Welcome to 2016

Welcome back to Greensborough College for 2016. Another year filled of learning, sport, arts, service, curiosity, achievement and celebration. I am confident that this year is going to be our school’s best year and the opportunities that are ahead for all of our students this academic year are outstanding.

We welcome our new students in Year 7 along with many more new students in Years 8 -12. We have an exciting team working at this College so I would like to take this opportunity to also welcome the new and returning staff.

Today we gathered as a whole school to induct our 2016 Senior Student Leaders, who have already demonstrated wonderful leadership capacity and commitment to our College. Our next College newsletter will feature all of our Senior Student Leaders.

2015 VCE Success

The 2015 VCE results were a great success. Our Dux was Leigh Davey with an ATAR of 97.05. Kate Lewis was awarded the prestigious La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor’s Award and two students were awarded the VCE (Baccalaureate).This award was introduced by VCAA in 2014 to acknowledge, encourage and reward students who deliberately embraced a broad but more challenging VCE program. Congratulations to all of our students, including our quiet achievers who attained their personal best. All students who submitted VTAC preference applications for tertiary study received a first round offer, including the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, RMIT, Deakin University and Swinburne University of Technology. Other students were successful in gaining an apprenticeship in their chosen field. All our students have a firm pathway for their future and achieved their goal for what comes next after Greensborough College.

2016 Staffing

A warm welcome to our new staff:

Jim Ringin Acting Assistant Principal

Jim comes as support from the Region; he has provided support in the Acting Assistant Principal role at various schools such as Sherbourne Primary School, Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College. He taught Maths at Box Hill Senior Secondary College and also started and led the Basketball program. He follows the AFL and supports the North Melbourne Football Club; he has played and coached Basketball with the Eltham Wildcats. He also enjoys going on holidays and reading.

Ashleigh Hosier PE Teacher

Ashleigh graduated from Deakin University and comes to us from Bright P-12 Secondary College, she has also done placement in Malaysia. Ashleigh loves playing netball and snow skiing. She has a passion for travel and some of her destinations include Africa and touring the USA.

A warm welcome back to our returning staff:

Laura Frazer, PE and Health Teacher, Sports and House Coordinator.

Jackie McDonald, Maths and Drama Teacher.

Congratulations are extended to Kathy Berg and her husband Ryan following the birth of their daughter Indiana Lily on January 29th.

Our thoughts are with Graeme Scott who is on carers leave this term.

A year of change

Whilst 2015 was a year of significant change, we expect some change to continue in 2016. A taste of what to expect in 2016 includes:

Designing the new college and the building to start commencing
Our new School Strategic Plan
Two Mini-Schools (Junior and Senior School)
A focus on Health and Wellbeing, including participating in ‘Active April’
Increased use of Compass as our school communication tool
Our continued commitment as a school to the improvement of student outcomes
Opportunities for all students to achieve their full potential and many more.

This term we are trialing the introduction of Extended Principals Detention, scheduled for Friday afternoon 3.15pm until 5.15pm. This Detention will replace Saturday Detentions. All Detentions are recorded on Compass in the Student Chronicle and if your child receives an Extended Friday Detention, you will receive an email when recorded.

I trust you will like our new newsletter format. If you have any feedback or ideas, for what else you would like to see in our fortnightly newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

A chance to meet

I am looking forward to getting to know as many new parents as possible. Parent evenings, student-parent-teacher meetings, School Council, the Parents and Friends Association and school working bees are all excellent ways for us to meet. I am looking forward to our Year 7 Welcome BBQ being held on Thursday, 18th February and do hope that all of our new and old families will be able to join us.

If you have any concerns

Please do make contact with the school if you have any concerns. It is important that you are in contact with the school straight away so we can work with you to ensure a successful outcome. Our office staff will be able to answer your question or direct you to the best person. We do welcome you to please keep the lines of communication open, be in touch when you have concerns and share your ideas for improvements. Also, share with us what we are doing well. We will love to hear about any success and news your child has. Please do not hesitate to be in touch to celebrate this with us too.

Thank you to all of the students and staff for the outstanding start to the year, 2016 will see more success and celebrations for Greensborough College.

Chrissy Collins

Principal

Student Activities