From the Principal Class
Viewbank College
Dear Viewbank College Community,
We have had a very positive start to the term.
We held our ANZAC day services to commemorate those who have served in conflicts overseas. Our local Member of Parliament, Anthony Carbines (and past student) continues to support the event.
We ran our whole school offsite evacuation drill. As I communicated to parents in advance, this is important planning and execution to prepare us in the (unlikely) event of a major emergency. We seek feedback from staff on how to improve our response in future.
In week 2, Year 8 camp was held down on the Mornington Peninsula and was a great success. The continuing mild autumn weather meant blue skies for a range of adventure and surf activities. A great opportunity to build connections.
Finally, I wish to congratulate the music students who attended Generations in Jazz over the past weekend. This music competition attracts the best across the country. Our student bands/ensembles have always batted well above their weight, and this continued to be the case last weekend.
Our Ellington Band, led by Mr Patrick Broadbent, achieved 3rd place in Division 1- an incredible achievement against very hot competition. Congratulations to Jun Lee (Year 11) for his selection as no. 1 trumpet player in the Division 1 Super band (the culmination of the whole weekend.
Upcoming
- May 15 will be our first major music evening for the year – the Autumn Festival. I encourage members of our community to come along and enjoy the talents of our instrumental music students in a variety of ensembles.
- On May 21 & 22, our VCE Theatre students will be performing ‘The Laramie Project’, a production based on true events. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to Minus 18, a leading youth LGBTQI charity. Click here to book tickets.
- Our STEAM captain, Raga, has worked with our STEAM guru, Veena Nair to start up the STEAM Futures Academy (see flyer below). The first event for the academy will be held on May 16 in the PAC break one, with a guest speaker, Saraya Nagarajan, talking about “Prompt Engineering’. The focus is on educating us all to improve our ability to get the best out of AI.
Reminder: Locks for student lockers
We kindly ask that parents/carers ensure students have a lock for their locker.
Unfortunately we've had instances of personal property going missing from lockers that were not secured.
Please note that the school cannot take responsibility for missing items if lockers are left unlocked.
Facilities
The College continues to work hard to improve the spaces for students. The following works have been completed:
- New fence at the front of the school almost complete. Waiting for electric gates to be hooked up to power.
- Canteen courtyard area complete with seating and umbrellas.
- Seating at lower basketball courts installed.
- Painting at front entrance covered area, basketball court walls and covered area.
- New retaining walls and garden bed planting
While we continue to push the State Government for more substantial funding, we look for opportunities to improve our College footprint.
Sharon Grimes, Principal
Emma Ford, Assistant Principal
Rachael Smith, Assistant Principal
Anna Crosswhite, Assistant Principal
Penelope Cleghorn, Assistant Principal