Principal's Report

Principal Report

It seems to have come around very quickly, however, we are concluding yet another school year. With our Senior School students having already departed for their summer break, we will commence our Activities Week for students currently in Years 7-9, next week. This program will conclude on Tuesday 19 December – the final day for students this year.

Can I take this opportunity to communicate that we will publish an ‘extra’ Newsletter edition next week (Friday 15 December) that will allow us to offer a full reflection of the year and share with our community the key metrics associated with the VCE results that are released next Monday 11 December.

College Middle-School Captains 2024

We were delighted a little over a week ago to announce the College Middle School Captains for next year, following the announcement of the College Senior School Captains in our last Newsletter.

Middle School Captains

Siena and Ethan

Middle School Vice Captains

Elana and Aiden

As we look forward to 2024, I am very excited by the opportunity to work closely with our student leaders and look forward to their input and views on how to keep improving our College and supporting our students.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not thank our current Middle School Captains and Vice Captains, Isabel 9C, Neel 9J, Amanda 9J and Harris 9C, for their leadership and service to our College community this year. I am hoping that we will continue to witness the growth of these four students, especially in other leadership roles over the next few years.

I noted with interest, comments made by our current School Captain, Oscar 12J  in this year’s College Magazine, ’Courtyard Tales’. When discussing the benefits of being involved in student leadership roles, Oscar observed “Taking on leadership positions throughout High School has been one of the most challenging but also most rewarding things that I have ever done. It has allowed me to meet new people, improve myself and most importantly make a difference for other people through fundraising, supporting others and putting on fun events for other students”. I believe that such comments and the capacity building of our talented young students underscores the importance of offering leadership opportunities to young people. Tomorrow’s leaders are sitting in our classrooms at the moment.

Student Achievement

A big congratulations is extended to our year 7 student, Hiroshi 7A, who recently received the Year 7 Award in the SVRC Writing Competition for his composition that addressed the topic – ‘A Future Me’. Hiroshi also received a Bolinda Audio prize and a plaque as the successful applicant.

Well done Hiroshi!

EDSC Presentation night

A reminder that College Presentation Night is coming up on Thursday 14 December at New Hope Community Centre from 6.30pm.

Students receiving an award will have been notified via email.  

The College Presentation night is an opportunity for the school to acknowledge our students for their efforts and achievements for the year. Students may receive awards in several categories including, merit certificates, sport, art and music, community and school service and acknowledgement of College values. For those involved, the category will be revealed at the ceremony.

It is important to note that parents will also be notified of their child’s involvement via a Compass event and an email alerting you to the event. Details of how you will confirm your child’s attendance and organise ticketing for the night, are described within the Compass event. This will be done via Trybooking.

Growth of our facilities

With our student numbers yet again growing in 2024, we are endeavouring to ensure that our facilities will enable our students and teachers to move forward in a manner that fully complements our teaching and learning program.

After several months of negotiation with the Department of Education, we have secured twelve modular classrooms that will be placed on our site before the commencement of the 2024 academic year. With a bit of work to be undertaken over the holiday period, these rooms will be fully operational for the start of the new school year.

Work on the placement of these relocatables has already commenced and this week we received the second of the two double-story relocatable buildings on site (with one further double-story relocatable to be installed next year). Here are a few photos and a timelapse (attachment) of the installation.

Witness to War- multilingual telephone hotline

I wanted to bring to the attention of parents and carers that the Forum of Australian Services to Survivors of Torture and Trauma has launched Witness to War, a free and confidential multilingual telephone hotline for people in Australia affected by overseas conflicts.

Staffed by mental health practitioners and bicultural support workers, Witness to War offers community members incidental counselling, information about available support, and connections to other local services. Witness to War staff can speak to callers in Arabic, Hebrew, Dari, Ukrainian and English and in other languages with an interpreter. Parents or community members are encouraged to click on the link below if they wish to access the service https://www.fasstt.org.au/witness-to-war/

John Roberts

Principal