From the Principal

Dear students, parents, carers and families,

I hope you are well and have enjoyed the 2025 school year so far. Term 4 includes both the farewelling of Year 12 students and transition activities that welcome our incoming Year 7 students and families. It is an exciting and busy time for all schools as they work through the variety of transition processes from one year to the next. I hope you enjoy reading this edition of our newsletter, filled with examples of our students connecting and engaging in their learning over the recent months.

School performance reports and other college data sets

The Department of Education provides a variety of ratings based on data sources from students, parents and staff. This document is called the School Performance Report.  It was very pleasing to receive the 2025 version of this report. In the two core categories of Student Learning and Wellbeing, Cranbourne Secondary has been awarded the highest rating in Wellbeing and the second-highest in Learning. This recognises the progress made over the last 5 years by our staff, students and community. I want to express my gratitude to everyone for their efforts in making this progress.

Additional data sets that have recently been received include the Parent and Caregivers Opinion Survey and the School Staff Survey. Both sets of results indicated significant improvements over 3 and 5 years, respectively. The majority of categories in these surveys are now above state and similar school averages. Notably, the Parent and Caregiver survey showed a 12% increase in school satisfaction from 2021 to 2025.

The endorsement 83% this year places us 9% above the state average. In the staff survey, the ‘School Climate’ category combines measures of the learning culture and the overall focus on student learning, as well as the support and confidence staff feel in completing their roles. At Cranbourne Secondary, this has grown by 49% since 2019 and is now 10% above the state and similar school average. These are some of the many excellent results in these data sets.

I look forward to our continued work in school improvement for the students of our community. Many thanks again to our parents, caregivers and staff for their role in our school improvements.

Our Strategic Plan and Annual Implementation Plan

Included in the transition from one year to the next is completing the college's Annual Implementation Plan (AIP). In this process, schools evaluate progress against evidence-based targets and make informed self-assessments on overall progress. The 2025 AIP end-of-year process was completed on time and informed our 2026 plan. The actions and activities included in the plan reiterate our commitment to learning success and positive well-being for all students. They also enable and support practices designed to continually enhance and refine what is working well while also highlighting potential areas for improvement.

Areas identified in our plan will enable ongoing focus on excellent learning and positive wellbeing by strengthening high-quality classroom instructional practices and curriculum, and by maintaining and enhancing our safe, orderly, and inclusive learning environment for students and staff.

Building works

I am pleased to report that the building works in LC, C and the Library are progressing smoothly. At last check, the majority of internal walls have been erected, with plastering commencing. Some areas of the roof have also been modified, including the cutting away of sections, to enable more natural light to enter classrooms and the Library. Some of these ‘cutaway’ sections indicate the main entrances to different parts of the building, supporting accessibility and reducing confusion about the locations of various classrooms.

Noble Park English Language School Campus

As many of our school community have noticed by now, new classrooms have been delivered to the western side of the stadium and gym. These buildings are the beginnings of a new campus for the Noble Park English Language School (NPELS). There are several campuses located in the southeast of Melbourne, with the main campus at Noble Park.

The campuses provide intensive English language education to school aged new arrivals to Australia. It is anticipated that the Cranbourne Campus will progressively build and include both primary and secondary aged students. It is an exciting development for our community, as many local young people have not been able to access intensive English language education before transitioning to a mainstream schooling environment. The additional campus in our community will help many non-English speaking students experience success in their education in Australian schools and learning into the future.

I look forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with the new campus over the next 12 months.

Farewells

Congratulations to Sudheer Kumar on his retirement from the Department of Education. Mr Kumar has served the Cranbourne Secondary College school community with professionalism and pride in his work. On behalf of the school community, thank you, Mr Kumar, and we wish you all the best for your retirement. In addition, Laura Verdugo has elected to retire from the profession – while she did not want any ‘big acknowledgement’, I could not leave this mention out of this newsletter. To both Laura and Sudheer, it has been a pleasure knowing, working with, and learning from you. All the best.

Leadership

Congratulations to Karlene Morgan, our Year 11 and 12 Leader of Learning, who will be undertaking a temporary Assistant Principal role at Lyndhurst Secondary College. All the best to Mrs Morgan as she embarks on this new position.

Farewell to Jane Carter, our Leader of Learning for Pedagogy and Assessment, who is moving to Mentone Girls Secondary College to continue her work in educational leadership—many thanks for your efforts at the College over the last few years.

Year 7 Leader of Learning, Max Smith, is farewelling Cranbourne Secondary College for a role at an independent school closer to his home. 

Amy Johnson has been on family leave from the College and has elected not to return—many thanks for her contributions to our school. 

Teaching and ES Staff

The following staff have been on leave from the College in 2025 and have informed the school of their intention not to return. We farewell and thank Kate Creighton, Tegan Dockeary, and Ash Fitzpatrick, with a special acknowledgement to Kate Creighton, who worked as a Health and PE Learning Area Coordinator, and to Ash Fitzpatrick, who fulfilled a variety of Leadership positions in her time at the College.

The following staff have accepted new positions in the Government education sector, and I would like to wish them all the best as I am sure they will continue to make valuable contributions in their various new school communities and classrooms: Raquel De La Cruz, Komal Devi, Chris Streater, Ueni (Farani) Tavita and Andrew Bylart.

With state government funding for the Tutor Learning Initiative coming to an end, the following staff are also moving on from the College. Many of these staff are undertaking university studies in education, and with some now fully qualified, are moving into teaching roles at other schools. Many thanks to Sally Beckingsale, Yubil Das, Nethmi Herath, Reggie Noor and Alma Torriero for your contributions to student learning at the College and all the best for the future.

Elijah Jones, a former student and school captain, has elected to take a break and travel in 2026. It has been wonderful to see this progression from school student to university student, and now to a fully qualified teacher – all the best and happy travels!

From our Student Wellbeing Team, Fiona Haaz has completed her contract with the school as an on-site Art Therapist and after completing the registration as a fully qualified psychologist, Mahtab Asghari has elected to resign from school-based practice—many thanks to Fiona and Mahtab for their contributions to student wellbeing at the College.

In the ‘moving further afield’ category, Jennifer Horsfall will be returning to England in 2026—many thanks to Jennifer for her work at the school. I am sure our students will hope that, after returning home, she will miss Australian life and want to return to our shores!

Thank you to the following staff for their work at the school, and all the best for the future: Ruwani Kannangara, Mateo Torriero and Michelle Watson.

Finally, Alison Wall (VET Coordinator) and Science Learning Area Coordinator, Jeffery Millot, have been approved to access leave for the duration of 2026. Jeffery will be transferring to another government school, and Alison Wall to the South East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN)

The introduction of our numerous exciting new staff commencing in 2026 will be shared in the new year.

Many thanks, and I hope all members of our school community enjoy the end-of-year break. I look forward to seeing you back in 2026. 

David Caughey

Principal