Principal's Message
We Grow Through Connection
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
Welcome to our first Newsletter for Term 4. It has been a busy start to the term with students settling into their learning across their subjects, together with accessing the many co-curricular opportunities provided; we have been happy with what has been a successful start to Term Four.
Please be reminded that we as a College continue to provide high quality opportunities in the areas important to our College Community:
Learning Growth Across all Learning Areas
Sport
The Performing Arts
Student Leadership and Our Community
Our School Wide Positive Behaviour theme for this term is ‘Social and Personal Responsibility’. We have shared and reinforced this theme with students at Sub School Assemblies and in the classroom. We have explained to students in terms of how they can demonstrate this theme throughout Term Four:
Taking responsibility for their learning
Completing all set work and submitting it on time
Using their class-time effectively and continuing to be respectful to others
The Department of Education and Training (DET) provide all State Primary and Secondary Schools with a Performance Report on an annual basis. The Performance Report is developed using data sets relating to NAPLAN and the DET Student Attitude to School Survey for example. There are four levels as per the Performance Report:
High
Improving
Medium
Developing
For the category Learning, we increased two levels to High as per the Performance Report for 2026 – as a College Community we should be very pleased with this result.
We acknowledged the Class of 2025 in a special Year 12 Farewell Assembly last week (Tuesday 21 October). Many of our families were also in attendance to farewell our Year 12 students after thirteen years of primary and secondary education. The Assembly was a tremendous success and we thank our staff for organising this special event on behalf of our College Community.
We are proud of our Year 12 students and what they have achieved at our great school over an extended period of time. The Class of 2025 have left a positive mark on the Pakenham Secondary College Community.
We thank our Year 12 students for their wonderful contribution to our great school, including Year 12 College Leaders in Katie Brooks (College Captain), Gurleen Kaur (College Captain) and Dylan Purvis (College Vice Captain). We also thank the Senior Sub School Teams and Year 12 Teachers throughout the year for all of their hard work in supporting our Year 12 students in 2025. We wish those Year 12 students about to embark on the VCE Exams all the best of luck, and we wish the Class of 2025 every success with their future endeavours.
After working through a rigorous process late last term, we are pleased to announce that our College Captains for 2026 will be:
Indiana Groves – College Captain
Bailey Kezik – College Captain
Stephanie-Rose Kajer – College Vice Captain
Asma Nur – College Vice Captain
We congratulate Indiana, Bailey, Stephanie and Asma on their appointments - they will all be outstanding student leadership representatives of our great school. We will name our other Student Leaders for 2026 in our College Newsletter in the coming weeks.
We continue to make improvements with our Buildings and Grounds with some recent works during the Term Four school holiday break really adding to the appearance and operations of the College. For example:
Further painting throughout the College
General maintenance throughout our Buildings and Grounds
Renovations to class and staff work areas
Our Capital Works Program continues to make progress
Our Year 7 Enrolments for 2025 currently sit at approximately 250. Whilst this number is subject to change over the coming weeks and months, we should be very pleased with the level of interest in our College from the Community. Given the outstanding outcomes we are achieving for our students, we are increasingly being seen by families as the secondary school of choice in the local area.
As per my recent posts on Compass, please be reminded of arrangements in and around the Melbourne Cup Weekend – please see below:
Monday 4 November – we will be running an alternative program on this day given that many families choose to use this day to extend their family holiday commitments. It is noted that the student attendance on this day in years previous is very low.
Tuesday 5 November – Melbourne Cup Day Public Holiday
Wednesday 6 November – Student Free Day to allow staff time to plan, and assess and report on student progress
World Teachers Day was today (Friday 31 October) and we recognise and thank our teaching staff for all of their hard work in best supporting our students. Our Teaching Staff are incredibly committed to further improving the outcomes of our students and we are very appreciative of everything that they do to support our students in the classroom and with co-curricular activities at the College – a very happy World Teachers Day to all our Teaching Staff.
The coming weeks are incredibly busy. Students will be working through their learning and key assessments in the classroom, and Exam Periods (commencing Thursday 6 November with our current Year 10 and 11 students today), Step Up Programs and Co-curricular Activities all figure prominently on the College Calendar. We thank our families for working so well with us as a College in best supporting our students.
We continue to have high standards for our students. We want to see our students do well with their learning and participation at our great school. We remain committed to learning growth where quality relationships, catering for individual difference and high - quality teaching practice can provide improved student outcomes.
As per our Motto, ‘We Grow Through Connection’, we can all grow and improve through the positive connections we have with others. Importantly, Learning Growth is Our Priority and we will do all we can to work with families to further improve student outcomes across learning areas within the College – this is the work; be sure to have a great weekend everyone,
Regards,
Aaron
Aaron Smith
College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College