Weekly Wrap
Welcome to Week 8.
This week our Year 11 students had an excursion to Latrobe University to participate in their study skills camp.
They worked with Elevate who taught the students a range of strategies to assist them organise and prioritise home, work and study.
It was wonderful to see the mural in the library’s Kindness Garden begin to take shape, as local Indigenous artist Lorraine White began working with a number of our students.
The design they have chosen has Bunjil the eagle flying over the country of the Kulin Nation. The Yarra river cutting its way through the land.
Students will be adding their own personal stories to this image to craft a mural that tells the story of Indigenous culture in our area.
Friday was the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence. This year’s theme is Take Action Together.
On Monday at 10:45am, the College community will form the word “Unity” on the College oval. Above us will hover our drone, taking images of us doing this.
These moments are a chance to reflect on what we can do to prevent bullying and show our support to all members of our College community by standing together and making everyone feel welcome.
Parents are welcome to join us for this.
A key aim for the week for our College this year is honouring and learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. So, we are very honoured to have a Wurundjeri Elder join us on the day.
He will be performing a traditional ceremony of wellbeing and cleansing that has been performed on these lands for thousands of years, known as a Smoking Ceremony.
This ceremony involves creating smoke by burning wet leaves of native plants that are understood to have healing properties.
Students and staff will be invited to walk through the smoke on their way back to class as part of our official re-opening of the William Barak Centre.
Why have we renamed the Leonardo Centre to the William Barak Centre?
William Barak was an Elder and leader of the Wurundjeri people, on whose land we learn, when Europeans first arrived on these lands.
He became an important spokesperson for his people, and petitioned and spoke to the European leaders for the rights of Aboriginal people and social justice.
He was also a renowned artist and teacher who kept alive the traditions of his people.
The William Barak Project that the Year 7 students do is a combination of Humanities, Art and Technology. They learn collaboration and communication skills as well as the content delivered through the subjects that combine to form the project.
William Barak is a wonderful symbol of the combination of Art and History and as an Elder, he was renowned for his ability to bring people together and unite them through collaboration.
Student Drop Off Arrangements – Hawthorn Road Entrance
The safety of our students is very important to us. Use of the Mahoneys Road driveway continues to pose some concerns during drop off and pick up times.
The road is not well designed and drivers are often confronted with some challenges parking, entering and exiting the driveway, which compromise student pedestrian safety.
At this stage, the Hawthorn Road driveway entrance is the parent drop off point.
Unless your car has a disabled sticker, or you are coming into the College for an appointment etc, there should be no need for parents to use the Mahoneys Road driveway.
The College has worked with the Whitehorse Council to secure a drop off point across the front of the synthetic soccer pitch on Mahoneys Road.
The parking restrictions are being changed to 5 minutes allowing all FHC parents easier access to this stretch of road.
We are moving towards restricting all parent car traffic to the Hawthorn Road entrance only, excepting those requiring disability parking.
I am asking parents to support us and to use the Hawthorn Road entrance at this stage.
Have a great weekend,
David Rogers