Monday 21 March was Harmony Day for 2022 and this year Braemar College will be celebrating Harmony Day on Tuesday 5 April. Harmony Day is a day that is celebrated across Australia where individuals are encouraged to share and celebrate their cultural identities. There will be a variety of activities running throughout the final week of Term 1 to help celebrate Harmony Day.

Tuesday 5 April will also be a casual clothes day for the whole school. Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation on the day which will be collected as they arrive on the buses in the morning. The funds from this casual clothes day will be raised to support the NSW & QLD Flood Relief.

Some may have noticed smoke in the air near the Mt Macedon Campus. Last week the College was notified of a planned burn by Forest Fire Management (FFM) Victoria. The objective is listed as providing the highest level of localised protection to human life, property, and community assets identified as highly valued including Braemar College.

The controlled burn took place between Waterworks Road and Mt Macedon Road, below the Mt Macedon Campus. There have been planned burns undertaken both above and below the Mt Macedon campus in past years.

The air on the Mt Macedon campus was quite smoky and there was some residual smell in the buildings when classes resume after the long weekend.

We are grateful for the work undertaken by FFM to manage the vegetation around our College.

Our Parents and Friends Association have a traditional Bulb Fundraiser they usually hold each year during Term 1. Unfortunately, due to COVID, there is currently a shortfall in bulb supply across Victoria. This, combined with other workforce shortages, has meant that suppliers in Victoria aren’t able to offer this activity to schools and other organisations that might usually run this. Therefore, the College won’t be running our usual Bulb Fundraiser this year.

We do, however, have some exciting plans for connecting with our parents and friends through the construction of the new multipurpose hall. More details will be shared in the new term.

Introducing our Braemar College Pre-Loved Uniform Opportunity Shop.

Over the years, we end up with quite a collection of ‘lost property’ uniform items across both campuses. We always make every effort to reunite the items with their owner and certainly make sure that anything labelled finds its way home, however, we invariably end up with items that can’t be identified and that aren’t claimed. We also occasionally have uniform items donated back to the College after students have finished.

So…we’ve sorted through these unclaimed, unnamed, and donated items and created an online shop so that they can have a new life, with all proceeds going to our Parents and Friends’ Association.

Click here to take a look at what’s available – the items range from blazers to winter skirts, and PE items to hats.

Just don’t forget to label your purchases with their new owner’s name when you get them home!

We also have a Buy, Swap, Sell Group on Facebook for parents and community members to sell and share College uniform items and resources between themselves.

It’s a private group that requires a few membership questions to be answered before you can join.

Click here to check it out.

The first set of our Parent-Teacher Conferences took place over the last fortnight for both Middle and Senior School. Thank you to those families who got involved.

This year we have continued the format of having six-minute, virtual sessions; this was something that was originally introduced during the pandemic but was found to be beneficial for both parents and teachers, especially in terms of scheduling/transit. We understand that for some this time frame might not seem like enough, but in general we’ve found it to be successful in providing a quick touchpoint with your child(ren)’s teachers and a chance to see and speak to them (rather than via email or SEQTA).

The best way to ensure you get the most out of your sessions is to stay across the notes and feedback left in SEQTA. Using SEQTA means that – unlike in previous generations – our families and teachers have the ability for two-way communication whenever required. This alleviates the need for lengthy parent teacher sessions because everyone is usually already quite familiar with what’s going on in class.

If you have any specific feedback following the first set of Parent-Teacher Conferences, we encourage you to email your Heads of School so that it can be shared with the College Leadership Team.

The Exeat Program is a great experience with a long history at the College. The programs are carefully designed to suit each year level and provide opportunities for the students to connect with one another, learn new skills, foster personal development, and engage with their broader environment. It’s a program that’s been greatly missed over the past two years, but one that we’re very excited to be able to recommence in 2022. A range of changes have been made to the 2022 Exeat Program to allow it to go ahead and to ensure our students have a successful and safe experience. 

The Year 9 to 12 Exeat Program will be taking place in the next few weeks before we finish Term 1. We have made a range of changes to the Exeat Program for 2022 to ensure that it can go ahead and provide all students with the opportunity to take part in the offsite, overnight programs.

The structure of the week has changed (specific information was shared directly with families of Year 9-12 students via SEQTA in the first week of March), with the Year 9-11 programs taking place over the three days of Tuesday 29 March to Thursday 31 March, while our Year 12 students will have Exeat Programs scheduled for the entire week (28 March to 1 April).

We ask that you refer to the SEQTA email from Sunday 6 March for more specific information around the logistics of the program, including COVID-safe practices and RAT requirements, and continue to stay across any further communications via SEQTA or Operoo.

Due to the pandemic, recent world events in the Ukraine and the impacts of the floods in Queensland and NSW, the world we now live in is a very different place. The hyperconnected nature of our current environment means that we are constantly being reminded of the challenges we face via numerous media and social media channels. Our connectivity to the digital world exposes us to a barrage of messages that can leave us feeling overwhelmed. As a result, many children and their parents are reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety.

Unfortunately, our brains have not evolved fast enough to adapt to this digital landscape. The combination of constant access to information and having little control over the situations presented can be stressful and overwhelming. Therefore, it is important for adult carers to check in with their children and be aware of what information they may have been exposed to. It may not necessarily be the information itself that is harmful, but more their inability to process and make sense of it. Providing children with the skills and strategies to cope will enable them to flourish and thrive, socially, emotionally, and academically.

The blueprint for parenting, based on our own experiences, is no longer fit for purpose in raising kids as citizens of tomorrow. This can be inherently stressful and overwhelming, not only for parents and carers, but children alike. If left untreated or unmanaged, constant stress and anxiety can lead to several behavioural issues or health consequences.

This edition of SchoolTV suggests a number of strategies to help manage any feelings of overwhelm that you or your child may be experiencing. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this month’s edition, and we always welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Emma Grant
Dean of Wellbeing and Culture

For this Staff Spotlight, we’re excited to introduce Mr Jordan Kirk. Mr Kirk joined us part-way through last year and is based at our Middle School Campus. Jordan has been teaching for around eight years – both in the classroom and HPE – and he is the Campus Sport Coordinator at Braemar.

Mr Kirk lives with his wife and young daughter and their dog, Barnaby. Barnaby is a Maremma, if you haven’t heard of them, look them up…they’re big, beautiful, teddy-bear-looking dogs, like a giant golden retriever! Mr Kirk tells us he spends most of his time outside of school with his family and catching up with mates…when he’s not playing basketball or golf or heading to the gym.

Mr Kirk’s main goals for this year are around supporting our students to get back into good routines and re-develop positive habits (both physically and mentally) following all the interruptions and lockdowns of the last few years.

Thanks for sharing with us Mr Kirk!