From the Principal Class Team

Dear Parents & Guardians

Welcome back to Term 3, especially to the students, their families, and the staff who are joining our school community this term.

A special welcome to teaching staff members Ms Amber Echols who joins the English Departrment, Ms Karmini Mauree who joins the Maths Department, Ms Emily SImoes who is teaching Humanities, and Mr Adam Watson who teaches Accounting.

We also welcome Education Support Staff members, Ms Jacqui Hunter to the Careers Team, Ms Loan Pham who will support the International Students Program, and Ms Antoinette Patti to the office team.

We wish each of you all the very best for your time at St Albans Secondary College.

STEM Program for Women

On Friday 15 July, seven Year 9 and three Year 10 students attended a STEM Program for Women at Ecolinc in Bacchus Marsh.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a government initiative aimed at increasing participation in studies in STEM related fields, and, ultimately, in careers in these areas.

Our students participated in workshops, explored career pathways, and heard from guest speakers.

Congratulations to Mian Huynh, Renee Huynh, Hannah McEniery, Alana Nguyen, Nancy Nguyen, Amy Thai, CHelsea Tran, Yvonne Tran, Natalie Truong & Laura Van Keulen on their selection for this program; and thank you to Mr Eli Goldbaum for his organisation of this excursion.

Full report on page 15.

Danya Gessesse - UBS Finance Academy Scholarship

Congratulations to Danya Gessesse of Year 11 on her selection for the very pretigious UBS Finance Academy held in Sydney earlier this term.

Danya was selected nationally from a huge number of applicants - a real credit to her.

We have no doubt that Danya will benefit enormously from this opportunity.

Full report on page 12.

MAC 2016 -

Mulan Jnr

Excitement can definately be felt in the air in and around the Performing Arts Centre with final preparations well under way for this year's MAC.  And from the snippets of singing, dancing, music and acting we have been treated to so far, it promises to be a fabulous show.

Mulan Junior will be performed on Tuesday 2, Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 August at 7.00pm in the PAC.  Tickets are available from the Trade Training Centre at lunchtimes at a cost of $15 for adults, $10 for students/concession/child and $45 family (2 adults & 2 children) .  With over 100 students involved in the show, it will be a wonderful showcase of their artistic and technical talents.

We really hope you can join us at one of the performances.

Parent Opinion Survey

Each year, the Department of Education conducts the Parent Opinion Survey across all government schools in Victoria.  A random sample of families is generated for each school.  This year we have sent home 250 surveys.  The anonymous survey invites parents to rate their experiences of the school across a range of areas including transition, approachability, student behaviour & safety, homework, etc.

Parent responses are collated by the Department and the information is then provided back to the school.  The results are extremely important to us - we analyse them carefully and use the information to continually improve the work we do and how we do it.

Thank you to all those families who have returned their surveys.  We will report the results to our school community as soon as the Department makes them available later in the year.