Principal’s Message – Excellence

As we close on Term 2, our final assembly will have a theme of Excellence. In schools, when thinking about excellence, we tend to focus predominately on academic excellence, and to a lesser extent, excellence in competitive pursuits such as sports. Excellence, of course, manifests in many different ways when you consider it through a broader lens.

Late last week, myself, Pennie Whiteman (Assistant Principal, Learning and Teaching) and Jessica Luong (Homestay Coordinator) attended the Victorian Global Learning Awards, and were thrilled to see Yoon, a 2024 BSC graduate and International Student awarded with the Resilience Award. The Resilience Award recognises a student’s outstanding abilities to overcome obstacles and challenges to achieve in academic and/or non-academic fields.

Recognising excellence in overcoming obstacles and challenges is atypical, and the obstacles and challenges that Yoon and many of our International Students face are significant. They often include leaving their homes, their families, their culture and their language at approximately age 13 to come to a vastly different environment and live in a home where they do not yet know the other occupants. Many do this without the presence and support of their parents, their families, their routines or their networks; the draw to return to their home country must be immense, and the fear, anxiety and loneliness palpable.

For these students, resilience is critical. Over time, their language will improve, they will build new connections and find new supports, and they will establish new routines, all of which will make their lives just a little bit easier. I was fortunate to witness those connections and supports firsthand early last week when we celebrated our Language Centre Graduation.

Our Language Centre is set up for students for whom English is not their first language and where they require intensive support in English so that they can access a mainstream curriculum which is all taught in the English language. At the ceremony, I was struck by the deep appreciation and gratitude that our students expressed to their teachers, the strong bonds that our students had developed with each other, and also, the teacher’s deep affinity for their students.

Our end of term assembly theme of excellence will focus more on the typical recognition of excellence, so I wanted to use this article to shout out to our students and families who demonstrate excellence when overcoming or managing the challenges and obstacles that life throws at us.

Keep doing your best, keep being excellent.

Have a safe and restful term break!

Peter Langham

Principal

Bayside Winter School Holiday Activities