From the Principal Class Team

Dear Parents/Guardians

Every year as soon as the school calendar ticks over into Term 4, we being a process of farewells – to students, staff and families who for different reasons, won’t be with us at the school next year.

The first of these was, of course, the Year 12 class of 2017. We celebrated their achievements, both individual and as a year level, at the Awards Night two weeks ago, and then farewelled them formally at the school assembly last week. Both occasions were fitting and very moving acknowledgements of a really delightful group of young people. And whilst they are leaving the school as students, they will always remain part of the St Albans Secondary College Community.

 

On behalf of the staff, we would like to acknowledge and thank the parents of our Year 12 students for your support of the school, and congratulate you on the very significant role you have played in your child’s achievement in graduating from secondary school.

Whole School Assembly

Wednesday, 23 October marked the final day of the school year for the schools Year 12 VCE and VCAL students. As we have traditionally done for many years we mark the occasion by holding a celebratory Whole School Assembly. It is an event where our school community comes together to acknowledge the enormous contribution our graduating students have made to the school over their journey from Year 7 to Year 12.

As the Year 7 – 11 students settled into the school gym our Year 12s entered dressed in many colourful and varied costumes. There was cheering and applause as life size Pac-Man figures, witches, sumo wrestlers, clowns and even Elvis himself paraded before us all.

Speeches from the Year 11s and Year 7s congratulated and celebrated the Year 12 students’ achievements and wished them well for the next phase of their lives. The music department bands at Year 9, VET Year 11 and VET Year 12 filled the gymnasium with music, students were awarded Leadership & Citizenship Certificates, the prestigious Roger Martin Science Award was presented, students ecstatically cheered as Freeman House took out the Championship Cup for 2017, our very successful Fashion Designers treated us to a parade of their finest work and winning entries from the recent Australian Fashion Awards and one lucky student from each sub school won an iPad for exemplary reputations in modelling our school values of Respect, Leadership, Excellence and Integrity.

There is no other event on our school calendar that gives us all the opportunity to come together as a school and truly celebrate what we have achieved as a community. The commitment and pride of our staff and the student participation and genuine engagement in celebrating all that is great about St Albans Secondary College is truly special.

Thank you to everyone who had role in the success of the event and our best wishes to the Year 12 students of 2017.

We wish them a happy and rewarding life.

Year 12 Celebration Day

Not even the wet Melbourne weather dampened the spirits of our Year 12 students as they celebrated their final day of school. Their costumes were creative and colourful, and the students, although sad at leaving, enjoyed the wonderful celebration of them and their time at the school.

After the assembly, they played games and enjoyed pizza together on the oval. Many, many photos were taken to capture their last official school day, and their treasured friendships. 

Thank you to the Senior School team and the school captains for the organisation of a lovely day; and to the Year 12’s who celebrated with joy and respect and, again made us so proud of the work with them.

Award Winners

Each year at the Year 12 Awards Night and at the School Assembly, we recognise the efforts and achievements of our students in a range of areas, including academic achievement, leadership, teamwork and citizenship, and in terms of the school values.

Our very special congratulations to the following award recipients:

Stephanie Giao, Academic Excellence Award

Imogen (Immy) Nund-Dam, VCAL Excellence Award

Dominic Lay, Caltex All Rounder

Kanokwan (Fai) Srikhum, Long Tan Youth Leadership Award

Natalie Truong, 10C, Roger Martin Science Award

 

Leadership and Citizenship Awards

Eddie Nguyen, 7A, Leadership Award

Lauren Unger, 9A, Leadership Award

Sam Vuong, 8D, Citizenship Award

Tony Micallef, 10, Citizenship Award

Michelle Pham, 11, Citizenship Award

 

Student Recognition Prizes

Huynh Pham, Year 8

Louise Dang, Year 9

Vincent Truong, Year 12

Young Designer of the Year (Australian Fashion Awards, Schools Division), Anh Kim Hoang, Year 12.

 

House Cup, Freeman House

 

Congratulations to all of these students, and to each of the Year 12 Subject Award Winners.

Year 12 Awards Night

Parents, staff, School Councillors and special guests joined the graduating VCAL and VCE students on Wednesday, 19 October at the Moonee Valley racecourse in a celebration of their academic, leadership and citizenship achievements, both individually and as a group.

 

The Senior School team, led by Ms Stav Bekiaris and Ms Anna Woods, together with School Council President, Dr Tracy Nero, presented the Graduation Certificate and gifts to the Year 12’s.  Also recognised were the award winners for each subject, as well as the special achievement and scholarship recipients.

 

The evening opened with the singing of the National Anthem led by the Year 12 band and Hasnain Ali Rezaie, Siddhant Binroo, Ethel Gonzales and Kathleen Solis.

 

We were delighted to welcome former student, Ms Nade Petreska, as our guest speaker for the evening.  Nade who is a successful lawyer spoke about her career journey after completing her VCE at St Albans secondary College.  It was inspiring to hear about her career pathway and it was a pleasure to be able to welcome her back to St Albans secondary college.

 

School Captains, Dominic Lay and Leata Anau, spoke beautifully on behalf of the Year 12’s students, reflecting on six years of friendship, achievement and personal growth.  Vice Captains, Reynold Nguyen and Fai Srikhum, captured the group’s six years in their photo story.  And, of course, no graduation would be complete without musical performances. 

 

Throughout the evening we were entertained by Dominic Lay and Anne Rivera who performed a beautiful duet.  Hao Lu performed a captivating piano solo. The evening ended with a performance by the Year 12 Band composed of David Wilson, Hao Tuan Truong, Ben Nguyen, Domenic Lay, Eduardo Espinoza, Edward Roussac, Anne Rivera and Hao Lu. The band was accompanied by teachers James Orchard and Mario Agius.

Australian Fashion Awards

One of the highlights of the school year for many students is the Australian Fashion Awards. SASC has participated in this event for the last eleven years. Under the dedicated and creative leadership of our two expert fashion teachers Mr Michael Bowden and Mr Nick D’Aglas, our team has achieved wonderful results over the years. This year they came second by only a few points and took out several individual awards including the most prestigious ‘Young Designer of the Year’, which was presented to Anh Kim Hoang of Year 12. In winning this particular award, she made history as no other student has ever won it two years in a row. Kim was also awarded the ‘Long Gown’ and ‘Gown of the Event’. Since year nine Kim has won first place in her section every year. With clearly a talent and dedication for fashion, Kim hopes to pursue her dreams at RMIT next year. We wish her all the best.  Congratulations is also extended to: all our designers, models and of course our teachers.