SAIL NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER: Footscray campus (May 2006)

The 'let us know' list
1. If any of your contact details have changed, please let us know.
2. If you are planning to have contact with your student outside of SAIL hours you must let us know first and complete the contact request form.
3. If you intend to bring a friend to SAIL please direct them to the website first and direct them to apply online or just let us know beforehand.
4. Let us know if you are going to miss a Saturday via the online "Can't Come Sheet".
5. Please check and read your emails each week - if possible, Friday is best!
6. Please let us know before you speak publicly or publish an article about SAIL.

Ongoing offers
1. Photocopying- for any SAIL related photocopying, simply mark the pages from the books you want copied and give the book to the co-ordinators on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!
2. The Tutor Resources section of the website is available at all times to provide tutors with ideas, games, work-sheets and support. We strongly suggest that if you are experiencing difficulties of any kind when working with your student, you post a request for advice on the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board.

Diary dates
1. The week 5 tutor talks for 2006 occur on 10 June, 15 July, 26 August (SAIL's birthday), 30 September, 4 November, 9 December (concert)
2. If you are interested in attending any upcoming African Australian events click here for the details.

Please read this newsletter in the following week, it gives updates on SAIL past, present and future!

SAIL Footscray finds two new homes!

Early in the year we began a SAILing voyage which had several ports of call. We visited a beach, a park and a council hall and even made a return to May St. While we all enjoyed the change of scenery each week, we are happy to be settling down to years of SAILing ahead in a new home… or two! That’s twice as many homes!

 

Depending on where family groups live, half of our SAILors are now at the Maidstone Community Centre each week and the other half at the St Peter's & St Andrew's Church hall. Importantly, all tutor-student relationships remain unchanged. We will also continue to share SAIL Xtend and tutor talks each cycle.

 

We would like to thank everyone involved for their incredible support and flexibility throughout the voyage! We would like to especially thank our library and kitchen team who have ensured that, no matter where we’ve traveled, resources and lunch have followed. The move will ultimately mean that more students will be able to come to SAIL in the years to come.

 

Welcome aboard Jono!

We would like to introduce our new Saturday coordinator, Jono Wood. Jono will be leading the way with Cait over at the Church hall. Jono is one of the long-term SAILors and has joined the SAIL team as a Saturday coordinator. Feel free to ask him anything at any time. Jono is inclined to know almost everything so he is well placed to assist with any needs or concerns.

 

SAIL Xtend.

As we settle into the new locations, the chance for some exciting Extend activities will be upon us. There are already whispers of cooking, film-making and soccer for the first cycle. We’ll let you know the details soon, but in the meantime get your SAILor buddies excited!

 

Week 5 Tutor Talks.

As the new cycle gets under way, we are ready to unleash the most superb line up of Tutor-Talks that SAIL and indeed the world has ever seen! We would like to introduce our Tutor Talk Coordinator for 2006 and long-term magnificent tutor, Paveena. Paveena has arranged a year of talks so educative that, should a tutor attend all of them without fail, we are seeking permission to hold a graduation ceremony and award doctorates. 

 

Tutor talks will start immediately after lunch and run for about 45 minutes every Week 5.

 

If you have any particular topics that you would like to see covered, or perhaps even contacts for guest speakers, feel free to drop Paveena a line at sailadmin@africanoz.com .

 

SAIL Senior City Tours.

Last week several of our SAIL Seniors enjoyed a tour of the city arranged by the Melbourne University Law Students Society. From all reports it was a fantastic day! We would like to thank the LSS for all of their hard work and hope to see them again later in the year for another tour.

 

The Easter Bunny Visits SAIL

While we have no confirmed sightings, the Easter Bunny did spark a massive Easter egg hunt for SAIL over the Easter weekend. Despite rain during lunch, few were deterred by the prospect of wet chocolate. Next year, however, we are bringing in sniffer dogs to police the ‘two Easter eggs only’ rule. When the occasional third egg fell from some students’ pockets the response was always the same- “I don’t know how that got there.”

 

 

Bags of bread seeking committed bread lover for Friday night pick up.

Yes that’s right, we have some lonely bags of bread in need of someone with a kind heart to collect them each Friday night. If anyone lives near the Victoria Gardens shopping centre and is able to swing by Bakers Delight on Friday nights please let us know. It would be a huge help and a massive contribution to the work of the kitchen team.

 

Call for SAIL Star contributions!

We would like to put out a call for more contributions for the students’ newspaper, the SAIL Star.  Having their work published is a great incentive for SAILors to create some fantastic work. There is a box in the SAIL library that is feeling a little empty and would love to have some SAIL Star contributions from our SAILors. Encourage your students to do some of the SAIL Star worksheets (located in the SAIL Star worksheet folder in the library), write their own stories, or poems, or even make up their own crosswords or word puzzles to be published! 

 

SAIL Penpals

Late last year, SAIL Penpals began as a way to open up communication of students across all three SAIL campuses.  Due to popular demand, it continues this year!  If your student is not yet involved, and you think they would enjoy it, let us know. As it has become very popular and word has spread, there are a number of SAILors who are waiting to find their very own penpal.  Chat with Cait or Cam about your student’s involvement.

 

Who in the world is…Maker the Cow?

We are pleased to welcome Maker (pronounced Mah-care) the Cow to the SAIL team.  He joined us early this year, with hopes of traveling the world with SAILors!  Maker has already been to London, Rome and Vienna, and even around Melbourne. You and your students can learn all about the places that Maker has been with the “Where in the world is Maker” worksheets.  If you have any plans for travel, be it interstate, national or international, and you wouldn’t mind having a little companion, let us know! Maker is super keen to have his photo taken anywhere and everywhere and is itching to go traveling once more.  Get in quick though, as he already has plans to go to Africa, the Bahamas and Canberra!  Look out for the “Where in the world is Maker” worksheets and upcoming display.

 

Excursion rules

We just wanted to remind SAIL tutors of the rules regarding taking SAILors on excursions outside SAIL time. No activity is to happen without the consent of both the SAILor’s parents AND the SAIL co-ordinators. In addition, a request form must be completed before the excursion takes place. This mandates that SAIL excursions must be attended by at least two volunteers at any one time. This form, in English and Arabic, is available from the website here! If you have any queries about this, please let us know.

 

Truck Required to SAIL away Library

With three new campuses springing up, we need a little help moving library books to them.  If you or someone you know you would be willing to donate a truck to move SAIL bits and bobs, please let us know by emailing sail@africanoz.com .

 

WholeSail News

 

SAILAbout to the Footy – Collingwood v the Bulldogs

Friday 26 May | Melbourne Cricket Grounds

 

The footy season is well and truly back, and for the first time this year we have tickets available for any SAILors to attend free of charge. As a special event, attendees will meet the presidents of both clubs, David Smorgan and Eddie McGuire and will be given show bags. Please email Matthew at sail@africanoz.com to reserve your tickets. The only catch is that tutor SAILors will be asked to organise transport for the Sudanese SAILors they propose to bring.

 

SAILAbout to the Como Historic House & Garden

Corner Willams Road and Lechlade Ave, South Yarra VIC  3141

 

For those who would prefer to go somewhere a little more quiet than the footy, free passes are available for a visit to the Como House, a little piece of history right in the heart of Melbourne. A walk through the house and gardens reveals what life was like for the colonial residents of the home in the late 19th and early 20th century. And if history gets too much for you, the manicured gardens are also the perfect spot for a picnic! Again, email Matthew to get your hands on a couple of passes.

 

Sudan fundraiser photo exhibition

Fed Square is about to play host to a fundraiser for Sudan. From 30 May to 9 June 2006, the Atrium will house a series of images by Australian photographers including Ken Duncan, Andrew Chapman, and David Simmonds. Ten images taken by Matthew - of Sudan and the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya - will also be on display. The exhibition’s main objective is raising funds for and general awareness of the current and continuing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. All profits will go to World Vision’s Sudan Crisis Appeal but entry is free.

 

SAIL in context: Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Lecture on the conflict in Sudan.  

Wednesday 17 May | 6:00-7:30pm | Percy Baxter Theatre (D2.193) Deakin University Waterfront Campus, Geelong | MEL 577

 

For those SAILors interested in the back-story of their students, an event coming up may be the perfect opportunity to get it. This is the second in a series of four lectures on the history, politics and the victims of war in Sudan. The lecture will be presented by Professor David Dorward, the director of the African Research Institute at Latrobe University and Nicole Batch, who spent 9 months as a Tracing caseworker for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sudan. Entry will be by gold coin donation and all proceeds will go to International Committee of the Red Cross and Crescent Sudan Appeal.

 

New Tutor Resource: Harmony and Understanding Friendly Families - My Extended Family: the Sudanese way of life

Blake Education has come up with a handy teaching tool, for all you SAILors wanting a little more inspiration. Written by Gary and Shelley Underwood, this children’s book tells the story of a little Sudanese girl starting a new life in a new country, having left war-torn Sudan. SAIL students are likely to identify with little Agueer, who learns quickly to fit into a new community. 

 

Totally Trivia

If you thought SAIL was free of paperwork and bureaucracy, we are very glad. Truth be told, behind the smooth SAILing of a Saturday are no less than 1700 documents. Each of these form the administrative backbone that the co-ordinators negotiate to ensure that the good ship SAIL continues on its merry course.

 

In addition, the SAIL Pulse system, on which SAIL now operates, exists because of about 10,000 pages of computer code. Copies of the code are available on request.

 

Thank you for your time and energy donation each week. We look forward to seeing the benefits of it as the year continues!

 

Matthew, Cait and Cam