PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

WELCOME

Welcome back to all staff, students, parents and a special welcome to our new families. I hope 2023 will be a successful year for our community, with many opportunities for learning and growth.

As the new principal, I look forward to getting to know our families and supporting everyone through their child’s secondary education. It is with great pride that I take on this role at our amazing school.  I am absolutely honoured to lead our community into the future, after the retirement of our beloved and esteemed principal, Mrs Pitsa Binnion. 

Walking through both main and east campuses over the last week, it was clear that students settled well, and they are now well and truly into the routine of school.

Academic results are achieved by a consistent effort every day. We ask families to support their children to study at home by ensuring there is a quiet area where they can concentrate on homework. At school, our teachers will do their very best to support students' learning growth.

I believe all students are already putting in a significant effort and I am looking forward to a wonderful year ahead.

YEAR 12 CAMP

It was absolutely wonderful to farewell the Year 12s on the buses for their final school camp on Monday. It was great to meet them down at Phillip Island and talk to the students at the opening address.

This camp is so important in setting the tone for the year ahead, with key sessions on goal setting, study techniques, wellbeing and pathways beyond school. Students had time to connect with each other, enjoying the many fun team building activities. All of these experiences have been captured for this year's Thistle albums.

I thank the Student Managers Chris Hudd, Helen James and Dan Blackmore for their fantastic organisation and support of this important camp. I also thank all the staff who were in attendance to ensure the success of the program. Well done to all involved. 

YEAR 7 INDUCTION AND PEER SUPPORT

Thank you to Jack Gromer and all the Peer Support teachers for delivering this very important program to assist Year 7 transition and provide Year 10 students with leadership experience. 

MAIN CAMPUS SPORTING EVENTS

I would like to thank Jen Pemberton, Head of PE and Sport, for organising the amazing dance concert at Main Campus on Thursday hosted by Dagogo from The Nikki Visaj Dance Movement. It was great to see so many students involved and having heaps of fun with our guest dance teacher in the area outside the MERC building. 

At the same time we had the Year 12 Boys' soccer game on the McKinnon Oval. The match was between Willigon Wools (AFL boys) vs Jedwards (Soccer boys). As you can imagine this was a hotly contested game. The final score was 2-1 with the Willigon Wools victorious! Goals scored were from Josh Feder, Lucas Boglis and Jamie Lang. 

Over on the multi-courts, our Year 7s enjoyed the Rock Up basketball program at lunchtime. Thank you to Mr Greg Hoskin for organising this event. This is a great way for our new students to have fun and get to know each other. 

It certainly was an action-packed day at Main Campus.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP 

I was delighted to introduce the 2023 Captains at our first whole school assembly today. I congratulate them all and know they will serve our community with pride. These students have demonstrated exceptional qualities and dispositions over many years, and I wish them all the very best in undertaking these leadership roles. 

SENIOR SCHOOL LEADERS

School Captains

Victoria Polites & Tarkyn Isaacs

Deputy School Captains

Valeria Camacho Acevedo, Oliver Ledger, Bianca Sguario & Om Wadhwa

SENIOR HOUSE CAPTAINS

Chisholm Captains

Annabelle Sakurai & Oscar Whitney

Chisholm Deputy Captains

Olivia Colletta & Nicholas Mavropoulos

Flynn Captains

Charis Koletsas & Frederik Rowe Hansen

Flynn Deputy Captains

Tilde Christrup & Mitchell Johnston

Gilmore Captains

Stephanie Braniska & Oliver Ledger

Gilmore Deputy Captains

Eliza Sharp & George Prountzos

Monash Captains

Caitlin Lyon & Ewan Daly

Monash Deputy Captains

Molly Forehan & Daniel Shpak

SENIOR MUSIC CAPTAINS

Chisholm Music Captains

Daniel Jang, Heidi Robertson-Reid, Jodie Silberthau & Max Wiseman

Flynn Music Captains

Mabel Green, Ruben Stein-Fooks, Seffra Tienstra & Tom Wever

Gilmore Music Captains

Meirav Berger, Luc Georges, Sophia Huang & Tali Liner

Monash Music Captains

Valeria Camacho Acevedo, Minh Dang, Hadyn Collier & Jolee Sacks

JUNIOR SCHOOL LEADERS

Junior School Captains

Maleesha Dharmadasa & Elliot Cockle

Deputy School Captains

Harley Karro, Sophie Ashton, Ben Muyemba & Matthew Davis

JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Anthe Limogiannis

JUNIOR HOUSE CAPTAINS

Chisholm Captains

Demi Panagiotopoulos & Leo Park

Chisholm Deputy Captains

Alexis Pavlos & Shaun Kwong

Flynn Captains

Subira Seymour & Kai Kinross

Flynn Deputy Captains

Harley Karro & Blayk O’Brien

Gilmore Captains

Lucinda Ledger & Ruben Chapman

Gilmore Deputy Captains

Olivia Smith & Isabella Ruthven

Monash Captains

Pia Landini & Benny Baldwin

Monash Deputy Captains

Shelley Gordon & Sabrina Vitiello

CONGRATULATIONS

Last year McKinnon Secondary College had two Duxes, both receiving an ATAR of 99.65, Ethan Sportan and Yolanda Ye. 

Ethan has recently been interviewed on SBS French (in French!) about his language learning experience. Click here to hear the interview.

NOTICE OF ELECTION AND CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 

Nomination forms for the School Council elections are now available from the General Office at both campuses. Included in this newsletter are links with information for parents and students wishing to nominate. Nominations are being called for three parent members, three school employee members and one student member. Anyone with any queries regarding School Council Elections are welcome to contact me at school. Closing date for the return of nomination forms is Friday 17 February at 4.00pm. 

PARTNERSHIP IN EDUCATION

Part of the secret to the McKinnon model of success with student outcomes is the very strong partnership that exists between parents and staff.  We value these quality relationships and I know students benefit from them tremendously.

Parents at McKinnon can be relied upon to attend concerts, drama nights when they can, all information evenings but also they read the newsletter, Compass feeds and keep informed and up to date with all relevant events.

They also assist students to be organised, punctual and in full uniform.

This all contributes to student success and building strong relationships and I thank everyone for your efforts and tremendous support.

TRAFFIC – SCHOOL ZONE SPEED LIMITS

I would like to remind all parents to be careful when driving along McKinnon Road and South Drive. It is very congested and at times dangerous. Please be aware of street signs and adhere to road rules.

Parents are being booked daily by parking officers from Glen Eira Council. The school car park must also not be accessed by parents during school hours. Ask your child to meet you away from the relevant campus to ease congestion.

The speed limit is always 40km per hour along McKinnon Road and U-turns are not allowed. We have many students riding bikes so please be careful parking and opening doors.

I would also like to remind students riding bikes that from the age of 13, you are required to ride your bike using the bike lane on the road. Please do not ride on the footpath. Riding a bike on the footpath can cause significant danger to both pedestrians and riders. Please always wear a helmet.

SCHOOL BUS ROUTE 626

I have received feedback that students utilising the morning 626 bus to the East Campus are sometimes missing out due to increased student numbers. I have been in touch with the Department of Transport to request an additional bus and will let you know once more information comes to hand.

A SUCCESS STORY

I would like to share with you a success story, one of true resilience. It is about ex-McKinnon student, Sarah Aarons from the class of 2012. Sarah was an exceptional student, always embracing opportunities, challenges and celebrations with a smile on her face.  

Sarah was an outstanding musician at school, but most importantly, she was kind, humble and caring of others.

Sarah had personal challenges that had a significant impact on her health, but nevertheless, she rose above these challenges to become an internationally recognised and celebrated song writer. A remarkable achievement.

Some of you may follow the triple J hottest 100, announced after Australia Day recently. The 2022 winning song by Flume, “Say Nothing”,  was actually co-written by Sarah. An incredible achievement, but not unexpected considering she has already written songs for many international pop stars in the industry.

This is not the first time Sarah has found success. She won the APRA Songwriter of The Year award in 2019 for being the writer behind Maren Morris' breakthrough hit “The Middle”.  The same year she was also nominated for a Grammy for Song of The Year. 

Success stories like this help inspire us, to keep us motivated to reach for our dreams and to remind us that we can achieve anything we put our minds to, even when beset by challenges. Well done Sarah, we applaud you! 

SECONDARY SCHOOL ENROLMENT PRIVACY COLLECTION STATEMENT (PRIVACY INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND CARERS)

During the ordinary course of your child’s attendance at our school, school staff will collect your child’s personal and health information when necessary to educate your child, or to support your child’s social and emotional wellbeing or health. Such information will also be collected when required to fulfil a legal obligation, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law. If that information is not collected, the school may be unable to provide optimal education or support to your child, or fulfil those legal obligations.

For example, health information may be collected through the school nurse or wellbeing staff member. If your child is referred to a specific health service at school, such as a Student Support Service Officer, or school- engaged psychologist, the required consent will be obtained.

Our school may use online tools, such as apps and other software, to effectively collect and manage information about your child for teaching and learning purposes, parent communication and engagement; student administration; and school management purposes. When our school uses these online tools, we take steps to ensure that your child’s information is secure. If you have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact us.

School staff will only share your child’s personal or health information with other staff who need to know to enable the school to educate or support your child, or fulfil a legal obligation.

When our students transfer to another Victorian government school, personal and health information about that student will be transferred to that next school. Transferring this information is in the best interest of our students and assists that next school to provide optimal education and support to students.

In some limited circumstances, information may be disclosed outside of the school (and outside of the Department of Education and Training). The school will seek your consent for such disclosures unless the disclosure is allowed or mandated by law

Our school values the privacy of every person. When collecting and managing personal and health information, all school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law. For more information about privacy including about how to access personal and health information held by the school about you or your child, see our school’s privacy policy:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/schoolsprivacypolicy.aspx 

Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, Student Support Service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners and all other staff at our school. This includes employees, agents and service providers of the Department, whether paid or unpaid.