Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 807 Issue Date: 20 May, 2018

The Rotary Club of Western Endeavour has been a long time supporter of the Balga Senior High School. This support started when Geoff Harris became the Principal of the Balga SHS way back in 2006. Geoff Harris (Awarded a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary) retired as Principal of Balga SHS at the end of 2017 and the RC Western Endeavour is continuing to provide support under the new Principal Mark Carton.

Balga SHS has students from the surrounding district, but also has many students from across Perth who require extra support programs. These other students come from a variety of backgrounds including students of aboriginal heritage, recent immigrants that have English as a second language and teenage mothers. The Middle School (Years 7 to 9) has students that have come from 60 different countries.

As many students have English as a second language, Balga SHS provides an Intensive English Centre which enable students to become proficient in English quickly before moving into the normal curriculum.  The Middle School provides a model through which the individual literacy and numeracy needs of students are targeted across the curriculum.

Last year the RC of Western Endeavour supported Balga SHS participating in an interschool contest called YOH Fest (Youth on Health Festival). YOH Fest, is Western Australia’s biggest youth performing arts event that gives high school students throughout WA the opportunity to take part in an innovative and revolutionary approach to health education. The senior students at Balga SHS won their YOH Fest section in 2017 which was a terrific result. The photograph above is of the Balga SHS performers at YOH Fest 2017. RC of Western Endeavour will again be supporting Balga in the competition this year. 

The RC Western Endeavour also provided support last year with sporting uniforms and equipment.

Other programs RC Western Endeavour is providing support to Balga SHS are:

• Sending 4 Year 10 students to the Rotary Youth Program Enrichment (known as RYPEN).  RYPEN "aims to provide young people with the opportunity to develop their potential and self esteem, provide experiences  that will assist them to form their own values and moral standards, and to broaden their cultural, social and academic horizons." The 4 students give a talk to our RC and it is amazing how the RYPEN students have developed self-esteem and speaking publicly.
• Sending students to a program called Dismantle and in particular BikeRescue which "is a dynamic program that integrates hands-on skill building to engage and mentor young people who need support. In BikeRescue, participants fully strip and rebuild two bikes each, the first is donated to charity, the second is ‘earned’ for them to keep. Throughout the program, participants are building their knowledge, social skills, self-esteem, confidence and teamwork, that is transferred to further opportunities."

This year Balga SHS is going to start a Cafe onsite where students will make the food and serve. We hope this is a great success.

Laurie Glossop (President)