From the Principal Team
Oliver Jr. – A Huge Thank You
What an incredible production of Oliver Jr.!
A huge congratulations and thank you to everyone involved. The performances were fabulous, professional and incredibly polished. The talent, confidence and energy of our students on stage were outstanding, and everyone involved should feel enormously proud of what was achieved.
Productions like this take an extraordinary amount of work behind the scenes. My sincere thanks to our wonderful staff production team:
- David Ellis – Stage Director and Additional Choreography
- Mel Hunt – Musical Director
- Dean West – Producer
- Patrick White – Backstage
- Carla Jourdan – Prompt
- Stuart Plumridge – Set Design
- Moara Smith – Choreography
- Eleanor Lindberg – Costume Design
Thank you also to Penelope Marks, Gabrielle Darvell, Sharon Stevenson and Tanya Tsiakos for their administrative support and to all the staff who contributed their time, expertise and encouragement throughout rehearsals and performances.
A special congratulations to Anara White, our Student Leader, and to our entire cast. From Oliver, Fagin, Nancy and the Artful Dodger through to every member of the ensemble, you brought the story to life with confidence, humour and professionalism.
There was also an enormous team working behind the scenes. Thank you to our students who supported photography, sound, lighting, stage crew, costumes and make-up, ushering, branding and marketing. A production of this quality only happens when people are prepared to contribute in so many different ways.
Finally, thank you to our families, friends and wider GEC community for coming along and supporting the show. Seeing our community fill the audience and celebrate our students made the performances even more special.
For our students, this is about so much more than putting on a show. The friendships, rehearsals, nerves, laughter, teamwork and excitement of performing together will become memories for life. Years from now, I hope you look back on Oliver Jr. and remember just how much you achieved together.
Congratulations to everyone involved. You should be incredibly proud – what a wonderful celebration of the talent, creativity and community spirit at GEC.
Celebrating student achievement
We recently held our Mid-Year Awards Assemblies, recognising students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement, growth, effort and commitment to our College values. Congratulations to all award recipients, and thank you to the staff and student leaders who helped make the assemblies such positive celebrations.
Our students also achieved excellent results at RoboCup. Congratulations to Jesse Machalek, Skanda Madapura Guruprasad, Oscar Want and Alex Ng for their outstanding performances. Their success reflects creativity, teamwork, persistence and an impressive application of their STEM learning.
A total of 124 students also participated in the Australian Mathematics Competition. It was wonderful to see so many students challenging themselves and demonstrating their mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Japanese Exchange Visit
We were delighted to welcome six students and four staff members from Wake, Okayama, Japan. Our visitors joined classes and experienced life at GEC while developing friendships and sharing their language and culture with our students.
Thank you to Chizuko Inoue-Andersson for leading the exchange program and to all staff, students and families who helped make our visitors feel so welcome.
Responding to vaping and antisocial behaviour
The College continues to take a strong, consistent and educative approach to vaping. Alongside our existing curriculum, Year 7 to 9 students will participate in the evidence-based OurFutures Vaping Prevention Program. The program provides students with accurate information about the health risks of vaping and develops their critical-thinking and refusal skills.
We are also investigating the installation of vape detectors. Where students are found vaping or possessing vaping products, consequences will be applied in accordance with our Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy, alongside appropriate wellbeing and family support.
Students are reminded that only one student is permitted in a toilet cubicle at a time and that no more than four students should be in a toilet area at once. These expectations support student safety and help prevent vaping, vandalism and other antisocial behaviour.
Sustainability in action
Our Sustainability Club continues to explore practical ways to reduce the College’s environmental impact. Thank you to parent Simon Campbell for helping us investigate our weekend “ghost” energy use and identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary electricity consumption.
We have adjusted air-conditioning timers and temperature settings across the College to reduce energy use, costs and carbon emissions. The Sustainability Club meets on Tuesdays during Pink Week and welcomes new members. Please encourage your child to come along, share their ideas and help make GEC more sustainable.
Moving forward together
We are pleased to have a new Victorian Government Schools Agreement in place and look forward to moving forward positively and collaboratively with our staff.
Thank you to our students, staff and families for your continued support and contribution to our College community.
Excursions and Incursions Process
Our school regularly organises multiple events for our students namely, Excursions, Incursions and Competitions.
We are very grateful for the staff who organise those learning experiences which align with our values of Growth and Striving and support our students' wellbeing. All events are posted on Compass for parents and carers to provide consent and payment as required.
It is important that parents and carers provide consent and payment as promptly as possible to support the organisation and logistics of the event. Please contact our Business Manager if you need support with payment of events by sending an email to the school to the attention of Gabrielle Darvell.
We recommend that all consent and payment are received following the timeline on the Compass Event. Please be advised that if consent and payment are not received before the event, the student will not be able to participate and plans will be made for the student to continue their learning at school.
If a student is to be dismissed from the venue and it is not already on the consent on Compass, parents and carers need to liaise with the teacher in charge prior to the day of the excursion. To support the smooth running of the events, our office staff will not be accepting consent and payment and permission requests regarding dismissal of students from the venue on the day of the event.
If you need any support for emergency situations on a day of the event which may require any changes to the consent provided, please contact the principal team at the school.
We thank you for your understanding.
Jane Thornton
Principal