From the Principal

Staffing Changes

You will be aware that Victoria has a shortage of 1300 teachers in the government schools. That is a huge number of classes that are not covered each week, or they are covered by overloaded teachers in leadership. This has, in turn, led to leaders moving out of education because of the pressure or the challenges of working in schools. Please pray for our education system that is under such pressure.

This shortage also affects independent schools like ours. We are very blessed to, now, have a full staff compliment but it has not been easy and has taken time to achieve. Meanwhile our fantastic teaching team has been going above and beyond to ensure that students are not adversely affected. Please pray for them to have a good rest over the break and to grow closer to the God from who our strength comes.

Primary Leadership

We will miss Ms Matthews. She did a great job leading our primary team for the last 5 years. And her departure has left a bit of a hole in our leadership team.

However, God is good and supplies all our needs. Although we will miss Ms Matthews, we now have an exciting opportunity for other leaders to step into more responsibility. 

I am very pleased that Ms Bezemer will be taking responsibility for the Junior Sub-school (Years 3 to 6) and will continue to work with her class three days a week. Ms Bezemer’s title will change to Head of Sub-School (HoSS), Junior and she will be responsible for pastoral care and operations for Junior Sub-school. We welcome Ms Da’Niel Michler to partner with Ms Bezemer in teaching 6B for two days a week.

Equally exciting is Mrs Kearney stepping up to be the Head of Sub-school, Early Years. She is responsible for pastoral care and operations of Prep to Year 2.  Ms Karly Nott will be taking over the lead of the Prep K class and partnering with Mrs Kearney, who will still teach those students two days a week.

Ms Jacquie Mascoulis will be working with Prep S and Prep C one day a week each.  

We have another team that concentrates on working with the teachers to ensure the curriculum is well delivered and covers the content of the Australian curriculum.

I am very much looking forward to Mrs Kearney and Ms Bezemer using their experience and talent to take our Primary to the next level.

Secondary Music Program

After 23 years of developing and leading the music program at Plenty Valley Ms Roberts is moving onto the next stage of her career. We will miss the energy and time that she has put into developing our musical students and the music program.

I am very excited to let you know that Mr Matthew Young will be taking leadership of our music program. Some of you will remember that Matthew stepped in, temporarily, when Mrs Roberts was unwell for a significant period. We know that Mr Young will do great things with our music program.

Ms Katrina Wilson-O’Brien will now be adding Year 9 Music to her teaching portfolio.

Mrs Chelsea Pirogov

Many of you will have met our bubbly receptionist Chelsea who is heading off to maternity leave for a while to care for her soon-to-arrive twins. We wish her every blessing for this exciting (but tiring) time. Ms Eileen Soh will be filling in for her during her maternity leave. If you attend the reception in the Early Years Building, please make her feel welcome to our wonderful admin support team.