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St Bernard's College Makes a Meaningful Impact in Vinnies Schools Winter Sleep Out 2023
St Bernard's College is proud to share the heartwarming success of its 2023 participation in the St Vincent de Paul Society Vinnies Schools Winter Sleep Out. The event, which aimed to raise awareness and support for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness, witnessed the active involvement of over 60 students and staff from our compassionate and inclusive school community.
Undeterred by the elements, the St Bernard's community united for the sleepout, reflecting their unwavering commitment to assisting the most vulnerable members of our society. The collective efforts culminated in raising funds and essential items for Vinnies, which will significantly contribute to their pivotal work in addressing homelessness, food insecurity, living expenses, and education.
The impact of this initiative resonates profoundly, particularly as the funds and food bank donations directly benefit the lives of those who are struggling. St Bernard's College expresses immense pride in its collaboration with Vinnies and the Michael Talbot Soup van in Footscray, recognising the indispensable role they play in making a positive change in our community.
Vinnies Victoria's remarkable contributions underscore the significance of their assistance, having responded to 55,693 calls for aid and provided more than 600,757 meals through their Soup Vans. Their dedication and the $6.9 million in overall food assistance rendered in the past year is truly commendable.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the St Bernard's College community for their generous support, exemplifying the school's ethos of empathy and compassion. Together, we stand united to create a tangible positive difference in the lives of those facing challenges. Your continued support and dedication are invaluable in our collective journey toward a more compassionate and just world.
A special mention and appreciation is extended to the dedicated staff members who played instrumental roles in coordinating and enhancing this impactful experience: Rebecca Cassar, Andrew Lonsdale, Sean Pieper, Alex Sprague, Carlos Tinsey, Judy Eastman, Eileen McKenzie, Emma van Wees, Stuart Proud, Matt from the Canteen, Steph Serrafidis, Ryan Lahey, Daniel Kirkwood's Community Service students, the Maintenance Crew, Ryan T Vo, and Erin Mephin. Carlos Tinsey's remarkable efforts in coordinating this transformative experience deserves special recognition.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the remarkable businesses that have generously supported our College Community, making our 2023 Vinnies Winter Sleepout at St Bernard's College a tremendous success and transformative experience for all those involved. Your unwavering commitment to education and community enhancement has truly made a difference.
A special thank you to our Community Partners:
MNG Lawyers
Garnet Electrical Services
Centec Security
Mermaid Property Group
COS Office Supplies
BFX Furniture
Kastoria Bus Lines
DMC Group
Our Community Partners contribution continues to empower us to create impactful experiences, fostering growth and development in our students. Through your support, we have been able to provide an enriched learning environment, ensuring our students receive the best opportunities for their educational journey. Your dedication to our community is inspiring and we look forward to continuing this journey together.
Interdisciplinary Day 2
The Year 9s from St Bernard’s and Ave Maria College came together again for an action packed day of activities across the two schools as a part of our Interdisciplinary Day program on August 24.
The students participated in a Lego Masters session at Ave Maria College, facilitated by Ryan Evans from Brickulum. In small groups, the students were challenged to build the tallest tower out of Lego, as well as a bridge that could support weight. These challenges required teamwork and communication and meant that these newly formed teams needed to work together from the outset to succeed. Most of all, they were a lot of fun.
For the second half of the day, the students participated in a series of activities at Resurrection House. These included European Handball, Drama Games, Table Tennis, Art and a Science Challenge. Once again, the success of the activity depended on the ability of the students to collaborate and give new things a go. Pleasingly, the students came together again and had a great time.
The day was a great success, and I was proud to see how involved the students were, making the most of their unique opportunity. The program aims to promote inclusion, respectful relationships and of course, maintain the strong relationship we have with Ave Maria College. We look forward to the final day on October 20.
Are your kids inspired by the World Cup and thinking “Who could I become?”
In this September school holiday period the City Football School begins in Essendon, at St Bernard’s College. The City Football School program provides a positive, safe, and exciting learning environment for all kids to increase and fulfil their potential whilst playing beautiful football.
City Football School – school holiday sessions
Camp 1 – Monday 18 & Tuesday 19 Sept
Camp 2 - Thursday 21 & Friday 22 Sept (Girls Only)
Camp 3 – Monday 25 & Tuesday 26 Sept
Times: 9am – 3pm for ages 5 – 14
Location: St Bernard’s College, Rosehill Rd, Essendon West, on the lower synthetic football pitch.
Registration link: https://melbournecityfc.com.au/football-school/school-holiday-camps
Contact: footballschool@melbournecityfc.com.au – Tom Penny
Book Week
Book Week at St Bernard’s College was a big success. The students participated in the various activities organised by the Library Staff. The activities centred around word games, Crack the Code Treasure Chest, daily Scavenger Hunts, Spelling Bees in the English Reading sessions and the SBC Book Week Auction.
It was fantastic to host so many students in the Library. The TLAB Library was abuzz with the students energy and excitement.
This is a team effort, the Library Team were fantastic in bringing Book Week together. A big thank you to Sue Clarke, Kristian Davies, Riley Rodgers, Emma Van Wees, Peter Beckford, Carmel Mula, Mimma Angelidis, Helen Fisher, Francis Camenzuli, Caroline Sheehan, Erin Mepham and Chris Mason your support was very much appreciated.
Year 8 Literacy Festival
On Wednesday, 30 August, the annual Year 8 Literacy Festival was hosted by the library team.
With a fantastic ensemble of author and artist talent, our year 8s were treated to various workshops and activities to help support there literacy skills
A massive thank you to our guests on the day.
Gabriel Bergmoser, Kenny Chan, Toni Jordan, Melissa Keil, Fleur Ferris, Marc Mcbride, Justine Sless, James Phelan Mark Smith John Thron, Mandy Ord and Judy Watson
This week in Food Studies, our Year 10s were challenged to design their own Ethical Meal recipe.
Fantastic results!
Our Year 7s have been creating and observing ecosystems over the past few weeks as part of our science curriculum.
An ecosystem is a collection of living things interacting with each other and with their environment. The living things are called biotic factors. The non-living things are called abiotic factors. When these factors are balanced, an ecosystem can keep functioning indefinitely. The only thing needed from outside the system is sunlight for energy!
Fun-fact: the oldest closed ecosystem was made in 1960 and is still thriving today
In Year 7 Humanities during Semester 2 this year, students have been learning about Ancient Egypt and have covered a range of different topics. Including social hierarchy, warfare, mummification, pyramids, and King Tutankhamen, just to name a few.
As part of this course, some of the students were given the opportunity to be able to mummify and investigate the complexities and importance of this procedure as well as build pyramids and understand the in-depth knowledge required to be able to construct such a wonder.
Well Done boys.
Just a small town girl!
Livin’ in a lonely world.
She took the midnight train going anywh… ehem!
Music at SBC
It has been an absolutely crazy term for the young musicians at St Bernard’s College!
The subject selection evening was buzzing with incredible pieces performed by some of our VCE Music students, and the St Bernard’s College and St Columba’s College Combined Choirs performed brilliantly at the languages assembly on 28 July. Well done and congratulations to all the amazing performances that have taken place so far this term. Please feel free to rewatch the wonderful combined choir performance under the new Music banner on the college website.
On 21 August, students from St Joseph’s College – Ferntree Gully and St Bede’s College – Mentone visited St Bernard’s College to partake in the annal ACC Concert Band workshop. This year, we separated into junior and senior concert bands, and participated in three brilliant workshops conducted by Associate Professors from The University of Melbourne, Mr Don Immel and Dr Joel Brennan. The young men learned all about accurate breathing and articulations and partook in some challenging sight-reading. Thank you to Mr Don Immel and Dr Joel Brennan, the staff and students from St Joseph’s College – Ferntree Gully and St Bede’s College – Mentone, and the staff and students from St Bernard’s College.
Upcoming Events
As the end of the term draws closer and closer, so do the upcoming music events:
6 September – LunchLive performance at Resurrection House
7 September – Spring Concert
12 September - Students involved in the college rockband will have ab ACC Music workshop
13 September – Year 12 VCE Performance Evening
14 September – Year 12 VCE Performance Evening
15 September – The Symphonic Band will perform for the Student Investitures Assembly
Good luck to all the young men involved. These are going to be awesome and unforgotten experiences!
Music Lessons
Signing up for Music lessons for Term 4 have opened on Trybooking and closes on 6 October. Please click on the link to reregister or sign up for music lessons. Any parent/guardian who misses the sign up date or has any questions, please email the Music Administrator, Michelle Puglisi at mpuglisi@sbc.vic.edu.au, or contact the Head of Music, Joshua Romeo at jromeo@sbc.vic.edu.au.
Friends of Music
This term, Friends of Music will be resuming. Friends of Music is an opportunity for parents and members of the St Bernard’s Community to get involved in the music program, and with that contribute to creating as many opportunities as possible for all the young men involved. Looking ahead, it is our hope to raise money for a more diverse collection of innovative instruments. If you would like to join Friends of Music, please email the Head of Music, Joshua Romeo.
The SBC uniform shop is only a click away - now operating via appointments, Please click here to book an appointment or order via our online shop if you know your son's sizes'
Please note that the uniform shop is closed during the school holidays
For all other uniform enquiries, please email rbuhagiar@sbc.vic.edu.au or phone 9289 1176.
The offical St Bernard's beanie is available from our online uniform shop, $25 per beanie with proceeds going to the St Vinnies Winter Sleep Out appeal
Grab one today!
1 in 3 people will need blood…only 1 in 30 donate.
Lifeblood Teams is a fantastic way for family, friends, colleagues, teammates, and communities to band together and give blood- nothing beats the feeling of saving lives together…and you never know when you, or your loved ones, may need Lifeblood.
Aside from genuinely saving lives, Lifeblood Teams is about friendship, inclusive community and a little healthy competition. It’s about lifting spirits and making you proud to be part of something bigger than yourself.
With this in mind, and as they become eligible, we are encouraging the year 12 cohort to consider making their first donation as part of the St Bernard’s College Lifeblood Team.
In celebration of St Bernard’s College 60th Anniversary, we have set an initial goal of
60 donations by 1st November, appealing for donors from our Year 12 students & the wider SBC community- so whether it’s your first time or your 60th, please join our team and donate in the coming weeks.
Group bookings, to donate together with family and friends, can be made online or via the Lifeblood App.
If you’re already a donor and would like your future contributions to be registered with the St Bernard’s College Lifeblood team, please follow instructions here.
For more information about Lifeblood and how to give blood, please click on the links within the flyer below or contact jwilkinson@sbc.vic.edu.au
You’re the Lifeblood of Australia.
Join the St Bernard’s College Lifeblood Team!
* GOAL: 100 donations by 1st November 2023 *
Can I donate blood? Are you 18-75 years old, healthy and weigh over 50kg? Find out if you can donate blood…and start changing lives.
Why donate? You can make a real difference! Read some of the inspiring Lifeblood stories:
Where can I donate? At any Lifeblood centre, the closet centre to the College is
Lifeblood Airport West Donor Centre
93 Matthews Ave,
Airport West
VIC 3042
Have a query or need help registering?
Visit Lifeblood or contact Miss Wilkinson - jwilkinson@sbc.vic.edu.au
Year 12 Students - VTAC Applications Open - Key Date Reminders
VTAC Applications are open for those Year 12 students wanting to apply at a Tertiary Level (University/TAFE) for courses in 2024.
Information of how to set up an account and make a course application has been presented and distributed to students during August.
If your son is yet to create an account (sign up) and complete a course application, then please direct them to go to VTAC Home
Key Dates
28 September 2023 (5pm) – Timely course applications close. After this late fees apply.
6 October 2023 (5pm) – SEAs and Scholarship Applications Close
It is important to note that students can still add and change preferences right up to the 11 December 2023 when results (ATARs) are released and until change of preference closes on 13 December 2023 at 4pm.
Once students have set up an account and completed a course application, they then need to contact Ms Miles (Avila) or Ms Woodhouse (MacKillop, McAuley, Nagle and Rice) to have these checked off.
Other useful information to assist with these applications can be found here;
SEAS - Special consideration and Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS) (vtac.edu.au)
Course search - CourseSearch: Search (vtac.edu.au)
VTAC fact sheets - Guides, fact sheets and worksheets (vtac.edu.au)
On Thursday 24 August, six students from the Year 11 Vocational Major cohort headed to the outer western suburbs to a developing estate called Mt Atkinson.
At Mt Atkinson they met with the Edmund Rice team at their community facility, where we were building and constructing resources for other people to use. These consisted of different obstacles intended for bike riding, including a wooden trail and also, dirt jumps. Between the six of us, we split up into three groups of two and we were all working on something different with the Mt Atkinson staff, Michael and Andrew supervising and helping us. It was a good, sunny day so it made being outside more enjoyable and we brought a speaker to listen to music while we were working. Overall, it was a fun day to be outside and as a collective we all put our workplace skills to use, and all contributed something different to a community. The project with Mt Atkinson will be an ongoing one for the VCE-Vocational Major students.
Student doing one or more scored Unit 3 & 4 Subjects.
Unit 3 & 4 Exam Parent Information Evening – online Wednesday 11 October, 7.00pm. Microsoft Teams link to follow in a letter to be sent early in term 4. Important information covered on the evening will include:- exam process and protocols, what to do in the event of absence or illness during exams and how to register to get results.