Principal's Report

Dear Westall Secondary College Community,

What a whirlwind the last two years have been. It feels like our lives have been on hold as everything we knew as normal has been turned upside down. Each time we have come out of a lockdown there has been hope that the worst has passed. I feel confident that finally those false dawns are over and this is real. No more lockdowns. 90% of us are vaccinated and life is returning to normal. What a relief. Whilst so many things have been on hold these last two years, it is a credit to everyone that our school and our students have continued to learn, grow and develop.

I am so pleased to share with you all, that we have again had a very successful year in 2021 in regards to the targets in our AIP (Annual Implementation Plan). We have met 7 of our 10 targets. See those 7 in green below and the 3 targets we missed are in red. These red areas will be the focus of further work in 2022.  The 2 VCE targets will be released next month, fingers crossed.

So congratulations to all of us! You should be so proud that all your hard work and dedication with our students throughout long periods of remote and flexible learning has led to such outstanding results. Well done!

BUILDING UPDATE

Work has commenced on our new Outdoor Stadium with new roofing, seating and lighting to be installed around our Outdoor Basketball Courts. This project will be completed early 2022.

The State Budget announcement earlier this year ($9.3 million for Westall SC) will bring us a new Learning Centre to be located on the edge of our oval adjacent to our Outdoor Stadium project. Work on this will take a little longer than the Stadium and is not due to commence until late 2022 with a late 2023 completion date. These are two very exciting developments and additions that all our students will benefit from and provide us with the outstanding new facilities we all deserve.

We only have a month to go before the 2021 school year draws to a close but I urge all students to finish the year strongly.  On Thursday 18 November we celebrate our Awards winners across Years 7-11 via a Whole School Assembly (live stream) and later that evening, our Year 12 Graduation in the School Gym (also live streamed). 

Thursday 25 November is the last day for current 2021 classes. We then have a Student Free Day on Friday 26 November to allow teachers to finalise their lessons and programs for Headstart.

On Monday 29 November, current Year 10 and 11 students will complete a week of their 2022 classes and finish for holidays on Friday 3 December at 3.15pm.

Our current Year 7, 8 and 9 students will complete another week of Personal Development Skills and finish on Friday 10 December.

In the last week of the year we have Student activities running on Monday 13 December and Thursday 16 December. Student Free Days are scheduled for Tuesday 14 December and Wednesday 15 December when staff will be participating in a 2-day Professional Development Program.

Until next time!

Tristan Lanarus

Principal