Principal's Report

Generations in Jazz

Last week a committed team of students, teachers and parents made the long trek to Mt Gambier in South Australia for the Generations in Jazz festival. To give you some sense about what this amazing festival is about, “High school students from more than 150 schools around the nation compete in the Stage Band Awards, while individual Jazz and Vocal Scholarships are also highly coveted, helping to secure the musical destiny of individuals with enormous promise.  And then there are the daily concerts – the sound inside the James Morrison big top pavilion, seating up to 6100 people in the middle of a paddock, is simply incredible!”

It was no surprise that our students performed exceptionally well at the festival with the Stage Band doing us proud on Saturday morning and the Vox Ensemble performing a little later in the day in their section, that had only 2 other public schools out of 26 schools from Australia wide. The Vox Ensemble was recognised for their outstanding performance, winning a 3rd place behind two South Australian Private schools. I would like to thank and congratulate all the students who competed and did us proud, along with our Leader of Performing Arts Danny Van Bergen who led the team and Kim Green and Belinda Parsons for their support and leadership. A special thanks to parent and College Council member Nicolette Rigano who stepped in at the last minute to assist.

New School Zones

Recently the Victorian Government released a new website findmyschool.vic.gov.au. This new website along with some policy changes now provides information that improves parents understanding of their local neighbourhood school, school zones and the transition process. It is important to note that now all primary and secondary schools have a zone. This zone can be found by either typing the name of a school into the findmyschool website or by entering your address to see which school zone you live in. Please note that this new website has not changed the Year 6-7 placement process. We like most schools can still accept enrolment applications from outside our zone. Fortunately, we have been in a position to do so in the past and we will continue to in the future whilst we still have capacity. I always encourage parents of Grade 6 students to place us as their number 1 preference on their placement form if we are their preferred Secondary School.

VIP Night

Recently we held a VIP transition night for parents of our closest local Primary Schools. This event led by Assistant Principal Catherine Ford, was well attended by parents and students and facilitated by a committed team of current students, past students and teachers. This event allowed us to have a positive discussion with parents and dig deeper into some of the reasons that makes us a great school. There was also an opportunity for the students to try their hand at some engaging and challenging maths activities whilst this forum took place. I would like to thank all of our staff and students who assisted on the night as well as our attendees who made it such a successful event.

COLA Update

Get excited! Construction of our COLA begins on Monday 13th May. Whilst the building works will provide some disruption, these will only be temporary and worthwhile in the end!

Kevin Murphy

Principal