Principal's Report
It has been wonderful being back in the Principal role at Patterson River Secondary College following a three month secondment to the Department of Education as a Senior Advisor (SEIL).
This role was a great opportunity to work closely with 23 schools in our local area (Primary, Specialist and Secondary) on their improvement plans, school reviews and day-to-day operations. I would like to thank Adam Slater who filled in as Acting Principal and Leigh O'Brien as Acting Assistant Principal. It was comforting knowing that the school was in such capable hands.
It has been a remarkable year for our school community, with the school outperforming statistically similar schools in every data measure released by the Department of Education. This includes things such as NAPLAN, VCE outcomes, student attendance rates along with formal satisfaction surveys completed by staff students and parents.
In addition to these formal measures, Patterson River ran a huge number of extra curricula activities, including the Production of The Little Mermaid, Annual Spring Concert, student trips to Europe and Malaysia.
It was also our most successful year on the sporting field, with the College winning a total of 7 State Titles in team events and 8 State Individual Track and Field State Titles.
VCE Results
On 10 December, VCE results were released. It was pleasing to see such wonderful achievements by our Year 12 students. It was particularly great to see a large increase in the number of students achieving scores of 37+.
Our Year 12 DUX was Jordan Launder achieving an ATAR over 90. Jordan was joined by a number of students achieving ATARs over 80, including:
- Sienna Jarvis-Devlin
- Alexandra Dubaj
- Clayton Zsigmond
- Ben Fu
- Jorja-Grace Mozejko
- Jye Fulton
- Zheng Voon
- Mattia Ioviero
- Rose Gillet
This year, we had a large increase in the number of students achieving Study Scores above 40 and 37, placing them in the top 15% of students or better across the state.
40+ Study Scores
Maddox Lewell 47 (Y11) (General Maths)
Jordan Launder 43 (Health)
Martin Ling 43 (Psychology)
Hao Voon 43 (Outdoor Education)
Sienna Jarvis-Devlin 43 (Psychology)
Kate Earle 41 (Outdoor Education)
Tyler Lameris 40 (Outdoor Education)
Jordan Launder 40 (General Maths)
Clayton Zsigmond 40 (Systems Engineering)
Yasmin Papadopoulos 40 (Psychology)
Ruby Weinmann 40 (General Maths)
37+ Study Scores
Jordan Launder 39 (Health)
Amber Thorburn 39 (Health)
Mattia Ioviero 38 (English)
Cadel Williams 38 (Physical Education)
Cooper Legge 38 (Physical Education)
Luke Miccoli 37 (Y11) (Business Management)
Kelsey Hughes 37 (English)
Mali Goggin 37 (English)
Cooper Legge 37 (English)
Keira Tullberg 37 (Health)
Christina Rigopoulou 37 (Greek)
Jorja-Grace Mozejko 37 (General Maths)
Jorja-Grace Mozejko 37 (Psychology)
Jye Fulton 37 (Maths Methods)
Amelia Godino 37 (Outdoor Education)
Our VCE students now eagerly await their tertiary offers. Our Year 12 Cohort have selected first preferences in over 50 different types of university courses. The results that they have achieved will mean that the vast majority of students will obtain university places in their courses of choice.
Year Level DUX Awards
Year 7 DUX
Lucille Malcomson
Linkin Thurlow
Grimaldo Davies
Year 8 DUX
Navya Appaji
Year 9 DUX
Ke Voon
Fanklin Walker
Ella Dennien
Year 10 DUX
Benjamin Ward
Year 11 VCE DUX
Martin Ling
Year VCE VM DUX
Lilani O'Loughlin
Year 12 VCE DUX
Jordan Launder
Year 12 VCE VM DUX
Lexie Adams
William Bishop
Principal's Commendation Awards
Our VCE students now eagerly await their tertiary offers. Our Year 12 cohort have selected first preferences in over 50 different types of university courses. The results that they have achieved will mean that the vast majority of students will obtain university places in their courses of choice.
Principal's Commendation Awards
Each year, a small number of students per year level are awarded a Principal's Commendation Award. To be eligible for this award, students must receive at least one College Values Award (Persistence, Excellence, Community & Respect). Congratulations to the following students for being awarded a Principal's Commendation Award for 2023:
Year 7
Louella Finnin, Chloe Clayton, Raquel Fairlie, Zac Tucker, Giaan Perkins, Lucy Malcomson.
Year 8
Ryder King-Stemmer, Rhett Milsome, Dave Smith-Hall, Nathan Poole, Aleena Rajeev, Nina Verwood, Shelby Thorne, Cooper Fox, Max Martinez.
Year 9
Willem Kinross, Zadie Gluth, Sarah Littler, Tessa Lantz, Rosie Cosentino, Xavier Martine, Izzy Bonica Wilkins.
Year 10
Miley Costa-Howard, Peter Lawrie, Keely McLaughlin, Sienna Shead, Iniya Appaji, Taz Baird, Lachlan Fulton, Alannah Skinner, Abbie Culpin Watson, Tom Murphy.
Year 11
Emma Borg, Clavea Suailua Pati, Ruby Weinmann, Isaac Simos, Charlotte Eveston, Leonard Harrington, Martin Ling, Jasmine Barlow, Cadel Williams, Clover Goldsmith, Luke Miccoli.
Year 12
Flynn Martin, Zheng Voon, Mali Goggin, Mattia Ioverio, Ben Fu.
Vale Peta Murphy MP
Last week, I attended the funeral for the late Federal Member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy MP, following an extended fight against breast cancer. Despite the immensely sad circumstances, the service was a wonderful celebration of Peta's achievements and highlighted the things that she was passionate about, particularly education and gender equality.
Peta was an energetic and passionate local member, who most recently secured $10,000 of funding for our Instrumental Music Program.
Peta first visited our College in early 2016, attending a debate for candidates for the seat of Dunkley which was organised by our VCE Politics class. Peta received the most votes from our VCE students in polling that they ran on the day, however she was not successful in securing the seat for Dunkley in this attempt. Ultimately though, she secured the seat in 2019 and was successful in retaining the seat in 2022.
Peta was a big supporter of our Instrumental Music program, and each year had our students perform at her annual Senior's Morning Tea.
Peta worked right up to until her untimely passing, passionately working on reforms for online gambling, working effectively with all sides of our federal parliament. A cause that some of our students have written to local members about over the years.
Peta is a big loss to our school and the broader community and on behalf of our College extend our thoughts to Peta's family and friends.
Student Behaviour Feedback
I received a lovely email from a teacher from a primary school following an excursion our Year 7 and 9 students went on last week.
"I took 34 Foundation kids to Enchanted Adventure yesterday in the very wild weather. There were two bus loads of students from Patterson River Secondary College there also. I just wanted to email you to say how impressed all the staff from my school were at the way your students conducted themselves. They willingly helped our little kiddies pull tubes up the hill, let them go ahead of them in the line so they could go down the slide with their friends, happily answered maths equations and listened to them chat as the storms past, encouraged them and helped them navigate their way through multiple mazes."
"It absolutely melted my heart to observe how kind and caring they were towards our little ones."
"Well Done to you and your staff in all that you are doing to create such well rounded students."
This year we have been focusing on Positive Behaviours in all settings, including expectations for excursions and it was a great to see our students living up to our College Values away from the our school gates.
Preparing for 2024
There will some slight changes to student's timetables for the beginning of 2024, including room allocations. Timetables should appear on Compass a few days before students return but in the meantime students can review their Step -Up calendar if they wish to review their subject allocation.
Staff return on Monday 29 January. Staff will be involved in professional development this day, however the General Office will be open from 1pm.
Year 7, 11 and 12 students will return on Tuesday 30 January, with all remaining year levels beginning on Wednesday 31 January.
Thank you to our entire school community for working in such lovely partnership and 'Achieving Excellence Together'.
Wishing you a wonderful festive season and Happy New Year. See you in 2024!
Daniel Dew
College Principal