Principals Report

This week, we recognised and celebrated NAIDOC Week at THS. The theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week was ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy’, and our own young generation of First Nations students at THS have demonstrated some of their strengths through their collaboration with Mr Henry Ralson, First Nations Students Coordinator, to plan and run a series of events over the course of the week, including a painting session in the STEAM Centre at lunchtime, as well as a screening of the powerful documentary The Final Quarter, about the AFL player Adam Goodes. 

In particular, I would like to celebrate the leadership of one of our students in Year 11, Meerah Sehgal, who was elected to the position of Youth Ambassador for the NRL at the recent NRL Indigenous Youth Summit on the Central Coast. Meerah describes herself as a proud Yorta Yorta woman who also represents Melbourne Storm, and she has continued to develop her leadership skills through this NRL program. Meerah has also designed the Indigenous motif for next year’s Year 12 jacket, so her creative spirit will be very visible in 2026 on the backs of all our Year 12 students. 

Over the past two weeks, students at THS have had many opportunities to reflect on their futures as they engaged with our Futures Expo in week 3, and course counselling in week 4. It has been wonderful to welcome families into THS to meet with representatives from each faculty at the Futures Expo, and then with coordinators and leaders for the course counselling. Our advice to students is to consider what you are genuinely interested in and what you love to learn; that usually gives you a clear sense of what you will be happier studying at school in the future. We are fortunate to be in a position where we can offer a broad range of VCE subjects at THS, as well as VCE Vocational Major for students who are choosing a vocational pathway. Our Careers and Pathways Team also provide fantastic information and support to students and families wanting to understand their options better. I am also incredibly grateful to Ms Cara Martin, Assistant Principal, for her tireless work in organising and running these events over the past fortnight.

Our Italian exchange students visited us in the first part of Term 3, and they built some strong relationships and connections with students and families in our community. I had the opportunity to spend some time with our Italian friends when teaching them a couple of lessons of creative writing in English during the exchange, and their appreciation for their welcome into the THS community was significant. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to host a student in their home - grazie mille! - and a special thank you to Mr Max Tosi for his efforts and leadership in running this language exchange, which brings so much joy, learning and experience to our school. 

Lars Andersson

Principal