We’ve effectively missed the first term of winter uniform at Braemar this year, however it’s important that families and students are prepared for next term as all students will be expected to wear full and correct winter uniform from the first day of term.

As we continue through the pandemic, orders are only available to be placed online. Click here to visit the uniform shop website and place an order.

Click and Collect will be available throughout the first and third weeks of the holiday break, between 10am and 3pm, to the Woodend Campus only. NOTE: There will be no opportunity for Click and Collect during the second week.

Over the past fortnight, we have held a number of ‘coffee with the Principal’ catch-ups. These are traditionally held in cafes in our surrounding towns, however this year these were hosted as zoom meetings. Thank you to the parents who came along; it was great – as always – to have interesting and engaged conversations with parents in this relaxed setting.

We anticipate further opportunities for these relaxed ‘catch-ups’ later in the year; hopefully we’ll be able to resume our café settings and enjoy our beautiful local shire together. Details will be shared later in the year.

It’s around this time each year that we see a number of changes in our Braemar community; with new families joining us, families moving on, and changes in staff. Thank you to those staff who have helped by covering position over the past terms, we wish you the best for your next ventures, and welcome back to a few familiar faces following periods of leave.

Two of our most well-known faces around the College, Mrs Dianne Boustead and Mrs Ros Shipp, have announced their intentions to retire. Dianne will be finishing with the College at the end of this year, while Ros will continue through until the end of 2021. Though they aren’t leaving us just yet, we wish to share our congratulations to both of these wonderful leaders on this exciting new stage of their lives; we are lucky to have them with the College for over 50 years, collectively (Ros has been at Braemar for over 35 years, and Di, for over 21).

To those new families joining us for the first time in Term 3, we look forward to welcoming you to the College and making you part of our Braemar Community.

As we are all too aware, this year has been a strange one. One area of our ‘normal’ College life that has been significantly impacted, is our College Service Scheme. Usually, there are many opportunities for parents and families to get involved and support the College by contributing their time towards a variety of activities. This year, unfortunately, many of these activities have been cancelled.

Restrictions allowing, we anticipate being able to recommence and hold a number of College Service Scheme events and activities in the second half of the year that will allow families to accrue their hours. There will, of course, be some tasks that will be different or that will still not be possible, but activities such as outdoor working bees should be able to recommence.

As we understand the difficulties posed by this year’s events, if you are unable to accrue your College Service hours this year, it will be possible to carry them over into next year.

If you have any questions, please contact Wendy at css@braemar.vic.edu.au.

Another edition of the Braemar Buzz will be published towards the very end of the three-week break with further details regarding Term 3 specifics, however the details below are worth noting.

Tuckshop/Food Van – we are working towards having these facilities open for the commencement of Term 3, with more details and confirmation to come in week three of the break.

First Day – Monday 13 July is the first day of Term 3. Despite this previously being scheduled as a pupil-free day, this has now been cancelled and class will commence on Monday 13 July with Day 1 of the Semester Two timetable.

A reminder for those in our Braemar Community that during the second week of our winter break the College (both campuses) will be completely closed. There will be no staff on site (reception will also be closed) and there will be no access to any buildings or lockers.

The term dates for 2021 have now been confirmed. These have been published to the College website and will be reflected in the College Calendar shortly.

Term 1

29/1/21 – 1/4/21

Term 2

19/4/21 – 18/6/21

Term 3

13/7/21 – 17/9/21

Term 4

4/10/21 – 10/12/21

Public Holidays (term-time)

Australia Day – 26/1/21

Labor Day – 8/3/21

Good Friday – 2/4/21

Easter Monday – 5/4/21

Anzac Day Holiday – 25/4/21

Queen’s Birthday – 14/6/21

Mid Term Break – 1/11/21

We have commenced meetings, conversations, and introductions with our 2022 new students and families. This year, we held our traditional pre-enrolment sessions via webinar. The new student cohort for 2022 is primarily made up of new Year 5s and 7s, though we also have students enrolled to commence in year levels across the College.

Once again, we were very pleased with the success of taking this process online. It was fantastic to have so many people join us – over 170 attendees in total – as we introduced the Leadership Team, discussed the structure of our schools, and began to familiarise our new families with what they can expect from life at Braemar. Our College Captains also got involved, introducing themselves and welcoming our new families.

These webinars were a great – and timely – reminder of all the positive things to come for the College in the future.

We are saddened to share of the passing of Roger Cotton.

Roger was a member of the Braemar College Board, commencing in 2013. He retired from the Board, but continued to be a larger-than-life character within our community.

Roger made an outstanding contribution to the College in supporting Russell Deer and Brad Sims (Business Manager) in work on the College’s constitution and in the negotiations and progress of the purchase of the land that is now home to our Middle School Campus.

Roger’s wife, June and their family and extended families, survive him, and we send our thoughts and prayers.