Dear Families, Students, and Community Members,

Welcome to the 2024 school year and a very warm welcome to all our new Year 10 students and any new students in Years 11 & 12 joining us this year for the first time. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday break with family and friends and I look forward to a positive and successful year ahead.

We look forward to all students across Years 10-12 taking a positive attitude into 2024, staying focused on achieving their aspirational goals, and always striving to improve their learning and achievement. In speaking with each of our Year Levels in assembly the first week back I challenged our students to find the little wins and build their success.

Our Year 12 students have their final year ahead and I wish them all the best for the final year of study. I spoke to them about finding their resilience and drive, to keep enduring throughout the year and make sure when they look back on 2024 they can say they gave it their best to get the outcome they wanted. They have been building to this year since 2012 and I asked them to reflect on the journey to get here. Keep in mind all of the support people and hard work from those years and don’t let it go to waste in these last months.

To support the success of every student and staff member we have a theme for Semester 1:

Ready To Learn,

Ready To Teach

We want every student and staff member to be ready to learn and ready to teach. Every class. Every day. This means being prepared, engaging in their class, attending each day and on time to their classes, and being prepared to be a positive contributor to a successful and learning classroom environment. We ask our parents and community to have the conversation with their children - “What are you doing to be ready to learn?”.

As we begin a new year, I remind all students to make the most of the opportunities and challenges that are presented to them.

Congratulations to the Class of 2023

Tarneit Senior College students in 2023 have achieved some great results and a high success rate in completing their VCE and VCAL studies. We have also had a great outcome for a lot of students in their pathways. Some of the highlights include:

We had 191 students apply for further education studies, with the rest of the students either moving into employment, apprenticeship or traineeship opportunities.
In the first round offers 85 per cent of our students received an offer.
After further rounds made in January and February, we now have 91 per cent of our students with an offer of further education.

Building Program Update:

We are very pleased that 2 out of the 3 spaces have been completed in our Building Program and they are already being used by students. We have our Technology space which is ready for our Year 10 Woodwork students to begin their projects.

We also have had our 2 science rooms upgraded to full science laboratories including an additional Science Prep space. This will help us provide a full range of all science curriculum from Year 10 to Year 12.

Our Chirnside Extension is also well underway and we are getting closer to seeing the finished building. This space will give us 10 new classrooms, a range of small meeting rooms and a couple of staff offices and will be a welcome edition to the school. We are hoping to get the keys in Term 2 and have it up and running at the start of Term 3.

Traffic Congestion - Student Pick-Up and Drop-Off:

Please be aware that parking within school grounds by car at the end of the school day is very limited. As most families would be aware, the roads surrounding us here at Tarneit Senior College, as well as Tarneit P-9 College, can get very congested – particularly before and after school. To ensure the safety of all, we encourage families to:

Utilise the service lane on Leakes Road for drop off and pick up
Please do not stop in the middle of the road to allow your student to enter/exit the vehicle
We encourage families to turn left at the end of Crossway Avenue
Consider picking up your students at a pre-arranged location in the surrounding streets where it may be quieter.

Introducing the College Leadership Team:

We have several new staff joining our different teams in the school. Please see below for the staff in our various leadership roles around the school and who you can contact to answer any queries.

Our College Learning Specialist Team:

Our College Teaching & Learning Team - we are still waiting for school photos for our new staff!

Our Careers and Pathways Team:

Introducing our House Leadership Teams:

Introducing our Wellbeing Team:

Uniform:

Our uniform is a very important part of the image we project of our college community and therefore we expect all students to wear their uniform correctly and with pride to, from, and at school. I would like to congratulate the vast majority of students who have started the year in a positive way in the wearing of the correct College uniform and I thank all parents for your support with this. A reminder that all students should be wearing fully black school shoes.

Students are not permitted to wear Hoodies or any other non-uniform items.
Headwear should be aligned with the school colours – black, white, or navy blue

College Council Elections

College Council elections are approaching. Further information is available via our website and Compass. Nomination forms are available from the General Office. We currently have 2 positions vacant for Parent Representatives (one for a 12-month term, and one for a two-year term). Nominations close on the 21st of February. Please give some thought to contributing to the College by participating in the College Council – council meets once per month, and it can be very rewarding. The College Council plays an important role in contributing to the policies and direction the College takes and is therefore an important part of the College community.

Visit by our Regional Director and Area Executive Director

The school hosted a visit from Chris Thompson, the Regional Director, and Silvana Sena our Area Executive Director last week. They were keen to explore our new expansions to the Tarneit Senior College landscape and see some of the implementations of various policies and ideas for 2024. After the tour of our new Chirnside Building, we showed our visitors the paddock area and outlined the future plans for the space – something both are keen to help support. We also had some time to visit several classrooms and observe the learning action and were quite proud that our visitors remarked about the calm and orderly learning environment they could see in all our classrooms. They were also very impressed with the implementation of the school's Personal Devices Policy and have taken photos to show at various forums to highlight the approach we have taken to other schools. It was an absolute pleasure to showcase the environment that the school has worked hard to build and our students and staff should be extremely proud of the impression they have left.

Kind Regards

Shane Cole-Hayhow

College Principal

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