Principal Team Editorial 

Farewell to 2021

Today marks the end of the school year for students who this week have participated in end of year activities. Like 2020, this year has been an enormously challenging experience for students, staff and parents but as a community we have endured the challenge and been able to triumph nonetheless. Again, I would like to congratulate and thank all members of our school community for their perseverance and commitment, particularly through the tough times, and I’m confident that we have now managed our way through the worst of the pandemic and it is only up from here.

The last weeks have been peppered with a number of significant events that have seen us finish with a rush! As I acknowledged a couple of weeks ago, the standard of our production of Wicked was extremely high again this year and I reinforce my congratulations and thanks to the entire cast and crew who refused to cancel and remained determined to get on with the show! There has been plenty of positive feedback from all corners, and if tickets were being sold for 2022 they would be selling fast!

Recently we also held our Annual Awards Night at Robert Blackwood Hall (Monash University). This was an opportunity to publicly recognise the outstanding achievements of many of our students. Whilst Covid restrictions still imposed some limitations the event was well attended and it was good to have families and staff in attendance. A big thank you to Andrew Lewis and Shane Kruger for the leadership and organisation of this important event.

During this busy period we were also able to hold our Senior (Year 10 and 11) Ball at The Grand on Cathies Lane. This event had been postponed earlier in the year and again we didn’t opt to cancel it, and fortunately the timing worked in our favour resulting in close to 250 students and approximately 20 staff enjoying a fantastic night. It was great to see students dressed up, looking very formal and arriving in the stretched limo’s and hummers! Thank you to the Later Years Team of teachers who did an amazing job organising and supporting this new event.

We also conducted a number of transition events including an information night for the parents of our 2022 Year 7s, as well as hosting our orientation day on Tuesday 7th December. The information night was well attended and parents received an insight into our plans for 2022 as well as getting some important information from renowned Psychologist Andrew Fuller on how to support a successful transition. The following day close to 278 Grade 6 students attended our orientation day with students experiencing lots of fun activities with their future teachers. It was also a great opportunity for our new students to begin forging the new friendships that will define them in future years. Thank you to Kathleen Timms and Alex Shepherd in particular for the hard work and leadership with the organisation of these events.

Finally I want to thank all the volunteers who have worked with us this year! Especially the Parents Association and the Parents of Performing Arts Association, the support of these groups this year has been phenomenal and our students and staff are better off for it. In particular, I would like to thank Heidi Slattery, Jess Rocca and Delia Campbell for the work and leadership in the PA over many years. These 3 amazing volunteers are retiring at the end of this year and they will be impossible to replace!

What a finish it has been! I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, happy new year and hope you all enjoy the holiday break.

Sadly at this time of year we always say good bye to staff members who are leaving to head off and face new challenges. The staff not returning in 2022 include:

Along with those leaving, Joanna Karanikolopolous, Caroline Parkes, Anthony Cotton, Fabiana Scialabba, Virginia Nugent, Linda Davies, Sunyi Song and Jenny Dixon are taking leave for either the entire or part of the year. I wish all staff the best either during their extended break or in their new adventures. In particular I want to thank the following long serving staff members who are not returning, Jacinta Gallagher and Dina Mingos who are two of our most experienced and best teachers who have made an enormous contribution to our school as teachers and leaders, Samantha Dight who has had an amazing influence on thousands of young people in her time here, Jacqui Baldry who has been an outstanding contributor to our college community, Jacqui Franks and Kathleen Timms, not just for their teaching but particularly for their leadership in middle years and Geoff Shaw for his contribution in the classroom and across the school as a “doyen” to many. Katrina King has been seconded to VCAA, to lead the school implementation of the new Senior Secondary reforms and we wish her all the best. In short we are losing great people who will be difficult to replace but we wish them all the best! I am very excited with the quality of staff that we have recruited to join us next year and I will be introducing them in the first newsletter in 2022!

Kevin Murphy

Principal