From  The Acting Principal

Our vision of challenging our community to strive and achieve is at the forefront of everything we do and what a vibrant Term 1 we have had in enacting that!  It really has been a positive start full of energetic events, community spirit and most importantly, valuable learning experiences. I’d like to thank staff, students and parent/carers for supporting the school by engaging in the various events and activities we have run. 

It was pleasing to welcome many of you to our information evenings early in Term 1 and online for the Senior School Parent -Teacher Interviews recently.  We trust you found these presentations useful for setting the scene for the year and establishing the Parkdale expectations.  We intend to host more parent sessions targeted at specific issues as the year goes on and hope to see many of you coming into the school for these and other events.

Our students have represented the college with pride in the community on numerous occasions this term, showing the local community how impressive Parkdale students are.  Most notable were the Gnome and Fairy Festival in Mordialloc and the Kingston Women of the Year Awards.   I’d like to congratulate the students involved on the way in which they conducted themselves and thank them for being such amazing advocates for our school. A special mention must go to Storm Hor, our International Student Captain, who was simply remarkable in delivering a heartfelt speech at the Women of the Year Awards ceremony.

School spirit and participation has also been high through activities and programs offered at school.  Our annual Swimming Sports day held at the Oakleigh Recreation Centre was a huge success. Student participation in the pool was great, with a few school records broken.  Students proudly wore house colours, novelty events were held and DJs and bands provided entertainment to those in attendance.  International Women’s Day was celebrated 8th March.  Kingston Youth Services ran some activities in the courtyard, SRC organised a photobooth with IWD pledges, there was live music and a quiz hosted by the school library. Pi Day (as in 3.14 etc not the food) was celebrated 14th March and the STEP annual astronomy night held 19th March.  Incredibly we were the only school in Victoria to host a presentation from a NASA film maker who presented to our Year 8 and some VCE students on 20th March.  A special thanks must go to Ms Janelle Scott for making this happen.  As you can see, there really has been many opportunities for students to broaden their horizons!

The social event of the year, our Year 12 Formal, was a huge success.  Students ‘dressed to impress’ and danced the night away.  Our Year 12 cohort deservedly had a great time and it was amazing to see how they have matured into young adults.  The most successful cohorts are those who support each other and connect as a group and based on the numbers on the dance floor; I think we’re in good stead.

In terms of classroom-based activities, it really has been pleasing to see students engaging in lessons positively.  Teachers have been focussing on making strong starts to lessons and ensuring a positive calm beginning.  The impact of this has been evident when leading tours for prospective students around the college with many comments made on how well structured our classes are and how warm the environment feels.  We strongly believe that for all students to learn classrooms need to be ordered and focussed and this will continue to be a focus in term 2.  Our Year 7 and 9 students successfully completed NAPLAN recently.  While we continue to impress that test scores do not define a person, NAPLAN does give us important data about student levels of attainment and progress.  This in turn is useful to ensure we are best targeting our teaching at the point of need for each student.  Further information about NAPLAN will be provided when results are due to be released at the beginning of Term 3. 

Finally, our Capital Works project to complete the new outdoor area and Year 9/10 toilet block refurbishment has been delayed.  While this is major cause of frustration, I am hopeful that we will have construction beginning at the start of Term 2.

Building connections, belonging and partnerships is a vital component of an effective school and we are looking forward to the new term full of events and learning to continue to move our community forward.  I hope all staff and students have a wonderful break and will see you all back for the first day of Term 2, Monday 15 April.