School Council News

Maffra Secondary College is a great school.  Many people make it so - our students and their families, teachers, principal, support staff, parents club, our broader community, and many more.  The school council is a key group that supports the Principal to provide the best possible educational outcomes for our students.  Have you ever wondered how the school council do that, and who they are?

In brief, the school council is responsible for finance, policy development and review, and also, importantly, the strategic direction of the school.  The school council is not involved in the day to day, operational activities of the school - that's rightly the responsibility of the experts, our Principal team, teachers and support staff, and we believe they do a terrific job.  

Being a school councillor is a rewarding, and sometimes challenging role.  As with any governance group, it is important that the people who sit on the School Council hold a range of skills and are all able to contribute to healthy debate - always with the educational outcomes of all students at its heart.  School Councillors need to be able to take the views of the broader school community to the group, and to do that, it's important you know who sits on our current School Council so you can reach out to them at any time to share any thoughts you have that will make our school even better.  So, over the next couple of newsletters we are going to gradually introduce ourselves - please make yourselves known to us, and feel free to contact any of us via the school office.  We are all fully vested in making our school the best school - so yes, we love talking Maffra Secondary, and would love to talk with you!

Introducing a third of us - the rest to come in the next newsletter:

Jo O'Doherty:  I am the Maffra Secondary College Parent’s Club representative on School Council, serving my fourth year. I am a former student and teacher of Maffra Secondary College, and currently a parent of a past and present student. I am very proud of the opportunities that the school provides for its students.

I currently work as a paramedic out of the Maffra branch. I am passionate about the Maffra community and am involved with many organisations. My longer commitments are to the Maffra SES and playing my 38th year of hockey with the Maffra Hockey Club.

Hans Simon: I am currently serving as president of school council, and very open to conversations about our great college. I am married to Kim, both of us passionate about public education and community. I have been involved with MSC since 2007, with our youngest – Lucas, the last of our four children currently in Year 10.

Fiona Gardiner:  I am a current parent of two senior kids attending MSC. Outside of my role as a parent representative on school council, my husband and I own a small business. We moved to the area 6 years ago to give my kids a country lifestyle upbringing and we haven’t looked back. I also work at the ANZ bank.

Narelle Petterson:  I have been a parent at the school for nine years - and was also a student many years ago. I’ve been on school council for the past three years and am also the parents club Vice President.

The other current school councillors are:  Leanne Caithness, Helen Lacey, Tamsyn Lenne, Meg Capurso, Joe Capurso (student rep), Tim Elliot (student rep), Jennifer Roep, Carol Caffrey, Nathan Wallace and Cheryl Evans.