Principal Team Editorial 

Open Night and Discovery Day

As students, parents or other community members of our school, you probably already have a strong sense and understanding of what we do and how we do it at Wantirna College, however on Tuesday March 29th we get to share our story with prospective students and parents during our Open Day. Some of our  existing parents will be attending with their children, who are future Year 7 students eager to have a look at what we have to offer, hear from leaders and speak to students and staff. Many of you will know friends, relatives or neighbours who have students in Grade 6 (or Grade 5) and I encourage you to pass on the details of our Open Day and Discovery Night (Tuesday March 29th, 6:30pm – 8:30pm) and encourage them to come and have a look. We will be running regular tours in the morning (bookings available below) and we will continue to offer tours on Tuesday and Thursdays for the remainder of this term and early next term. Please help us spread the word for this important upcoming event!

Continued Covid Impacts

Unfortunately I was hoping not to mention COVID very often in the editorials this year, but unfortunately the virus continues to impact us and in some ways more than it ever has before. Clearly, many students and staff are being struck down with illness on a daily basis and as a result absence rates of both staff and students can be higher than we would like. Sadly, this is a system wide problem that is impacting all schools, and as I communicated recently it has meant that on rare occasions that we have not been able to supply replacement teachers for some senior classes (Year 11 and 12). Fortunately, these occasions have been limited, but this issue will continue to be a problem that we will be dealing with for some time. It has also made it more difficult to replace staff members that have resigned or retired, with limited options of staff on standby or applying for roles. We are doing our best to minimise these disruptions and apologise for the limited occasions that have effected our ability to provide continuity of teachers this term.

Parents Association

In 2022, we are looking to relaunch a new look Parents Association. Previously, the PA has met monthly, with a major focus being centred around fundraising. The time commitment was too substantial and as a result attendance at meetings was waning and the time required to organise and support some events (such as the book fair) left many feeling burnt out, and therefore impacting their willingness to volunteer time again this year. The intention is for the PA to morph into a consultative group that will meet once a term with the Prin/APs to provide feedback and be a sounding board. The meetings will take on an informal “wine and cheese” type feel and hopefully allow parents to socialise and provide feedback without an extraordinary commitment of time. I will be providing some more information about this via Compass in coming weeks and look forward to conducting the first meeting of the new look PA early in Term 2.

Kevin Murphy

Principal