From the Principal's Desk
Welcome to the first newsletter of term 3.
It has been a great start to the term for students and staff, with a smooth transition straight back into learning. For myself, it has been a wonderful welcome back into the school community after returning from my regional position during term 2.
I would like to thank Ms Connie Faranda for leading the school in the role of Acting Principal during my absence. We are fortunate to have a strong leadership team, teachers and education support staff who are committed to our school success and ensuring that our students continue to achieve and thrive in all areas of student learning, engagement and wellbeing.
In this edition of our newsletter, you will be informed about our very talented students who have excelled in many endeavours over the first few weeks of semester two and will be provided with further information as to what is still to come for the remainder of the term. You can see upcoming dates on the front page and in our report sections, and we have attached a term calendar with everything we know so far for Term 3. Our assistant principals and program leaders have acknowledged in this newsletter specific achievements and there have certainly been many students’ activities, programs, opportunities and performances that our school community is very proud of.
Term three is full of our themed weeks at WCC
In week three our Students Action Groups and our cultural leaders led the whole school in our multicultural week celebrations. I would like to thank our student leaders and our school captains for the outstanding program, along with our Community Engagement Team. I would also like to thank all of our students and staff who demonstrated a generosity of spirt as they built cultural understanding through their various performance, dressing in cultural clothing and leading activities. It was a wonderful week of sharing of culture but also the building of our Wyndham Central College understanding and friendships and continuing to support the respect for diversity and sense of belonging we strive for at WCC. Our program again included a multicultural evening event where more than 1000 people attended the celebration in the school gym. We extended the program to include an early dinner opportunity, and we look forward to adding more next year as it was a huge success.
National Science Week "Seeds of Science: Nurturing knowledge for all". This national event runs from August 15 to 23, 2026, focusing on curiosity, inquiry, and how shared learning helps scientific understanding grow. At WCC this year, our students will be engaging in some fun STEM activities and experiments during lunchtimes. Science and STEM is a focus in our college, and our students engage deeply across all many of the Science streams. We once again thank our WCC Science department for inspiring our students to love the sciences and we hope that our parents and friends enjoy our Science Fair.
Our themed weeks will continue with our yearly book week celebrations. We have many exciting activities planned for break times and during schoolwide time and we will have special guest AJ Betts, an author and whose novel was turned into an award winning television series, at our school working on young writers. Thank you to our wonderful team in our Library Resource Centre, for planning and encouraging our students to read and continuing to encourage our students to ‘read for pleasure’ each morning in WYNtime. We are looking forward to announcing the winners of the premiers reading competition soon. The school community are certainly enjoying these weeks, and we are looking forward to continuing to highlight our school events in future newsletters and on our school Facebook page.
I ask parents and carers to continue to encourage your children to be part of these school activities. We know how important it is to acknowledge and develop all children to reach their full potential and talents. A reminder that our breaktime clubs run during break one and two, every day, where students can find ‘like-minded’ others who share their special interests. If a student would like to start a new club, they are encouraged to use ‘their voice’ and speak with Assistant Principal Mr Rowe or their year level leader.
Arts Camp our School Musical and overseas visitors
Congratulations to the staff and students who participated in our college Arts camp. The camp site managers and staff were full of praise for our students but also for our WCC staff. Well done to Ms Louise Walter and Ms Anne Vlahos and the team of music, theatre studies, visual arts and instrumental staff who supported the camp and to our terrific students for engaging in the opportunity.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Spooktacular Night of Theatre – The Addams Family. What an absolutely fantastic production of The Addams Family! From the moment the curtain rose at the Wyndham Cultural Centre, it was clear that an incredible amount of talent, hard work and passion had gone into bringing this quirky family to life. The student cast were outstanding. Every performer brought such confidence, energy and personality to the stage, with fantastic singing, impressive acting and brilliant comic timing. The chemistry between the characters was a real highlight, and the audience was kept entertained from beginning to end. Our students in the band ensured the musical numbers were a particular standout. The voices were wonderful, the choreography was energetic and engaging, and the entire cast worked together beautifully. There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but also some genuinely touching scenes that gave the show plenty of heart. The sets, costumes, lighting and overall production design were equally impressive and the attention to detail really helped transport the audience into their delightfully strange world.
Most of all, it was wonderful to see the students performing with such confidence, enthusiasm and joy. Their dedication and commitment truly shone through, and they should all be incredibly proud of what they achieved. A huge congratulations to the entire cast, crew, teachers, directors and everyone behind the scenes. The Addams Family was a fantastic school musical that will be remembered for many years to come.
I’d also like to thank Mr. DeLeon and Spanish Immersion teachers for their leadership over the past months as we hosted students from our Spanish sister school. Our student buddies and host families have been terrific, and I know that both sets of students have made lifelong friends. We are currently planning our 2027 trips to our sister schools in Spain and Japan and working with special projects with our new sister school in India. We thank families for their support of our international programs; from hosting a student, buying a fundraising sausage at our Bunnings stalls, or supporting their child to travel and experience an international school.
Congratulations to year 12 student Kathleen Roberts will be representing Australia when she heads to India at the end of the month to me a part of the Mission ShakthiSAT delegation. The mission had over 250 girls from Australia apply and Kathleen was chosen as one of only 4 to go to India at the end of August for the Free Space Tech Program with student representatives from 108 different countries. We can’t wait to hear about Kathleen’s experience in our next newsletter. We thank our Wyndham Tech School for their support and making this happen for our students.
Futures Week
Our term started with our pathways team led by Ms Pina Siragusano working with our years 9-12 students to provide students with the opportunities to attend our annual Pathway expo’s (now Futures expo) with many educational and pathway providers presenting to our students in the school gymnasium. We also held Tertiary events and VTAC information nights, a VCE, VCE-VM presentation (replacement of VCAL), and a study taster program for our year 10 students. Our year 10 families were invited to our 1:1 sessions to support students to plan their next two years at the college. We were encouraged to see families attending our subject OPEN EXPO and attend our AVID and WEB preference information sessions. The school would like to take this opportunity to thank parents who attended during this week and supported our students, your children, in selecting their pathway choices for 2027. All student selections via our Web Preferences should have been submitted and are now overdue.
Over the next few weeks, the college will use student preferences to develop a well-rounded 2027 timetable and teaching program that caters for all students. Confirmation of entry into our specific programs e.g., AVID elective, STEM Academy, Spanish Immersion Program (SIP), Enrichment program, our Football Development Program, and our VCE-VM, will be available to families by the end of term three and all subject selection confirmations will be sent home in the first two weeks of term 4.
Student reports and student results
A printed copy of the Semester one report was distributed to families in the last week of term. If parents/carers did not receive their copy, I would like to remind you that all reports are available on COMPASS via your parent/carer login. Staff are already preparing five weekly checks for our senior classes and interim term reporting for years 7-12. A reminder that this will be the last report for our year 12 cohort and we hope that parents/students find the additional interview evening held this week to be helpful.
All students should be working on their current learning goals based on their own learning journey. Families are encouraged to support students to achieve these goals by talking about learning and importantly asking for help if needed. The College continues to enhance our learning programs and excellent classroom teaching with the extension of our afterschool homework and learning clubs, and our year 11 and 12 subject free tutoring service. In semester two we have continued with supports such as Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy program (MYLENS), Quicksmart and enhanced literacy and numeracy supports for our year 7 and 8 students
Parent/teacher interviews Term 3
Parent Teacher Student Learning Conversations are scheduled for the last Tuesday of this term with bookings opening soon. It's always a great opportunity to meet and speak with teachers to hear about how students are progressing. As always, we strongly encourage students to be part of these conversations to contribute and reflect on their learning to date and be part of setting goals moving forward.
Celebration of Success – Semester 1 Achievers Awards. Our students are celebrated at their year level assemblies with several of our students received academic achievement awards for their learning whilst others received endeavour awards for their effort and growth. Students will also be celebrated at our sub-school assemblies because we know how important it is to pause and acknowledge our students who have displayed academic excellence, outstanding attendance and leadership during semester 1. Please encourage your children to use the folders we provided to build their portfolio of achievement.
Parent /Carer Surveys – your feedback is important to us.
As I have mentioned many times it is extremely important that schools and parents/carer’s work together to create the best learning environment for students. Our annual parent survey link will be distributed to all families via Compass shortly, and I once again encourage all families to please complete the online survey. The online survey is expected to only take 10 minutes to complete.
This is a great opportunity to provide feedback or suggestions for improvement and to let us know how we are doing from our parent/carer’s perspective. Please do not hesitate to call the school if you are having any difficulties in using the link or need support with the process.
Ready to Learn
It is an expectation that all students arrive at school each day in full school uniform with their equipment so that they are ‘ready to learn’, and not having to deal with the consequences of being out of uniform or being late. If families require uniform support, please do not hesitate to contact the school, and speak to a member of our student services team or our Assistant Principals. The wearing of a school uniform is a matter of safety but importantly it also builds pride and belonging to the Wyndham Central College school community. Attending 100% of the time is very important and builds school connection. If your child is finding getting to school on time difficult our student services team has some great supportive strategies to help your child build on their attendance. Please reach out if you would like to discuss your child’s engagement with school.
Please continue to help your children feel that they belong and are a part of our great school.
The Year 12 student cohort has also started a ‘countdown’ as students enter the last 40 days of their secondary schooling before they undertake their exams. We wish them well as they finish off their Unit 4 SACs and requirements and begin their study programs. It is important for all year 12 students to have their VTAC applications and pathways meetings confirmed with the careers team this term.
Keep an eye on our parent bulletins and Compass posts for further information on the many great things still to come this term, and it’s been nice to observe some longer days and some sunshine to give us a little spring in our step!
Leanne Gagatsis - Principal
Creating a Community of High Expectations
Respect, Cooperation and Excellence
