| NEWSLETTER: Dandenong Langhorne campus (August 2008) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 'let us know' list Diary dates
WholeSAIL News SAIL’s 7th Birthday Party SAIL turns 7 on Saturday 23 August and all six Melbourne campuses are getting together to celebrate seven years of SAILing. The celebrations will include a celebratory concert, a cake and a very big photo! The celebrations will take place at Maribyrnong College, located next to Highpoint Shopping centre, from 11:30am until 1:15pm. Thank you for the part you have played in SAIL's seven years, we hope you are able to join us to celebrate. The program features SAILors from our very own Langhorne campus providing one of the highlights of the day with an original SAIL rap. With over 700 people expected, they are going to need all the encouragement and support they can get from all of us here at Langhorne! 3rd Annual SAIL Formal The much-anticipated SAIL formal is fast approaching! All students aged thirteen and above and volunteers are invited to this night of nights. The event will take place between 8pm-11pm on Saturday 6th of September. More details soon! River Nile Tutors Wanted There is a need for tutors for VCE students in English, Maths and chemistry. The students are Sudanese. The need will be to prepare them for the exams in October. The venue is The River Nile Learning Centre at 30a Pickett Street, Footscray (behind the Bluestone Hall) on Monday nights from 6-8pm. For more information contact Don Talbot on 0418 967 829 . Tutor Talks SAIL Tutor Talks provide a brilliant opportunity to get insight from a range of professionals with experience at SAIL and provides on-going training for SAIL tutors. This week’s topic is on Learning Activities. The Details: - Wednesday 27 August More details will be provided at SAIL the week before the tutor talk. SAIL Xtend SAILors have been hamming it up for Drama and Theatre-sports in this cycle of Xtend activities. In the weeks past, SAILors have shed their secret identities to save cities from super-villains and have brought out their inner marketing talents to sell prune-juice amongst many other drama and theatre-sport activities. Thanks to Jess and Lyndal for running the activities.
Our Xtend program runs each Saturday after lunch at SAIL for approximately one hour. If you would like to get involved in the Xtend program, please ask Liam or Jess on Saturday (or via email). SAIL Literacy Levels Thanks to our former Dandenong coordinators Chris and Em, we were the lucky campus chosen to have our SAILors tested first this year. Practically all of our primary SAILors have been tested for their literacy levels and a few of the secondary SAILors have too. The folder containing all the information on literacy levels for our students is in the library – please ask Liam or Jess if you can’t find it. Our SAIL literacy level book boxes are located in the reference section of the library (right down the end, in line with the door). For more information on SAIL Literacy Levels and what to do after you’ve learnt your SAILor’s literacy levels, check out this link - http://home.vicnet.net. au/~sail/reading.htm. Can’t Come Form – Submission by Friday 5pm Thank you to all SAILors for making use of the online Can’t Come Form for Dandenong Langhorne. It is a huge help for us to know as early as possible when you are unable to SAIL, as it means that we can organise car collection and student-tutor match ups easily. However, please complete the form before 5pm on a Friday to ensure we receive it on time! If something comes up at the last minute and you can’t make it, please let us know either by sending us a text message or giving us a call. Changes to the Library and Noticeboard In recent weeks there have been a number of changes to the library and to the noticeboard. Each student has been given a folder and a workbook for them to do their work in. The idea is that if most of the student’s work is done in a workbook or at least kept in their personal folder, then it is less likely to get lost and SAILors can keep track of their improvements over the year. Workbooks will be kept in each student’s own folder, which sits on the desk in the library. In addition to these items, there are two charts which we would like you to encourage your student to fill out. The first chart is stapled into the student’s workbook. The plan is that the student will tick (or draw a star) in the box of the one area of study that they particularly enjoyed or spent the most time on during the week. They are not expected to cover each category – although many will try to. They are also encouraged to write a bit about their experience on each particular Saturday (note: this is not about their behaviour but about what they enjoyed or what was memorable for them). The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, it allows the students to have a say in what they focus on at SAIL. Secondly, it assists tutors in where to begin on a Saturday particularly if the tutor does not work with the student regularly. The second chart should be stapled to the student’s folders and encourages the SAILors to write a bit about the books they have read. There have also been a number of changes to the noticeboard at Langhorne. On the left hand side of the board you should find information about the current cycle’s theme and Xtend activity. On the right hand side, there should be information regarding upcoming events, opportunities and newsletters. The middle is set aside for photos and for students’ work. Always feel free to add your student’s work to the noticeboard as most SAILors get a real thrill out of seeing their work on display! This month’s theme: The Olympics With this international multi-sport event dominating much of the Australian media, it seemed appropriate that the Olympics should be the theme for the current cycle at SAIL. New theme worksheets relating to the Olympics have been added to our SAIL worksheet folders which can be found every week on the stage. The SAIL themes provide a good reference point for all that is done at SAIL for that cycle. They can assist tutors in finding an appropriate place to start with their student, they may be linked to the Xtend activity and they may inspire positive changes that can be made to SAIL each week. If you are unsure what theme the current cycle is about, look to the left hand side of the noticeboard or ask Liam or Jess. A Warm Welcome to New Volunteers and SAILors! We were very pleased to welcome back many trusty, long-serving SAIL volunteers at the beginning of this year. We have also been lucky enough to have new members join our crew and we’d like to extend a very warm welcome to all our new volunteers! Alistair, Claire, Grace, Julia, Lauryn, Lisa, Simone, Angus, Marissa, Paul and Elisa were our most recent SAIL inductees, and got off to a brilliant start two Saturdays ago. We would also like to welcome some new SAIL families that have joined us at Langhorne: Elizabeth and Hannah Gatwech; George Sadala; Juno and Justin Ogy; and Mary Puoc. Watching SAIL Langhorne grow is wonderfully exciting and in the next few weeks, our happy crew can look forward to having a few more Sudanese families join us. SAILAway to Camp Netzer Thanks to the generosity of Netzer, two of our secondary SAILors attended Netzer’s Cinemateque camp in the Alpine Valley of Northern Victoria. The camp saw SAILors participating in Israeli dancing, martial arts demonstrations, drama activities and relaxation workshops. Following the set program, there was a lot of singing and dancing into the wee hours of the morning! A big thanks to Netzer for making everyone from SAIL welcome and providing our SAILors with this unique opportunity. In addition, thank you to the SAILors and in particular their drivers - Aidan and Lachy - from the Robinson campus who braved the long car ride and cold weather to participate. Setting SAIL on time We’d like to thank everybody for arriving early and helping set up. This is a gigantic help as it means our ship is ready to sail at 11:00am sharp. Just a reminder that we would like to start at this time every week so if everybody could do their best to arrive at 10:50am, that would be great. If you or your SAILor are having difficulty arriving on time, please speak to Liam or Jess, who will do their best to assist you. SAIL in the Press As you may already know, the SAIL Program only engages with media opportunities of its own in very limited circumstances. We have this policy to ensure that the Sudanese community are portrayed on their own terms, rather than through the SAIL Program. On Saturday 17 May 2008, The Saturday Age newspaper published two stories that mentioned the SAIL Program, including photos of SAILors. The first we knew of these references was when we saw the paper on 17 May. The photos had been taken with our knowledge but without reference to publication in the Saturday Age and without knowing the content with which they would be linked. The articles were written by Farah Farouque without contacting us at all. Needless to say, we were upset that this went ahead without our knowledge because it was in breach of our own policy but it also linked the SAIL Program to a political debate in which we, as a service provider rather than a lobbying body, wanted no part. We were concerned also that the articles told a SAILor’s story with reference to the assistance of the SAIL Program, where the SAIL Program had only a token role in the SAILor's story. We made our disquiet known to The Age on the same day these articles were published. The editor, Michael Gordon, called Matthew, the SAIL Founder on 19 May 2008 and apologised that he had not ensured that the SAIL Program was contacted to check that the For the record, if you are approached to undertake any media about your involvement at SAIL, please be sure to check with us before having any further contact. This will ensure that no further stories are released that portray the Sudanese community as being dependant on the SAIL Program. The community should be portrayed on their own terms whenever such opportunities arise. Total Trivia How many medals did Australia win at the Athens Olympics, and what position in the medal table did they come? The answer is below…. Thank you all for the time and energy you donate each week. We are thrilled with the rapid progress of SAIL Seven Hills in 2008 and we look forward to the rest of the year! Liam, Jess, Cara and Nik.
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