BAYVIEW Newsletter a
ISSUE 13 Monday 17 August 2015
www.bayview.vic.edu.au Principals Message
TABLE OF CONTENTS Principal's Message Students celebrate National
Volunteer Week sense of social justice provides hygiene kits for the poor A day of shared cultural immersion
Ben’s
Header Photo: Students from Bayview College together with the Glenelg Shire are celebrating National Student Volunteering Week by encouraging and recognising the valuable contribution young people make to their community. We also recognised students through a series of Facebook photos highlighting the different areas our students volunteer in.
School Uniforms At Bayview College we encourage all students to wear their school uniform with pride. Out and about in the community students can be fantastic role models and advocates for Bayview College. We expect students to wear their uniform correctly before leaving home in the morning and when leaving school in the afternoon. All students with long hair must have their hair tied up and shirts should be tucked in. For full uniform requirements please check Page 15 in the 2015 Bayview College student diaries.
The inhabitants of the Andean community of Chillahuani occupy some of the highest inhabited regions of the earth, often living on the edge of survival. Nonetheless, they have forged a remarkable “culture of respect”: a classless society, with gender equality and almost no crime, in which competition is does not exist and children thrive. Chillahuani's children grow up happy, self-confident and well-adjusted, excelling at work and play within their society and beyond, and displaying a great passion and aptitude for mathematics. Furthermore, adolescence, often considered a time of conflict and rebellion in westernised societies, is viewed by both children and parents as the best time of their lives. Central to all this is the fact that their society's “beliefs and behaviour patterns reinforce respect and compassion for all life” (including the environment), and that the villagers' lives - though extremely hard - are lived with both dignity and meaning. What is unusual about the community that our young people grow up in is that the culture projected in the popular media and popular imagination has become so distorted and grotesque, and reflective of the more sordid aspects of our collective values and aspirations. This distorts how adolescents think they should behave and relate to other people. As adults we should spend some time exploring the YouTube clips, TV shows, music videos and online games that our children engage with. When we understand the value messages that these powerful visual products are sending to our impressionable young people, it provides us with a window into what is motivating their behaviours. Bayview College values are the opposite of those portrayed in the media and more inline with those of the Chillahuani's . Indeed, when it comes to education, the best schools (both public and private) are, ironically, counter-cultural. Research of schools of all types and in all locations shows that the best of the lot share two main factors in common: exceptional teachers and appropriate moral climates; the latter, a product of small schools with a community sharing common values attracting the former, exceptional teachers who wish to teach in such an environment.
A Culture of Respect is one in which empathy, diversity and truth are valued and practiced. A culture of respect is one that encourages us to see the world from multiple perspectives; to participate in conversation that builds understanding and that promotes a practice of listening; to understand marginalization and isolation as the by-product of prejudice; to show leadership and intervene even when it is inconvenient and especially when it is Weekend Australian difficult; and to fight cruelty while we also “yourschool” report guard against intolerance in our own June 20-21 2015 thoughts and actions.
Best performing Secondary School in the South West
Ask Yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world. Annie Lennox