Principal's Report

It gives us great pleasure to welcome our school community back to the College for Term 3.

We hope that all students and their families were able to spend some time together over the break, and took the opportunity to relax and reflect on what you have all achieved so far this year.  We have seen over the break and the first few days of term that the colder and sometimes wet weather is now with us, but this will not hamper the learning, excitement and school community activities that are planned for the term ahead.  

It is a busy term with many opportunities for students to engage in activities beyond their classrooms, such as camps and incursions, and many opportunities for parents to connect with us and support the learning and wellbeing approaches being delivered by our dedicated staff team across the College.

Student Expectations

With the return to school life this week I wanted to take the opportunity to remind all students and parents of our expectations for students.  With over 1200 students and 140 staff across our College it is vital that we are all aware of these expectations and work together to enable all of our students to learn, grow and thrive in a positive and supportive College community.

The key elements that underpin our expectations for students across the College are our core values of Commitment, Respect, Honesty, Fairness and Perseverance.  Our students are supported to understand these values and what it means for their work and play around the College and this is also captured in our School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Matrix that is readily on display around the College.

In addition to our SWPBS expectations, we cannot express enough the importance of students arriving to school on time and ready to learn.  This sets our students up for a positive day ahead and allows them to enter classes with their peers and without any additional pressures of being late, collecting a late pass and having to explain their lateness.  Regular and punctual attendance at school is a great habit for our students to develop and one that will support their transition to the world of work.

Staffing Update

With the commencement of a new semester we have had a few staffing changes.

A number of staff members have said farewell to Epping Secondary College at the end of Term 2, either on a short term or a permanent basis.  At the end of term we have said farewell to long term staff members, Irene Laws and Maureen Hocking.  After a long and successful teaching career we wish Irene every happiness with the new adventures of retirement.  We also wish Maureen every success as she transitions to retirement with a period of leave and official retirement later in the year.  Both Maureen and Irene have served our school community over many years and will be missed by our students, staff and parent community.  

Chris Valentino has also said farewell to the Epping Secondary College community as he heads into the family business, we wish Chris every success with this new venture and have no doubt he will achieve amazing things.  Fazal Ilahee will be leaving us shortly to take up a teaching position closer to home and we wish Fazal good luck as he moves to a new school from Monday 26th July. 

Finally, we have seen Frazer Thomas, successful in his recent application for an Acting Principal position, with Frazer heading to Lalor Gardens Primary School for Semester 2.  We wish Frazer every success in his new leadership role and in getting to know his new school community.

With the staff departures, we also are welcoming a number of new or returning staff to the College.  Please join with me in wishing the following staff a warm welcome or return to our College and staff team:

• Michele Bauer joins our English Team and will be taking classes that include Year 9D Home Group, 9H English, 10 Creative Writing, 10 English, 7F English, 11 English and Year 9 Learning for Life.
• Madeline Austin rejoins us after some family leave and will be taking classes that include Year 8F Home Group, 10 Science, 12 Foundation Maths and 10 Science Skills.
• Alexandra Leota (Drohan) rejoins us after some family leave and will taking classes that include 8 Learning for Life, 11 English, 7A Humanities and Library Supervision.
• Robyn Dawson joins our support team as an integration aide working with and supporting students in classrooms and programs across the College.

The last few days we have been busily interviewing to fill a couple of other positions and will be able to provide students, parents and staff with further information about these appointments in the coming days.

Focused School Improvement Work

Over the last few years we have seen many interruptions to the regular improvement cycle that schools undertake.  In 2022 we are re-igniting our school improvement efforts with a key focus on further supporting the learning and wellbeing of all of our students as we work towards moving our school from good to great.  In Semester 2 our work will be focusing on:

• Further developing our capacity for all teachers to be teachers of literacy and to support the literacy development of our students across all curriculum areas and disciplines.
• Refining our approach to curriculum delivery for 2023, including the development of the VCE-Vocational Major and Victorian Pathways Certificate for our senior students.
• Further developing our School Wide Positive Behaviour Support systems to support the learning and wellbeing of all students across the school, including the development of student recognition processes, behaviour flow charts and clear processes to support students and staff.
• Continuing to embed and develop our approaches to student wellbeing through Life Skills Go at Year 7-9 and through our work with The Resilience Project at Years 10-12.

Preparing for 2023

We are now well and truly in the planning phase for 2023 and as such it is important that we have a true and accurate indication of our student numbers for next year.  If you have neighbours or friends looking for a secondary school in 2023 and they are yet to enrol anywhere, please encourage them to contact us ASAP to organise a pre-enrolment form and an interview with one of our Assistant Principals, Joshua Wolter or Annette Spence.  As always, our priority is accommodating all students within our designated enrolment area and this can be found on the Find My School website.  We will however have some space for out of zone enrolments and these will be considered on a case by case basis with each family.

If you are one of our existing families and relocating at the end of the year or leaving us for other reasons, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can best support the transition of your son or daughter to work, TAFE or another school setting.

Brad Moyle

College Principal