College Principal Message 

October 2023 Principal’s Report

I hope you and your families are all well. Unsurprisingly, the college is planning intensively for 2024, arranging new timetables and attempting to recruit required staff. We are progressing slowly with the latter but pleasingly we are attracting some excellent candidates.

In terms of leadership, we are delighted to announce the appointment of a new English Leading Teacher; and that our Literacy Leading Teacher has returned to us; we are looking forward to these two leaders joining forces to boost our wide reading program.  We have also appointed two new Learning Specialists whose focus will be Disability Inclusion. 

There are some long-term staff members who will be retiring and or have retired recently.  I will mention them by name as some of you may have been taught by them, Mark Nugent, Paul Mc Donald, and Anna Panagiotidou.

It is the season for events, and we do them well at Copperfield. The Year 11 VCE VM showcase was a great success and gives students a real taste of what it means to be accountable. 

Celebration Day for the Year 12s was also a joyous day, as is usual for our wonderful and respectful students. 

A group of Sydenham SRC students participated in the Brimbank Young Researchers project and were exemplary in their presentation last week.  They presented to the Mayor of Brimbank, and other council staff, their university mentors, other schools, staff, and their families.  It was a very proud moment for Copperfield.  Thanks go to Mr Mugam for creating the opportunity for our students to have this experience.

Our Science Coordinator, Brandon Cutajar organised the Solar Buddies workshop recently where our Year 7 students were very excited to create solar lights to send to young people in places that don’t have ready access to lighting. 

We are also preparing to welcome our new Year 7 students, developing a new pamphlet illustrating the new curriculum in the junior years and planning the information evening on November 9 and Orientation Day in December.

2024 will see a resumption of our exchange trips to and from Fuji Junior High School in Japan. Next year it is our turn to travel there so please look out for expressions of interest. 

This time last year I reported that we were about to appoint architects to the Kings Park refurbishment administration and staff room project.  It is exactly one year later, and we are about to embark on the process of getting documents out to builders for tender. 

As the academic year draws to a close, we pass on our best wishes to all students but particularly the Year 12s who are about to graduate.  All students from Year 9 to 12 will undertake exams in the coming weeks and months. We provide students with this opportunity to prepare them for the rigours of either a scored VCE and the world of work where people are required to demonstrate their learning and capacity under time pressure.

We are planning for our end of year music concert on November 23rd at the Bowery Theatre, St Albans and encourage families to come along and witness our talented students performing. We have so many excellent contenders this year we are running auditions. 

All the best,

Ms Pip Griffiths

College Principal