Principal's Report

As I wandered around the athletics track at Brauerander Park last Tuesday, I was fascinated by the lack of students hanging around the house tents and shaded areas that had been set up.  As the events continued throughout the day, the vast majority of students swarmed around the start and finish lines of track events or in the vicinity of field events such as high jump, shot put and javelin.  The line for jumpers at the long jump pit was so long at points that it seemed to stretch the length of the 100 metre straight running parallel to it.  Students continuously ran, jumped and threw while their fellow competitors and friends cheered and congratulated everyone’s efforts.  Their joy on faces was genuine as students gave their all for their respective houses.  It was such a great celebration of participation and mutual respect for one another.

On Thursday last week we had another opportunity to act on our value of mutual respect as we recognised and celebrated International Woman’s Day.  This is the first time we have done this as a school and I was enthused by the conversations that were started throughout the day, including the significance of privilege in our country and our world and how we are called to share it with everyone.  There are some who would argue that there’s no point in having an International Woman’s Day unless we’re going to have an International Men’s day as well.  As a male myself, I understand where these thoughts come from, though in recent years I’ve come to recognise the significant privilege that has been afforded to me as a white, middle class, man living in the Western World.  The simple reality is that the same privileges are not afforded to women in the world, or indeed in Australia.  And so, recognising the achievements of women and working towards bridging the gender divide are important and need our time, energy and action.  I look forward to the conversation continuing around how we can address gender equity issues at Warrnambool College in the future.

On Tuesday this week we had our first parent information evening on the Respectful Relationships program at our school.  It was great to have some parents along and share the curriculum initiatives that are in place across all schools in Victoria, and specifically at Warrnambool College as a lead school in South West Victoria.  If you didn’t get a chance to come and would like to hear about the information that we went over, please contact the school – we’ll gladly share resources that were presented on the night.  We plan on having another information evening during term 3 this year so look out for further details in the newsletter later in the year.

For all those involved in year 7 and 8 camps and altitude days next week, I wish you the very best.  Many of our senior students reflect back on these camp experiences as being amongst the highlights of their time at the school – I hope this is the same for you all as well.  For everyone else, I look forward to sharing in your learning journey back at school.

Kind Regards,

Dave Clift

Principal