Principal's Report

Principals' Report

We are into the last half of Term 3 and as usual Koonung Secondary College is a hive of activity. It is always sobering to stop for a moment and reflect on what has taken place in the last two weeks and share some of the highlights with you.

On Tuesday 14th of August, the College conducted a Professional Development Day with a focus on Literacy for Learning across the curriculum. All teachers completed the fifth of six modules which focused on developing strategies to support students to move their written expression across the writing continuum to include devices which provide increasing abstraction and technicality. These are clear requirements for success in VCE and in workplaces. This program has complemented a challenging literacy program throughout the year and staff have been engaged in additional sessions each week this term. The commitment to our students and the focus of all staff on continual improvement is extremely positive. During the day the Differentiation in Action team also presented to staff on the work that they have completed to improve practice as part of a University of Melbourne project. Teams of teachers have been working on strategies to cater for individual differences of students in their classrooms. They have committed to observing each other teach, give feedback and collect data from students to review effectiveness of the strategies to support students. Throughout the day it was evident that our staff are committed to their ongoing learning and professional development.

Three of our Year 8 students: Ruby Clark, Emmett Unterberger and Samuel Yao competed in the Aurecon Bridge Building competition. The students involved designed and constructed a balsa wood bridge and were selected to enter the competition which tested strength, efficiency and creativity. The students were supported in their work by Helen Caine and were thrilled to attend the competition at Scienceworks. After a day of testing and evaluation our team were crowned the overall winners of the event. Their bridge managed to support 40kg before breaking. The team were awarded with a prize of $100 gift voucher each and a cheque for $1000 for the College. The team will have an integral role to play in deciding how the prize money will be spent to support and enhance further opportunities for STEAM activities at the College.

The Year 9 Urban Art group has been busy working with their classroom teacher David Foote and Debra Amon Cotter (Artist in Schools) to design and construct a mosaic mural representing the Koonung Creek Trail. This mural will become a major artwork on the steps leading to the library. The group has been supported by sponsorship from Bunnings, Johnson’s Tiles and our PFA.

This week a group of our Year 9 and 10 students have been participating in the Illuminate Nextgen Challenge facilitated by Deakin University’s School of Business. Operating under strict time constraints and with evolving deadlines the teams are developing business plans, pitching them to panels of judges, refining their ideas and developing and documenting the process of taking a business idea from concept to reality. Think “Shark Tank” and you may have an idea about the program on offer. We are thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to our students as it provides them with a valuable life experience which is not easily replicated in the traditional classroom.

On Tuesday we had our regular College Council meeting. Recent changes to the Departments requirements around the structure of school councils has resulted in all school councils now requiring student representatives on Council. At Koonung, our College Captains have traditionally been members of our Council and it would appear that this was somewhat unusual for many schools. With the new guidelines we have now broadened our student base to include two additional elected student representatives. Christopher Thomson (Year 12) and Eric Zou (Year 10) are our two new student members. Both Eric and Christopher bring a strong student voice to the table and their desire to understand and contribute to the functions of the council were evident from the very beginning of the meeting.

At Koonung we are privileged to have a very active Parents and Friends Association (PFA). The Year 7 parent welcome morning tea, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day breakfasts, second hand Booksale, second hand uniform sale, Bunnings fundraisers, social events and regular meetings are just some of the ways in which the PFA contributes to building and supporting the entire Koonung Community. Cath Bennie and Nicole Martin recently represented our PFA at the Parents Victoria Association awards ceremony and it is only fitting that our PFA should be recognised for 23+ years of membership but more importantly receive the Joan Kirner Parent Participation award. We are indeed, very lucky to have such an amazing group of parents who contribute so much to the College.

Finally, I would like to share some staff movements. Staff who are on leave for the last part of this term are: Fiona and Michael Kyrkou, Phil Dimattina and Stace Kerr. Chris Sheehan is acting Head of Senior School replacing Fiona in this role and Helen Caine has stepped into the coordination role. Nicole Robinson will be replacing Fiona in the classroom. We welcome Cameron Taylor, replacing Michael Kyrkou in the classroom and Sharyn Paspa replacing him as coordinator. Han Lim is replacing Phil Dimattina. While Stace Kerr is on leave Bree Kuipers is acting Business Manager and Colleen Stavrakis is replacing Bree in her role as Assistant Business Manager.

Sandra Greenhill

Assistant Principal