Another GREAT Week-9

Dear all,

Some key dates for all parents to be aware of 

Yr 7 2013 Orientation Day  Tuesday 11 December

Presentation Night Years 7-9 Tuesday 11 December

Connections Night

On Monday night we ran our Connections Night for parents of our 2013 Year 7 students. The night focused on the well being of adolescents and how parents and the school can work together to support children through this often challenging time. It began the induction into the College for our parents about our Learning Culture and touched on areas around how to help keep your child safe "online"

Peer Support Training

Peer Support training continued this week as over 30 of our Year 9 students get ready to transition into life as a Year 10 Peer Support Leader. This forms a significant component of these student's Growth program for the commencement of Year 10. Thanks to all staff and students involved in making all of this happen. Peer Support is a key ingredient in the construction of a smooth transition from Primary School for our new Year 7 students.

Presentation Night Year 7-9

Rehearsals for the Year 7-9 Presentation Night have been in full swing this week. It looks like tickets for the event are increasingly rare, and if your child is getting an award and you have missed out on a ticket, you may like to contact Mr Rogers at the College to see if there are any spare tickets.

Growth Programs

Growth has continued to provide students with fabulous opportunities. Speaking with James Webb last night, our World Challenge students had just completed their 5 day trek. They were tired and resting back at their hotel. The students found the trek very challenging, however they really enjoyed the experience.

This term, half of the Year 9 students have been serving various organisations as part of their Community Service unit for Growth. This included working with kindergarten students at the Avenue Neighbourhood house on Eley Road, organising lunchtime activities to promote friendship and positive playground behaviours with younger students at Parkmore Primary School, cooking and assisting in the Kitchen Garden at Burwood Heights Primary School, working with adults with a disability at Alkira Centre in Box Hill, protecting the native flora and fauna in Blackburn Lake Sanctuary and socialising with students with a mild intellectual disability from Heatherwood School. The Year 9 students demonstrated all of our College Values as they independently travelled from school to their Community Service placement and offered their various skills and enthusiasm. We have received tremendous praise from all the organisations that have hosted them and it is truly great to be part of such a generous community. Thank you to all our Community Service providers.

Well done to the following Year 9 Students for their involvement in these programs:

Kuda , Emma , Patrick , Zac , Dominique , Jin Yong, Kyria , Zak , Zhiyanne , Callum , Danyon, Aaron , Harry , Johnny, Jacob, Ben ,  Shahil , Nunia , Stephen, Yuhang, Ben, Kyria, Alexandra, Lachlan, April , Jennifer , Nick, Tim, Linda, Jessica, Nicole, Ellen, Birva ,  Damian, Benjamin , Alanna, Varnika , James, Scott.

As reported previously, Year 10 students have been promoting Movember in Growth. The students created some novel ways to do this, which included some fun fundraising activities. The Year 10 Movember fundraising activities the Year 10 Growth students developed were, 

a Gangnam style dance off, face painting, international food store, BBQ, cakes, dress up day, raffle and a movie they made promoting Movember that was shown in Assembly today.

 All up the students raised $867.80 for men's health. A great effort by the staff and the students.

Assembly

The assembly this Friday opened with the Brass Band performing “Second Line” by Wynton Marsalis and “Viva La Vida” by Cold Play. It was terrific and Cameron Stark spoke passionately afterwards to all the students about the benefits and opportunities, to learning a musical instrument at FHC.

We then presented Australian Mathematics Competition Certificates to the following students:

Year 7: Jeongmu , Dyson , Tyra , Dominic , Ansul , Harsimran  Jared 

Year 8: Yuhan , Matthew , Jayden , Petar , Niky , Jupinder , Ayano 

Year 9: Varnika ,Timothy , Scott ,Linda , April, Emma, Jennifer  

We then presented Year 9 Literacy and Numeracy Week awards to.

Year 9: Varnika ,  Minna , Jennifer , Dominique , Amber ,  Sam , ,  Haari , Zhiyanne , Danyon, Natalia , Mitchell , Rash , April , Dylan , Ben , Nathan , Annie.  

Orientation Day 

Planning for Orientation Day continued. We are very appreciative of the work this team of staff and students do to ensure our new Year 7 students begin life at FHC successfully. Some reminders for parents who may have missed information from Connections Night.

• Meet at the Theatre for a 9:15 start.
• Dress- Primary School uniform and runners .
• Lunch provided.
• Uniform Shop Opening Hours 8:30-10:00am on Orientation Day.
• Collect students from the Theatre at 3:10pm.

VCAL Awards 2012

We would like to congratulate the following students, Luke , John , Barry  and Adam who were this week presented with awards from atEast. We are very proud of our VCAL program as it offers some students a genuine pathway to further their education at our College and eventually to further training and employment that VCE does not provide.

Uniform Shop Open

Our Uniform Shop is open at the College each Thursday from 3pm to 4pm. Also for Year 7 parents in 2013, they will also be open for Connections Night (6:30 to 7:00pm) and Orientation Day (8:30 to 10:10 am) at the College. The Uniform shop will open on the following dates at the College.

In 2012

13-Dec-12		3 PM	TO	4 PM
In 2013
7-Feb-13		3 PM	TO	4 PM
14-Feb-13		3 PM	TO	4 PM
21-Feb-13		3 PM	TO	4 PM
28-Feb-13		3 PM	TO	4 PM

Lions Have Big Hearts!

At assembly this week we presented our Lions Club Awards for students who have shown endeavor and commitment despite the challenges they may have faced. The award comes with a generous financial donation to each student generously provided by the Forest Hill Lions Club.

We congratulate Nitesh, Ryan, Amber, Chris and Ben on the attributes they have demonstrated to make them the recipient of this encouragement award.

Many people get a kick out of helping others – I call it my “soul food”.  I am a volunteer and a proud LIONS member.  Lions Australia is part of an international volunteer organisation.  The Lions Club of Forest Hill has been helping people in the Forest Hill community in many ways since 1967. This, for many years, has included the issuing of Youth Encouragement awards to students attending the Forest Hill Secondary College. 

Most Australians hear the word “Lions” and immediately think of sausage sizzles and Christmas Cakes – yet Lions Clubs International is very well known around the world for its sight programs.  Lions have provided nearly 8 million cataract surgeries, distributed more than 148 million treatments for river blindness and vaccinated 41 million African children against measles – which is a leading cause of childhood blindness.  www.lionsclubs.org

There are many great volunteer organisations around, but it is Lions that have importantly received awards for their governance when handling donations – because 100% of funds raised goes towards the cause it was raised for.  Administration costs are not taken out of donated funds.

There are many different projects run by Lions.  Funding for the research and development of the Cochlear ear couldn’t be obtained about 30 years ago – Lions worked hard and raised the funds desperately needed. Now we are being asked to do the same to assist research into the bionic eye.  There are projects involving spinal cord research, hearing dogs, disaster relief - the needs are endless. 

The Lions Drug and Alcohol Foundation has established a terrific resource for young adults called “Tune In Not Out” or TINO – www.tuneinnotout.com.au .  This is not a “fancy” site, yet it provides many clips and important information about subjects like bullying, discrimination, depression, drugs as well as some positive life choices.  Links to the major specialist support organisations for these areas are also provided.

Many schools in the Whitehorse zone support entrants into the National Youth of the Year contest which involves public speaking, and we would love to support an entrant from Forest Hill Secondary College. We are also looking to establish a Leos Club in the community, and would really like to hear from any interested young adults between the ages of 12-18 yrs who have an interest in helping others and who would like to join and run their own local group, it’s a great way to develop leadership skills and have fun with friends at the same time.

Lions need more help to assist those in need, maybe YOU would like to lend a hand or just join in the fun?  Membership is open to men, women and young adults. All you need is a big heart to become a volunteer. If you’d like to know more please check out our website, www.lionsclubofforesthill.org.au or phone me on 9725 1393.

Karen Young – President, Lions Club of Forest Hill