Principal's Message

We Grow Through Connection

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

We are now approaching the half - way mark for Term Two with so much happening at our great school!  Take this week as an example with Camps, Excursions, Incursions, Primary School Visits in support of our Performing Arts Program and an Interschool Chess Tournament – it is all happening at our great school!

Students of course are busy completing their assessments across their subjects. I encourage students to keep up to date with their assessments and study commitments, and to ask for assistance from their teachers as required.  I again thank families for supporting the College with student resources for learning, together with student uniform and attendance.

The Year 7 Camps this week were a tremendous success.  Our Year 7 students had a great time at Camp Rumbug (Foster North) and we thank staff Susan Banfield (Acting Assistant Principal) for all her hard work in organising these Camps on behalf of our students. Furthermore, we thank all of our staff who were in attendance on the Year 7 Camps through the week.

In partnership with our four local State Secondary Schools, Registered Training Organisations (RTO), the Department of Education and Training (DET) and local learning and employment networks, we were again able to stage a successful Vocational Education and Training (VET) Information Night earlier in the week (Wednesday 28 May) for families interested in VET for 2026. 

Our ‘VET Mini Cluster’ made up of the four local State Secondary Schools (Pakenham SC, Koo Wee Rup SC, Officer SC and Edenbrook SC) has been in operation for a few years now and it serves to provide a broader range of VET options to students from across our schools.  Our ‘VET Mini Cluster’ has been hugely successful allowing for breadth of choice for our students in so many VET Training Programs.  Further information concerning VET Training Programs across the four secondary schools for 2026 can be gained from Nicole Robertson (VET Co-ordinator) at the College.

The College Production of The Beauty and The Beast continues to grow from strength to strength with a record number of students involved in rehearsals.  Our students are having a great time rehearsing and learning key aspects of the Production, and we thank Ms. Genelle Lentini and her team for all their hard work in support of our students.

Sport is incredibly important at PSC.  Students are able to participate in our Sports Carnivals and Interschool Sport Program throughout the year.  Our Basketball (every Friday morning, 7.45 to 8.30am) and Netball (every Thursday morning, 7.30 to 8.30am) Development Programs offer our students expert Coaching in these sports to our students.  Our Basketball and Netball Development Programs are available to students – please contact the General Office (pH – 5945 1433) to learn more.

I mentioned our successful Art and Technology Exhibition (Monday 19 May) last week in my Family Update on Compass – what an Exhibition!  Once again, our students were able to develop and exhibit high quality Art and Technology from across several subjects in these important Key Learning Areas.  We thank all involved, including Ms. Emily Schinzig and her team for their dedication in staging such a high-quality Exhibition – I am sure our staff and families in attendance were very impressed.

The Interschool Chess Tournament held at our College earlier in the week (Wednesday 28 May) was a huge success.  We welcomed several schools to the College to compete in what was an outstanding Tournament.  We thank Gabe Scheepers (Library; Chess Co-ordinator) for helping with the success of this event.

Our small team of nine students on the day performed incredibly well! Pakenham Secondary College finished third overall, with Hrishav Ghimire and Sinsarut 'Q' Chitkanwong earning a High Distinction and Distinction respectively.  We are also proud to announce that four of our students have qualified for the State Finals with their impressive results!  Please read on in this Newsletter to understand more about the successful Interschool Chess Tournament.

We welcome some New Staff to PSC:

Louise Gill – Integration Aide

Cooper Scott – Humanities and English

Sarah Rahman – Maths and Science

Nathan Taylor – Koori-Indigenous Cultural Support Worker

Louise and Cooper have already started with us; Sarah and Nathan will commence at PSC soon. Again, we welcome our New Staff to PSC.

We had a ‘Kick Off Meeting’ with the Builder and other representatives earlier in the week (Monday 26 May) in relation to our $11.5 million Capital Works Building Program.  The Builder will start with some site preparatory work over the coming days with the building works commence as of Wednesday 18 June. 

Given the significance of the Capital Works Building Program, we expect the project to take up to 18 to 24 months to complete.  There will be some disruption whilst we work through our Capital Works Building Program and we appreciate the patience of our College Community.  This is such an exciting time for our College whereby modern and purpose built facilities will be provided to further support our Teaching and Learning Program.

It was Education Week last week (19 – 23 May) and it was an opportunity to further acknowledge the wonderful learning and co-curricular opportunities on offer at our great school.  Importantly, it was also an opportunity to further celebrate student learning, effort and achievement.  There are so many examples where students continue to shine given their involvement at PSC and I encourage families to read further into this Newsletter to see the many photos of how we are engaging with our students to meet their learning and wellbeing needs.

It was Reconciliation Week (27 May - 3 June) this week - a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia (Reconciliation Australia Website, 23 May, 2025).  Reconciliation Week is a very important event on the National Calendar and we have been involved in different activities and events through the week at the College.  As a College, we very much value further strengthening our connection with Indigenous Culture and History and events such as Reconciliation Week can help with this process.

We continue to further improve our Buildings and Grounds.  We have just completed some further landscaping throughout the College – our new garden areas look stunning.  Some of our further project ideas include some fitness equipment for our Oval, some internal and external painting in key areas, and the development of another locker bay to best cope with increasing student enrolments moving into 2026.

All State Primary and Secondary Schools are required to work through the Review Process with the Department of Education and Training (or DET) and an Independent Reviewer to ensure their Goals are fit for purpose when meeting the learning and wellbeing needs of students.  Our College Review will be in early Term 3 this year and the Goals established will be used as part of our Strategic Plan to support student learning and wellbeing over the coming years.  We are looking forward to the Review Process recommending where we can make further improvements to best support our students.  Please contact the College (pH – 5945 1433) should you have any queries about the Review Process.

Whilst co-curricular activities and student achievement remain important, Learning Growth is our priority.  We are continuing to work hard in partnership with families to further the Learning Growth of our students across their subjects – we appreciate the ongoing support of families in this work.

Please continue to check our College Calendar (PSC Compass, PSC Website), our Social Media Platforms and updates as they come to hand via Compass to try and keep up to date with what is happening at our great school,

Thank you everyone

Regards,

Aaron

Aaron Smith

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College