From the Principal's Desk

Good afternoon parents, guardians and students,

Welcome to our new look newsletter. I thank my EA/Director of Marketing, Ashlee Harvey, for her efforts in making this happen.

Term Two continues to unfold and the past fortnight has seen our educational community continue to grow as a major local provider of education. Our conviction to provide quality educational opportunities in a supportive and encouraging setting, inclusive of all, has again been shown. Staff and students have worked together with the express view of achieving shared goals, and there have been a number of initiatives which have seen students and staff involved in a variety of community building activities.

Our ‘Open Afternoons’ have been part of the school landscape since the beginning of the month, and it is pleasing to invite new families into our community to inspect our facilities, but more importantly, meet with our students and staff as they decide on future educational options and, hopefully, make Cobram AGS their future home. I am buoyed by the number who have visited, and the positive comments that we have received.

We welcomed families in for our Mother’s Day breakfast last Friday May 10, and again numbers swelled. Thanks to our Head of Senior School, Ash Kennedy, and the Year 12 students for putting their combined efforts into making this event a success. In particular, thanks to school captains Mohammed Al Mousawy and Chloe Turra, and school vice-captain, Olivia O’Neill, for their commitment and enthusiasm in the lead up to this day.

Our Year 10 students enjoyed time away from classes last week, and travelled to various locations around the city as part of their ‘Melbourne Experience’. Students had a fabulous time, by all accounts, and arrived back to Cobram AGS tired but happy under the watchful eye of teachers Brad Downie and Sharon Bird. Thanks to Brad and Sharon for accompanying and leading the students on this city adventure camp.

This week has seen our NAPLAN testing take place and I thank staff, students for their assistance and co-operation during a week that invariably sees disruptions to the usual programs. In particular, I thank NAPLAN co-ordinator, teacher Geoff Brown, for the considerable effort he has put in to organising and rolling out these tests over the past week.

We embraced ‘Walk to School Safely Day’ this year with a number of walking buses that departed from pre-arranged bus stop, driven by volunteer staff members and arrived at school after setting off from various locations around Cobram. All reports indicate that this initiative was a huge success, and I thank Head of Junior School, Mary Swoffer, for her efforts organising and corralling students and staff to ensure that all who participated did so safely and enthusiastically.

Many of these initiatives, and more, including the Hands on Trade Day, VCE Agriculture and Horticulture Excursion, Classroom Helpers Course, Year 10 Camp, are described in fuller details in this newsletter, and I encourage parents, guardians and students to continue reading and bring themselves up to date with all the news from our vibrant educational community.