In the Know

From the Leadership Team

Rob French, Principal

 

Welcome back to the new school year! I hope that all members of our community are feeling recharged after the holiday period.  While I was lucky enough to spend some time with my family at the beach over the break, I also thoroughly enjoyed being out and about in beautiful Melbourne.  

 

It feels like our city is thriving again after an incredibly challenging few years, and it was wonderful to take in the atmosphere in the city centre and along Southbank on those long summer evenings.

 

CENTENARY YEAR 

There is much for the Kilvington community to look forward to as we celebrate our centenary with a range of events and functions. The Community Fair on 25 March, special Founders’ Service on 20 June and Centenary Concert on 10 August, among other events, will help us mark this significant milestone in Kilvington’s rich history. 

 

The Centenary provides us with the opportunity to give thanks to all who have gone before us, particularly the courageous and trailblazing mother and daughter combination, Caroline and Constance Barrett, who passionately pursued their vision for a school in Ormond all those years ago. 

 

Our 100th year also affords a good opportunity to look ahead and set a vision for what we want our school to look like in the future. We know that one constant will be change, and we want to embrace new technologies and modes of assisting our students with their learning moving forward. 

 

STEM AND LIBRARY CENTRE

We are also eagerly awaiting the completion of our STEM and Library building, which is on track to be operational next term. It is pleasing to know that generations of students will be enjoying this space and pursuing their areas of passion and interest in the building for years to come.  We will keep our community updated about plans for a grand opening, which is set to take place in October this year.

 

SCHOOL VALUES

Throughout last year, we consulted with students, members of staff and parents to identify the core values that underpin our community. 

 

We received wonderful feedback that led to the creation of four values that we want all in the School to recognise and embrace: Respect, Compassion, Perseverance and Curiosity. 

Upon arrival to start the new year, our students would have seen these values all around the School.  Our aim is for these values to resonate across the community and to guide how we interact with one another and how we approach the opportunities and challenges of school life. 

 

TERM 1 CHARACTER TRAIT - COMPASSION

At the same time, compassion is the character trait that we will be focusing on in Semester 1.  We generally define this trait to our students as caring for others, treating them with kindness and helping them when they are in need. 

 We see clear examples of compassion being enacted by our students every day and I know that it has long been a hallmark of the Kilvington community.  I look forward to seeing compassion in action and to highlighting acts of compassion in the months ahead.

Class of 2022

We would like to congratulate our Class of 2022 on their ATAR results. They have endured a challenging lead up to Year 12, as they faced extended periods of online learning and months of uncertainty while undertaking Year 10 and 11. 

 

Nevertheless, this cohort has done incredibly well and maintained a strong sense of unity as they supported one another through their final year of school. Congratulations to the 2022 Dux of the School, Peter Wang, who achieved an ATAR of 99.75, and also to Hamish Bruce, Melissa Deacon, Sophie Xu, Pia O'Reilly, Grace Kiosoglous and Oliver Miles-Fine for achieving scores over 98. Well done to Peter Wang and Thomas Williamson for achieving study scores of 50 in Further Mathematics.

 

Class of 2022 key achievements:

  • 8% of our students were in the top 2% of the State (achieving an ATAR of 98 plus)
  • 19% of our students were in the top 5% of the State (achieving an ATAR of 95 plus)
  • 39% of our students were in the top 10% of the State (achieving an ATAR of 90 plus)
  • 71% of our students were in the top 20% of the State (achieving an ATAR of 80 plus)

Importantly, 87% of students received their 1st or 2nd preference into their course of choice. 

 

Thank you to our teaching staff across the School for their unwavering support of our students and their dedication to see them achieve to their potential.

New staff 

We have added some wonderful educators to our team this year and they have already had a positive impact on the community.  It is with pleasure that I welcome the following members of staff to the team this year:

  • Karen Chandler, Deputy Head of Junior School
  • Nicola Devlin, Academic Dean of Humanities
  • Sonia Murr, Academic Dean of English
  • Fiona O’Rourke, Head of Library and Digital Resourcing
  • Dasha Lepustin, Humanities and Commerce Teacher
  • Lisa Valentine, Science and Mathematics Teacher
  • Julia Barry, Mathematics Teacher
  • Paul Pellegrino, Junior School (Year 5 Teacher)
  • Maddison Staude, Junior School (Year 1 Teacher)
  • Agnieszka Goral, Mathematics Teacher
  • Joanne Frost, English Teacher
  • Kate Johnston, Senior School Learning Support Assistant
  • Sherry Shi, Junior School Learning Support Assistant