Assistant Principal (Years 11/12) Report
Mr Jason Tickner
Westall Secondary College
Report from Assistant Principal Jason Tickner
Leading the senior school in 2024 has provided me with some great memories that I will take with me forever. As we said goodbye to our departing Yr12 at Graduation, I was once again struck with how special and unique Westall Secondary is. Listening to the speeches and watching the images of our Yr12s journey through Westall over the years, I was thankful of being a part of our school community. A community that celebrates diversity and offers a learning environment where students can engage in opportunities that provide growth, at an academic and personal level. It has been a privilege to be a part of Westall in 2024!
As we approach the end of 2024 a new academic year commenced with HeadStart, as new classes were formed. Transitioning to 2025 it is at this time that I would like to officially welcome and announce the 2025 School Captains:
School Captains – Bilal Mohamed and Mearlea Seang
Vice Captains – Gianna Luon & Omar Rihan
Vocational Major Captains – Leon Pham & Ryhanna Mautauri
International Captains – Sonannapich Chhean & Sophearita Sok
Inclusion & Wellbeing Captain – Erin Groarke
Sport Captain – Kai Lin
Congratulations to the above students and good luck in their leadership journey in 2025!
Semester Two Awards Assembly and Yr12 Graduation
On Thursday 5th December we held our Semester 2 Awards Assembly. In what was a fantastic whole school event, we celebrated students across years 7-11 who achieved academic and special awards for Semester 2. This event followed on from individual subject academic excellence and personal best awards, which were presented at each sub-school’s final sub-school assembly for the year, held in previous weeks. The Semester 2 Awards Assembly was attended by all staff, students and a group of dedicated parents. A big thank you must go to our newly announced 2025 School Captains Bilal Mohamed and Mearlea Seang who were the masters of ceremony for the event and to all staff who announced, presented awards and worked to make this event a great success once again. We had 4 fantastic music ensembles throughout the assembly, and acknowledgement must go to the below list of students who performed: Aaron Bui, Sophia Ho, Sihan Mumtaz, Sreyan Prottoy, Steven Le, Nehal Baddireddi and Robert Sae Calisto.
Many students across Yr7-11 were acknowledged across the school, via a range of awards including Overall Academic Excellence and Personal Best Awards, Westall Way Achievement Awards, iCare Community Service Awards, and iCreate Awards. The full list of Overall Award winners and Special Awards is detailed below.
Year 7 Awards
Overall Academic Excellence was presented to: Nathan Rusmin
Overall Personal Best award was presented to: Ellen Alzahran
Westall Way Achievement Awards was presented to:
Reece Pham
Nehal Baddiredi
Mylla Tran
Year 8 Awards
Overall Academic Excellence was presented to Danika Muhunthan Santiago
Overall Personal Best was presented to:
Preston Koumakis
Westall Way Achievement Award was presented to:
Callum Collison, Valantine Athanssiadis & Leo Lai.
Year 9 Awards
Overall Academic Excellence was presented to: Aaron Bui
Overall Personal Best was presented to:
Wilson Krai
Westall Way Achievement Award was presented to:
Maika Lam
Ahmed Abdullah
Aaron Bui
Year 10 Awards
Overall Academic Excellence award was presented:
Mateo Apit
Overall Personal Best was presented to:
Charlie Nguyen
Westall Way Achievement Award was presented to:
Grainada Nakhwah
Tristan Chan
Tianqi Li
Year 11 Awards
Overall Academic Award was awarded to: Mischa Koumakis
Overall Personal Best Award was awarded to: Declan Collison
Overall Personal Best Award for Vocational Major was presented to:
Lois Papatua
Overall Academic Excellence Award for Vocational Major was awarded to:
Ryhanna Mautauri
Westall Way Achievement Award was presented to:
Kaviru Walpitagamage
Goldie Halim
Mina Nguyen
There were also several special awards that were presented to our Year 10 students at our assembly. The ADF Long Tan Leadership Award, recognises the student who has demonstrated leadership and teamwork within and outside the school, while displaying strong values, such as doing one’s best, respect for others and ‘mateship’. This year the Long Tan Leadership Award was presented to Kirby Volfango. Additionally, the ADF Future Innovators Award, recognises recipients’ science and mathematical abilities while highlighting the value the Navy, Army and Air Force place on STEM skills and STEM career opportunities within Defence. This year the ADF Future Innovators Award was presented to Grainada Nakhwah.
The Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program is for Yr10 students across the state that are high-achieving and always strive for their personal best. Secondary schools nominate students who they believe meet the eligibility requirements of this program. This year Westall Secondary College had 2 students, Tristan Chan and Mateo Apit who were accepted into this program, where they will take part in a range of events and activities, focused on expanding their academic and personal growth. These students will also be offered at automatic place in a number of undergraduate courses at Melbourne University once they complete Yr12, provided they satisfy all prerequisite requirements after their VCAA exams.
The final special award recipient was the Clare O’Neil Award, which is an award from the Federal Member of Hotham. It is awarded to only one student who best demonstrates leadership within the school community, and who best display the school values. This year this award went to Tristan Chan of Year 10. Congratulations to these for receiving these prestigious awards.
2025 Booklist & Resources
In preparation for next year it is crucial that all Westall students start the 2025 academic year with the resources needed in each of their subject. This includes required texts and stationary items. If students don’t have access to these basic resources, they are less likely to learn and achieve academic success. Having textbooks is a basic requirement for every student! All parents and/or caregivers should ensure that you support your son or daughter by purchasing the texts and resources that are listed on the 2025 Booklist. With the school saver bonus initiative this has never been so easy for students and families to purchase textbooks. Information on how to access and use the school saver bonus has already been emailed to all families.
Next year, the families of students without textbooks and resources will be contacted to discuss the reasons why this may be occurring, to support student learning.
Students (10-12) who will be studying VCE subjects Unit 1-4 may be required to purchase EDROLO texts/portal resources in some subjects. These are clearly detailed on the Senior Booklist. Once again, the school saver bonus can assist in the purchase of EDROLO resources. All students using EDROLO have been provided access to all subjects’ resources. An email has been sent student school email with clear instructions on how to activate their EDROLO account. Students will have access to EDROLO up until the commencement of Week3 of term 1, 2025. After this time student’s access will be cut off unless payment has occurred. The cost of EDROLO for 2025 per subject is:
Daily Plus (Textbook and Learning Platform) = $65
Daily (Learning Platform) = $35
If you are unsure on how to do this the contact details for the Department School Saving Bonus program for the purchase of textbooks the contact details are here:
Online inquiry form: Click here
Phone: 1800 338 663 (8.30am - 4.30pm Monday to Friday
Semester 2 Reports
A reminder that Semester 2 Reports will become available on Compass on Wednesday 18th December, via Compass. Yr 7-10 reports will display your child’s progress across all five learning behaviours, performance in assessments and for progress across Vic Curriculum Levels for 7-10 reports. Yr11 reports will display your child’s progress across all five learning behaviours, performance in assessments and VCE or VCE VM unit completion.
If you need support in accessing students reports, please call the college for assistance where you will be directed to your son/daughters’ respective sub-school for direct assistance. To support you to be able to access student reports you may also want to use the ‘How to Access Reports’ attachment below.
Finally, I wanted to thank all staff, students and care givers within our Westall school community. Our committed teachers and support staff continue to strive to improve in their work and we are focused at always looking at strategies to improve and enhance student’s learning outcomes. I wish everyone a safe and restful holiday period.
Mr Jason Tickner
Assistant Principal (Year 11/12)