Principal's Report 

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Grade 6 Information night

On Monday 26th April we held the Grade 6 information night in the school Library for prospective families. We had approximately 55 families attend the evening where we saw our junior band perform for the first time in front of an audience. Congratulations to Mr. Gerry Ciavarella and the junior band on a great performance where they played 3 musical pieces at the beginning of the evening and wrapped up the night with a final piece. 

During the evening prospective families heard from our School Captains, Lucas Simon and Jas Underwood and two of our Year 7 student leaders, Xander Raine and Olivia Palmer who spoke about their experiences at secondary school and the range of activities and opportunities you can access during your education at Maffra. We were also fortunate to have our School Council President, Hans Simon speak to families and highlight the importance of parent involvement in their child’s education and working alongside teachers to ensure they have the support needed to succeed.

I would like to thank Mrs. Belinda Marshall (Transition coordinator) and Ms Lashay Tricker (Year 7 Leader) for organising the evening and to all staff who presented or turned up on the night to support the event and be available for parents to speak to. 

Mrs. Sandra Dekkers (Parents and Friends Association President) was Ms Narelle Petterson (School Council Parent Representative) were also present and available to answer any questions parents had at the end of the evening.

Anzac Day Service

On Friday 23rd April, the College held a whole school assembly to recognise Anzac Day and to commemorate the 106th year of the landing at Gallipoli. I was so proud of the way all of our students reflected on this important occasion and commemorated those Australians who have served and died in all wars, conflicts and peace keeping operations. The service was led beautifully by our School Captains Jas Underwood and Lucas Simon. Mr Nathan Wallace read a heartfelt speech written by Nikita Goodman who was the recipient of the 2020 RSL John Sargent Memorial Scholarship.  The speech was written in response to the question “What ANZAC Day means to me?” 

On Sunday 25th April, Lucas Simon and Nikita Goodman represented our College by laying a wreath and paying their respects at the Maffra ANZAC Day ceremony and Jas Underwood represented the college and laid a wreath at the Heyfield service. 

Afterwards, Nikita and her family, along with Mrs Cheryl Evans attended the RSL in Maffra where Nikita read her speech to members of the RSL and the community. We are very proud of her and the courage it takes to stand up in front of the community and speak on such an important day.

House Cross Country

It has been a long time since we have held a whole school House Cross Country event. We could not have asked for a better day on Wednesday 21st April. The sun was shining and the weather perfect for the event that was held during sessions 3 and 4 around the outskirts of the Cameron Sporting Complex in Maffra. Thank you to Ms Fiona Rathnow and Ms Sue Clancy for organising this event and to all the students for making it such a success.

Update on staffing

This term we have welcomed a few new staff members. Ms Donna Oberdorfer (Maths/Science) and Ms Leanne Kirkland (English/Humanities) are our new teaching staff members and Mr. Dylan O’Shanassy, who started on Wednesday, is undertaking a Business/Administration traineeship. He will be working in the front office as well as spending time in each of the Year levels. We have also had some changes in our Education Support team and welcome Kylie Willoughby in a permanent position after working causally for us last term. 

Ms Samantha Blackledge has moved into the Year 8 Admin Assistant position until we are able to appoint someone to take on the role more permanently after Ms Alecia Dignan left at the end of the term. If you have any questions regarding buses, these can be directed to Ms Blackledge at this time.

Student Leadership Assembly and Launch of our new College Values

On Friday 7th May we will be holding our first Leadership assembly where we will formally recognise students holding a leadership position at our College. The College community acknowledges the crucial role that leadership at every level throughout the school plays in continuing to provide a forum for student voice and providing opportunities for student led initiatives; in inspiring pride in the College and in reinforcing the importance of setting high expectations in everything we do. 

We are fortunate to have Mr. Darren Chester attend this assembly where he will present certificates to our students. Following this, we will be launching our new College values – Respect, Resilience, Learning and Community, along with the new expected behaviours that were developed by our students in 2020.

Annual Report 2020

I am pleased to share the Annual Report for 2020 with the school community. The purpose of the annual report is to inform parents and the wider school community of the school's successes, activities and achievements throughout last year, and to meet legislative and regulatory requirements under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and the National Education Agreement 2008. 

Due to the impact of COVID-19 the report looks different to previous years and trend data is not available for all data sets. We will be holding a public meeting where any member of the school community can attend. This meeting will be held at 5:30pm Tuesday 11th May in the College Library. 

If you would like to attend this meeting, please register your interest by contacting the office on 5147 1790 by 3pm Monday 10th May, 2021. 

The annual report has been ratified by the School Council and is available on the school website.

Ms Jennifer Roep

Principal