College News

Borneo World Challenge

Over the school holidays, an intrepid group of Newhaven College students from Year 10 volunteered their time by engaging in conservation work in the Kinabatangan River area of Borneo. The group was accompanied by teachers, Fiona Smart and Dave Prideaux. The College partnered with World Challenge, an organisation that provides experiences for participants while making a positive impact in international communities. World Challenge trips are student led, where student teams are put in charge of the budget, decide where to eat, organise daily activities, run daily meetings and make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.

The trip began with the first five days in Kota Kinabalu, where the students became familiar with the city and its landmarks, went stand-up paddleboarding, and spent a day snorkelling, experiencing coral reefs, sea turtles and even a shark.

The project work was to help the local area of the Kinabatangan River to plant grasses and trees and clean up the river. The students worked extremely hard in the heat and humidity to make a real difference.

The trip ended with a visit to the Orangutan and Sun Bear Conservation areas, which was an incredible experience. With the money raised, they have sponsored Agop, an orphaned orangutan and Fulong, a sun bear, for 3 years.

Fiona Smart

Borneo World Challenge Accompanying Teacher

The 21st Sister School Visit from Japan

We are approaching the end of a wonderful two-week visit from our sister school, Ibaraki Christian Junior High School. Fourteen Year 9 students, accompanied by Ms Saito and Mr Youngblood, arrived on Sunday 27 July and have been warmly welcomed by our students, staff and families.

During their time with us, the students have attended classes, made new friends, and explored local attractions. It has been a pleasure to see how naturally they connected with our students and embraced daily life at Newhaven College. Some students who had visited Ibaraki in previous years were also able to reunite with the visitors, strengthening friendships between the two schools.

On their final day at school, the group participated in the Year 8 Medieval Day, providing a fun and memorable conclusion to their visit. With the visit soon coming to a close, we are sure saying goodbye will be difficult for many.

In September, 15 of our own students from Years 10 and 11 will travel to Japan to visit the Ibaraki school as part of the return exchange.

We sincerely thank all host families for their generosity, kindness, and care throughout the visit. We extend our special thanks to the Townsend family for their ongoing support over many years in providing accommodation for the Ibaraki teachers. We also appreciate the backup families who kindly offered their support and were ready to help during the visit.

One host family reflection, the Helps family, says it all, " Our host student, Karen has been an absolute joy to have in our home and she will be greatly missed when she leaves on Friday. Our children have formed strong friendships and had so much fun exchanging stories about each other's homes and experiences. It is such a beautiful opportunity to learn about another culture and to be able to share ours as well. We all wish it went a little longer as we will be very sad to say goodbye but so grateful to have been a part of this program. We will 100% continue to be a part of this program while our children are at Newhaven College and would absolutely recommend it to anyone."

The host families and their students came together at Phillip Island Tenpin Bowling and The Westernport Hotel for social events. Forging strong connections between everyone involved.

Thank you to our Host Families

The Andrianopoulos family, Baud family, Bennett family, Bland family, Bowring family, Bowtell family, Confoy family, Eishold and Hewett family, Helps & Johns family, Jungwirth and Thompson family, Kossenna family, Thom family, Thompson family, and Underwood family. And special thanks to our back up families, the Anastasi family and Whitton family.

Mitsuko Horiguchi

Japanese Exchange Program Coordinator