Congratulations to all students as we approach the final weeks of Term 1. Students have been provided with a range of opportunities and experiences for real life learning, evident through their class work, excursions, incursions, camps and activities. Many students have been applying themselves diligently over the term and have made a positive start to the 2023 school year.

Harmony Week
A recent student led initiative with a range of activities to celebrate Harmony Week. The week consisted of student vs staff sport matches, cultural dress up, lunchtime cultural dance and music performance, cookie flag decorating, trivia, daily prayers in different languages and creation of a specific pastoral lesson. The activities certainly generated interest and engagement amongst the students with several commenting “we can’t wait to do this again next year”. Sincere thanks to the student leaders for their time, efforts and creativity in organising a fantastic week with the support of Miss Perkin and to the many students and staff who took part.

Uniform
A reminder to all students and families that the College blazer is required to be worn to and from school in Term 2 and 3. To assist students in creating this habit I will be asking students to please wear their blazer to Homeroom. Over the holidays students are asked to be mindful when thinking about additional piercings and hair styles/colours that do not meet the College dress requirements. Students are permitted to have one piercing in each ear lobe and any additional piercing is to be a clear, flat insert only. Permitted hair colours are natural colours only. Thank you for your support of our College uniform policy.

Respectful Relationships
The Department of Education has engaged ACIL Allen to undertake an evaluation of the Respectful Relationships initiative. Respectful Relationships education is a core component of the Victorian Curriculum from foundation to Year 12. It is all about embedding a culture of respect and equality across the entire school community.

The evaluation will:

• support continual improvement and successful project management of Respectful Relationships by assessing its reach and effectiveness
• measure the changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours supported by the whole of school approach to respectful relationships education in Victorian schools.

As our school participates in the Respectful Relationships initiative, staff and students have been invited to take part in a short survey about the initiative. This survey will aim to track changes in perceptions and attitudes over time.

Students will have the opportunity to complete the survey over the last two weeks of Term 1. Participation is voluntary and there is no obligation for your child to be involved. Students can stop participating at any point during the survey, and they do not have to answer any of the questions if they do not want to. Students will be reminded of supports available at school (teachers, Year Level Coordinator, Wellbeing Team members) and external support services should they wish to access any assistance. Please feel free to contact me at the College if you have any queries or concerns.

School bag reminder and tips
The College school bag is the only permitted bag that students should be using for school. In addition to being a school requirement, the back pack has features that support its use as a recommended school bag. It is important that students use the school bag correctly for their health and wellbeing.

The Australian Physiotherapy Association recommendations include

• Use school backpacks with wide shoulder straps that sit well on the shoulder. Students should not carry the bag on one shoulder.
• Use waist and chest straps to help transfer some of the load to the hips and pelvis.
• A padded back-support will allow the pack to fit ‘snugly’ on the back.
• Be aware that moderately weighted backpacks are not detrimental to students back health however monitor how heavy your child’s bag is. Discuss with your child about only bringing home books that they need to access for homework.
• Avoid swinging backpacks around.

Wishing all students and their families a safe and happy Easter period.

Year 7 Camps
Our Year 7 Camps which ran from the 6-10 March were a great success with all students experiencing all that Camp Manyung in Mt Eliza had to offer. The camp experience assists in educating students wholistically. They develop a whole range of skills including communication and leadership, while developing new relationships with their peers and staff.

Year 8 Humanities and Religious Education Day
On Wednesday 8 March our Year 8’s spent the day completing rotations based on the work that has been completed in their Year 8 Humanities and Religious Education classes. The humanities component was around life such as weapons and fashion in medieval Europe and gave some real-life emersion to what they have been studying. The Religious Education component consisted of an exploration of the Eastern Rites and iconography of the Catholic Church with guest speakers and artists broadening our students knowledge on Catholicism. These activities bring to life our classrooms and allow students to draw connections to our modern world

Oval Closure
The oval and basketball courts at the Glenroy Campus began resurfacing this week and will hopefully be completed by the first week of Term 2. Students have been given the option of travelling to the Oak Park Oval to participate in football or soccer at lunchtime. To be able to attend the Oak Park Oval, students will need to sign up using the link found on their year level page and parents to accept using Operoo. We appreciate your understanding as we make improvements to the campus.

Year 12 Reflection Day
On Friday 10 March, we had the first of our Year 12 Reflection Days at the Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre, South Morang. The students explored and reflected upon the theme, "Launching into the deep." They listened to a variety of presentations unpacking this theme and were provided opportunities in small groups to discuss and share thoughts about their own personal faith journeys as well as their priorities moving forward throughout Year 12 this year. It was wonderful to see the students so engaged and prepared to share their thoughts and reflections throughout the day. We finished the formal part of the day with a beautiful paraliturgy and dinner. This was followed by the hilarious entertainment of our comedic hypnotist, Andy Vening, who had everyone wanting to join in the fun and daring to launch into the deep by being hypnotised. It really was a very unique and fantastic way in which to conclude a truly great day.

Year 7 Reflection Days
The Year 7 Reflection Days took place at The Hope Centre in Glenroy on February 27, 28 and March 2, 3. The Year 7s attended two Homerooms per day throughout the week, which involved the students reflecting upon “How To Keep The Faith”. The Reflection Day consisted of a variety of whole cohort presentations, accompanied by some guided reflection activities. All four days offered a fun, developmental experience for all.

Stations of the Cross
Our Stations of the Cross paraliturgy will be led by our Year 10 Formation, Leadership and Ministry class on Thursday April 6 (Holy Thursday). It will take place at the Glenroy Campus during Period 1 and at the Broadmeadows Campus during Period 3. Our paraliturgy will utilise indigenous spirituality and artwork to capture the various Stations of the Cross, a beautiful lens through which to reflect upon the death and resurrection of Jesus as we lead into Easter.

Penola Family Night (An evening for Parents, Guardians, Carers and Friends of the College)
We are having a Penola Family Evening, to re-establish but re-focus our Parents and Friends Association with fresh purpose and direction, determined in accordance with the needs and will of our current families. As such, you are invited to come along, share a cup of tea or coffee and help shape the future of the group by expressing your thoughts and ideas as to how best to enable family engagement, voice and spirit. We look forward to meeting everyone on Thursday April 27, in the Broadmeadows Campus Education Research Centre (ERC) from 6.30 - 7.30 pm.

An Easter reflection from our College Chaplain

All things New

We are fast approaching the culmination of our Faith and we will be celebrating the Paschal Mystery for 2023. Recently, we, the Faith Team, together with many Teachers shared a Reflection Day with all the Year 12 Cohort. The theme of this gathering was that of “Launching out into the Deep.” How appropriate for any Year 12 Student!

Each and every one of us are different, but this “Launching out into the Deep” is still applicable for us all as we enter the holiest of weeks in the Church’s Liturgical Calendar and Life. Reflecting on this, and certainly in the context of Easter, it is true to say that God always gives us new life. We never die. Whenever something passes, be it youth, health or sexual attractiveness, something else takes its place. With that something else God also sends a new spirit, a new pentecost. However, if, like Mary Magdala, we are unwilling to let go of what’s gone, then there can be no ascension to new life, no new pentecost and no new spirit.

Entry into the Paschal Mystery ... namely, entry into a death that brings new life, new love, new friendship, new health, new attractiveness, new meaning and new depth … requires that we die, that we accept new life, and that we refuse to cling to things past. We do this so that new life can ascend and new spirit can be given us. Ultimately, this depends upon trust. We must trust God enough to let ourselves die, to stop clinging, to believe that He will always give us something new and something better … according to His Will and our need!

Father Tony Cox
College Chaplain

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Our Year 7 and Year 9 students are in the midst of the NAPLAN testing period. Students are assessed in: Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy. You may have heard via media outlets that individual student reports have changed. For more information please read the media release from ACARA.

You should expect to receive your child’s report in Term 3.

Family Partnership Meetings
Thank you to all parents and carers who have attended Family Partnership Meetings. These vital conversations about your child’s learning are valuable so that we can all support your child to learn, flourish and develop life long learning skills. Open communication facilitates a nurturing and supportive approach to student achievement and growth. Please feel free to communicate with subject teachers throughout the year.

Senior Science Update

This term has flown by with so many learning opportunities for our students.

Over the term, the science staff at both the Junior and Senior campuses have been busy building their knowledge and establishing new tasks for their students.

At the senior campus, the Year 9 students have been studying either Energy Matters where they have focused on energy in the atom and in chemical reactions or they are completing Solve the Mystery where they have applied their understanding of physics to determine the cause of death of poor Humpty Dumpty!

At Year 10, the students have embarked on lots of practical learning across the various subjects and have engaged well with the sometimes difficult language of Science. They have been completing assessments and will be working hard next term to prepare for their first round of Semester exams for the year.

Our VCE students have worked tirelessly to embrace the language and skills required to excel in Science. Many have struggled along the way but it was fabulous to see the drive and determination of most of the students as they push themselves to keep trying to succeed in sometimes very difficult topics. We encourage all parents and caregivers to be involved in their child’s learning by enquiring about what they have learnt that day, to ask them about what they struggled with and to discuss ways that they can overcome these struggles.

For students that are struggling with some of their classes, we ask that they attend lunch time catchup club. Please see the times below:

We look forward to working with your children throughout the year and look forward to chatting to parents in our next Parent partnership meetings.

Leanne Attard
HOL Broadmeadows Campus

This week our Year 11 VM students attended an excursion to the Broadmeadows Learning Centre where they engaged in a full day session on the various employability skills required for different industries. The session was held by the Hume Council’s Youth Careers representatives who provided our students with the opportunity to use their virtual simulators to practice their skills in a job interview. Furthermore, the students collaborated and compiled a list of questions to ask employers and employees in various industries that exists at the Broadmeadows Central shopping centre.

The students gained a lot from this experience with newfound knowledge, insight, and confidence to apply for their next job. Thank you to Megan Becke and her team from the Hume Council Youth Services for running this session for our students and all the teachers and support staff involved in assisting on both days.

Daniel Catoggio
Head of Applied Learning

It has been a very busy Term 1 for our Theatre Studies students!

This Term our Year 10 students have been developing their costume and make up skills. Based on the theme of Circus all students created a make believe circus performer. These ranged from Ring masters to Dancers, magicians and Gladiators. We will continue this theme into next Term as we present our Play ‘Murder with intent to kill’.

Year 11 Theatre Studies has had an exciting start to the year. We have explored pre-modern theatre styles including Greek theatre and Elizabethan theatre.

We had the most wonderful excursion to see ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre. We also were lucky enough to be involved with the Q & A at the end of the show.

Year 11 students have now begun rehearsing for Alice in Wonderland as their major performance project for next term. Keep a look out for the dates in week 4 after the holidays.

On Wednesday 8 March, the Year 8 students participated in Medieval & Religious Education Day. On behalf of the Religion and Humanities departments, we would like to thank all of our presenters on the day for engaging the students in a variety of interesting activities. Thank you also to all supervising staff on the day and to Simon Greatwood for the coordination of the day. A big well done to the following creative students for wearing medieval costumes that were mostly homemade. They have each received a $20 canteen voucher for their efforts:

Lachlan of 8G who dressed as a knight and Georgia of 8D who dressed as a doctor during the plague.

Below are reflections by Jack 8B and Alexia 8F of the day.

The day began with a Medieval activity in the centre; it was an interesting activity in which we learnt about clothes from the Middle Ages. We were able to try some of the clothes from the different social classes of that era. We then moved on to the most popular activity, weapons and armour. The session began with an introduction about the various weapons and a demonstration on how they were used. Next, we learnt about the armour and we got to hold and try some pieces on. My favourite part was when we re-enacted a battle. We launched tennis balls into the wall of shields, some of them hit, some of them missed. Lastly, we finished the day by learning about music and the instruments of the medieval era. The instruments sounded very much like the ones we have today, although they were very different looking.
Jack 8B

The RE Day workshops involved a session on Eastern Iconography, a presentation from the Chaldean Youth Group and a workshop on the Great Schism. We were able to view examples of icons and learn about how they are created and how a person approaches iconography through prayer, silence and sometimes fasting. The icons looked beautiful with their symbolic colours of gold, red and blue; each expression communicating feelings of love, compassion, stillness and peace. The Chaldean Youth Group members shared with us how they express their faith uniquely to the Roman Catholic Rite. We learnt of some of the similarities and differences between the Eastern and Western Rite of the Catholic Church by watching videos and participating in a fun quiz at the end of the session. The Great Schism workshop introduced a few concepts to help us explore the official separation of the Eastern and Western Catholic Church which occurred in the year 1054. Students were awarded with prizes for their involvement and the speaker was very entertaining!
Alexia 8F

Information for schools about PTV Approved School Student ID

• A PTV Approved School Student ID is now accepted as a students’ entitlement to buy student passes and concession fares – this will be included on the 2023 Penola Student ID cards.
• Victorian school students are now able to use their PTV approved school ID to access concession travel on public transport, saving time and money and will no longer need to apply for a separate concession card.
• The student ID will need to be carried at all times on public transport when accessing a student concession fare

Please check that your Term 1 School Fees have been paid. Term Fee payments are due at the commencement of each Term. We do appreciate your attention to this.

School Fee statements are emailed to families monthly. If you have not received your statements by email this year please update your email address via schoolfees@penola.vic.edu.au

You are able to view your account anytime via the Finance section in MyPenola.

Should you wish to discuss your account please email schoolfees@penola.vic.edu.au or call Lisa Crosbie on 99089041.

SPELD Victoria Inc Parent Workshop - Understanding the Implications of the NCCD for Students with SLDs

North Park Tennis Club

Glenroy Junior Football Club

Keilor Park Soccer Club

The Hume Interfaith Network

Marriage Encounter Weekend

Paul Sadler Swimland Essendon Recruitment

Merri-bek Netball

Motus Life Youth Athletic Development Program

Oak Park Basketball Club