Andrew Chisholm

Principal

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome to the first JMSS newsletter of 2025. For those who are new members of the JMSS community, these newsletters come out approximately monthly and showcase the activities, events and achievements that have characterized life at JMSS over the preceding 4 weeks.

It has been pleasing to report that the start of the year has been very smooth, and our new students are settling in well. There was an excellent turnout to “Meet the Mentor” afternoon, and we  encourage parents to use their student's mentor as the first point of call if they have any queries that need answering.

Parent representatives for School Council

Thank you to the 5 parents who have nominated for the 3 vacancies on school council. A reminder that voting for these positions concludes this Friday 28th February.

ISSF 2025

Three students accompanied by Dr Penny Hale and Mr Corkill attended the 20th Anniversary of the International Students Science Fair hosted by the Mahidol Wittayanusorn School in Thailand in January.  The theme of the fair was “Exploring a Visionary Future in Sustainability, Humanity and Technology” It was pleasing to see the project taken to the fair by our students received the “Spark of Inspiration ” award and Zara Zulkarnian received a gold medal for her “Art in Science” project. The team receiving their award is shown below.

Swimming Sports

A beautiful sunny day greeted our students as they descended onto the Oakleigh Pool for the annual swimming sports. There was excellent participation and some highly talented swimmers putting in excellent performances on the day. For the first time in many years the highly anticipated raft race saw an extremely close contest with all rafts traversing the course. Flannery House was the deserved winner of the swimming sports, and a photo of their cheer squad below exemplifies the support all houses gave to their competitors.

Year 12 Camp

Our 15th Year 12 Camp was held once again at the Lord Somers camp at Somers, with more than 220 students following a 3-day program that combined some VCE information, guest speakers, water-based activities and opportunities for students to formally and informally get to know their teachers and peers. Again, the camp was a great success, and I do need to acknowledge the work of the office staff and Mal Anderson who organised the event and to the staff who volunteered to supervise our students on the camp.

Maths Immersion Day

Our first Immersion event for the year was held last Friday, with our Year 10 and 11 students completing some Maths problem-solving exercises designed to promote a range of important mathematical thinking and modelling skills. Thanks to Mr May for his organization of this highly successful event.

School Saving Bonus

Late last year, parents and carers of students enrolled in a Victorian government school for 2025 received a one-off $400 School Savings Bonus to assist with purchasing school textbooks (Campion stores or online), uniforms (PSW Waverley or online), camps, excursions, and activities.

While JMSS fully supports this initiative and the benefits for families, processing these payments is extremely time-consuming. To help manage this, we are in the process of hiring additional administration staff.

If you have allocated all or part of your child’s School Savings Bonus to school camps, excursions, or activities, we kindly ask you to complete the form attached to the relevant Compass event. This ensures your funds are correctly allocated. Please note that once submitted, it may take up to 48 hours to process across multiple systems.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child's School Savings Bonus allocation, please contact us via email at john.monash.ss@education.vic.gov.au. This is the best way to reach us, and our team will respond as soon as possible.

Suburban Rail Loop Updates

Please see the latest advice (25th February) regarding SRL below

Andrew Chisholm

Principal