From the Principal

With only a few weeks remaining in Term 1, I would like to take this opportunity to provide parents and guardians with an update of the term and the upcoming events including the demolition of D-wing.

It was great to see many parents attend the Year 7 and VCE Information Evening in Week 5. This is always a great opportunity to touch base with the school and put faces to some of the key personnel in the College.  Attending these nights sends a clear message to your children that you not only value education but that you’re here to support them on this journey.

Wednesday 11th March is a big day in our Term 1 Calendar with our Year 9 Students planning, preparing and stressing over the Year 9 Rosefest.  It is great to see students put their effort towards a great cause and raise funds for a variety of charities. Thank you to the staff and parents who are supporting our students through this process. We look forward to the activities they have prepared for us!

Our swimming carnival is on this Friday 6th March and we also look forward to seeing our college community spending the day competing and enjoying each other’s company.  May the best house win!

Next week we have our local State Member Ben Carroll, as well as Mayor Samantha Byrne visiting our College. They will be guest speakers for our Year 10 cohort undertaking the current Civics Program and will share some of their experiences. Congratulation to Ms Murray for organising such an exciting program.

Interim reports have now been finalised and are accessible on Compass. In addition, the ability to book times with Staff for our Parent Student Teacher Conferences are upon us, so please look out for these two important items. We encourage all parents/guardians to attend our Parent/Student/Teacher afternoon and evening and I look forward to talking and seeing you on the day. I expect to see all students attend so please bring them along to the appointments. Remember this is a brief update on progress to date so be mindful of the time with each teacher.

In more exciting news, we will finally commence building works which includes a full rebuild of D-wing and an oval upgrade. This will result in some disruption to the College in the next few weeks and during the build.  Rest assured we are working closely with our Project Manager and the building Company KLMS to minimise such disruptions. We anticipate the demolition of D-wing over the Term 1 holidays and this includes the relocation of the Technology Portable to another part of the school. This will allow us to continue to provide a space for practical work during the building works.

The new complex will have two new Material Practical rooms with two adjacent Theory rooms for these classes. A new large purpose built machine room will be constructed with ample storage for student work and the safe handling of materials. There will be a new Systems Technology room, a new Food Technology room with state of the art facilities and an indoor seating area for students to use during recess or lunch.  We will have a Maker Space Room, which will encourage creativity and be fitted out with our 3-D printers.  In addition to these wonderful areas, a Virtual Reality Room is included, which allows students to use VR equipment to experience situations they may not be able to normally access, such as a journey into the brain or a trip to Mars.

Exciting times ahead and we are looking forward to the finished product.

Arthur Soumalias

Principal