Welcome back students and staff, I hope you have had a great break and are looking forward to an exciting 2025.

2024 was a very successful year for McClelland, comprised of all your achievements. Student NAPLAN results were excellent, the outgoing VCE and VM students were outstanding, and our students and families were fully engaged with camps, excursions, competitions, fun events, carnivals, dress-up days, fundraisers, sports teams, productions, music performances, and more. Whatever we offered or you suggested was beyond successful, so thank you for your engagement in 2024, your voices, and all of your hard work.

On to 2025, I would like to welcome our graduating class of Year 12 and congratulate you on your journey to the top of the school! We are all looking forward to cheering along the many achievements you will earn this year, and celebrating with you as you have the last of everything; last sports carnivals, and eventually your last assessments, classes, and last exams. In 10 short months you’ll be finished the 13 long years of school and we’ll be shaking hands at your Valedictory Presentation.

I would also like to welcome our new staff for 2025 and introduce them to our community;

Stewart MacGowan- Science (started Term 4 2024)

Katie Bingham - DIP/English (Started Term 4 2024)

Rebecca Cowman - Maths/Science (Started Term 4 2024)

Jacqui Witt – Assistant Principal

Campbell Ak – Education Support

Ashleigh Burt – Education Support

Nina Toal - English

Scott Jones - VM Leader

Yunfei Sun - Maths

Raquel Hirsch - Art

Amara Bremner - English

Shannon McShortall - English / Humanities

Adrian Thorne – Digi / Education Support

Mark Tasman – IT

There is another special group to welcome, our graduating class of 2030 – welcome to our new Year 7s! It was great to see you all enjoying your first day Wednesday with the quiet start. Years 8, 9, and 10 I am sure you appreciated the extra day of holidays to ensure our new 7s and VCE could have a smooth start. Our Year 7s will join MAP on Wednesday with Years 8,9, and 10 students. Our MAP program is a unique offering which other schools don’t have. Students are lucky enough to have an elective choice from Year 7, and get to be in classes with other year levels, offering older students a special opportunity to be a positive role model, and stay in a subject they are passionate about across the years, or if preferred try different MAPs each year.

Our students and staff have had a very smooth start to the year, there are lots of smiling faces around the college and students getting straight into their programs. If you have any queries about your child, please reach out to a year level leader, or call the front office for general enquiries.

At our whole school assembly on Thursday we welcomed the Year 7s with a very special introduction. We had the whole school seated and clapping as the Year 7s entered for a rock star welcome. Considering we have 10 groups this year it was a very long clap! At the assembly I was privileged to show students a special artwork which was created by some of our McClelland Indigenous students from our AIM group at the end of last year who worked with a local indigenous artist, Kellie Congues. As a group they created themes of group gatherings, journeys through life, animal tracks and the mountains we travel on our journey. Once we place the artwork we will share the image and details with the community. Congratulations and thanks to our student artists; Eliose Lewis, Kristal Pomery, Blair Selleck, Zoe Hipwell, Jayden Kinkella, Mikayla Kinkella, Blake Metters, Leanne Barnett, Chloe Sunstrom, Isabella McCutcheon, Jordan Edwards, and Lily Strahan.

At the assembly we were luck to have our 2024 VCE Dux, Stephanie Armstrong speak to students. I have copied her speech in below for parents to read, it presents some brilliant points about success in school which you may like to speak to children about:

My success in VCE ultimately can be attributed to my attitude and work ethic, and while choosing subjects that catered to my strengths certainly helped, skill alone does not guarantee high marks. If I was asked to honestly summarise my high school experience I would say it was far from perfect. I’ll admit I wasn’t always the best student and the years I should’ve spent forming good studying habits I instead half listening to google meets, thanks to a global pandemic. Yet, in the end, none of that defined me or limited me from reaching my goals. Once I started listening to the guidance of a few teachers who believed in me I realised what mattered most wasn’t my mistakes and that any adversity I had faced could actually help me grow. From then on I set a goal: I would come to school everyday and just do my best and give 100% effort everyday. Sometimes my best looked like doing 3 hours of study, but some days it looked like just showing up. In year ten my attendance dropped to 75% at one point and by the end of year 12 I had missed one day in two years of school. And it made a difference. It showed it my results and grew my confidence to challenge myself inside the classroom. And it’s not just about results, it made me a better friend and a more tenacious person. So if I could give any piece of advice to anyone from year 7 all the way to year 12, it would be the best version of yourself you can be everyday and never be afraid to ask for help.

Today’s COG is just a short one to welcome everyone back, Week 5 we will have a full COG.

Have a great weekend.

McClelland College Early Learning and Childcare Centre - opening 2026