Dear Parents and Friends,

It’s hard to believe that this is our last newsletter communication for the 2018 school year.

A fitting time for me thank you for trusting us to care for your children and support their secondary school learning journey.

It is a great privilege to be part of a school community and a huge privilege to work with the staff at McGuire who are committed to educating students for life by providing learning opportunities which are explicit and purposeful in a safe and supportive environment.

Our 2018 school year has been a year rich in learning for all stakeholders. At the heart of our community is indeed our goal to foster a supportive and inclusive College community where wellbeing is nurtured within the College, within families and within our wider Greater Shepparton community.

The reimagining of our school instructional learning model has been a major driving force behind teaching and learning in 2018. We have also embraced the learning of the Professional Learning Communities initiative supporting the work of Professional Learning Teams across all areas of our College.

This year, we have continued to work closely with our Alliance colleagues at Shepparton High School, Wanganui Park Secondary College and Mooroopna Secondary College – our work towards our new shared Secondary College continues to be both exciting and renewing.

As a Principal Team, Megan, Anna and I would like to acknowledge the support given to us by the College Council. The time given on a voluntary basis to meet the many, often onerous requirements of being a College Council member, is enormously appreciated by the College community. School Council members have also been a significant presence at many College events and functions in 2018, spending time mixing with parents and supporting the work towards our new school.

A special thank you to our School Council Chairperson, Ms Jill Clapperton, for her vision and energy, both of which are always on display.

Students again represented our College in a huge range of sporting competitions, achieving outstanding results at local, regional and State levels. We would like to congratulate all students who cooperated excellently with staff on the various days, and who participated with a very friendly, yet competitive, spirit.

As a Principal Team, Megan, Anna and I would like to congratulate each of the 2018 student leaders, including our College Captains and House Captains. A huge thank you to all student leaders who faced the challenge of both representing the College on many occasions and being role models for other students; they have all had a very successful year.

As our school year comes to end we thank all members of our staff team who have worked together to ensure that all students leave McGuire College as confident, competent individuals able to face challenges and take responsible, active roles in a diverse world.

We thank all staff for the many gifts they have shared with our College this year. Next week we will gather as a staff team to farewell staff who have been with is for a short time who are perusing new ventures in 2019. We will also farewell three long standing staff members – farewell and best wishes to:

Mr Cosi Rando - Cosi, who has been with us since 2008 when he began his teaching career. Thank you Cosi for the many gifts you have brought to the development of the Digital Learning across the College. Your fun stories and welcoming and friendly nature will be greatly missed.

Mrs Nicole Leys – Nicole has been with us for 4 years and leaves us to join the team at Kyabram P to 12. Thank you Nicole for your contributions to and leadership of our Visual Arts team and for your support of early career teachers in your team.

Mrs Faye Farrant - Faye began teaching at McGuire 9 years ago and leaves us to join the team at Wanganui Park Secondary College. Thank you Faye for your contributions to and leadership of our Mathematics program across the College.

As a College community we would like to sincerely thank Megan Michalaidis and Anna Sloane our Assistant Principals who alongside our College leadership team Sam Owen, Deanne Dewar, Megan Dixon, Stacie Lundberg, Paige Martin, Jamason Miller, Julie Hannan, Sharon Wagstaff, Carly Bostancioglu, and Matt Koutroubas have led our College community with integrity, passion and a deep commitment to living out our school vision as a Caring Learning Community in all their endeavours

– thank you for your tremendous support, your deep commitment and your outstanding efforts to improve the lives of the young people in our this year!

We wish you all a safe and happy festive season.

Claire Kelly

College Principal

Important Dates

December

February 2019