Beacon Christmas Lunch

 In 2011 the college embarked upon a new affiliation with the Beacon Foundation to broaden students horizons and build upon relationships within the local community. Beacon, a national non-profit organisation working in more than 120 secondary schools across Australia, believes every young Australian can develop an independent will to achieve personal success for themselves and their community. Beacon has an established track record of helping inspire and motivate students to either stay in school and increase their educational engagement and attainment or choose a positive pathway that enables successful transition to employment, further education or training. This week the Beacon Business Partnership Committee met for a Christmas Lunch to celebrate and reflect upon a highly successful year.

 Attendees included members of the Numurkah community, Numurkah Secondary College staff and student Beacon Ambassadors Jordan, Jess, Josh and Courtney. Numurkah’s Telegraph Hotel provided an excellent venue where the group enjoyed a Xmas lunch in the  relaxed atmosphere of the beer garden. Of note within conversation where the many achievements and events held throughout the year, including the initial Business Event for the official launch of  the Beacon program within the Numurkah Community. Ambassadors attended many events and meeting including; a training day with other Beacon Ambassadors from the North East Region, Business Partnership meetings, a Rotary Club and Lions Club dinners and a  visit to the Moira Shire to build working relationships where a Speed Dating Careering event was secured. The entire Yr10 cohort participated in; two Polish Workshop days, a Charter Signing Day impressing upon students the importance of life-long learning, a Rotarian Roasting event where students discussed job interview questions with Rotarian members and Mock Interviews whereby students attended professional interviews at various local businesses. The program provided many more positive outcomes behind the scenes, such as offers of full and part time work, work experience, school based apprenticeships and mentoring offers.

The support of the local community and Numurkah businesses has been an integral part of the program’s success and greatly appreciated by all those involved. Many Yr10 students within the college benefited through their experiences with Beacon and as such will take valuable skills with them into their senior years of schooling. The College would like to thank all involved for their fantastic support, we are excited by the prospects for this program into the future and looking forward to building on these successes in 2012.