In 2023, the College is celebrating a significant milestone in its rich history. Don’t miss out on a wonderful evening! Tickets on sale now…

Celebrate 60 Years of educational excellence in Essendon!

Come together as a community to celebrate with a Diamond Dinner.
 

Tickets on sale now!

The Diamond Dinner will take place on Saturday, 26 August 2023, at the Victoria Pavilion, Showgrounds. This promises to be an unforgettable evening for our alumni, parents, staff and guests from the College community. It is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends to reminisce and look back on 60 years at Essendon. The Diamond Dinner invites you to partake in a 3-course dinner, engage with a live 6-piece band; so put on your dancing shoes, and there are even great door prizes up for grabs thanks to our wonderful sponsors.

To purchase tickets or book a table (10), please click on this link Diamond Dinner or scan the QR code.
 

For further enquiries please contact Mr Craig Osborne (Email: cosborne@sbc.vic.edu.au / Ph: 9289 1000

Author Gabriel Bergmoser will be conducting an author talk and writing workshop which will be held at St Bernard’s Essendon campus for on Wednesday 17th May. Bookings are open, email Ms Gale Jgale@sbc.vic.edu.au by Wednesday 10th May if your son would like to come along. The writing workshop will be taking place during period 3 and 4 with morning tea provided for participants. Gabe has written The inheritance, The hunted, The true colour of little white lies and the Boone Shepard mystery series.

His books are thriller, suspense mysteries which have twists that you will not see coming. Gabe has also created a mystery web-series called The pact. If your son is interested in meeting authors or would like to enhance his writing skills this workshop will be a great opportunity, especially if he would like to enter the short story competition later on this year. Gabriel Bergmoser will be a welcome presence in the St Bernard's author series for 2023.

Any questions please contact Ms Jacqui Gale Jgale@sbc.vic.edu.au

200,000 Word Challenge

The students from Year 7 to Year 10 cohorts will be engaging in the 2,000,00 word reading challenge. Each class will be challenged to read 2,000,000 words. The first class to reach 2,000,000 words will win the major prize, a lunch for the class hosted in the Library by the Library and English Staff. There will be individual prizes to be won for effort. To be eligible each person within the class will have to have completed a book.

The Rotary Clubs of East Keilor & Essendon are proud to present the 9th Moonee Valley Art Show this year.

For the second year, the Show will be staged at the College!

The Moonee Valley Art Show is open to the public and will be held this year on the weekend of 20-21 May, commencing with a Gala Opening Preview on Friday 19 May 2023 at St Bernard’s College.

Growing each year in stature and reputation, the Moonee Valley Art Show provides a fantastic opportunity for established and aspiring artists to exhibit and sell their artwork. Additionally, this year new art forms such as photography, sculpture and ceramics will be included, and we are very excited that for the first-time secondary school artists will have their own category to exhibit and sell their artwork.

Sponsors are key to the success of this annual event!

Sponsorship of MVAS is a terrific opportunity to align yourself or your business with a well-respected, prestigious cultural community event. Sponsorship benefits include broad brand exposure through our comprehensive event marketing and communication support strategy, which includes social, radio and print media, billboards, catalogue advertising and event signage
 

All funds raised from the MVAS 2023 will be used by the Rotary Clubs of Essendon and Keilor East to implement a number of local and overseas community projects. A listing of the projects undertaken across the two Rotary Clubs in 2021-2022 is below.
 

2023 Sponsors Benefits & Levels

Funding Community Service Programs
 

Sponsor Application Form

The Ladies Night is back for 2023 - More details and tickets to be released soon but mark the date, June 16!

Term Two is upon us, and it is an exciting one!

Already two weeks into the term, the sound of music has boomed right through our doors. Lessons have resumed and ensemble rehearsals have started again. Next week will mark an incredible start to the history of St Bernard’s College. Not only will Super Seven’s begin next Wednesday morning, but the SBC Drumline will have their very first rehearsal on Wednesday 3rd of May at 7:30am. If your son is interested in joining one of the college ensembles or would like to have lessons, they are highly encouraged to meet and speak with one of the staff members in the music department.

Students are highly encouraged to be a part of one of the college ensembles if they are having music lessons. Joining an ensemble is a wonderful experience that allows your son to develop not only new friendships but challenge their own musical skills. Also, there are a number of performance opportunities your son is welcome to participate in; including all year ACC Music events, the Music Soiree Performance Evening and a collaborative concert with St Columba’s College later this term. It is also highly encouraged that if a student is also interested in joining an ensemble but are not currently undertaking lessons, to register, so they can study their ensemble music more carefully with one of the private instrumental teachers.

Trybooking is still open for you to enroll or re-enroll your son into private instrumental lessons for term 2, and will close on the 12th of May. If you would like to enroll/re-enroll your son into music lessons, please click on the link, https://www.trybooking.com/CGOPK. If you have any questions regarding private instrumental lessons, please contact the Music Administrator, Michelle Puglisi at MPuglisi@sbc.vic.edu.au.

There are a number of instrument lessons offered at St Bernard’s College, including:

Piano and Voice

Brass

• Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Tuba, Euphonium

Woodwind

• Flute, Clarinet, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophone

Percussion

• Drumkit and pitched percussion

In addition to this, St Bernard’s College offers a variety of lesson options, including:

• Year 7 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Paired (2 students 30 min lesson)

• Year 8 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Paired (2 students 30 min lesson)

• Year 9 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Paired (2 students 30 min lesson)

• Year 10 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Comprehensive (1 student 60 min lesson)

• Year 11 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Comprehensive (1 student 60 min lesson)

• Year 12 Student: Regular (1 student 30 min lesson) or Comprehensive (1 student 60 min lesson)

Please note that if there is no other student to pair lessons with, 15-minute weekly lessons or 30-minute fortnightly lessons will be offered for your son instead. This arrangement can be discussed with your son and his tutor.

Term Two is prepping up to be fantastic music experience. Already, the College Symphonic Band has performed in front of the entire school community for the ANZAC Day Ceremony on Friday 28th of April, and a few VCE Music students played a live performance at the Melbourne State Library for the SBC Induction into the Hall of Fame Gala Evening. Next week, the VCE Music class will also perform live for the Edmund Rice Day celebration on the ovals. It is going to be an incredible performance.

There are a number of major music performances and events coming up this term:

More details regarding each of the college events will be addressed in the coming weeks.

Finally, Friends of Music will be starting on May 9th. Friends of Music is a wonderful 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 not only a more diverse collection of instruments, but for a national and international trip within the next few years. If you would like to join Friends of Music, please email the Head of Music, Joshua Romeo at JRomeo@sbc.vic.edu.au.

Joshua Romeo

Head of Music

We were privileged to have Georgia from Edmund Rice Community Refugee Services visit us on our 'Colours for Compassion' Day at the end of last Term. Georgia addressed all of our Year 12 School-Based RE classes to talk about the St Alban's Tutoring Program that our boys participate in each Term, as well as ways that they can continue showing compassion for our wider Edmund Rice community beyond the school gates.

In this week's Echoes from the Archives, we'd like to take the opporuntity to congratulation Ms Maureen Kavanagh on her induction to the SBC Hall of Fame.

Maureen's 3 wonderful children, Elise, Bryce and Shane, accepted the nomination on her behalf at a Gala Dinner last Friday, 28 April - Maureen would have been exceptionally proud.

Congratulations Maureen - Immortalised in the SBC Hall of Fame

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

A great turn out for the first day of cross country training to start the 2023 season. More than fifty boys took part in the relatively easy first session as the aim in this early part of the season is to just build strength and confidence before the harder work begins. Training for the first three weeks will be all from the senior campus each Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Those boys intending to train should meet in O'Brien Hall at 6.50 am on those days.

Re: Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

· year of schooling

· category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional

· level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

· formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools

· consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools

· develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

Information sheet is available by clicking here

Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the Learning Enhancement and Diversity Leader – Jeanette Shine- jshine@sbc.vic.edu.au

The Religious Education Department have subscribed to Australian Catholics, enabling parents, students and teachers to access all their online resources created on topics of faith, religion and spirituality.

On the flyers attached, read about the resource for families at home, but also students in the classroom. Our RE teachers will be looking at incorporating their material where relevant in their courses.

For individuals wanting to access this resource from home, the login details are:

Access for parents

parents@sbc.vic.edu.au

Password: acparents
Any number of users can be logged in at the same time.

AC for Parents - Information Flyer

Access for students
students@sbc.vic.edu.au

Password: acstudents
Any number of users can be logged in at the same time.

If there are any issues, anyone can contact Mrs Siobhan Loukomitis sloukomitis@sbc.vic.edu.au who will liaise with Australian Catholics to resolve it promptly.   

AC for Students - Information Flyer

On Thursday May 4, St Bernard’s competed in the ACC Debating and Public Speaking Tournament, the inaugural Open event for any year level. – very exciting initiative by the ACC, especially as our senior speakers have historically stopped competitive speech tournaments at the end of Year 10.

We fielded two debating teams of six speakers each, (in the same division unfortunately) and one team of four public speakers. It was a very enjoyable yet nerve-wracking day for all involved, but the reward and experience were worth it.

Our debaters prepared the topic for the first debate, ‘That the government should ban the purchasing of property for investment.’ With two teams, one preparing each case, the affirmative and negative, we were able to run mock debates in the lead up, which proved helpful.

The two teams also prepared for the advised topic of ‘education’, preparing for a range of possibilities, with the topic eventually being ‘That schools should not teach history older than 70 years.’ This second-round saw St Bernard’s One debate drawn to compete against St Bernard’s Two, and as luck would have it, St Bernard’s One, won!

The final debate of the day, was a totally secret topic, and with only 30 minutes to prepare, both teams argued the affirmative, ‘That criminals should not be allowed to publish books or movies about their crimes.’

At the end of the day, our debaters really enjoyed the opportunity to compete with other students and are proud of their efforts and their placing. Congratulations to:

St Bernard’s College One:

Felix O’Kane Yr 12

Samuel Scodella Yr 11

Lucas Ciavarella Yr 10

Patrick Currie Yr 10

Hayden McDonald Yr 10

Xavier Spehar Yr 10

St Bernard’s College Two:

Vincent Dong Yr 11

Jakob Glenk Yr 11

William Hellwig Yr 11

Jack MacMillan Yr 11

Lucas McKinnon Yr 11

Suny Trimboli Yr 11

Our public speakers competed in two rounds, a prepared and an impromptu.

Firstly, a prepared 6-minute speech on a variety of different topics for the judge’s consideration – from the plight of Millennials as opposed to Gen Z, to the need to make teaching of tax preparation and economics compulsory to Year 12, the importance of knowing your learning style, and calling for change to our educational system.

In the second round, the public speakers had five minutes to prepare an impromptu speech on unseen topics – a real challenge. The choices of prompts were:

• Lucky

• Supernatural

• What’s in a name?

• What is the best thing since sliced bread?

Overall, our four public speakers presented very well, and in the impromptu round showed flair and humour in their presentations.
 

Congratulations to:

Jhonathan Andres Yr 9

Kristian Vorrias Yr 9

Edward Heath Yr 12

Nicholas Kabiotis Yr 12

All of our students, both debaters and public speakers, are to be congratulated for putting their hand up to represent the College. We are very proud for fielding so many competitors and grateful for their time and effort prior to and on the day of the event.

Special thanks to Mr Carlos Tinsey, Mr Sean Pieper and Ms Siobhan Loukomitis for their organisation and support of the students.

DAV Debating Rounds 1-3
 

Last Monday 1st May, the College hosted Round 3 of the Debating Association of Victoria Schools Competition for the Essendon Region. Each year the College hosts all five rounds, and it is just wonderful to feel the positive buzz around the campus with students, teachers and families from all around the area arriving to compete in a very friendly and engaging atmosphere.

To take the heat off senior students, rounds 3, 4 and 5 are traditionally the rounds where Year 11 and 12 teams have a secret topic, with one hour to prepare. The topics last Monday were interesting!

• A grade (Year 12) was cancelled due to a lot of illness across the area.

• B grade (Year 11) debated ‘That streaming services, like Netflix, should show more non-fiction content than fiction content.’

• C grade (Year 10) on an advised topic of Technology, argued ‘That there should be a licence to use the internet.’

The commitment of all the debating students and coaches, the late nights, the lunchtime meetings, and the remote document collaboration have demonstrated such willingness to work closely as team members, all vested in the common goal of putting their best foot forward. It has been a joy to see them develop strong social bonds.

Some of the highlights over the first three rounds include:

• The new debating students from Year 8 have hit the ground running. After watching the first round of debates in early March, they worked very well together in preparation for Round two, delivering a mock debate in front of St Bernard’s Debating students and coaches, after school; a new, yet safe environment to launch their public speaking skills. Their speeches served as inspiration for Year nine students who were working on the very same topic that night, and thus, the year eights were able to influence and inspire from their very first attempt. Not only this, but with such an experienced audience, they were able to receive some very productive and constructive feedback. We look forward to hearing from them in Round 4 May 22nd, for their next mock debate. Congratulations to: Oskar Crnognorac, Caden Daly, Shawne Essendi, Julian Filippone, Jeremy Sevenson , Kaelan Perera

• A new initiative this year, which has been incredible to witness, is the invitation accepted by our A grade debaters of 2022, whose camaraderie, dedication and generosity of spirit, saw them take time out of their busy university schedules to visit Resurrection House regularly and support Ms Ziino with the two Year 9 Debating teams. Not only have they dropped into Resurrection House during the week but also for hours on debate night, supporting the year nines helping them refine their arguments and providing encouraging advice to help improve their presentation skills. We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Old Collegians Thomas Alessandrini, Taj La Fontaine and Andre Lensjak.

In the front row, one of our D grade teams who won their debate by 4 points on Monday May 1st from the left:

Thomas Antonius, Jhonathan Andres, Kristian Vorrias

In the back row, from the left, ‘Year 13’ Debating Mentors, Old Collegians:

Thomas Alessandrini, Andre Lesnjak and Taj La Fontaine.

Representing the College with pride, our debating students have been gracious in both victory and defeat, in the presence of very supportive families who regularly come along to watch their son develop his critical thinking and verbal reasoning skills.

We wish them very well for the last two remaining rounds and encourage any student who has thought about joining, to answer the call next year because students learn so much, developing their confidence in each round they put themselves forward to debate.

After successfully completing our first term at Resurrection House, students have started well settling into Term Two and the busyness that Year 9 brings. Some highlights from the first fortnight include 9E having a Mountain Biking day at the You Yangs, Mr Wilson running a Star Wars day on May 4th, students participating in the Anzac Day assembly and of course, Edmund Rice Day.

The ACC season also began this week and the results are as follows:

Badminton

SBC 11 Matches, 33 Sets d Simonds 1 Match, 3 Sets

Soccer Division 1

SBC 3 d St Joseph’s Geelong 2

Soccer Division 2

SBC 4 d De La Salle 1

Football Division 1

Whitefriars 12 8 80 d SBC 6 8 44

Football Division 2

SBC 17 15 107 d Whitefriars 7 5 47

Well done to all the boys that are representing the college in the ACC this term on your great start to your seasons.

We finished the week by joining with the rest of the St Bernard’s community by participating in the Edmund Rice Day Mass, solidarity walk and activities. It was great to come back to Essendon and to re-join the wider community, where we had great weather for the solidarity walk, and we raised awareness and funds for our friends at the Edmund Rice Catholic Education Centre in Kenya.

Looking forward to next week, where 9C begin their Urban Engagement program and 9F continue the second week of their Santa Monica experience. At Resurrection House, we will be having a Year Level assembly on Monday and on Thursday we will be participating in the incursion called The Storey Players, which is a charitable organisation, whose principal mission is to empower kids through drama workshops and storytelling activities to strengthen their self-confidence and increase their literacy skills.

On Friday, our school portraits are taken, so all students are reminded to be in full winter uniform. On the Monday following (May 15), we are having a full Year Nine photo, so it is again important that all students are in their full winter uniform for that day.

A renewed focus will also be made on the Year 9 Certificate over the next fortnight, where students will be reminded of their responsibility to complete all requirements of the four action domains, being Community Connectedness, Physical and Personal Challenge, Academic and Organisational, and An Eye to the Future. Students are again encouraged to step out so they comfort zone and achieve as much as they can this year.

Until next time

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.