Principal's Report
Principal's Report
Principal Report
Term 3 has been action packed at Collingwood College.
Staffing Changes
Vicky DeRome – has taken up an offer for a new school. Elena Mujkic is the new Year 10 coordinator and will take up Vicky’s classes.
Mary Utter – long service leave in Term 3. We welcomed Corrina Pellegrino who is taking Mary’s subjects. Simon Negrelli is our Year 8 coordinator.
Michael Polack – long service leave for Semester 2. Michael is taking well earned long service leave after outstanding commitment and service to Collingwood College over 30+ years. Phoenix Rogan has taken over Michael classes.
Callum Blackburn is on leave until September 14th. Kieran is doing a fantastic job of covering his class.
Roof Project
During the Term 2 holidays the long-awaited roof replacement project for our administration building begun. This has involved building scaffolding to allow this work to take place. Efforts have been made to minimise disruption to the playground, however, the side garden has been out of use for longer than we first expected. It has returned to use now.
The project has encountered delays. Works have resumed. We have been assured by all parties that efforts are being made to fast track the work to minimise disruption in Term 4.
Our Swing into Spring celebration will be delayed until next term. We hope to have scaffolding removed for this occasion.
Dolls House
The refurbishment of the Dolls House will take place during the Term 3 school holidays. Heritage Victoria have approved the works. We look forward to seeing this take place.
Theatre Upgrade
You may remember our announcement of 6.9 million dollars for our Performing Arts centre refurbishment and upgrade in the state budget. We are at the stage of tender documentation and await further progress on the negotiations of a builder. It is looking like works will begin in late November/early December. We look forward to making more exciting announcements about this soon.
Berry Street Professional Learning
All staff at Collingwood College from Prep to Year 10 participated in the 4 instalment of the Berry Street Professional learning modules. This module theme was Character. Together with founder and presenter, Dr. Tom Brunzell, the staff explored their own personal values, the school values and how the recognition of character strengths in ourselves and in our students, forms an important part of building a strengths-based approach to supporting and challenging our students to achieve their best.
We will continue to build on this training by reviewing our Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy and ensure our practices and processes are aligned to incorporate the Berry Street approach and ensure that we have a positive climate that promotes safety, school belonging and achievement.
NAPLAN results
Collingwood College achieved fantastic NAPLAN results across all year levels – Grade 3-9. Our median result of Strong across categories in reading, numeracy, grammar and punctuation and spelling for Grade 3 and 9 was particularly pleasing.
It was recognised by the Department of Education regional team that Collingwood College demonstrated some the best growth of student results from Year 7 to Year 9. 85% of our Year 9 students experienced medium to high growth from Year 7 to 9 in reading. This is compared to 73% in similar schools and 74% when compared to the state. In Writing, our Year 9 students 79% of our students experienced medium to high growth, when compared to 71% in similar schools and 73% across the state. In Numeracy, 77% of our students experienced high to medium growth, when compared to similar schools 72% and 74% across the state.
Some of this growth can be attested to the work of our teachers of meeting students at their point of need and improving everyone. It is also testament of the hard work of our students and their willingness to keep working towards growth and improvement. Well done to our all our students.
Three Way Conferences
It was fantastic to have the opportunity for many of our staff to talk to parents about progress from last semester and goals for improvement this semester. We appreciate everyone’s time to come into the school to have this conversation together.
IB Middle Year Programme (MYP)
The school is working diligently under the leadership of Lori Michael towards authorisation for International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (MYP). Our secondary staff have engaged in curriculum planning and supporting to meet the requirements of this process. We will be welcoming an assessor early in Term 4 to meet with students, parents and teachers, as part of the authorisation process. Lori will be in touch in regards to this opportunity soon.
China Trip
I want to acknowledge Xiaoming Li, Liria Stratus, Felicia Peh and the entire languages team for their work in reinstating the China Trip. A long held tradition at the College will be reignited this Saturday 13th September, as 8 of our Year 10 and 11 students travel to China to meet our sister schools and be immersed in the language and culture. The students will attend school at Kunshan High School, Suzhou Art School, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Suzhou High School as part of the three week trip. We look forward to hearing about their travels and experience on their return.
I wish you all a great September holiday break and we look forward to seeing students returning on October 6th.
Kind regards,
Chris
Chris Millard
Acting Principal