Sydenham Campus Principal Message
October Sydenham Campus Principal’s Report
Welcome Back to all our students and families for Term 4. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we had our end of Term 3 assembly to celebrate all the great achievements and here we are already in week 4 of this term.
Welcome to new staff for this term.
Ator Gorgis (H/PE), Abby Malagoli (H/PE), Joseph Concepcion (Music) and alumni, Jamie Canning (Music). We are continuing to fill vacancies and in particular Food Technology. We also farewelled Ana Panagiotidou who has retired after a long career in education. We wish Ana well in her retirement.
On Monday 16th of October, we celebrated the Premiers Reading Challenge for 2023 in the library. Thank you to Lucinda Ireland and Sally Jeffrey for hosting the pizza lunch and acknowledging the students who participated so enthusiastically.
Proactive Policing Presentations to all year levels. Students in years 7 and 8 had a follow up to their Digital Thumbprint sessions with a presentation on cyber safety and social media posts. Year 9 and 10 students participated in a session on community safety and respect in the community. Thank you to Mrs Martin and Mr Hasip for organising with our local PPU members.
ABCN Future Thinkers and TAL. A group of Year 9 and 10 students attended an informative and engaging session on building creative and innovative problem-solving skills through the process of design thinking. Thanks to Mr Breen and Mr Stirkel for supporting the students and ABCN for another great opportunity for our students.
Delahey VM Showcase Year 10 students have had a busy start to the term. Students undertaking the VCE-VM in 2024 attended the CHASE showcase on the Delahey campus. Students were introduced to the community project element of the Personal Development Strand. They had an opportunity to speak with current students and be introduced to the many community organisations who partner with the current VM program. Thank you to Ms Breen for extending the invitation to our students.
Year 10 students will also be getting ready for their Transition to the Delahey Campus later in the year. Last week however, we had one Year 10 student participate in a special Delahey Experience. Lucas Ellis has been very interested in the VET Electrical program and he was able to attend a VET class.
‘On Thursday I went to visit the Delahey campus of Copperfield College. The reason I went there was to check out the VET Electro program, where I was welcomed by the teacher. He talked me through the things that they do during the year and taught me how to connect and make a power point. This encouraged me to focus and stay engaged.’
Thank you to Mr Powell for his time and effort with Lucas.
Solar Buddies on October 11th all Year 7 students participated in a Solar Buddy Incursion. Solar Buddy solarbuddy.org gave students an excellent opportunity to learn about energy poverty. Our Year 7s completed a STEM activity that will ultimately support students living in energy poverty. Thank you to Mr Cutajar, our Science Key Learning Area Leader for his support and organisation of the day.
Last Thursday, we had the great pleasure of being in the audience as our Year 7 and 8 SRC students presented their project at the Brimbank Council Chambers. The theme of this year’s research is Attitude to School. The Young Researchers Program has been developed by Brimbank Youth Services and Swinburne University.
We will have more details and a photo in our next newsletter.
CAMPUS GOALS – 2023 – Champions together
- Increase student attendance and connectedness.
- Seating Arrangements based on Student Data
- Increase in positive incidents 6:1 – let’s catch the students doing the right thing.
- Fostering pride in our environment- classrooms, corridors and in the yard
Staff have spent much of this term in professional learning to continue to pursue our campus goals. They enthusiastically discussed why they became teachers and their philosophy of education. We thank them for their willingness to share with each other.
Mr Andrew Atherton and Ms Mary Chiodo Campus Principals