Principals Update

It's been an incredibly busy few weeks at the College since our last newsletter edition. On Monday October 28th and Tuesday October 29th, our Year 12 students celebrated their final days of school. They started the week with breakfast and bowls at the Gisborne Bowls Club who put on a wonderful spread for us, as they do every year. The cohort had their final walk to school along the main streets of Gisborne, as they were cheered on by the local community, including primary school students and staff, families, and passers-by. The final walk to school was followed by our annual Year 12 Graduation assembly, which is always an incredibly proud moment for students, staff and their families. I'd like to particularly thank our families for your support of this assembly, every year it gets bigger and bigger, and is such a wonderful way to wish our Year 12's farewell.

The following day was the annual trip to Funfields, book-ending their secondary school career, after attending their first GSC Funfields trip at the beginning of Year 7. Our Year 12's are now well into their examination period, and it's been so pleasing to see the large numbers of students utilising our wonderful study centre, and being supported by their teachers.

We also recently held our Annual Year 10 Marketplace day, where our Year 10 students get to showcase their entrepreneurial talents, working in groups to run a small business on the day. Our students worked enthusiastically together to run an incredibly successful day, in which I believe every stall completely sold out of stock. There was a great buzz in the air, and I'd particularly like to thank teachers Paul James, Kat Stewart, John Woodlock, Adriana Tavares Green, and Nick Maxwell for volunteering to be in the 'teacher dunk tank' which helped make the day particularly festive. Our office staff are currently working through the financial aspects of the day, and all profits from the day will go to charities chosen by the students.  

Next week our Year 11's will be commencing their end-of-year exams, with Year 10's to follow soon after. I wish all our senior students well during this time, and encourage you to work hard and achieve your best. 

Our Junior School students have been involved in a range of exciting activities over the last several weeks, including the Live4Life celebrations, aimed at promoting good mental health and wellbeing in our young people, as well as the Social Innovators program which encourages students to come up with big ideas, that may just change the world. You can find further information about this program further in this newsletter.

I'd like to formally advise you that the College will be transitioning our Learning Management System from Xuno to Compass, beginning in 2025. Coming to this decision has been a collaborative process, with input provided by families, students, staff, and lead by a SIT (School Improvement Team) who have put many hours into the investigation and merits of the respective systems. Staff are currently being trained in the new Compass system, and there will be more information provided to parents throughout this term. Please rest assured that our processes via Xuno (parent payments, excursions etc) will be operational until the end of this year. 

Finally, I wanted to let you know that I will be on Long Service Leave from November 8th - November 15th, returning to school on Monday November 18th. Russell Wigginton will be Acting Principal in my absence, so any urgent inquiries should be direct to him at russell.wigginton@education.vic.gov.au.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

College Principal