Principal's Message
We Grow Through Connection
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Pakenham Secondary College Newsletter! Stay updated with the latest news, events and achievements from our great school!
NAPLAN 2025 is now complete and I thank our Year 7 and 9 students for their efforts with these Literacy and Numeracy Assessments. I also thank our staff led by our Data Learning Specialist in Viesha Kosciuk for all of their hard work in ensuring the smooth implementation of NAPLAN this year.
Our College Production of Beauty and the Beast is generating a lot of interest across the College with casting announcements confirmed last week (Friday 21 March). Our students are again incredibly excited about the Production this year and we wish them well with their endeavours as they prepare for showtime later in the year.
Our Term One Reports were released earlier in the week to families via Compass. I encourage families to read through these Reports in readiness for the Parent Teacher Student Conferences next week (Wednesday 2 April).
Our Term One Parent Teacher Student Conferences will be from 1:00 to 7:30pm, Wednesday 2 April. This is an excellent opportunity for parents and carers to speak with teachers about the progress of their child’s learning across the subjects. Please see Compass for details on how to book in Conferences with our teaching staff. Please be reminded that we will not be running normal classes on the day.
We have a College Review this year. All primary and secondary schools in Victoria are subject to a College Review every four years. The Review is an opportunity for schools to understand how they may further improve learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.
A Review Committee will be established with representatives from our College Community joining the Department of Education and Training (or DET), and Principals from other schools, to discuss and develop Goals for the next four years aimed at further improving student outcomes. An independent Reviewer has also been appointed. If students, parents and carers would like to know more about the Review process and / or are interested in joining the Review Committee, please contact me via the General Office (pH – 5945 1433).
College Photos were held earlier in the week (Monday 24 March). Families who have ordered Photos should receive them early next term.
Our Annual General Meeting (or AGM) was held as part of our College Council Meeting last week (Tuesday 18 March) whereby our 2024 Annual Report was tabled and accepted. At our College Council Meeting, we also welcomed new members of Council in Sheryl Memadovski and Lauren Leeder. We thank members who are leaving Council for their wonderful service and support of the College in June Edwards (DET Employee), Heidi Gilbert and Ainslee Thomson. Please note that after running a process on the night, our new College Council President is Jarni Sewell - we wish Jarni all the very best in her new role. We thank our previous College Council President in Wayne Hampton for his outstanding leadership and support of the College.
A number of Policies were tabled and endorsed at our last Council Meeting and these can be found on our Website ( https://www.pakenhamsc.vic.edu.au/ ). Please contact the College (pH – 5945 1433) should you have any comments or queries concerning these Policy Documents.
Harmony Day last week (Thursday 20 March) was a huge success with several activities provided for students and staff. It was great to see so many of our College Community in traditional costume. We congratulate Nicole Erjavec and her team for organising such a wonderful event on behalf of our College Community.
Our STEAM Club (every Friday at lunch time) continues to grow from strength to strength with several students participating in fun activities to further their understanding of key concepts. We thank Sonia Bhatia (Science and STEAM Leader) for her efforts in supporting our students with these activities.
A Builder has been nominated for our Capital Works Program commencing later in the year. We will now work with the Builder, DET, the VSBA and the Architects with respect to the Program on an ongoing basis for the life of the Program. We can expect the Program to be completed by mid 2027. Please be reminded that the Program sets out to essentially replace the existing D Wing at the school in support of several subject areas including Visual Communication, Multimedia, Mathematics and English, and to further renovate our Technology (eg Woodwork, etc) Hub. Staff work and break out spaces are also included in the new build. Please contact the College (pH – 5945 1433) should you have any queries.
Ongoing and clear communications with our College Community is vital, including who on our staff families can reach out should they have any queries and / or in need of support.
Please see below in terms of Key Staff and their Roles here at the College:
Yawa Sub School Leader (Year 7 to 9) – Ms. Susan Banfield
Warreeny Sub School Leader (Year 7 to 9) – Mr. Tim Kelly
Bunjil Sub School Leader (Year 10 – 12) – Ms. Nevicia Reynolds
Balam Balam Sub School Leader (Year 10 – 12) – Ms. Jo-Anne Duggan
Student Wellbeing – Ms. Courtney Sloothaak, Mr. Tyler Frost
Our colleagues above can be reached via the General Office (pH – 5945 1433) or on email via Compass.
Recent weeks have been very busy at the College, and I thank families for their ongoing support of our great school. Please continue to Stay Connected by following us on our Social Media, Website and Compass Platforms. Please also contact our General Office (pH – 5945 1433) should you have any queries – we are here to help.
Please note that we will have an early dismissal of 2:30pm on the last day of Term One (Friday 4 April). I hope that students and families have a safe and enjoyable school holiday period,
Regards
Aaron
Aaron Smith
College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College