Beyond the Classroom

IDAHOBIT and Respect Week

On 17 May, our Senior School students supported International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which celebrates LGBTQIA+ people worldwide and raises awareness for the work still needed to combat discrimination.

Students held a delicious bake sale at lunchtime, where a variety of sweet treats, badges, pens, and more were on sale to support the LGBTQIA+ community.

During Respect Week in May, students and staff were involved in self-improvement and self-awareness training and activities around the theme of Respect. The program focused on helping students become more successful in life by establishing positive relationships, influencing positive growth in and out of the School, developing a positive mindset, and, ultimately, helping us all live by the School’s values and apply them to daily living.

Senior School students also heard from alum Rob Vienet (2012), an Associate at Allens Law firm, who spoke on the topic of respect at Assembly.

Human Rights Conference

In Term 2, Senior Camberwell Grammar students attended and co-led an exceptional Human Rights Conference with Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar and other participating schools, including Lauriston Girls’ School, Star of the Sea, and Kingswood College. The conference posed the question, ‘who will write what history of us?’ The Human Rights Conference was the result of a two-year collaboration and was held in partnership with Liberty Victoria, Australia’s longest-standing human rights organisation.

The Push-Up Challenge

In Term 2, the Camberwell Grammar community came together to help raise funds for the Push-Up Challenge. The Push-Up Challenge raises funds for mental health organisations, such as Lifeline.

Mental health is one of the biggest issues facing Australians right now and every 1 in 5 Australians—about 4 million people — suffers from a mental illness. Luckily Lifeline is there to help, and we decided to help them!

During the Challenge, many teams of students, staff, and community members came together to do push-ups. Camberwell Grammar exceeded our initial fundraising goal of $5,000 to ultimately raise $14,594.88. In fact, Camberwell Grammar were the top fundraising school in Victoria, and fifth in Australia.

Due to the School’s success, Push-Up Challenge Founder and CEO, Mr Nick Hudson, visited the School and spoke inspiringly about his reasons for starting the Challenge.

We congratulate student Henry Shirrefs and his team of students who spearheaded the campaign along with Mr Earnshaw. It was great to see the School community come together to make this into something so special!

House Charity Competitions

Term 3 saw lots of Houses take on fun, friendly, and competitive activities to support their chosen charities for the year.

Highlights included the Robinson House Street Soccer Tournament, which saw 16 teams competing. In collaboration with the Youth in Philanthropy Group, Robinson House raised over $4,560 for the Kids Undercover Charity! Well done to all involved and the winning team.

Schofield held their popular ‘The Great Debate’ – a comedic debate that sees students take on their teachers. The debate was in support of HoMie, a non for profit street clothing brand founded by Trinity alum Nick Pearce where 100% of the profits go to youth experiencing homelessness. Schofield raised around $1,500 from the sale of HoMie clothes, drinks, and entry fees.

Social Innovators: Box of Love Project

During Term 1, select students from Year 9 participated in a twoday Social Innovators workshop facilitated by the team at Crazy Ideas College (CIC). They undertook a series of activities around entrepreneurship, working in teams to develop and pitch ideas for an enterprise that addressed an environmental or social need.

Students Edward Wang, Alan Wang, Sean Luo, and Dennis Shaliga developed a unique idea, the ‘Box of Love Project’, which aimed at improving the overall wellbeing of the community and rebuilding the links the community had lost over the last two years.

Toward the end of Term 3, they assisted the Year 2 class with writing some letters for strangers to read, and arranged for the letters to be handed out to people purchasing coffee from a local cafe.