The Arts

Years 7 and 8 Fashion Design students have been busy making donation dolls for children less fortunate. The students have given their doll a name and made a bag to keep it in. To go with this we are raising money to add some personal products, for example - toothbrush and toothpaste or a hairbrush, by sellling delicious baked goodies!

Jayne Hill
Fashion Design Teacher

Lino Prints

Year 10 students have recently produced some fantastic lino prints, based on Japanese design elements.  

Noelene Hales
Visual Arts Teacher

Iconic Dance Showcase

This term, we held our annual dance showcase to allow our students the opportunity to display all of their talent and hard work from throughout the year.  It was a wonderful night of entertainment and students received some awesome feedback from parents, teachers from other schools and guests, who couldn't believe the talent that we have at Belridge!  The night had a positive energy amongst everyone and it was fantastic to see the students really enjoying the experience.  

I would also like to extend a huge thank you to all the staff who gave up their time to assist with costumes and on the night.   

Heather Currie
Dance Teacher

Sydney Dance Tour 

18 students recently represented Belridge and the Dance Company with excellence, enthusiasm and professionalism on their recent excursion to Sydney. Dance students were given the opportunity to visit the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, dance alongside industry professionals and watch incredible performances by some of the best in the business. Watching our students learn choreography in under half an hour, to then perform in front of more than 100 people was inspiring!  Students have gained once-in-a-lifetime experiences and special memories.

Heather Currie
Dance Teacher

Fashion Design 

'BELRIDGE, RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF FASHION DESIGNERS' was featured on Channel 9's Today breakfast show on Wednesday 20th November, when Adrian came to visit and learn all about our Fashion Design program, meet with our talented students and Anna Dyer, Dean of Arts. Students were also treated to a special breakfast from the school cafe for getting up extra early for this feature which was televised live!

Anna Dyer
Dean of Arts

Academic Enrichment 

Academic Enrichment provides unique opportunities for students at Belridge Secondary College to engage with industry professionals and see their learning in real world situations. Recently, interested Year 9 and Year 10 students applied their scientific knowledge and skills in the Grade 3 laboratories at Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research to diagnose not only if a patient had diabetes, but more specifically whether it was Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Working alongside biomedical science students and doctors, our students immersed themselves in the world of health and research.

Glynne Bartle 
Academic Enrichment Coordinator

Youth Writers' Workshop

This term saw the final Youth Writers Workshop for 2019 and wow, what a way to end the series of writing! Internationally accredited, Australian author Will Kostakis, entertained the participants whilst sharing his craft and providing inspirational advice to our emerging writers from Belridge Secondary College.

Look out for the oportunity to engage in this amazing series of workshops in 2020 with new authors presented by The Literature Centre in Fremantle. Skills learned through this series of workshops have helped one of our students, Evie Innes, win the state Words for Water Competition, sponsored by Water Corporation WA. (See student achievements for Evie's entry) Expressions of interest for inclusion in 2020 can be made directly to Ms Bartle.

Glynne Bartle 
Academic Enrichment Coordinator

English Learning Area 

DOUBLE DOUBLE, BOIL AND BUBBLE …

Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy “Macbeth” came to life at His Majesty’s Theatre by WA Opera on Tuesday 22 October to impress Year 11 and 12 Literature students. Not only were students wowed by the performance, but were treated to a VIP experience by the WA Opera Education team, enjoying a private interval room with city views and a sneak-peak at studio and rehearsal spaces. A huge thanks to WA Opera for this experience - it’s certainly one we won’t forget!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

On Wednesday the 23rd of October, Literature students from Years 10-12 joined together to experience Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at Perth’s very own Pop-Up Globe Theatre. Students navigated public transport down to the one-of-a-kind theatre for this limited opportunity. The production was traditional but modernised, and highlighted the humour found even in the most tragic of circumstances. Everyone left inspired and thrilled by the experience, ready to sink their teeth into The Bard’s work.

Lunch at Cafe de Belridge 

On Wednesday 23 October, Year 5 students from Springfield Primary School had the amazing experience to visit Belridge SC for a French lunch treat!  Lunch was planned, prepared and served by the Year 11 Hospitality students under the supervision of Ms Cheryl and Ms Corless.

Students were served a two course meal, the first of which was “Frogs in Cheese Blanket” aka Savoury Pancake with Chicken, with a side dish of Ratatouille. For dessert they were treated to a delicious French Apple Tart with “Crème Anglaise” aka warm custard. Sparkling flavoured water with ice added some extra French freshness to our lunch.

The students enjoyed their lunch and made conversation with the guests on their table, as well as the students who were serving them. Students were also given a placemat as a souvenir. The placemat were designed and put together by our Year 10 Business students.

I would like to thank Mr Pisano and Mrs Blythe, Principals for their attendance, Miss Cheryl (Home Economics Teacher In Charge) and Ms Corless for their work and time with the Year 11 students, and their support and guidance with this project. Mrs Gendle for her work with her Year 10 Business students for creating the beautiful placemats and invitations. And of course, thank you to all the Belridge students for their hard work in making this lunch such a memorable and fun excursion for the Springfield students.

Stephanie Westphal
French Teacher

Home Economics

Year 10 Home Economics- Cultural Food students recently competed in the 2019 Perth Royal Show School’s Cookery Competition. Students prepared and presented a variety of sweet slices for the prestigious Country Women’s Association to judge, competing against a variety of public and private high schools across the state. Although we did not receive any of the top places, we are very proud of our students’ hard work and are already highly motivated for next year’s competition.

Miss Jones
Home Economics Teacher

Year 6 Transition Days

Transitioning to secondary schooling is always a big step, adjusting to a new school environment.  Finding your way around, getting to class on time, building new relationships and being prepared with the right books and equipment for each class can all be daunting, but with the help of our Student Services Team, our Year 7 class of 2020 was made to feel welcome and were given the opportunity to explore the school's magnificent grounds with our Year 9 Peer support leaders.

The School Chaplain, Phil Leenman, guided the students through crocodile infested waters where they employed quick thinking and team work to save each other! The students participated in an orientation race around the school, answering questions and enjoyed either a morning or afternoon tea from the Cafe.

We are looking forward to seeing our class of 2020 on Tuesday the 10th of December for a full day orientation program, which will involve students experiencing various classes such as Home Economics, Design & Technology, Information Technology, Art, Physical Education and Science.  More information on this day will be posted to parents and put on our Facebook page.

Warm Regards

Jodie Grieve
Year 7 Coordinator 2020

Year 8 Discovery Day 

On Tuesday 19 November, Mikaela Shirley accompanied three Year 8 students to UWA for the Year 8 Discovery Day. The School of Indigenous Studies offers a hands-on day for students to experience the University environment and sample courses on offer.  Howie Eades, Neville Rundle and Nicholas O’Sullivan had fun sampling three courses; Astronomy, Zoology and Sports Science.

Our Belridge students challenged students from other schools in a competition to build a solar telescope, examined crickets and their mating and fighting behaviours and lastly broke up into groups to complete activities relating to agility and sporting prowess. This, by far, was the highlight of the day! Howie, Neville and Nicholas tested their grip strength using a hand-held dynamometer (Nicholas got the highest strength of 33) and did vertical jumps where Nicholas was again the champion, with a jump height of 51cm. All three students scored under 10 seconds in an agility test and, lastly, finished the activities with some Around the World Soccer and a Tug of War. The day ended with lunch and a chat with some of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students who attend UWA and use Shenton House as their home base whilst at University. Overall, it was an exciting and insightful experience for our students.

Neville made a perceptive comment about University and his expectations; “University was very different to how I expected it to be. You can do whatever you want. This made me think that I’d like to go to University and study Sports Science. Shenton House seemed like a safe place and somewhere I could go when I go to Uni.”

Howie reflected after the day and sample courses, intending to study Sports Science at University. “A lot of the things we heard about, were what we could do at Uni and this made me want to go to University after school. There aren’t a lot of teachers bossing you around. I think I’d like to go and study Sports Science. Shenton House seemed like a home base and when I go to University I hope I will enjoy it.”

Mikaela Shirley
English Teacher

ATSI - Deadly Dreaming Excursion

Our Belridge ATSI students attended the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre event 'Deadly Dreaming' at Murdoch University on the 24th of September. Deadly Dreaming is an amazing opportunity for our students to experience fun and engaging activities that can excite them about the opportunities after high school.

Lisa Pignatiello 
Visual Arts Teacher

Middle School Engagement Program 

Over Term 3, nine Year 7 boys in our Middle School Engagement Program, facilitated by Mr Silva from Design and Technology, had the opportunity to help the school out with various projects that needed doing around the school. These types of projects including, amongst others, assembling a flatpack desk for the English office, refurbishing a childcare table and, the major project, refurbishing a picnic table for Student Services. A plaque was fixed to the picnic table acknowledging the students contribution to the Belridge community. As well as learning new skills, we all had the opportunity to connect on another level and experience a different type of project work. Thank you Mr Silva for your time and expertise.

Phil The Chaplain

Year 11 River Cruise 2019

On Wednesday 25th September a large contingent of staff and students descended on Barrack Street Jetty in Perth City. With this event being the jewel of the social calendar, the anticipation and excitement was at record levels. With wind in our sails we set off for a cruise down the Swan River.

It didn’t take long for the dancefloor to be packed and the boat to be rocking. Students and staff alike cut some serious shapes, led by Hailey Knott, Finn and Jones Naylor and Callum Spickett. As we meandered along the river, taking in the beautiful sights and sounds of Perth, we were treated to Crust pizza, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and plenty of soft drinks.

The night was an outstanding success and the students are to be commended on their exemplary behaviour and attitude on the night. A massive thank you to all staff members that attended, as the night could not have gone ahead without your support.

Mr Brent Jarvis-Spinks
Year 11 Coordinator

Humanities & Social Sciences

Holocaust Survivor Incursion

On Tuesday 15 October, the HASS department welcomed Holocaust survivor, Hetty Verolme to Belridge. She spoke to 50 students from the Year 11 Modern History and Year 10 AEP classes about her experiences, and that of millions of people during the Second World War. Her personal story captured the hearts and minds of students, as they heard about what she went through and how her story is one of the lucky ones.

Born in 1930, Hetty was a young teenager when she was sent to a concentration camp with her siblings in 1943. She spoke of her memories, and of the atrocities that occurred to millions of Jewish people throughout this time. She gave details about what her parents did to try to ensure their safety and protection, what life was like in the concentration camps and how she vividly remembers the British coming in to liberate them at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The key message Hetty gave to the students was to ensure that they do not forget this once-in-a-lifetime experience and to tell others about it, to ensure that such atrocities are never able to occur again.

Rebecca Edmonds
HASS Teacher

“It was so informative of the true horrors of the Holocaust. I don’t think
any amount of documentaries could compare to meeting a real survivor.”
– Finn Naylor

Science Learning Area 

Everyone knows the European Honey Bee. It lives in hives and stores large amounts of honey as food in honeycombs and can deliver a nasty sting, if provoked. Although the European Honey Bee is an introduced species to Australia it plays an important role in the pollination of crops.

Lesser known are our native Australian bee species. Many native bees are small, live alone and don’t produce honey and lay eggs in small holes. They are, however, specialised pollinators for native Australian plants. Habitat destruction and competition with the more aggressive European Honey Bees puts our native bees under threat.

When the Year 10 class was discussing the importance of biodiversity and conservation, the students liked the idea of building nesting sites for native bee species in the school.

The class spent some lessons drilling holes in logs with the help of Mr Njegich, designing information posters and putting up the bee hotels around the school. A great little project to learn about the protection of the lesser known native bees, which by the way hardly ever sting and are safe to have around.

If you would like to make a bee hotel for your garden, great instructions can be found on the AussieBee website.

Dr Michael Werner
Science Teacher

Numeracy Week 2019

In Week 2 this term, from 21st - 25th of October, the Belridge Secondary College community celebrated Numeracy Week.

In the spirit of Numeracy Week, Belridge SC Numeracy lead team and Mathematics Learning Area organised a variety of fun and engaging activities for students and staff to participate in. Such activities included; Giant Connect 4, Guess the lollies, Would you rather? Two-up, Heads and tails, UNO and Finska.  A fantastic time was had by all involved.

A special congratulations goes to the following students who estimated the closest value to the correct amount of lollies in each of the Jars.

Scout Van Der Hoek (Year 8) guessed correctly 253

Finlay Cooper (Year 7) guessed 850.
There were 887 in the jar

Jade Lardis (Year 7) guessed 320
There were 327 in the jar

Thank you to all of the participants, and spectators, who came down to be involved

Miss Donegan
on behalf of the BSC Numeracy Lead Team
BSC Mathematics Department 

Health & Physical Education

Interschool Athletics Carnival 2019

On Monday 21 October, 75 students attended the SSWA C Division Interschool Athletics Carnival and competed against eight other schools. These included Ashdale, Byford, John Forrest, Canning Vale, Lesmurdie, Governor Stirling, Como and Hampton.  The Belridge Athletics Team gathered for a team building breakfast in the school cafe before embarking on its journey to the WA Athletics Stadium in Floreat. Belridge competed fiercely the entire day, with the following students placing in events:

Each student represented the school impeccably and displayed terrific sportsmanship along the way. A special mention goes to Sinead Du Toit and Maddy Luscombe who were both Runner-Up Champion Girl for their age groups.

Finally, a big thank you to the students who came and helped out on the day and jumped into events last minute when needed, as well as the teachers Scott Ogilvie, Nicole Mann and Ben Ettridge who made the day run smoothly.

Nicole Mann
Health & Physical Education Teacher

Netball Academy News

During the last holidays, the Year 12 Netball girls came together to compete against a touring Singapore team. The girls started off slowly and were down for the first 3 quarters. In the last quarter the girls played an amazing quarter lead by Ashlee Bettini with a number of big intercepts and ended up drawing with Singapore to end the game 35 all!  

Janneke Markovic
Health & Phsycial Education Teacher

On Friday 20 September, the Year 9 Belridge Netball Academy students played against Ashdale Secondary College at Belridge SC. As always, Ashdale were in for some great competition and both teams battled hard throughout their respective matches. Belridge 1 got out to a lead early and continued to push it out further as the game went on against Ashdale 1, with a final score of 42-13. Belridge 2 and Ashdale 2 had a closer battle.  Belridge 2, through some strong defensive work, got themselves into the lead and played possession netball when in attack, to end up winning the game over Ashdale 2 with a final score of 17-10.

It was fantastic to see such great teamwork and sportsmanship from the Belridge Year 9 Netball Academy students throughout the game. All students participated to the best of their ability and should be commended on the performances they put forward on the court.

Nicole Mann
Health & Physical Education Teacher