Message from our Principal

The image above is from last week inside the Flexible Learning Centre, where internal walls are now starting to go up. It is good to see the building moving from frames to rooms. Planning is already shifting to the next stage, with furniture selection underway for classrooms that are expected to open in August 2026. I have a fortnightly site meeting that includes a walk around the build, and I will keep sharing photos as the work progresses.

A Strong Start to Term Two

Term Two has begun in the best way, with our students front and centre across a number of significant events.

Our ANZAC commemoration was beautifully done. Thanks to Assistant Principal John Paola and our Prefects for the care and dignity they brought to the school ceremony. Our Prefects also marched in the Wangaratta ANZAC Day service, and our Head Prefects laid a wreath on behalf of the school. It is a privilege to see our young people taking these responsibilities so seriously, and doing it so well.

On Friday night, the Performing Arts Centre was packed for the Peru Trip Trivia Night. More than 200 parents and friends of the school turned out, and the evening raised over $13,000 for the trip and the service projects the group has planned while away. The Peru group, four teachers and 26 students, departs on 20 June. A huge thank you to every family who came along, donated, or helped behind the scenes. The generosity of this community continues to amaze me.

As I write, our Year 7s are at the Rubicon Outdoor Education Centre for a five-day program, the first of two Year 7 cohorts heading there this term. A large group of Year 9s left this morning for the twelve-day Future Makers Program at the Outdoor School's 15 Mile Creek campus. It is a long and genuinely challenging program, and we have had real success with it over the past few years. Students spend their first days making the paddles they will then use on the four-day Murray River canoe trip that wraps the program up.

Both Rubicon and the Outdoor School are Department of Education programs staffed by teachers, with carefully designed and intentionally challenging learning. They are not 'holiday camps', and the growth our students show on return tells us why that matters. My thanks to the teachers and education support staff who go with them. Time away from your own family to look after other people's children, in remote settings, day and night, is no small thing.

The Pause Before the Reaction

Last week we held our third staff professional learning day with Trish Coelho, our facilitator from Real Schools. We have been working on Restorative Practice 2.0 since 2024, and each session sharpens how our staff respond when things go wrong with students. It also got me thinking about how the same ideas play out at home.

The core idea is simple. Punishment is something done to a young person, not with them. Most of us can remember being punished as kids, and if we are honest, it rarely changed the behaviour. It just taught us to be quicker, sneakier, or more careful about getting caught. What actually shifts behaviour is understanding what triggered it in the first place, and helping the young person take responsibility for what happens next.

Trish often reminds us of a phrase worth carrying around as a parent: no blame, no shame. 

When the school rings, when your child comes home upset about a teacher, when the footy coach benches them, or when another parent posts something on social media, the first instinct is often to react. To defend. To find someone to be cross with. That is human, and I do it too.

The shift she encourages is to pause and get curious instead. A few examples of what that sounds like:

a. Default: "What has she done this time?"Restorative: "Thanks for ringing, how can I help?"

b. Default: "That coach has no idea what he is doing."Restorative: "Tell me what the coach said about it."

c. Default: "I am going up there to sort this teacher out."Restorative: "What is happening in class? Is there anything you might be doing that makes it harder?"

None of this means letting things slide. Consequences still matter, and sometimes our kids do need to learn the hard way. But the consequences land better when they come out of a conversation rather than a reaction.

We are still learning this at school, one situation at a time. I know parenting is the same.

Dave Armstrong

Executive Principal, May 2026