SCHOOL LEADERSHIP MESSAGE

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Once again it’s been a very busy start to the term and it constantly amazes me how many opportunities and experiences are on offer to our students at Korumburra Secondary College. As we celebrate Principal Day 2025 today it’s a good time to reflect on what a privilege it is to lead the Korumburra school community and to express my thanks to our two Assistant Principal Tyson Biffin and Ellen Sorrell for the support and leadership they provide every day to me, our staff, our students and parents. 

We started the term with a pupil free day where teachers looked at our recent Student Attitudes to School data in year levels. I’m pleased to say that across almost every measure our results improved which is a great sign that our School Wide Positive Behaviours approaches are starting to have an impact. Teachers worked in year level teams to explore what strategies they could use to explicitly teach some of the expected behaviours for each of our school values.

On the pupil free day we had students from Like Minds at school working independently on their hydrogen powered vehicles for the H2GP race which was held the following day. The commitment, enthusiasm, collaboration and problem solving abilities that these students demonstrated throughout the lead up to the race day held them in good stead and one of our teams won Best Presentation on the day. I’d like to once again thank the Martin Carlson Foundation for their generous sponsorship of our two teams and for attending on the day to show their support in person. Without their support our students would not have had this valuable experience. 

Many of our Year 10 students headed off to Bogong Ski Camp for the week and have had an incredible time from the look of the photos and videos on Facebook. The snow has been fantastic and the students have learnt a variety of techniques both cross country and downhill which is a rare opportunity for them. Thanks to Mr Ellison and Ms Burt who are passionate Outdoor Ed teachers giving up a week with their young families to take our students on this adventure. A huge thanks to Hartleys Bus Line for their generosity in supporting this trip. 

Other Year 10 students spent the week completing work experience - a huge amount of organisation goes in to creating this valuable experience for our students, from families, employers and the College. Staff have visited most students during the week and it seems to have been very successful. Our local employers show their community spirit every year by taking our students in for a week and we are grateful for their willingness to support this program which helps students understand future work environments more deeply. 

Over the last few days we have also had the Grade 5 transition days with students from our local feeder schools coming to see what Korumburra secondary is like. Again this requires a huge effort in coordination across schools and the community. It’s a testament to the great level of organisation that even though Mr Cronin was unable to be at school after the first day, that the event continued seamlessly. Our staff go above and beyond every day for our kids and it’s a privilege to lead such a committed group of people. 

I’d also like to thank our students for their positive attitude overall to the changes in using mobile phones at the canteen and using wired headphones in class. As a staff we have committed to having respectful conversations with students and reminding them of the expected behaviours. We have seen some positive changes already and will continue to work with students around keeping their phones in their lockers. After next week teachers will be chronicling any students who have their phones in class and we will be monitoring the chronicles over the next few weeks. We will be celebrating students and classes who do the right thing and keep their phones in their lockers. We hope that we won’t see instances of students repeatedly being chronicled but if we do these students will have consequences. If students want to be able to have their phones in their lockers they need to keep doing the right thing. Our focus is on being connected to learning and each other rather than devices when at school. Please help us by supporting this message. 

Science Week is a huge event at KSC and starts on Monday August 11th with a variety of exciting activities across every year level. Keep your eye on Facebook for daily updates. 

Our new playground will be installed over the next school holidays. The SRC have done a great job consulting with students about the layout of the cross fit stations and the colour of the rubber matting that will be laid which will be Galaxy Blue. This project has been a huge undertaking with five different contractors scheduled to come in and do their part. I’d like to thank Peter Cook from our facilities committee for his excellent work in drawing up the design plans and communicating with key people involved. The Lions Club through Roger Powell have also been heavily involved in supporting this project including applying for a grant which we hope to hear more about soon. None of this would be possible without the efforts of our Maintenance Manager Melinda Dawson (Dawso) who works tirelessly to keep our grounds looking fantastic and has coordinated all the contractors and worked with Peter and Roger and the students to bring the playground project to life. Over the last holiday break Dawso also coordinated extra gravel on the car loop to make it safer in the wet conditions, and managed the creation of extra car parking spaces so our Year 12 new drivers have few extra spaces. 

Finally I am pleased to report that I have signed off on the Entrance Works Package after many meetings with the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) which will see improvements to our car loop, drop off zones, bus loop and school signage. This work will commence in December and will be timed for minimal disruption to parents. We hope it will be completed in time for the new school year in 2026.