PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear families, students and members of the Western Heights College community, it is my great pleasure to share another outstanding fortnight of learning, achievement and community spirit from across the College. 

Our 2026 NAPLAN and Attitudes to School Survey results confirm the impact of our teaching and wellbeing practices, our Years 9–12 students explored their futures at our Pathways & Careers Information Evening, and our Year 12 First Nations students represented the College at the Polly Farmer Follow the Dream Expo in Perth.

This fortnight has also been busy and super successful for sport, with our students and Specialist Sports Program athletes competing — and winning — at school, state and national level. From state championship berths in soccer, netball and basketball to national gold and silver medals and an All-Australian selection, our young people continue to do Western Heights College proud both on and off the field. I warmly congratulate every student recognised in this newsletter.

2026 NAPLAN Results — Years 7–9 Relative Growth

Our 2026 NAPLAN results show pleasing relative growth across Years 7 to 9, reflecting the impact of our whole-school literacy and numeracy strategies and priorities.

• Reading: 75% of students achieved high or medium relative growth, up from 64% in 2025, and above both similar schools (72%) and our network average (71%).

• Writing: 67% of students achieved high or medium relative growth.

• Spelling: 67% of students achieved high or medium relative growth.

• Numeracy: 68% of students achieved high or medium relative growth.

• Grammar & Punctuation: 65% of students achieved high or medium relative growth.

Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS)

Our Attitudes to School Survey results are equally encouraging, with all 19 factors improving this year — an average increase of approximately 7.3 percentage points across the survey. The largest gains were recorded in Perseverance and Respect for Diversity, each improving by 10 percentage points. These results reflect the strength of our student voice, wellbeing and high-expectations culture, and the dedication of our staff in building these outcomes with students every day.

Years 9–12 Pathways & Careers Information Evening

Families and students from Years 9 to 11 attended our Pathways & Careers Information Evening and follow up pathways counselling individual appointments, which covered subject selection, VCE and VCE Vocational Major (VCE VM) options, apprenticeships and traineeships, and tertiary pathways. Thank you to all families who attended and to the staff who supported students in planning their next steps.

Polly Farmer Follow the Dream Expo — Perth

Our Year 12 First Nations students travelled to Perth this week to attend the Polly Farmer Follow the Dream Expo, connecting with culture, community and future pathways alongside students from across the country. We congratulate our students on representing Western Heights College so positively at this important event.

Victoria Police Work Experience Program

Congratulations to Jake and Riley, both in Year 12, who completed placements as part of the Victoria Police work experience program — a valuable insight into a career in law enforcement and community service.

Annual Ski Trip — Mount Buller

Our annual ski trip to Mount Buller concludes today, capping off a fantastic week on the snow for the students involved. Thank you to the staff who gave up their time to supervise and support this much-loved annual tradition.

SPORT

It has been a remarkable fortnight for school sport, with our teams achieving success at Western Metropolitan Region, state and invitational level.

• Year 7/8 Boys AFL: Congratulations to our Year 7/8 Boys AFL team on their success at the Western Metro competition.

• Intermediate Girls Soccer: Our Intermediate Girls Soccer team were victorious in the Melbourne Victory-sponsored Victory Cup, an invitation-only state championship — a fantastic achievement.

• Intermediate Boys Soccer: Our Intermediate Boys Soccer team have reached the final 8 of the Bill Turner Cup and will now play off in the final 4 of this prestigious national tournament, which brings together the best soccer schools in the country.

• Intermediate Girls Netball: Undefeated throughout the preliminary rounds, our Intermediate Girls Netball team have progressed through to the Netball Victoria Schools Championships finals.

• Intermediate Boys Netball: After a dominant showing at the WMR finals, our Intermediate Boys Netball team will progress to the SSV State Final.

• Basketball: Congratulations to our Basketball teams, who have qualified for the Elite 8 Champions Cup finals this week.

None of the achievements celebrated in this newsletter would be possible without the ongoing support of our families and wider College community. Thank you to everyone who attended the Pathways & Careers Information Evening, supported students preparing for the Mount Buller ski trip, and cheered on our sporting teams over the past fortnight. Your encouragement makes a real difference to our students.

SPECIALIST SPORTS PROGRAM (SSP)

Our Specialist Sports Program continues to produce outstanding individual results at state and national level, alongside exciting pathway news for our student-athletes.

• Riak Akhuar: Congratulations to Riak, who has commenced a full scholarship with the Basketball Centre of Excellence in Canberra — a wonderful reflection of his talent and dedication and the third student from our college selected in this prestigious opportunity in the last few years.

• Elijah Whiteford: Congratulations to Elijah on representing Victoria at the U18 National Championships last week, winning a silver medal.

• Jack Te Paa: Congratulations to Jack for representing Victoria at the U15 National Boys Netball Championships, bringing home a gold medal.

• Roko Mammone and Marcus Bei: Congratulations to Roko and Marcus for representing Victoria at the U18 National Soccer Championships, also winning gold.

• Daniel May: A big congratulations to Daniel on being named in the All-Australian U16 Boys AFL team, following his excellent performance at the recent U16 AFL National Championships Carnival.

Key reminders and Upcoming Dates

With so many of our teams and athletes now progressing to state and national finals, please keep an eye on Compass over the coming weeks for confirmed dates, times and venues, including:

•             Basketball — Elite 8 Champions Cup finals

•             Intermediate Boys Netball — SSV State Final

•             Intermediate Girls Netball — Netball Victoria Schools Championships finals

•             Intermediate Boys Soccer — Bill Turner Cup final 8

As always, please check Compass regularly for event notices and updates, and reach out to your child's teacher or Learning Community Leader with any questions.

Pending Industrial Action

At the time of print, the AEU is planning on taking industrial action on Wednesday 19th August. We were planning to have a curriculum day (pupil free day) on this day. If industrial day goes ahead (will confirm next week) the curriculum day will be moved to Tuesday 1st September. I will update families as soon as I can.

Academic Uniform School Uniform Supply

We have been experiencing challenges whilst we transition to a new academic school uniform supplier. We apologise for the difficulties this has caused parents looking to purchase additional items of uniform from Uniform Group in Grovedale during the past few weeks. We are hoping we can provide details of the new provider and transition timelines asap as we navigate this transition period. In the meantime, we encourage parents and students to access our facebook buy, swap and sell uniform options and to purchase online SSP uniform as per usual from our supplier Indigo Wolf.

Thank you for your continued support of Western Heights College, and congratulations again to every student celebrated in this issue.

With warm regards,

Fiona Taylor

Principal, Western Heights College

Child Safety at WHC

Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse. Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.

Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website.

1. Commitment to Child Safety

2. Child Safety Policy

3. Child Safety Code of Conduct

4. Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Annual Privacy Policy Reminder for 2026

Our school collects, uses, discloses, and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy (found on the college's webpage).

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in nine community languages:

          * Amharic

          * Arabic

          * Dari

          * Gujarati

          * Mandarin

          * Somali

          * Sudanese

          * Turkish

          * Urdu

          * Vietnamese