Principal's Report

On Monday afternoon and evening this week, our school hosted open night, probably the busiest evening of the year on the school calendar.  While it’s impossible to know exactly how many visitors we had to our school for open night, conservatively there were at least 600 people that made the time to see what our school can offer as a learning community.  The preparation that goes into making these nights a success is enormous, and I want to thank all the staff and more importantly the students who were involved.  Their contributions were inspiring as we proudly displayed all that Warrnambool College has to offer to prospective parents.  The overwhelming feedback I received from parents as I wandered around the school and led my tour group was extremely positive.  It’s not possible to get a complete picture of a school in such a compressed period of time, but I feel our school’s culture of positivity, optimism, achievement and authentic relationships was well and truly on display.  I am a very proud leader of this great school and it’s events like open night that remind me of just how impressive the opportunities are that we offer to every student.

As we’ve gotten towards the end of the term, several people have asked me how the school is travelling.  As I’ve reflected on this question, I’ve been honest in my responses – it’s been exhausting.  So much has come our way as a school community this term.  Many of the events that have taken place we’ve planned for and have been extremely positive as students have grown and developed their skills and capabilities.  But there are some events that have come along quite unexpectantly that have hit us hard, emotionally, physically and mentally.  For some, the holidays arrive at just the right time and provide a chance to refresh and reset before the busyness of term 2 starts.  While there may be some homework to be done, I do encourage all our students to deliberately take some non-screen time to recharge the batteries during the next fortnight.  Before we know it, we’ll be busily back to term 2 learning.

As you read this, I’m most probably on a plane to Indonesia to spend some time with our sister schools in Yogyakarta and to promote Victorian public education to prospective students in Indonesia.  In some ways, we are hosting another mini-open night in Yogyakarta.  We are hopeful that this might give rise to more international students coming to learn at our school and enrich the experiences of all our students as we see ourselves as part of something bigger than the municipal boundaries of Warrnambool.  I’m sure many of you will be travelling over the Easter break and school holidays as well – I wish you well on your travels and look forward to seeing many of you from the start of term 2.

Kind Regards,

Dave Clift

Principal