Principal's Report 

Term II: Principal Update

Welcome back to all students, staff, their families and friends to Term II after a busy and successful Term I. 

We also welcome all new staff and students who have joined us at South Oakleigh College. 

Term II will provide us with a wealth of opportunities to demonstrate our values of High Expectations and Resilience as our students will be involved in examinations and major assessment tasks over the coming weeks. Many of these onsite events did not take place last year due to Remote Learning and COVID restrictions so we are very much planning for the return to more normal arrangements. Over 170 students completing a VCE subject this year will undertake the General Achievement Test (GAT) on Wednesday 9 June and all students will be undertaking a series of School-Assessed Coursework (SACs) and ongoing Assessment Learning tasks throughout the term.  

I would also like to highlight some important events that have occurred since our last newsletter:

CAD Walk-a-thon

At the end of Term I, we  once again committed to raise money for the Monash Children’s Hospital School - the main local charity supported by our staff and students.

We were fortunate to be addressed by Mr Colin Dobson (Principal of MCH School) who highlighted that the school delivers education services alongside a patient’s treatment, recovery and reintegration. It supports patients with significant health conditions who are at-risk of disengaging from education, or who are unable to attend their regular educational setting due to their health condition.

The funds we raised will allow Colin and his team to purchase resources that will allow students to support their education during their time in hospital; this included laptops, books and other value resources.

I am proud to say that students and staff have raised close to $10,000 to support this invaluable community asset.

Music Camp

Once again our students and staff participated in the annual Music Camp to Camp Bosco – a highlight in the calendar as students are able to focus on music and developing their talents in a scenic space.

Thank you to Ms Sifris and her team of music professionals for providing this opportunity to our students.  We look forward to the development of their talents and to hearing them at every opportunity.

The following article about whether music really does make you smarter is an interesting and worthwhile read:

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/read-and-watch/news/music-really-does-make-students-smarter/13061280  

Open Night

On Thursday 29 April, we had the opportunity to invite the wider community to South Oakleigh College for Open Night. This is an important occasion for prospective families and students to get to know our community and consider whether the South Oakleigh College values and vision for learning align with their own.

We were fortunate to be able to adjust our organisation of Open Night to align with COVID restrictions and the formal presentation was accessible from both the foyer and in our theatre.

Over 500 parents and students attended and the overwhelming feedback from the community highlighted the warm welcome that they received from staff and our own students.

The format of the evening allowed them to ask questions and connect with our community in each of the faculty areas.

I would like to thank our Director of Students, Learning Area Leaders, Transitions and Resources and Facilities teams for their leadership and coordination of the event.

I am incredibly grateful to the staff, student leaders, and school council members who attended and engaged so positively with our wider community.

If you have friends or family interested in finding out more about South Oakleigh College, please invite them to attend one of our tour mornings.

Curriculum Day 

On Friday 30th April South Oakleigh College held a professional in-service day for teacher development. Students Services developed a well-rounded, rotating conference style program that sought to tap into a wide range of curriculum and pedagogical skills. 

Students Services staff presented a series of interactive workshops on managing conflict, rapport building, reporting and establishing collaborative relationships between teacher and student. Utilising evidence-based research on best practice, Student Services aimed to ensure teachers continue to remain innovative and contemporary with regards to teaching and learning practices. 

Thank you to our student services team who organised the day and thank you to our staff for their participation. 

Cross Country 

On Thursday 6 May, our House Cross-Country was held at Karkarook Park with students across all year levels Year 7–10 participating, supported by perfect weather conditions.

This event is aimed at promoting physical activity across the College and forming connections between houses - from this event many students have the opportunity to progress to the Monash Division Cross-Country event.  

Our students are very fortunate and appreciative of the opportunity to compete in this annual event. 

Congratulations to our Sports Captains, Mr Knee and all staff and students who supported all the competitors and demonstrated the South Oakleigh Spirit.

We look forward to the announcement of the winning House in the next week.

Monash Manningham Conference 

Mr Katsianos, Mr Picone and I had the opportunity to attend the combined Monash Manningham conference last week.  

This was a great opportunity to work with our peers, listen to professionals speaking about leadership and how we can support others so that a chain of support links us across our community to be the best we can.  

I thank Mr Alexis, Mr Hadjra, Mr Landini, Ms Robertson, Ms Terdich, and Mr Tzimourtas who stepped in to our roles to ensure our school operated as normal. It is heartening and positive to know that we can attend our professional learning whilst leaving the school in capable hands.

Annual Report to the School Community

The 2020 Annual Report was tabled and endorsed at our most recent AGM and has been uploaded to our website. 

I urge our community to take a look at the range of positive results. 

Thank you to all for yourcontribution to the 2020 Annual Report.

School Review

As part of the Department of Education’s accountability framework, government schools are expected to conduct an independent review process every four years during the final stages of their current Strategic Plan period.

We are required to undertake and complete a far-ranging and rigorous self-evaluation process ahead of our Review which takes place in late October and early November.

We will begin to look into a range of data sources, academic outcomes covering NAPLAN and VCE results, and recent Staff, Student and Parent Opinion Surveys. 

Further feedback will be sought from the full range of stakeholders through Focus Group discussions or online survey tools.

Once completed this promises to be a fantastic process for us to set the priorities and direction of South Oakleigh College for the next four years.

Capital Works Program

With last year’s announcement of almost $10 million towards the building of a new STEM centre and the development of a competition-sized gymnasium, I am pleased to announce that we are closer to delivering these for our students and community as we have just signed off on the master plan and now head into the schematic design of what these two areas will look like.  

We have working with Architecture architecture and the VSBA to ensure that we are on track.

It is an exciting time for South Oakleigh College!

We are fortunate to see this building project come to completion as this will ensure the school has capacity for increasing enrolments as well as catering for our students’ needs.

Helen Koziaris

College Principal