Principal's Report

NEVR Concert

The annual North East Victoria Region Concert was held on Tuesday night this week at Hamer Hall in the city, and I can say, in my usual unbiased way, our students and staff starred! I know this because I had an email from a Principal of another school on Wednesday morning telling me how impressed she was with their performances!

Patrick Rogers opened the Wantirna involvement for the evening with a stunning performance of Gabriel’s Oboe. He combined with a 101 piece string orchestra (you can see how big it is from the photos!) to take the lead on this magical piece. If you haven’t heard it before I suggest you jump on ITunes and have a listen. Patrick displayed superb musicianship in his delivery, and enormous courage performing in this solo piece in front of so many people. Congratulations Patrick – we were all so proud of you! Special thanks to Mr Andrew Jacobs, his instrumental teacher, who supported him to be ready for this moment.

Our students were incredibly well represented in the Stage Band, which contained students from 8 schools. The music was of a very high standard and many of our students performed solos within the various pieces – congratulations to Max Dangerfield, Connor De Losa, Caleb Driessen, Chris Gavin, Dylan Hamilton, Peter Kosmopoulos and Julian Wong. Thank you also to Caleb and Dylan who so freely shared their enjoyment of the music with their great facial expressions – which were shown in extreme closeup on the giant screen behind them! It really helped engage the audience. Congratulations to Mr Nathaniel Poynter, their conductor.

Our last big involvement was with the Secondary School Choir, where we were represented by 37 students out of a 66 voice choir. The music was spine tingling, particularly with one of my favourites from The Lion King , He Lives in You, and then also Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Miserables. I can only think of the word exquisite when trying to describe how they sang, and the look of sheer joy on their faces. Congratulations to all of those students involved in the choir, and to our Leader of Performing Arts, Mr Marty Visser for his remarkable teaching in preparing them for this concert.

I would also like to thank the Music Staff of the Region and the North East Victoria Region for putting on this concert. Hamer Hall is a world class venue, and for our students to perform there is something they will remember their whole lives. Thank you also to John Travers Photography who provided the professional photos of the event we’ve put in the newsletter. They are coincidentally the photographers who do our Presentation Ball and were really helpful when I was looking for photos to show you.

Year 9 students at the Alpine School Leadership Camp

I’ve been reading the blogs of our students at the Alpine School Leadership camp. I thought they might be homesick, and when I read the blogs this week they’d just had a visit from their families over last weekend. However, they all seemed to be really focused on developing their understandings of what it means to be a leader, and their personal capabilities. I can’t wait for them to come back and tell us all about it. If they are ok with it, I’ll put some of the things they’ve said in next week’s newsletter.

Off to the USA

Shaye Vanden Broek and Meg Bright are off to the USA on exchange from August. They are going as part of the World Education Program WEP USA Exchange and will be living with a volunteer host family and attend a local school. We wish them well on their travels.

Off to the USA

Year 9 Bakery Cafe Cup Cakes

Congratulations to the Year 9 Bakery Cafe students on their cup cake decororating. They looked amazing! Thank you to Mrs Linda Davies for inviting me into the class to see the students' work. I hope you got to see them at home and they weren't all eaten.

Sue Bell

Principal