Principal's Post

Another productive and successful year is drawing to a close at Ringwood Secondary College and there is much in the planning for 2016, including our new strategic plan for the period 2016-2019. I am also delighted to announce that our capital works project has received approval to proceed to tender documentation and we will look forward to commencing construction in the by Term 2 next year.

This week, we are farewelling two long serving staff members in Ms Sandy Keown and Mrs Margaret Polkinghorn who are retiring after many years of contribution to our college. Best wishes to you both for a healthy and happy retirement. The College would also like to wish Mrs Sandy Kokoszka, Mr Matthew Tucker and Mrs Suzanne Toniolo all the best for their new teaching appointments in 2016.

Presentation evening this week certainly captured many of the highlights and successes of the year. We are delighted with the achievements of the Class of 2015 and indeed students from all levels across so many areas of endeavour and leadership. This edition of the newsletter contains full details of all the awards.

Our VCE results were again worthy of celebration, with 31 students gaining an ATAR score over 90 and 9.1% obtaining study scores over 40. This places these students in the top groups in the State. In addition, many other students achieved results that will allow them to gain places in preferred higher education courses.

I am particularly delighted to announce that the College Dux for 2015 is Jiao Mei He with an ATAR of 99.9. This places her amongst the top 80 students in the State. Cory Zu and Alan Gao with ATAR scores of 99.8 are in the top 200 in the State. 14 students scored above 95 and 4 students 99 or higher.

In further good news, we have been informed that three of our students have been selected by the VCAA to exhibit their work in the Top Designs Exhibition in 2016. Congratulations to Chelsea King and Kathryn Bell in Media and Zac Folan in Design and Technology – Foods. We look forward to joining with thousands of others in viewing your work at the Melbourne Museum.

Special congratulations to three students who obtained perfect study scores of 50: Maddy Wright for History Revolutions (Teacher Ms Lucy Moore), Elena Boyd for Health and Human Development (Teacher Ms Nicole Solomon ) and Zhi Bin Foo for English as an Additional Language (Teacher Ms Lucy Moore)

I hope many of you had the chance to enjoy the outstanding production of Lion King Junior during the past week. It was delightful to see so many of our Year 7 to 9 students performing with such enthusiasm, flair and polish in this recently released young performers edition of a classic musical. Thanks to the large team of staff and parents, led by Ms Samantha Asbury, Mrs Kate Tanner and Mr Ben Moody, who created this wonderful opportunity for our students.

In more exciting news, our acclaimed production of Oliver has won the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria’s Award for BEST Junior Production of 2015. A fantastic team effort by everyone involved and we are very proud of this achievement. Well done to Mrs Kate Tanner and Ms Gaynor Borlase for their award- Best Choreography in a Junior Production. They also collected a Lyrebird Award in the same category and our student Stage Manager Kaitlyn Walker received the inaugural Lyrebird Rising Star Technical Award. This fantastic prize will see her receive ten sessions of professional tuition in theatre tech on-site at the Karralyka Theatre.

Finally, I would like to wish all members of our College community best wishes for the holiday season and I trust that you have a safe and restful break. I look forward to working with you all in 2016.

Michael Phillips

Principal