Principal's Welcome

Welcome back for the school year.  It's been great to get back into routine and see the classrooms and yard buzzing with activity.

Our year kicked off with our Year 12s heading off on the Portsea Camp - an opportunity to bond as a cohort before getting stuck into VCE work back at school.  Our new year 7s experienced Welcome Week, with activities to familiarise themselves with the school and ease into classes and they rounded out the week with an excursion to Funfields.  Our Year 8 to 11s started positively later last week and the whole school is now in full swing.  I look forward to our first whole-school assembly for the year which is scheduled for Wednesday 11th February.

I'm thrilled to advise that we have another student addition to our maintenance program with Harley V officially commencing work this week.  Our Maintenance Program provides students with hands-on, practical learning opportunities that support the development of essential life and work skills. Through structured activities such as basic maintenance tasks, gardening, tool use and teamwork projects, students build confidence, independence and responsibility in a supportive environment.

The program also focuses on developing employability skills including communication, problem-solving, following instructions and working safely. Guided by staff, students experience real-world learning that complements classroom programs and supports individual goals.

The Maintenance Program is a positive and engaging pathway that helps students feel connected, capable and ready for future learning and work opportunities.

Harley recently received his high vis shirt and has already begun contributing to maintenance work around the school.

A reminder of a couple of items I included in my Welcome Newsletter at the very start of the school year.  There are a number of ways that the school will communicate with you, depending on the nature of the communication. 

A school newsletter is sent out every 3 weeks, and includes important 'need to know' information, such as staff contact details, college calendar, and finance and admin information, as well as updates on all the great things happening in our College Community.

Important Information for specific groups/individuals, or that is time sensitive will be sent out via email, and Compass push notifications, and of course phone calls made when required. It is essential that you have the Compass app downloaded to receive the push notifications which will alert you to an email having been sent to your inbox. You can access a plethora of information on our school website (including an archive of recent newsletters). Additionally, we endeavour to provide as much information as possible via our Facebook page, but please do not rely on Facebook as your sole source of information.  All college contacts can be found at the end of this newsletter.

In 2026, there has been a change to the statewide dress code policy and as such, our local policy has been updated to reflect the changes as follows: 

Students are now able to wear unbranded navy-blue pants or shorts. All other items of uniform remain the same for 2026, and must be logoed GSC school uniform. 

A link to our policy can be found via this link: Student Dress Code Policy.

Finally, please take note of important dates for the term listed in the next section.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

College Principal