Winter Sleepout

Congratulations to our Social Justice team who organised our annual Winter Sleepout last Friday. With a variety of guest speakers, all students and staff who stayed had an insightful experience into the lives of people less fortunate than us.

Dinka Language School

On the weekend, we had our Dinka Language School classes continuing. Great to see so many of the local Sudanese community participating in this venture.

2019 African Student Conference

CRC hosted the 2019 African Student Conference at the end of last term with the theme of Building Resilience and Leadership of Young people through Collaborative support and platform. Over 150 students attended from a number of schools across the North West Metro region to listen, participate and ask questions from a wide cross section of speakers from government, business, law, music, tertiary institutions and sporting organisations.

In the morning a number of speakers addressed the audience, they included the City of Melton Mayor Bob Turner, Victoria State Member for Melton, Stephen McGhie, Dr Charles Mphande Victoria University, and Victoria Multicultural Commissioner Sisay Dinku.

We also had the opportunity to listen to the inspirational author and poet Florence Chol, hip hop musician Kron and watch dancing from students and an African women’s group. Representatives from a variety of organisations were also present to provide information and advice.

A highlight was the opportunity to hear from young African men and women who have gone on to be successful in their chosen field of business, entertainment, government and sport. We heard of their challenges and the importance to have a goal and worked hard to achieving that goal.

After lunch we attended workshops on youth leadership, health, legal and human rights and careers. The conference was a great opportunity to celebrate their cultural identity and learn from the achievements of others.

eSafety - The Hunting

A new SBS drama The Hunting premiered on 1st August. It is a four-part drama which explores the experiences of teenagers as they traverse the complexities of relationships, identity and sexuality via technology.

It follows the lives of four young Australians, their teachers and families throughout the lead up, revelation and aftermath of a nude teen photo scandal, the timely series aims to promote discussion and awareness to enable positive experiences for young people online.

Young people are increasingly exploring their sexuality online, with 26 per cent of teens having sent a nude or sexual image or video of themselves to someone else - Mitchell, Patrick, Heywood, Blackman and Pitts. National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University.

Further research from the eSafety Commissioner (eSafety) reveals one in 10 Australians have experienced image-based abuse (IBA). This includes intimate, nude or sexual images that are sent without the consent of those featured. Intimate images may also include images or videos that have been altered (i.e. Photoshopped), or that depict a person without attire of religious or cultural significance which they would normally wear in public.

For every victim, the experience is different, but often it causes anger, depression, anxiety and feelings of humiliation, and affects their families, social relationships, and overall wellbeing.

Experts suggest conversations about online safety should start in the home, as soon as we hand over devices to children, and be reinforced through their educational journey. The images are taken and shared in the privacy of their own home with the fall out at school. Here at CRC we work with Project Rockit, Victoria Police and the eSafety Commissioner educating the students of the dangers and implications of sharing such images.

In partnership with the eSafety Commissioner, SBS has created discussion guides for teachers, families and carers around cyberbullying and image sharing, to promote safe and positive experiences online. https://www.sbs.com.au/learn/the-hunting?cx_cid=sbslearn:pur:edm:19

Victoria Police Careers Evening

The College is hosting a Victorian Police Careers information evening on Wednesday 28th August between 6:00pm and 8pm in the Performing Arts Centre. The evening is open to the community and relevant to students and members of the public who are thinking of a career with Victoria Police. See the attached flyer for registration details.

Rob Blackley

Deputy Principal (Students)

2020 Subject Selections

Year 10 and 11 students need to finalise their 2020 Subject Selections by submitting their Final Selection page (from Selection Guide) and a copy of their Web Preferences receipt to their Homeroom teacher by Friday, 9th August. Year 9 parents/guardians are invited to join us tomorrow night, Wednesday 7th August for our Year 10 2020 Information Evening in the PAC. On Thursday, we hold our annual VTAC Information evening for our current Year 12's and families. This evening has proved highly valuable to parents and students in selecting their Tertiary preferences for the following year.

Kerrie-Ann Matthews

Acting Deputy Principal (Staff)

“We always made it about creating multicultural communities. We have achieved that but that's simply no longer enough. People are unfortunately not interacting, these communities are not socially involved with one another, that's not happening organically so we have to step in and build those connections.” - Irena Guidikova.

On the 31st of July, a collective group of Year 11 and 12 girls attended the Intercultural Cities Australasia Symposium 2019.

At this symposium, we learnt that our city council is actively seeking help with the issue of modern integration in our communities in Australia. Multiculturalism is a term which describes the cultural and ethnic diversity of our current Australia which is, and will remain, a multicultural society.

Lack of social integration for all the different groups in society including gender, age, culture and abilities can create bigger issues such as ignorance due to the lack of understanding of one other.

Melton City Council had partnered with the Council of Europe after their successes integrating their own communities in Europe. This symposium informed us that our local government is indeed working on a plausible project that, if done correctly, will create one of the most positive changes in the Western suburbs and hopefully Australia in future years.

Melton City Council has made it their mission to integrate their communities by embracing diversity with the launch of the Melton City Council Intercultural Plan 2017–2021. They are the pioneers of integration being used as a solution in Australia. The Council has applied a successful model from the Council of Europe after witnessing their successes in many European Cities such as in Dortmunt (Germany), Genoa (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal) and many more.

The Australian Government has identified three dimensions of multicultural policy as:

• cultural identity - the right of all Australians, within carefully defined limits, to express and share their individual cultural heritage, including their language and religion.
• social justice - the right of all Australians to equality of treatment and opportunity, and the removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, gender or place of birth.
• economic efficiency - the need to maintain, develop and utilise effectively the skills and talents of all Australians, regardless of background.

The Council of Europe and Melton City Council ultimately want to eliminate the barriers created by our cultural and social differences and instead embrace and build up our cities with them.

Irena Guidikova Head of Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Programmes at the Council of Europe spoke about the amazing benefits of intercultural cities that research has uncovered.

Some examples being more productive involvement of all citizens in all aspects of community life, higher levels of general happiness within a city, better problem-solving skills in corporate situations and more.

Putting aside differences and coming together is what interculturalism is all about and it can be our biggest strength.

Cecilia Riak

Year 11 Student

School Athletics Carnival

The College is holding its Annual Athletics Day on Friday, August16th at Bridge Road Athletics Track in Atherstone. Parents/Guardians are welcome to come along and support on the day. We look forward to it being a great day for all of our students to enjoy. For any enquiries, please email me at jsyme@sfcc.vic.edu.au or refer to your CareMonkey notification.

Year 9 Premier League

Tuesday, 30th July saw the Year 9s compete in their second round of Premier League against Caroline Chisholm Catholic College. It was a very successful day for our teams. So far our Girls Netball, Boys AFL and Boys Basketball are all looking impressive with 2 wins heading into the third round next week against CRC St. Albans. Please see the results from round 2 below:

Won Girls Netball 68-3

Won Boys AFL-61-20

Won Girls Soccer 9-0

Won Boys Soccer 7-0

Won Girls Volleyball 3-1

Won Boys Basketball 59-54

Draw Girls Basketball 24-24

Lost Boys Volleyball 0-3

SACCSS Junior Hockey

Yesterday we took our Girls Hockey Team to Essendon and our Boys Hockey Team to Footscray to participate in the SACCSS one day tournament. It was a fun, competitive and exciting day for our students especially for our Year 7s being their first Hockey tournament. It was also another great achievement by our students in regard to their hard work and dedication. It has been many years since CRC Melton entered hockey teams into the SACCSS Competition, so congratulations to all students and staff who made it possible this year.

Jordyn Syme

Head of Sport

The College welcomed Raffaele Franzese from FrasiWorld on Friday who would like to engage in an exchange program with us from 2021. FrasiWorld are also affiliated with our Italian sister school, Convitto Nazionale Paolo Diacono.

We are planning a trip to Italy in 2021. With limited places remaining, please contact me via email at crusso@sfcc.vic.edu.au if you would like your son or daughter to attend.

Claudia Russo

Domain Leader - LOTE