From the Principal Class Team
Dear Parents and Guardians
A warm welcome back to the 2018 school year! We have had such a positive start, with students settling in well to their new year levels, sub-schools and classes. A very special welcome to our new Year 7 students, who are a delightful group, and to all those students who are new to other year levels, and to their families. We hope that you enjoy your time here at St Albans Secondary College and that it is rewarding for you both educationally and personally.
We are also very pleased to welcome our new Assistant Principals, Mr John Coulson and Ms Tracey D’Elton, to our team, along with the following staff who are joining the teaching and education support teams this year:
Tuyet Duong
Tracey D’Elton
John Coulson
Matthew Olthof
Jennifer Truong
Robert Winduss
Adrian Mccall
Bec Carter
Kathleen Pryor
Ayse Unal
Joseph Sassone
Andrea Holliday
Ariel Verona
Jennifer Papagianopoulos
Simone Papagianopoulos
Fiona Taylor
Ashley O’Dowd
Tina Bui
Paris Ladas
Kathleen Main
Simon Marrow
Julie Talevski
Judy Blum
Tiyana Jones
Steven Angelkovski
Tim Clay
We wish each of you all the very best for your time at St Albans Secondary College.
Announcing the College Captains
On behalf of the whole school community, we are delighted to announce our College Captains for 2018.
Congratulations to Laura Van Keulen and Ted Lee who have been elected Captains, to Vice Captains Duyen Truong and Darren Tran, and our VCAL Captains Sarah Mollica, Joyce Lyon, Wendy Truong and Zakia Zarghar.
Each of these students has already shown themselves to be really deserving of these leadership roles, and we look forward to working with them and all of our student leaders.
VCAL and VCE Excellence Awards
Each year, the college recognises outstanding achievement with the presentation to a VCAL and a VCE student of the Excellence Award.
Our very warmest congratulations on achieving the VCAL Excellence Award for 2017 to Imogen Nund-Dam!
As a Year 12 VCAL student, Imogen was a strong ambassador for the school’s VCAL program. During the two year course, she was professional, consistently motivated, strived for high standards and was always willing to assist others.
Imogen presented a well-organised portfolio clearly documenting her attainment of the VCAL outcomes through classwork, evidence, personal reflections and evaluations.
In 2016, she completed a School Based Traineeship in Aged Care obtaining a Certificate III in Individual Support.
Imogen planned and organised a variety of activities for Youth Day and R U OK Day, as well as excursions for her peers and teachers. She was an advocate for her classmates as a School Representative Council member and part of the school captaincy team.
In her final year, Imogen volunteered her time at Western Health two days a week and was invited to Government House as a representative during National Volunteer Week. She regularly spoke of the positive experiences gained at this work placement, and received complimentary reviews from her supervisor, co-workers and patients. The objective of her complex project at Western Health was to help patients in the Rehabilitation Ward recovering from trauma or illness to have a more positive experience while in hospital. As a team leader of this project, she wanted improve the patients’ recovery, by demonstrating empathy and providing activities to assist patients to regain their fine motor skills.
We also congratulate Stephanie Giao on being recognised with the VCE Excellence Award. Stephanie achieved an ATAR of 97.65, and is enrolled to study Science at the University of Melbourne.
Stephanie was always an attentive and conscientious student who is modest and humble in her achievements. As an active learner, she sought challenges in order to progress, and helped others through sharing her extensive knowledge.
Teachers and peers respected Stephanie as a warm and supportive friend and classmate, a student with a generous nature and a fun sense of humour. The school’s Garden Club and swimming team have benefitted from her participation in their activities.
In 2014, Stephanie was the recipient of the Roger Martin Science award, and in 2016, she completed two accelerated subjects: Biology and Further Mathematics, achieving a study score of over 40 for both subjects. These outstanding results led Stephanie to seek further academic challenges, and she participated in the University of Melbourne Extension program by beginning undergraduate studies in Biology alongside her VCE.
Stephanie’s exceptional academic ability may be attributable to her ‘almost intuitive understanding’ of new concepts, but her brilliant academic results are also the outcome of consistent curiosity, dedication to learning, and hard work.
Our Uniform Policy
You may have read in the online media or heard on the radio last week comment about our school sending students home for being out of uniform.
Whilst aspects of the report were exaggerated, it is accurate that 17 students were sent home because they were not following the policy. This event provides an opportunity to remind parents and students of some important points in relation, not just to the Uniform Policy, but to the way we do things and what we stand for at St Albans Secondary College.
The Uniform Policy is endorsed by School Council, and provides clear information about expectations and consequences. When parents enrol their children at the school, they sign an agreement to support this and other school policies.
The College provides support to any family who requires it to ensure that each child can access the uniform.
Some people may argue that we shouldn’t focus on ‘trivial’ things like the uniform, and that students shouldn’t be sent home to change into the correct uniform. However, School Council’s view is that our uniform is an important part of our identity as a community, and that it should be worn appropriately and with pride. We also believe that, because we ask parents to pay for uniform, we have an obligation to ensure that the policy is adhered to. We appreciate and thank our parents actively supporting the Uniform Policy, and the work of our staff.