Preston Life

Finding your future pathway at Preston

A huge thank you to everyone for supporting our Subject and Pathways Expo this term. Our students and school community had the opportunity to ask questions, seek advice, and hear more about the wide range of subjects on offer from our incredible student leaders and helpers. This will be extremely valuable as students make choices around their subjects and pathways for 2026.

One of the highlights of the Expo was the wonderful support from our Student Leaders and Helpers. Their willingness to volunteer their time, assist at subject stalls, and share their experiences and advice made the event even more engaging and meaningful for students. 

A lot of preparation and teamwork goes into making this event possible. Thank you to those who supported in the preparation, set up and running of the Expo. And a big thanks to all our families who came and explored the 2026 subject offerings at Preston.

Jessica Andersen and Laura Mitchell

All the  fun of Book Week 

Another year, another book week! Every year, the literary leaders at Preston High organise a jam-packed week of activities. This year, book lovers enjoyed bookmark making and bookish crafts and shared creative writing in the library throughout the week, as well as a Shakespeare general knowledge quiz. But Friday held the best in store: dress-up day, and the magical Great Book Swap. 

Dress-up was a last hurrah for many Year 12 students especially, but all ages revealed fantastic costumes (everyone was most excited to see Ms Ampt pull off a fantastic raven costume as a tribute to Year 10’s Edgar Allen Poe unit), and the Great Book Swap was a booming success, contributing to funds raised for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). This year we raised more than ever before, at $3665! Thanks to everyone involved for a great week.

by Jackie Sinclair, Cohort 2027, Literary Leader

Busy times for Preston Mob

This term so far, Preston Mob group and the wider school community has celebrated National NAIDOC week. We ran activities such as badge making, shoelace beading and a screening of ‘That Blakfella Show’ hosted by Ernie Dingo, Bridget Brennan and Isaac Compton. In addition, we created a mob map to share where everyone’s mob is from and what are totems are. This will be hung up and placed in a communal area in our school.

We are excited to be participating in some other excursions this term including Treaty Workshop at Reservoir High School and a smoking ceremony at Dardi Munwurro. 

by Momo Wilcox, Cohort 2028, Gecko House 

Everything is coming up Purple

Wear it Purple Day is an annual Australian-founded awareness day for LGBTQIA+ youth. Supporters wear purple to show their respect and celebrate young people in the community, providing support against the bullying and harassment they face. 

We celebrated by handing out bracelets pins and stickers as well as painting some nails in the morning outside of H03. At recess we did make up, nails, face painting and handed out more stickers and ribbons at H04. At lunch we made a pride booklet, made badges, did makeup and still kept handing out stickers and bracelets in H04. Legend has it that there are still stickers and bracelets to this day. 

by Henry Goodman, Cohort 2029, Acacia House

Decoding the universe with our science team

National Science week this year had the theme Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature's hidden language. Students got involved during the week by watching a Neil DeGrasse Tyson documentary and completing an escape room challenge. Then over two lunch times students designed rockets to then test in a friendly competition! Lots of students got involved and lots of staff had fun as well! Thanks to Levi Lancaster and the STEM Leader team. 

Acacia House takes the lead on school values ladder

Throughout this term students have continued displaying the school values which can be seen through the green chronicle updates.

The current standings are:

💚Acacia: 1087 awards

💜Tawny: 1051 awards

❤️Gecko: 1049 awards

💙Glider: 1038 awards

Good job to all the students who have worked hard and contributed to the school community. With each award you get one point goes to your house, which will help your house win the house cup, so keep it up! (especially Acacia)

This term’s current focus on house activities is… debating! Many students have signed up for house debating to win points for their house. Three students from each house will be debating with each other, with the help of their researchers. 

The debates start in week 7 with Acacia vs. Glider and the topic is ‘Will robots increase people’s quality of life?’ and Tawny vs. Gecko on the topic ‘Should Zoo’s be banned?’. The final topic of debate for the finals for Acacia and Gecko is “Should education be free?” good luck to our amazing debaters. 

Alicia Morgan, Cohort 2026, Acacia House

Junior play a mighty effort

The Junior Play launched into action on 4 September with their preview show. The play is called Fight with All Your Might the Zombies of Tonight (FWAYMTZOT) and is based on a book of the same name by Mathew Whittet. 

The story is set on Halloween, and features Alex (played by Amelia Gilbert and Holly Bellchambers), a twelve-year-old girl, and her friends, Ivy (played by Amelia Kaszubska and Lily Paterson), Leo (played by Cassidy Caller and Gabe Prohasky), Marty (played by Charlotte Symonds and Kaida Freriechs-Watts) and Sean (played by Sebastian Tan and Ash Roachfield). The story is narrated by the Narrator (played by Lily Stokes and Paddy Bird) and Ulfhildur (played by Felix Carr and Eva O’Grady). The evil Cat Girl (played by Elsa Antill) has turned students into Zombies, and it is up to Alex and her friends to save them all! Along the way, they will face off against Bullies.

Thank you to Ms Ellie, Ms Finlayson, Ms Perkin and the rest of the production team for choreographing and directing the Junior Play. Also thank you to the awesome team of makeup artists for making the actors look fantastic, and the backstage, sound and lighting team for making sure that everything runs smoothly for the shows.

Here are some quotes from some students and teachers who are involved in the play, describing what it was like preparing and being on stage in the production:

“It makes me feel happy and excited, and after a while, everybody in the play feels like family.” - Elsa Antill, Cat Girl

“I love getting to say the line ‘what the flippin’ rip dips?’!” - Amelia Gilbert, Alex (Cast expensive Donut)

“The cast has been an amazing crowd of people, they are nice, funny and eccentric. I have really enjoyed working with them.” - Hunter Follachio, hair and makeup artist

“You would be a fool to miss out on this show, and a fool to not buy tickets to see both wonderful casts. It’s been a pleasure to work with these junior gems, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year.” - Ellie Hayes, drama teacher and director of the junior play

“When I am in the play, I feel like I am keeping it crispy [this is an inside joke in the play]” -Prihan Said, Zombie Ensemble

by Elsa Antil, Cohort 2030, Gecko House

Sharing the dignity with Ged Kearney Scholars

This term, the Ged Kearney Scholars focused on the charity ‘Share the Dignity’ which aims to end period poverty by providing period products to those experiencing homelessness, domestic violence or poverty. Donation boxes were set up throughout the school in various locations to collect period product donations from our school community. These donations were sent directly to Share the Dignity helping those in need. 

Furthermore, the Social Justice team paralleled this initiative with a stall where suggestions were taken on how to improve menstrual health support at PHS. These suggestions will then be considered to be incorporated into our school systems. Overall, these initiatives aim to create positive change, help the community and are having lots of successes.

by Blaise Kramer White, Cohort 2026, Tawny House 

Preston team wins the Swinburne Innovation Challenge

Congratulations to Blaise Kramer White, Grace Liang, Emmy Armstrong and Alicia Morgan who formed a team to compete in the Swinburne Innovation Challenge and won! 

Teams from different schools had to brainstorm an innovation as a solution to a societal issue. They made a prototype and video-taped a pitch. 

Their question was "How might we create inclusive public spaces that accommodate the sensory needs of neurodiverse indivuals?".

Well done to these students! 

Welcome New Kingfisher Staff 

This term we welcomed a range of new staff replacing teachers and education support staff taking parental or other leave or moving interstate.  

Welcome to our Administration Team, Komal Soni who you will get to know on Reception, and Amy Arnett who is taking over as our school nurse. Komal was previously at Buckley Park SC and before that worked in Finance in the UK. Amy’s previous school was Melba College and before that worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital. 

Darren Murray joins us via Orbost College, while Lauren Gemming is moving from much closer at Craigieburn College. Liz Barnes has been a regular and well-regarded CRT with us and is covering Mr Molinari’s leave. 

Stephanie Lewis joins Preston High School from a role with the Department of Education supporting student wellbeing across the South-East Victoria Region, and prior to that was at Templestowe College. Ruby Pettigrew has joined us to cover some Year 9 maths.