Principal's Report

It was a tremendously busy first term with six Year 7 Orientation camps at our Mirimbah Campus, whole school swimming and athletics carnivals, the successful return of interschool debating, NAPLAN testing for Years 7 and 9 students and student, parent/carer, teacher conferences rounding out the term.

By the end of term I was again astonished by the extraordinary breadth of program that our students at Princes Hill have access to and simultaneously  deeply appreciative of the work of our staff team to provide these opportunities.

I am delighted to report that the somewhat vexed minor works project on our grounds area/basketball court has been reinvigorated following lobbying by the school and School Council to the Victorian School Building Authority  (VSBA) who are responsible for managing the project. We are very hopeful that we will be able to go to a final  tender later this term, with works completed by the beginning of 2025. A draft plan of the intended works can be seen below.

STEM - Science Technology Engineering and Maths 

Year 11 student Gaston Boucher's robotics team recently competed in Sydney. Gaston has been specially invited to compete in the First Robotics World competition in mid April at the NASA Space Centre in Houston Texas. Gaston will be competing with teams from all over the world. Over the first term of school, Gaston has put over 200 hours into building and coding a robot, and the team has put in over 3500 hours. This trip is very much a once in a life opportunity and includes a tour of the NASA space station.   Congratulations Gaston! 

2024 is seeing the implementation of our exciting new Year 10 Curriculum with a dedicated preparatory and early VCE access focus. It sees the inclusion of Year 10 students as part of our senior school as befits their increasing maturity. 

A further strategic focus for our school in 2024 is on the implementation of the Department's Disability Inclusion Initiative with an entirely new approach to supporting young people with disabilities, including the provision of time for key school staff to work with students, teachers and parents. 

We look forward to working closely with all families throughout 2024 to provide both the most supportive and appropriately challenging educational experience that we possibly can.

In closing I want to thank retiring school councillors who have served so ably on School Council in recent years, including past President John Thompson, Scott Cutler, Neil Haslem,Jjennifer Balint and Andy Kemp. 

Trevor Smith

Principal