Berwick News – 17 May 2018

Mobile Phone Policy

Late last year the executive team updated the Mobile Phone policy at St. Francis Xavier College. The policy is designed to reflect today’s educational landscape. In recent times the types of, and nature of, mobile phones students have access to have dramatically increased. St Francis Xavier College encourages the use of new and changing technologies in learning: the mobile phone has become one of the most influential advancements in technology over the past decade. Its use in the classroom and in learning is encouraged however; we should give consideration to how it is used as a tool for learning.

It is also important to note that there are differences reflected in the policy between expectations for students at Senior School level and those outlined for the 7-9 Campuses at Berwick and Officer.

Essentially, at Berwick the new policy highlights:

• Students may carry mobile phones with them at school and have them in their possession during classes.
• Students may use mobile phones in class for learning purposes with the permission of their class teacher.
• Students are still not permitted to use mobile phones at recess or lunchtime

Students that repeatedly misuse their mobile phone risk having it confiscated whereby it may be collected from Student Services at the end of the day.

Students that elect to bring their mobile phone to school do so at their own risk and the college accepts no responsibility for any damage or loss that may occur.

Parents are encouraged to not text their children during class time. If a student needs to call their parents urgently, they are asked to seek permission from their class teacher to go to Student Services to make the call.

Casey Tech School Update

The Casey Tech School is an innovative project undertaken by the City of Casey Council to create learning spaces with state of the art STEAM facilities for students from neighbouring schools to access for short periods throughout the school year. College Principal – Vin Feeney is a member of the Casey Tech School Board.

We have a number of students that are currently working with staff member Peter Collingwood and are attending regular planning days. More recently, 21 local students and three teachers took part in Workshop in April, testing an Enterprise Program curriculum.

This was held at Chisholm’s Berwick Campus and Year 9 and 10 students prototyped and pitched solutions to local industry and community problems, including; ‘How can biometric technologies and/or virtual reality be used to empower young Australians, so that they can improve and self-regulate their health and wellbeing?’, and ‘How can the Casey community harness renewable energy through public spaces to contribute to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the Casey region?’

Students also enjoyed learning about enterprise skills in masterclasses run by Sarah Fenton from the Foundation for Young Australians.

Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to sending more students to further test the curriculum at the next workshop in late May.

Student Well-Being – Darren Pereira

Recently, both Year 7 and 9 students were paid a visit by guest speaker Mr. Darren Pereira. He spoke to the Year 7’s about the importance of having a positive mindset, that the ability to learn is not fixed and can be developed like any other skill. Darren also highlighted the importance of gratitude, of continually finding things that we are thankful for in our everyday lives promotes healthy well-being.

They Year 9 session mainly focused on the essence of Leadership. Darren challenged students to think of effective leaders they know and list the behaviours they observe in these leaders. Darren also took time to unpack what it means to work towards a ‘Culture of Excellence.’

Sessions like these are invaluable to our students in the name of well-being and development of self. Thanks to Ms. Nadia Liu who organised Darren’s beneficial visit with our students.

Campus Captains Report – 21 Day Benefit Mindset Challenge

On Friday 20 April, the Berwick campus begun the Benefit Mindset Challenge for three weeks, which was designed to help students to understand how your own individual wellbeing can be enhanced by doing good deeds for others. Throughout the three weeks, we saw the students step up to the challenge to help make a difference in our school and lift the spirits.

The staff and the students enabled simple acts of kindness such as holding the door open for someone, offering help to someone struggling with work, giving someone a compliment and many other acts.

As a result, it became clear that simple actions like these can make a difference to someone who is struggling with something. We were glad to see such an active participation by the whole campus and everyone showing the attributes of kindness, positivity and inclusivity in our school community.

Good deeds included:

Ellie Keysers: Held open door for me

Alana Perrone: Picked up rubbish off the ground in the yard

Grace Sajn: Helped Ms Maher carry her books back to her office after class.

Christopher Oats: Offered to help others that are struggling with Japanese

Valentina Grisales: Opened door for 20 people

Mr Collingwood: Bought accessories for all the ninjas

Kobe Trimble: Put away all of the class’s forks in food tech

Phoebe Newman: Picked up rubbish in class and placed it in the bin

Ms Furness: Taught her Care Group how to do Triple Jump for the upcoming Athletics carnival.

Rose Duffy: Wrote an email to Ms Penman saying how awesome she was.

Thomas Mills: Helped film a video for the positive mindset video

Andjelina Gnjidic and Adam Marshall

Berwick Campus Captains

Complaints and Grievances Management Policy – Update

The Catholic Education Office in Sale has revised the Complaints and Grievances Management Policy. This policy provides information as to how parents / guardians can make a complaint to the College if they have concerns about the education of their child. The Catholic Education Office of Sale encourages parents / guardians who have a complaint, in the first instance should make the complaint to the school that their child attends, except when the complaint is about the principal of the school. Complaints about school principals should be referred to the Executive Manager Industrial Relations/Human Resources at the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Sale (CEOSale) who will assist in finding an appropriate solution.

For further information, please see our website under https://www.sfx.vic.edu.au/our-school/policies/