This year our classroom has felt like a great learning space—a place to listen, share and extend our understanding about diversity in our school and the wider community. Having students from diverse backgrounds made it a richer and deeper learning experience for us all.

Highlights include: learning about Uncle Jack Charles’ life in Community Services and then meeting him as a class at the Bendigo Library. Having Daniel Lomani share his refugee experience first-hand with the Community Services class. And the networking opportunity extended to VCAL from Free Wheeling Fun.

Our Community Services mantra is from a Shane Howard song titled “Flesh amd Blood”

Walk with me, talk with me, tell me your stories,

I will do my best to understand you, you’re flesh and blood”
Sue Pickles

 

 

It has been very rewarding working alongside Kerry Weymouth and Rhonda Pithie and the GLLEN to support the introduction of the VCAA Structured Workplace Learning Pilot this year at BSSC. It has been great to see the growth in our participating students, Lachlan Brown and Gnaden Kelly, as they discussed their workplace experiences with their employers Ken McCulloch (McCulloch Hydraulic Engineers) and Kevin Walsh (Walsh & O’Meara Builders), reflecting on their learnings to refine their pathway planning for positive future developments.

Jenny Moloney

 

I am so honoured to be able to work with a passionate team of people in BSSC Confucius Classroom Program which caters for the learning of Chinese language and culture of more than 3500 students across 25 schools in Bendigo in 2017.

One of the highlights has been engaging our students through our high quality and consistent curriculum, as well as a wide range of cultural events throughout the year—such as Chinese Culture Day, Cultural Exchange Day, Excursions, International Study Tours, Chinese Speaking Competition, etc. All these can’t be achieved without our dedicated Chinese teachers.

Another highlight is that more than thirty awards have been achieved by the international students throughout the year, recognising their work and effort in areas such as attendance, community service, academic achievement, leadership, science competition, maths competition, etc. Thanks to all the teachers who contributed to make BSSC such an inclusive and diverse learning environment where students from different backgrounds can achieve their highest potential.

Juncai Lin