Captains, Alex, Emilia, Mitchell and Jess joined forces one final time as they delivered a poised, entertaining and engaging speech at assembly reflecting on their years at our

school. Our student leaders have done a great job this year and I’ve enjoyed working with them so much. Their experience in these important roles will stay with them long into the future. Last week also, Mr Currie, Mr Dunstan and I held a ‘leadership lunch’ in the College conference room with all prospective student leaders for 2016. We invited students who have expressed interest in the roles for next year to come along to lunch and talk about the importance and power of effective and courageous student leadership. It was a great lunch and what a fantastic group of potential Captains we’ve got for 2016, just ready and waiting.

Over the next few weeks, the seemingly endless stream of exciting BPC events continues. We’ll have our annual Art Exhibition held here at school in the PAC, the Year 12 Valedictory Dinner will take place and we’ll hold our Year 7 2016 Orientation Day; on December 8 our school will be full with the joy (and nerves) of our Grade 6 friends who are about to become BPC Year 7s. Over the next few weeks, we’ll also be continuing to plan for the final College Awards Ceremony. This year, the ceremony is at 1pm on Tuesday December 15, and you’re warmly invited to join us. As we said goodbye to the Year 12s last week, we talked about the importance of balance in their lives; of the importance of allowing themselves space and time to be creative and to follow their passions; of being a great person as well as being a great student. They’ve had a great year and now the final chapter of exams is unfolding. I’ve got every confidence in them and I wish them all the very best. Nathan Chisholm Principal

Safety Drills You may have heard stories of fire drills and lock downs these past 2 weeks. We plan for regular safety preparedness drills and we’ve just run a full evacuation and total lockdown drill. Our students and staff took both events seriously and sensibly, and we’re very pleased with the procedures we’ve got in place. Naturally, we hope we never need to truly enact our plan, but it’s vital we’re prepared. Well done to all involved!

Student Learning Teams, Curriculum Development and the Later Years Every teacher at our school is part of a team to look at how to improve learning and achievement for every student (Student Learning Teams). These small teams of teachers meet most weeks and last semester looked at student data and how to improve student outcomes. This semester, teams have focused their work around developing engaging and active courses for Year 10, 2016, enabling greater student choice – with a range of new subject offerings such as Money Matters, The Performance of the Human Body and the Human Planet. Teachers have planned units using a Common Planning Tool that engages closely with AusVELS standards and provides multiple assessment points. Next year, the largest number of students in Year 10 will undertake a VCE subject for the first time, offering early exposure to the requirements of VCE. This will prove to be an exciting time for students in Year 10 to be integrated into the Later Years.

Instructional Framework The purpose of an instructional model is to identify the areas or descriptors that make for effective teaching. As a school we have engaged with a range of educational theorists to identify ‘what good teaching looks like’ This semester, teachers have participated in a number of professional learning sessions on reviewing instructional practice linking in with the goal from the School Strategic Plan 2015 - 2018:

‘Review the core purpose of a common approach to instruction and then deeply embed the College instructional model into teachers’ practice.’

Teachers have brainstormed areas that could be included such as:

Sharing clear, written learning intentions and success criteria with students.

Ensure that a variety of activities are appropriate to the learning intention and the success criteria of a lesson.

Provide an opportunity for students to work individually, in groups and whole class activities.

Using questioning techniques to encourage students to make links to the content.

Reflect of levels of understanding and links back to the written learning intention.

These areas (and many others) are to be formalised shortly to create an Instructional Framework for all Buckley Park College teachers. These descriptors can then be used for classroom observations and identifying areas of professional learning for all teachers. The aim behind the work on focusing on effective or quality teaching is the difference this ultimately makes to student learning outcomes.

Connections 2016 Our Exciting New Wellbeing-Based Approach to Forms and Form Assemblies Beginning in 2016, we’ve made a change to the way our timetable operates. The change we’ve put into place aims to:

Maximise student learning time

Maximise real student wellbeing time and opportunities

Minimise unnecessary student/teacher movement

As a Principal team, we had decided that we need to look at our existing Form Assembly structure and consequently the structure of the school day. We believe we’ve got an opportunity to improve our timetable to ensure a more productive, learning-focused beginning to the school day for students and provide an enhanced approach to wellbeing.

So, Beginning in 2016, Our Timetable and Connections Approach Will Be Improved As Follows: 1. We’ve removed the 12 minutes of daily Form Assembly from the BPC timetable structure, as we weren’t getting any value from th is

time. Students consistently have told us that there are better ways to start the day. 2. The 12 minutes removed from Form Assembly is simply absorbed into the other 6 periods, creating 6 x 50 minute periods, and

increased learning time for our students 3. So, beginning in 2016, students begin each day, in normal classes, ready to learn right from the outset 4. Each form still has a Connections teacher. This teacher will continue to (at Yrs 7-9) teach their class for at least 1 other subject.

Connections will then built into most weeks and in this time, students, with their groups (previously Forms), will work together on a structured approach to the teaching of wellbeing.

5. Some weeks, students will be in their Connections class, at other times, there will be level assembly and sometimes the time will be used to contact you, the families for a chat.

6. At school, we’re working together to develop the role for our Connections teachers further and we’re very excited about where we can take this work in 2016.

7. Importantly for you, our families, you still have a significant teacher who you can use as first contact for your child – now that teacher is called the Connections teacher.

This proposal maximises real student learning time and enables us to build our Connections approach further in a more authentic way. There will be new bell times which fit this structure. These will be included in the Student Study Planner 2016 and will be distributed to the community in due course. Importantly, the start and end times remain very similar. We sincerely thank the students who have contributed to the development of this change through our Focus Groups. Your ideas have been invaluable. Craig Dunstan Geoff Currie Acting Assistant Principal – Later Years Assistant Principal – Middle Years

FROM THE SCHOOL COUNCIL College Council and our Sub-Committees are now back in full swing for a busy Term 4. The Council recently had the opportunity to undertake a training course on Improving School Governance provided by the Victorian Department of Education and Training focusing on Finance and Strategic planning. For Councils to be as effective as possible it’s important that we have access to the most up to date information. Undertaking face to face training as a group allowed valuable interaction between the facilitator and the group. The full Improving School Governance training package is available online and provides excellent information for anybody interested in School Governance. Preparations for next year are well underway with budgets and plans being prepared. The last act of the year for Council is to review and approve budgets and plans for the following year. College Council elections will be held early in the new school year. Diversity makes for a robust body. If you would like to participate in the governance of the school I encourage you to consider standing for election. Meetings are held twice per term on a Monday evening. Councillors are also encouraged to participate in at least one Sub-Committee. Please refer to the School Council page on the College website for more information about the role of the College Council. Friends of BPC have been very active in their efforts to raise funds and the recent Debutante Ball was by all accounts a great success. Finally on behalf of the College Council and it’s Sub-Committees I would like to wish the whole College Community a happy and safe holiday period and look forward to taking on the challenges that 2016 will bring. John Greenwood School Council President

WRITERS’ FESTIVAL

Writers’ Festival 2015 This year was our third year of the BPC Writers’ Festival and it was bigger and better than ever! All students in Years 7 to 10 took part in a full day of festival program; this included listening to our guest speaker for this year, Slam Poet Abe Nouk, and three self-selected sessions on an aspect of writing. The afternoon’s program saw each form group come together to work on a 10-minute radio segment, utilising and adding to all the skills they learnt in the morning sessions. Ms Bainbridge got a few staff together to make a short video clip (Mission Impossible-style) to introduce the task and highlight what students and staff were to create.

Our sessions included Unlock the Mystery of Horror, Slam Journalism - Turn to the Back Page Sports Journalism, Pavement Chalk Poets, Graffiti Art, Mathemagical Poetry, Become your own Polyglot, BPC Urban Spoon food blogging, Create your own Fantasy World, Giant Scrabble Slam, Bad Science, Scattergories, Slam Scripting for TV and Film, The Lost Art of Bad Poetry, and many others, as well as guest workshops with Abe and with former BPC student, Erin Leeder, who is now in her fourth year of studying journalism at Latrobe University. Teachers from all curriculum areas delivered the workshops – and all had a good time!

A bit about our guest speaker: Abraham ‘Abe’ Nouk is a spoken word poet, MC and author—and the founder and director of youth music and spoken word collective Creative Rebellion Youth. Abe—who firmly believes that “the best thing you can do for yourself is to feed your mind”—arrived in Australia from Sudan in 2004, and learnt to read and write as a way to improve his hip-hop lyrics. In 2013, Abe came third in the Australian National Poetry Slam and self-published his first collection, Humble and his recent work Dear Child.

Look out for the Writers’ Festival in 2016! Sue Mitchell Centre for Young Writers Leader/Teacher of German & English

As we enter our final term with the current Year 7’s, there are again a lot of really positive things happening. Our theme for this last term has been Gratitude, which has gone by a number of different names. The first name it has gone by is #blessed. With a nod to the digital generation, students have been asked to make a poster highlighting some of the reasons that the Year 7’s at Buckley Park are blessed. Already we’ve pinned up posters proclaiming that students should feel like they are blessed because they are part of a community, or because we stand by our BPC words, or because we have such great camps! It’s so encouraging, as we walk through the corridors, to see the gratitude that students feel. The second name it has gone by is RAOK – Random Acts Of Kindness. Organised the same way as Kris Kringle, students are assigned another student at random, and it is their duty, over the next three weeks, to do something kind for that student. No money is allowed to be involved, and it must be completely anonymous. We hope that by the end of the three weeks students will be feeling so positive about their peers and the school that they will truly be thankful that they have been part of such an awesome community over the course of the year. And finally, once again, I personally am grateful. We’ve had such a fantastic group of kids this year that my job as co-ordinator has not only been quite peaceful, but also really positive. Students have helped each other out, been excellent to each other, and have made the school a comfortable, exciting and creative place to be. Brendan Bailey Year 7 Student Engagement, Wellbeing and Transition Co-ordinator

YEAR 7 NEWS

YEAR 9 NEWS

Term 3 at Buckley Park College was packed full of activities for our Year 9 cohort - and as always, they took up the challenges with gusto and maturity. The school production was a massive success, featuring many Year 9’s in various roles, with a great time had by all; and the inaugural Year 9 Form Cup that followed only a week later was also a triumph. The Cup was planned and organised by the dedicated Year 9 Student Leaders, and a great time was had by all as the forms battled with various teamwork challenges - all in search of the crown of ‘Year 9 Form Champions’ - which on this occasion was firmly taken by 9RN. The remainder of the term saw numerous opportunities for our students to be involved actively in, and beyond the classroom with high level sporting, artistic and academic achievements going to many students. This term is once again a busy one, with the main focus of the term being the Year 9 CIVIC program. This year CIVIC will give students the chance to explore our College and community values and how they are represented in society. Over six weeks all Year 9 students will attend three excursions in which they will visit different community based organisations, and then conduct independent fieldwork in the Melbourne CBD - and back at school - all with the aim to asking ‘Why are values important and how are those values demonstrated on a daily basis in our community?’. Once the research has been conducted students will have a chance to create a proposal or initiative based around a value of their choosing that would see the prominence of that value increased in our daily lives. The program is a great chance for students to really direct their own learning and focus on real-life issues in a way that suits their unique personalities and learning styles. Whilst CIVIC always challenges students with the work requirements and independent thinking necessary, I’m absolutely looking forward to working with the Year 9’s during the project, and watching them engage with the program in their usual motivated, energetic and determined manner. Bevan May Year 9 Student Engagement and Wellbeing Co-ordinator

VCAL NEWS

GERMAN CLUB

Deutschklub Film Festival 2015

The Buckley Park College German Club Film Festival was held on Friday the 16th of October with the Goethe Institut Student German Film Competition set theme of “Freizeit” (leisure time). Danke to the Deutschklub and everyone who participated and helped. Thank you also to all students who created a German film – making the whole event possible. Many thanks also to Frau Mitchell, Frau Haslett, Frau Carter, Herr May and Frau Gosling for their support and help with the event.

There are many amazing people who made the festival the success it was. The president of the German Club Lillie Gabi Butler of Year 10 officiated wonderfully on the day as MC. The German Club organised the event, baked tasty cakes and hosted a Kaffee and Kuchen for the judges and special guests. The technical team, who ran the event seamlessly, was made up of David Udo Shoben of Year 12 (we will miss him leading the technical team after so many years!), Lachlan Sascha Janes of Year 9, Glenn Günther Alexander of Year 9 and Will Siegfried Kelcey of Year 11. The Year 10 security team welcomed the guests and gave out programs. DJ Anton Ferdinand Strunz provided excellent pre-show entertainment along with the fantastic Year 9 rock band made up of Alanah Lilo Barui, Thomas Tobias Spargo, Sunny Zacharius Lin, Samuel Jakob Candotti and Thomas Rudolf Litchfield. The 7HN German class started off the formalities of the afternoon with a lovely performance of “An die Freude” (Ode to Joy) by Beethoven. The informative key note speech on “Freizeit in Deutschland” was delivered by Skye Sabine Bailes, Cheyne Liesl Wilkinson und Arashdeep Gabrielle Shokar of Year 9. A film by Peter Wolfmar Westwood and a radio ad by Isaac Wilhelm Miles and Leon Max Kuhlman of Year 9 helped to entertain the audience during the judges’ deliberations. The Year 11 German class also gave an entertaining live singing-and-dance performance titled “Wir sind alle zusammen”.

The winners were expertly chosen by a panel of judges (former students and German Club members); Melanie Steffi Basta, James Christof Bashford, Tobias Gustavsson, Anastasia Marion Vassiliadis, Veronica Natascha Curran and Nicole Natalie Chiuchiarelli.

There were nineteen films selected for the competition and all were creative and entertaining. Two of the Year 7 films were given a Year 7 Encouragement Award: “Befund Freund” by Stefanie Erika Panic, Taysia Marlene Davis, Serina Sabrina Huang and Sarah Iris Carrington and “Der gesunde Weihnachtsmann” by Thomas Olaf Roberts, Hannah Lora Barui, Jessica Christina Overman and Declan Günther Taylor. An Honourable Mention was given to “Die Feuerprobe” by Simon Fritz Seddon, Sunny Zacharius Lin and Brayden Wolf Davis of Year 9 for technical brilliance.

Third place was awarded to the animated film “Der dicke Ork” by Curtis Otto Forde, Dean Erdan Kalaitzidis, Cooper Sigi Scott and Mayank Felix Anand of Year 9. Second place was given the cleverly executed film “Language Perfect” by Anthony Volker Lui, Jeongwoo Johann Seo, Glenn Günther Alexander and Thomas Tobias Spargo of Year 9. For the second year in a row the first place and winners of the Deutschklub Film Pokal (German Club Film Cup) James Wolfgang Goldby and Jango Volkmar Mikkelsen-Rust of Year 9 with the film “Die Maske”, a cinematically brilliant thriller which captured the festival’s theme.

Gratuliere alle! Frau Lloyd

The careers calendar continues to be very busy with students preparing for work experience, finalising VCE subject selection and preparing for transition to the tertiary sector or work. Year 9 During 30 November – 2 December students will be participating in the Preparation for Work Experience program. Guest speakers and workshop activities should stand students in good stead to organise their work experience placement over the summer vacation. Work experience dates for 2016: 14 – 18 April. The career news website (link below) has information relating to work experience. Years 10 and11 Students in Years 10 and 11 requiring assistance with career pathways or further discussion relating to VCE subject selection are encouraged to see me. The careers library has a variety of resources that can assist students with these important decisions. Year 12 Students can look forward to receiving VCE results online or via SMS on Monday 14 December. The Victorian Tertiary and Admittance Centre (VTAC) will accept change of preference as often as you like until 10 November, then again from 23 November till 12 noon on 21 December. Students should ensure that they fully understand the pathway options available and are encouraged to see me if assistance is required when changing preferences or pathways post results. University, TAFE and VTAC websites are also valuable sources of information during this time. I wish Year 12 students all the very best as they commence the next phase of their career journey. Career news, on the school website http://www.buckleyparkco.vic.edu.au/page/213/Careers-News and fb @careersbpc are valuable information sources. Please contact me should you have any queries relating to careers. Judi Alexander Post School Transition Co-ordinator

CAREER NEWS

UNIFORM SHOP

Dobson's Buckley Park College UNIFORM SHOP Trading Hours December 2015-January 2016 Last Trading Day is Thursday 10 December 2015 from 1.00pm-4.00pm. The Uniform Shop will re-open on Tuesday 19 January 2016. Students commence school on Friday 29 January 2016.

January Dates and Times: Tuesday 19/1/2016 9.00am – 2.00pm Wednesday 20/1/2016 9.00am – 2.00pm Thursday 21/1/2016 9.00am – 2.00pm Wednesday 27/1/2016 9.00am – 2.00pm Thursday 28/1/2016 9.00am – 2.00pm Friday 29/1/2016 7.30am – 9.30am 1.00pm – 4.00pm Contact: Nola Kalaitzidis 9337-3651 buc@dobsons.com.au

FRIENDS OF BUCKLEY PARK

We had a very busy 3rd quarter gearing up to our Debutante Ball, which was held early in September. It was outstanding and thanks must go to everyone who worked tirelessly to ensure its success. Particular thanks to Margaret in the front office who was kept very busy with ticket processing! Thanks to Nelson Alexander for their ongoing sponsorship and a special mention to Luscombe Tiles who sponsored the very productive photo booth – there was a queue the whole evening!

Looking ahead to this term, we will be assisting with - We have some new plans for 2016. A beer, wine and cider evening to replace our traditional Wine and Cheese evening which will possibly take place early in the 2nd term next year. We are also hoping to once again host a Sausage Sizzle at Maribyrnong Bunnings next year. For those wishing to have a closer relationship with the school and meet new friends, please don’t hesitate to join the ‘Friends’. Our next meeting is to be held on the 26th October in the conference room. Brenda McDonald friendsofbpc@gmail.com

Can you help in the Canteen?

The school’s canteen is a very important service to students and staff. It is only able to operate because of the commitment and dedication of our volunteers. The canteen is a busy, friendly, work place and even if you don’t feel that you could serve the counter or handle money, there are plenty of things to do that would be of great assistance.

We would love you to call in and see for yourself just how important the canteen is to the school community. All profits from the canteen go to the school to provide facilities for our students.

So if you have a spare few hours once a month or once a term, we would love to hear from you.

Please contact Connie Zahra Canteen Manager on 9331 9908

BUCKLEY BITES