Principals Report 

What a year it has been! After two long periods of remote learning, it has been great to have our students back on-site over the past four weeks. There was an eagerness and excitement in the first week as students become reacquainted with their peers, and as the weeks have passed we have settled back into a routine of teaching and learning. 

Throughout the year, we have maintained a keen eye on our improvement agenda. This term we have worked collectively as a school community to establish values that will sit alongside our vision, and guide our work across the course of our new four-year strategic plan. All staff and students had input into developing these values, and I would particularly like to thank our student home-group leaders for facilitating conversations within their classes. I would also like to thank the parents who provided input via the online form; we received a vast array of really powerful values proposals, with some strong contenders emerging. To ensure the values capture the broad spectrum of areas suggested, we are working through a process to theme these suggestions and I look forward to sharing the final values with you in the coming fortnight. 

I am impressed by the continued resilience of our Year 12 students who, following their celebration day last week, have continued to attend classes and study for their upcoming exams. Celebration Day involved a great series of events, from the morning barbecue, to the recess fashion parade, and a water-park style event in the afternoon. This was a great opportunity for the students to celebrate a challenging year and the conclusion of formal classes. To support our students to do their best, this year we have continued a structured revision program across the normal timetable and had a pleasing turnout of students working on study notes, practice questions, and past exam papers. I wish all of our Year 12 VCE students the very best through the exam period, with the three-hour English exam commencing the exam period today. Our Year 12 VCAL students are currently concluding their final course requirements, and I wish them all the best as they meet their final outcomes and complete their certificates. 

As we look ahead, there are three more weeks in the 2020 academic year, the third week (from Friday, November 20 – Thursday, November 26) will be the exam period for our Year 9s to 11s. Friday, November 27 will be a student-free day enabling staff to undertake exam marking and report writing. Following this, we transition into Headstart – an important two-week period starting Monday, November 30, when all students’ progress to their new 2021 year level, and engage in new classes with new teachers. As a college, we endeavour to make this a genuine head start experience, so that teachers, leadership roles, and structures all emulate 2021 for a two-week period. This provides a great chance for students to engage in two weeks of solid, meaningful learning from their 2021 course, and then hit the ground running, so to speak, at the start of 2021. 

Restrictions and permissions within the Covid-SAFE environment continue to evolve. There have been recent announcements regarding graduation events (now permitted with staff and students from the graduating year level) and transition for Grade 6 students (now permitted in small groups). We are pleased that these events can take place in a Covid-SAFE way, and we will share more information with the specific cohorts involved in the coming week. 

Finally, our three days of activities in the last week of the year (Monday, December 14 - Wednesday, December 16) will be limited due to the requirement to avoid mixed year levels, and excursions are only permitted locally. We will, nonetheless, have a selection of school-based and local activities for students who need to attend school following the conclusion of our Headstart program and academic learning period. 

Thank you again for your ongoing support this year. 

Adam Hogan

College Principal