Principal's Report

Report from Westall Principal 2023

Dear Westall Secondary College Community,

Our current Year 12 students are now well into their exams and final assessments. The last exams will be completed 15th November and I look forward to celebrating with you all at our Valedictory evening on Thursday 23rd November. I also want to recognize and thank you all for the care, fun and positive spirit you displayed in your final days of classes and your last day celebration assembly and lunch. The speeches, teacher awards and video you put together were a beautiful way to capture and celebrate your 6 years at Westall. You set a great example and excellence in role modelling to our students across the school.

For our Year 7-11 students, you are in the final weeks of your current programs and assessments. Make every post a winner and apply your personal best to the opportunities in front of you. Thursday 23rd November is your last day at your current year level. Friday 24th November is our last Student Free Day to allow teachers to write your reports and prepare your new classes. On Monday 27th November you all start your new classes for 2024 (Head Start). Current Year 10 and 11 students will become our new Year 11 and 12 students. You will do one week of classes and finish for this year on Friday 1st December. 

Current Year 7, 8 and 9 students will become Year 8, 9 and 10 and complete 2 weeks of 2024 classes followed by 3 days of personal development workshops taking you through to Wednesday 13th December. You then have access to 4 days of fun based activities with your last day for the year on Tuesday 19th December. 

Our new building is due to be opened from 29th November. Our Year 11 and 12 students will be based in this new building from Day 1, 2024 with brand new lockers, classrooms, study, and social meeting areas. At the last school council meeting it was decided that the interim name for our new building will be the SENIOR LEARNING CENTRE (SLC). The school council did not feel confident to endorse any of the proposed names put forward to this point, nor did the council want to exclude a potential indigenous name into the future.

The council and I would like to thank the various students, families and staff that did propose names for our new building and there were many that were seriously considered before the final decision was reached. This decision still allows a suitable name to be considered and endorsed into the future as deemed appropriate. 

We are planning an event for December to open our new building and to celebrate our 60-year birthday as a school. Westall Secondary College opened for business in 1963 so this year really is a significant milestone in our history, and we have much to be proud of. Stay tuned as we finalize details of this event and communicate the plan.

More positive news I would like to share is that we have been successful in recruiting a range of new teachers to our school for 2024. Our school enjoys a very caring, safe, and positive learning environment that attracts new families and students and attracts teachers wanting to work in our beautiful school. Given the teacher shortages and other challenges facing many schools across Victoria, we are incredibly fortunate and grateful to be in the position we are at Westall. All teaching jobs advertised have been filled with quality applicants, we have finalized our staffing leadership across the school, and we have added an Acting Assistant Principal (Travis McIntosh) who will oversee our Vocational Major Programs at Years 10, 11 and 12 and our whole School Curriculum. Congratulations Travis. Alice Paget and Jason Tickner remain in their current Assistant Principal roles who have both done an amazing job this year and will continue to.

Our 2023 data sets are again excellent and above expected against similar schools and state averages. NAPLAN results, Student Attendance, VCE and VM scores and outcomes, Student Attitudes to School Surveys, Staff Opinion Surveys and Parent Opinion Surveys are the key data sets used by the Department of Education to monitor school performance. We are ranked as a high performing school by the Department. You should all be very proud. We are proud too, but we will continue to seek improvement and get better every year. Our school leadership team will be meeting for a full day next week to look closely at this data and set our plans, goals, and targets for 2024. Ultimately all this work links back to getting the best possible outcome for every student at Westall.

Until next time,

Mr Tristan Lanarus

Principal