Principal's Report

Scholarship Updates

Over the past few weeks, we have been using the newsletter to provide an update with respect to our five scholarship programs. A few weeks ago, we featured the photography scholarship program, but I thought it would be worth sharing a few snaps taken by these students at an excursion to the Ballarat botanic gardens last week.

Visual Art Scholarship Update

This week we are featuring the Visual Art Scholarship. Thanks to Liz Morgan for this update.

A quick trip up the highway to Scotsburn Campus each Wednesday and Friday afternoon has seen the Art scholarship teams working both individually and collaboratively in a fresh, new environment. (Thanks, Mr Conlan! 😊) Students have had the opportunity to explore a range of textile embellishment processes, creating decorative aprons ready to protect their clothes during our mural painting unit. The focus for this task was on self-expression and experimentation, and it is great to see the students wearing them each week and adding the occasional and unintentional splash of paint to them as they work!

Mural painting has been our main focus for the semester, and students have been challenged to work in pairs or in threes to brainstorm a message of encouragement that could be visually represented. After much discussion about the purpose of mural art and how murals could be installed along Simpson St to create a vibe of warmth, hope, happiness and growth mindset, students were encouraged to choose a specific message that they wanted to share with the school community. We enjoyed walking around Ballarat to discover and analyse some local murals in the beginning stages of this project.

We are aiming to have the murals completed before the holidays so that they can be installed and bring lots of colour and cheer to the fence-line for students to enjoy as they walk into school for Term 3. So much thought and planning has gone into their creation, and our artists have enjoyed learning some new techniques such as stencilling, spray painting, lettering and exploring paint markers. We can’t wait to present the finished products! It has been fabulous to observe the teamwork behind the mural creations, and our artists have gained a lot from having the opportunity to bounce their ideas and seek feedback from fellow creative minds. The creative energy humming in the air has been the best part of being involved in this program from a teaching perspective, and I feel lucky to work with such an inspiring group of kids!

Final Few Weeks of Term

Despite it being a long term, the weeks are flying, but we have some important business to attend to between now and July 4, which includes:

End of semester 1 reports become available on Friday June 27. Over the past month staff have been busy completing assessments and then writing reports, which we hope you’ll find useful and informative.
In the final week of school, we have Parent-Teacher Interviews on Monday (4:00 to 6:00pm) and Wednesday (1:30 to 5:00pm). Bookings open today (June 17) via Compass. Please take this opportunity to speak with your child’s teacher/s, and remember it’s an early dismissal (1:00pm) on Wednesday July 2.
On the final day of term it will be casual dress, with students invited to come along with a gold coin donation. Our VOTS Team will be coming together soon to decide on a charity to donate this money to. We’ll also have a whole school assembly on July 4, which is a nice way to round off the term. It’s been fantastic to see so many parents and extended family members attending assemblies this year and please know, you’re always welcome.