Principal's Update

Term 4 is well underway, with our Year 12s moving from revision into the exam period. I must commend the cohort on the exemplary way they conducted themselves over their final day of classes and their Celebration Day. 

Over the next week or so our Year 9 to 11 students will move from coursework into revision and begin their examination period in a couple of weeks. I wish all students all the best with their final assessments for 2023, and I look forward to seeing our Year 12 students at graduation later this term.

Last fortnight we held our school captain speeches and election process for 2024. I was so impressed by the speeches of all the candidates, and the engagement of our student population at the assembly. It was a moment where I reflected on the ongoing evolution of our culture at the college, and seeing such passionate and inspiring young people, you couldn’t help but feel a sense that the future is in good hands. This week I caught up with our 2024 elected captains, where we discussed their personal ambitions for their own futures, as well as their perception of the school at present, their hopes for 2024 and their goals for positively impacting the college next year through their captaincy. Congratulations to Brooke Hunter, Stephanie Nowell, Lachlan Wallace and Oakley Vickery-Howe, I look forward to seeing your leadership and impact next year as school captains. 

Last fortnight saw World Teachers Day and we took the opportunity to thank our wonderful teachers for their care and commitment to our students and their learning. Without our incredible staff, including our broad range of Education Support staff, our college would not achieve the progress and achievement it has over the past few years. 

We celebrated our literacy and numeracy results earlier in the year, but it was exceptionally pleasing to receive the annual Department of Education Performance Report for our college last week where schools are benchmarked against four performance categories – Transform, Renew, Stretch and Influence. 

A wide range of measures are used to capture school performance, but perhaps the one I think is most significant is the growth in literacy and numeracy from Year 7 to 9 in NAPLAN (that is, the learning growth we achieve for our students while they are with us). For the first time our college has achieved the highest category of ‘Influence’ in both literacy and numeracy growth for our students – an achievement very few secondary colleges in the state reach. Not only does strong literacy and numeracy set our students up for success in life, statistically there are strong links between a student’s Year 9 NAPLAN performance and their subsequent VCE outcomes. I have no doubt our students will continue to achieve great outcomes leading to great career paths in the coming years. 

I have said it many times before, but the work of our staff, the willingness of our students and the support of our college has been instrumental in driving the change from ‘Transform’ to ‘Influence’ in this area over a five-year period - something as a community we should all be incredibly proud of. 

Adam Hogan

College Principal