SAIL NEWSLETTER

SAIL NEWSLETTER: Seven Hills Campus (September 2008)

Welcome to all new Seven Hills, SAILors! For those who have just joined us at SAIL, our newsletter is used for all general announcements from SAIL Seven Hills and SAIL in general. But before we get into news for this month, we would like to extend a huge thank you to all of you for your work and enthusiasm.  Seven Hills is growing rapidly and running smoothly thanks to all your efforts so congratulations to all!  

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 - simply write down your student, the book and pages you want copied in the Photocopy request book - it will be ready and in your students folder the following week!
  2. The Tutor Resources section of the website is available at all times to provide tutors with ideas, games, worksheets 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 the rest of 2008 will occur on 13th September, 18th October and 22nd November.
  2. Our final Saturday for 2008 will be on 13th December.  For this session we will have a big Christmas celebration including loads of presents, a Christmas concert and lots of yummy treats.  Tutoring in 2009 will commence on 21st February.
 
Week 5 Tutor Talks

 

Tutor Talks continues on13th September.  These talks are provided for tutors and cover a whole range of SAIL related topics.  They are held at the Seven Hills Community Centre and start immediately after lunch, running for approximately 45 minutes.  If you have any particular topics that you would like to see covered, or if you have contacts for guest speakers, feel free to drop us a line at SAILSevenhills@africanoz.com.

 

Previous talks have been conducted by ESL expert Lyndall Thurley and SAIL overseeing coordinators from Melbourne, Nik Tan and Cara Morrissy.

 
SAIL Xtend

 

After a brilliant beginning with Manjula and Kate’s painting workshop, we are now in the midst of craft, with dance and guitar lessons to follow through October and November.  If you would like to stay after lunch and help out with any of our workshops we would love you to join us. 

 

Alternatively, if you would like to volunteer to run an Xtend workshop or you know someone who would like to volunteer, please don’t be shy - let us know.  The kids love Xtend!

 

Call for SAIL Star contributions!

 

Thanks again to all students who contributed to the last edition of the SAIL star newspaper! SAIL Seven Hills was brilliantly represented with fantastic pieces by David, Bol and Marline.

 

The SAIL Star is a student newsletter aimed to encourage the students to produce written and visual work about themselves and their lives.  It will be published in an irregular mock-newspaper format that will be distributed at SAIL.  Look out for the submission box, and hang on to any work that your student/s produce that can go into it – stories, reviews, drawings, jokes, whatever!  We will publish it as soon as there is space.  This can be a great way to motivate your students and give them a big boost in confidence!

 

WholeSAIL news

SAIL’s 7th Birthday Party Celebration

On Saturday 23rd of August more than 600 SAILors from all six Melbourne campuses came together to celebrate Seven Years of SAIL. The party took place at Maribyrnong College and featured performers from SAILs Dandenong, Footscray and Braybrook, as well as a short film of the SAIL News. A presentation was also made to SAIL’s founder and past overseeing coordinator, Matthew Albert. Finally a delicious chocolate birthday cake in the shape of a Seven kicked off the Birthday lunch; an assortment of healthy salad rolls, delicious pies and cakes of all shapes and sizes. Thank you to you all for celebrating SAIL’s 7th Birthday in style!

 

The SAIL Summit

On Saturday October 4, there will be a round table summit to discuss two key questions: What SAIL does now and how SAIL can better support the Sudanese community. Two student representatives and a coordinator from each campus will attend the summit. If you would like to have any input into the questions up for discussion and the outcomes of the summit itself, please chat to your campus coordinator or contact Nik and Cara at sail@africanoz.com

 

SAIL Tutor Drinks

Want to get to know other SAIL tutors outside Saturday mornings? The chance is fast approaching! On Saturday 11 October at 7pm annual SAIL tutor drinks are being held for tutors from all campuses, at the Prince Alfred Hotel, --- Church St, Richmond. The evening is an opportunity to meet tutors from your and other campuses, compare tutoring experiences and increase the sense of community within SAIL each Saturday. We would greatly appreciating you RSVPing to coordinators on a Saturday or via email.

SAIL Tutor Survey

In recent weeks the yearly SAIL tutor survey will have made its way into your inbox. Thank you to those who have already responded with their valuable thoughts, ideas, feedback on all things SAIL. We ask that you take the time to complete it to ensure the good ship SAIL stays on the right course.

 

 

 

 

Set up at SAIL

 

There have been a lot of tutors arriving at the centre early on Saturdays, which is fantastic.  This gives you the opportunity to visit the library when it is a little quieter and flip through the worksheet folders in preparation for your lesson. Also if you are a little early we usually spend some time setting up the hall. This involves setting up tables and chairs in the hall and outside and moving the kindy toys from the library to the Junior Room. Please don’t be shy to help out in the morning, any extra hands in the morning makes the task that much easier!

 

Starting at 11am

 

We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has been consistently setting SAIL at 11am each Saturday.  We encourage everyone to be ready at least 10 minutes prior to tutoring so that the kids and adults get their full one and a half hours of learning.  This, after all, is what SAIL is all about!

 

Packing up at SAIL

                                                                                                                           

A special thank-you to all the SAILors who have been staying behind and helping with the clean up at the end of each session.  It makes a huge difference to us and is greatly appreciated!

 

Kitchen Rules

 

Our SAIL microwave has become quite a popular feature for the students.  It’s fine for everyone to use it to heat up their lunch, however, please keep in mind it can get a bit crowded and crazy in our small kitchen if too many people are there at once, especially the kids, so please make sure you use it one at a time and don’t crowd in too much.

 

Rubbish rules

 

During lunch some of the children become a little excited. There are a few general rules that we would like all tutors to put into effect. These include no running in the hall, no eating in the hall and no littering. These are pretty common sense rules and if you see anyone not following these rules please remind them.

 

Also, we are trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible at Seven Hills SAIL, and would love to get the plastic cups back to reuse or recycle, so if you could keep them out on the tables and bring them to the kitchen after you’ve used them, that would be brilliant.

 

Total Trivia

 

SAIL now has 862 members across 7 campuses in Melbourne and Sydney.  Each Saturday as you sit down to start your tutoring there are 861 people doing exactly the same thing across the country. 

 

Glengala: Volunteers 38, Students 53 = 91

Altona: V: 48, S: 72 = 119

Footscray: V: 63, S: 61 = 124

Braybrook: V: 70, S: 86 = 156

Robinson: V: 63, S: 67 = 130

Langhorne: V: 63, S: 71 = 134

Seven Hills: V: 48, S: 60 = 108.

 

Grand Total: 862.

 

 

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.                                                   Thank you!

 Ian, Sophie, Cara and Nik.