Principal's Report
Principal’s report
The end of the year always has a sense of frantic energy about it with so much happening around the school. Classes finalising, exams running, celebration and recognition ceremonies, step up programs and in amongst it all, planning for next year.
With so much going on, it is especially important that we stop to reflect on the achievements made across the year and recognise the positive milestones reached. As a school, we speak often about curiosity, compassion, and community and these values shine in every student who has pushed themselves academically, the students who led with kindness, the students who stepped up in service, and those who discovered that they are capable of more than they ever imagined. We also see it in the achievements of our staff who strive everyday to get the best outcomes for our students. In being recognised through formal awards or ceremonies, informally through the quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) thank yous and end of year gifts or through the recognition from their peers and colleagues for all that they have contributed across the year.
In this Gazette, I wanted to acknowledge some of the stand out achievements that we have seen across the year, noting that I have not captured everything or everyone.
2025 awards
On Monday, the college held our annual awards ceremony. Due to the number of students achieving awards this year, we decided to return to running these as an evening event for award recipients and their families to attend.
At this event, we presented students with awards ranging from academic awards to those decided based on student demonstration of our school values, for social or community endeavours or for leadership service.
It was a lovely evening and a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the year and celebrate our successes.
A huge congratulations to the students who received awards and a massive thank you and shout out to the staff who arranged the evening.
2025 DUX
I am very pleased and exceptionally proud to announce that our DUX for 2025 is Jaxom Woods who achieved an ATAR of 98.1. This means that he is in the top 1.9% of all students from this cohort across Australia. Of course, it goes without saying that Jaxom has worked diligently across many years to achieve this score. He has been a consistent performer and humble in how he has approached his work, his peers and his teachers. He has absolutely earned this amazing result and we wish him all the best for his future endeavours.
I would also like to acknowledge the many other students in our Year 12 cohort who achieved well this year. We had an unprecedented number of students achieving high level scores in the 80 – 95 range and we are exceptionally proud of the efforts of all students to achieve their goals. The release of this data marks the end of what has been a very long journey through compulsory schooling and the start of new futures for many of our students. We, of course, wish them all the very best and look forward to seeing what they go on to achieve over the next few years.
In 2 Science teacher mentor award
I am also very pleased to announce that one of our long serving teachers, Ms Marquita Corr, this week attended an award ceremony at the University of Melbourne as a nominee for a teacher Mentor award in recognition of her longstanding support of the program and the In 2 Science mentors that have worked at our school. Whilst she did not win this award, just to be nominated and asked to attend the ceremony was a big achievement and a good acknowledgement of the work that Marquita has put in to this program over the many years that it has been operating at Heathmont College.
A truly inspiring achievement.
As we draw this year to a close, I hope that everyone – staff, students and families – has a chance to rest, relax and have some fun over the summer holidays. I look forward to hearing about everyone’s adventures when we return in 2026 for another great year of learning, of challenge and of opportunity.
Please stay safe over the break and have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.