Principal's Report

Principal - 

Mr. Tristan Lanarus

Dear Westall Secondary College Community,

I can’t believe that we are already nearing the end of Term One for 2019. There have been a number of events with more to come early term Two.

Our Annual Report for 2018 was tabled and endorsed at College Council last week and can now be viewed on our website, https://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/files/file/Westall_SC_Annual_report_2018.docx.pdf Every Victorian Government School produces an Annual Report using this format in March/April each year. I encourage you to have a look. Some pleasing results and as I mentioned last year, Westall is now considered a high performing school based on the Education Department’s measures.

In regards to College Council, I would like to thank Cynthia Nge for her involvement over the last 2 years and Jared Bandara as the Student Activities Rep. Rodger Clark has joined Council as the new staff rep for Student Activities along with Chinese Teacher, Minnie Zeng. Welcome to 2018 College Captains Shannon Bone and Mona Issa, who have been co-opted as College Council Community Reps. It is great to see ex Westall students staying involved in the school. Tynan Samason’s appointment as our news Sports Assistant is another great example of ex-students staying involved. We have one parent/community vacancy remaining for our 2019/2020 College Council if anyone is interested.

We are working on a preferred menu and system for our new canteen that will be shared with Westall Primary School in 2020. We are seeking a parent or two that might be interested in forming a subcommittee for this new canteen. Similar to College Council membership, if you are interested please contact me via the school number, 9546 3233.

For a number of years Jim Asimakopoulos (OAM – Order of Australia Medal) has spoken to our new Year 7 cohort. Jim was born with Cerebral Palsy but has an amazing list of achievements over 50 years, including being awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to Education. He recently visited Westall and Jim has lost none of his wit and wisdom. A great example for our community of being inclusive and what anyone can achieve with optimism and resilience.

Thank you to Alice Paget who is currently filling an Assistant Principal position alongside Mark Henderson, whilst Sue Simadri is on leave. Sue will rejoin Mark for the beginning of term 2. Alice will oversee Assessment and Reporting and matters related to Years 10, 11 and 12 during this time.

The last day for Term 1 is Friday 5th April with students dismissed at 2.30pm on this day. Term 2 begins on Tuesday 23rd April. In May we have the Annual NAPLAN testing (computer based this year) for Years 7 and 9. We also have a Student Free Day on Monday 13th May where staff will spend the day with Joe Ybarra from America, working on our EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction) teaching approach. Also in May we have our Koorie Cultural Understanding and Safety Training on Tuesday the 7th and 14th. On these 2 dates, students will be dismissed at 2.30pm but we will provide reminders in early May for all these events.

I wanted to finish with sharing how lucky I believe we are to be part of the Westall family. This week we celebrated Harmony Day and held our Annual Harmony Day Assembly on Tuesday 26th March. With the recent tragedy in Christchurch the day took on even greater significance. Below is my speech from this assembly which was accompanied by other beautiful and touching speeches and performances by a number of students.

Until next time!

Tristan Lanarus

Good morning teachers and students,

In keeping with raising awareness and putting a stop to bullying, today is a significant day of celebration. Today we celebrate Harmony Day. So what is Harmony Day? Harmony Day is a national day of cultural respect and acknowledgement to all those who call Australia home, from the indigenous traditional owners to those that have travelled from thousands of kilometres away. As we take pride in both our individuality and cultural diversity, it is important to remember that we all stand collectively shoulder to shoulder as Australians and Westall students.

Harmony Day began in 1999 and is recognised Internationally in March each year.

Harmony Day is all about celebrating diversity and inclusion and it highlights the importance that everyone belongs. Take a look around at those that you call friends, and then look across our Gym. Celebrating our unique and diverse community highlights the sense of belonging that we all have. Working towards an open minded, tolerant society proud of our achievements standing with open arms to those that need our help.

To celebrate Harmony Day, talk to your friends about their background, share stories and spread the spirit of Harmony. Make new friends and try talking to someone you may have never talked to before as Harmony Day is all about living together cheerfully. With such a diverse community you can always share cultural music, food and dance. Set aside differences with people whom you don’t get along.

Let me say a little more about the meaning of harmony. As with all words, it is useful to return to harmony’s roots. Harmony is derived from the Greek harmos and the Latin harmonia: harmos meaning “joint”, harmonia meaning “agreement”. When we think of something that is in a state of harmony, we think of components coming together to produce a pleasing or complete whole. We think of old and new architecture blending in harmony; we think of science and nature working in harmony. Perhaps most commonly, we think of the sound of harmony when we listen to music.

My reading of this in people and cultures is that we can only have true harmony in a multicultural society. I say this because harmony talks about different components or elements coming together to complete a whole. A mono culture or society does not represent the whole of the human race and does not by definition provide a vehicle for harmony. I want to mention briefly what has happened in Christchurch and I do this with the intent of us learning and understanding, not to cause upset. Intent behind attacks such as the one in Christchurch is the complete opposite of what harmony is and how we create harmony. The Christchurch incident was so despicable and so misguided. How can the world be a better place when we harm others and when we focus on race or religion to divide. It can’t, you know that, we know that.

As NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said, we totally reject anyone with such views or actions.

We live in a country of remarkable harmony that is to be celebrated and nurtured. Our diversity is exceptional. Home to the world’s oldest continuing cultures, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, Australia is also home to people who identify with more than 270 ancestries. Our modern cultural diversity has been largely generated by the waves of immigration that have arrived on our shores following the end of the Second World War.

Few countries can boast that they have been transformed in such dramatic fashion – yet have enjoyed social stability and cohesion.

Let me finish by revisiting the meaning of harmony and explaining again why multiculturalism is the only vehicle to achieve this.

Harmony is the coming together of different things or elements to form a complete whole. Therefore harmony is not possible when we divide and focus on difference.

Difference is what makes us whole as a Human Race and I could not be prouder of all of you.

Today we celebrate the Harmony we have within Westall

My challenge to you all is how you can use what we have here