Principal Team Editorial
Do The Right Thing
For two weeks, staff and students have been singing along to our school bell ‘Do The Right Thing’ – it’s a catchy tune that dates back to the 1980’s and the rubbish campaign that was highly successful in ‘keeping Australia beautiful.’ This term, we have a focused campaign on rubbish and taking a collective responsibility to Do The Right Thing and put rubbish in the bin. We launched our campaign with a series of advertisements, and we are making it fun by challenging students and staff to submit their own advertisements in our school wide competition – the Principal team have kick started it with their entry, based on the popular 1980’s advertisement. We can’t wait to share the advertisements with our school community throughout the term as we take pride in keeping our grounds beautiful.
Subject Selections for 2025
For the next couple of weeks, Year 8–11 students will be choosing the subjects they want to do in 2025. To support our students in this selection process, we hosted our Curriculum Information Evening on Tuesday night and issued students with the curriculum handbook which showcased the extensive breadth of curriculum offerings we have – over 75 subjects to choose from at Year 9 and 10 alone!
More than ever, our young people have unprecedented number of options and pathways available to them which is vastly different to the limited number of options many parents had when they were at school 20 or so years ago. Having so many options to navigate at, and beyond, school is undoubtedly a great thing, however, it can be overwhelming too – not only for students but parents also.
As a mum of three, a 21-year-old, an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old, I find it difficult, despite having worked in education for 25 years. I find it difficult, as each of my children are so different, they require different levels of support and different types of conversations.
My eldest who is now 21, knew exactly what he wanted to do when he left school. He was, and still is, passionate about film and animation and, from a young age, he knew he wanted to be a film maker. He knew what subjects he liked, the ones he didn’t like, he knew what pathway he wanted follow, and he knew what University course he wanted do. To some degree, it was easy for him and easy for me in supporting him.
My middle child was different. He knew some of the subjects he liked, however he didn’t know what he wanted to do beyond school, and he was concerned about choosing subjects that might not support a pathway beyond school when he didn’t even know what that pathway was. He felt overwhelmed by the choices and pathways beyond school and needed support to research different University and TAFE courses. It did help however, knowing he wanted to continue with further study. My conversations with him were tailored around what subjects he liked at school, supporting him to do well in them, and taking him to various University and TAFE Open Days.
My youngest is different again. She’s unsure if she wants to do VCE or VM or VM Hybrid. She’s unsure of what subjects she likes and she’s even more unsure about pathways she might be interested, in beyond school. She finds the number of choices overwhelming and requires lots of support to talk through each of the three VCE pathways, the multitude of subject choices available within each pathway and the ultimate decision of ‘what are you going to do when you leave school’ looming large. In my 25 years of experience in education, more and more of our young people resonate with how my youngest is feeling. As the choices of subjects and pathways become greater, young people are feeling more overwhelmed and unsure of what to choose and how to navigate these growing number of choices and opportunities.
'If they like the subject, they will have a greater chance of experiencing success.'
As a parent and Principal, my advice is relatively simple – research!The more informed you are, the better choice you will make (or you will support your child in making) and the greater outcome for your child.
I encourage parents and students to find out as much information as they can about what subject choices are available, what pathways your child can take and what subjects your child likes. Ultimately, students need to do subjects they like. If they like the subject, they will have a greater chance of experiencing success and this will build a stronger connection to school, study and/or work. They don’t necessarily need to decide what they want to do when they leave school, but they need to start thinking about what VCE and VM pathways are available and where they can lead to.
One of the best things about Wantirna College is the opportunities we provide all students. Whether they are academically gifted and striving for a high ATAR score or following a VM pathway and starting a school-based apprenticeship – we are committed to valuing all pathways and supporting students achieve the best possible outcome for them. Every student is different and I’m confident that at Wantirna, we have the resources, programs and opportunities to ensure that each student can be successful in whichever pathway they end up choosing. As a school, we are committed to supporting them every step of the way.
Parent/Carer Survey
Every year our staff, students and parents complete a Department of Education initiated survey to provide feedback about how our school is tracking. We highly value the feedback provided as it gives us insights into what the strengths of our school are and what areas we need to focus on to improve. I’m committed to leading our school to being the best we can be and give our students the educational opportunities they deserve. Thank you to parents/carers who have already completed the survey, we would greatly appreciate all of our parents/carers to complete it before it closes at the end of August – please find the link on your Compass newsfeed.
Northern Territory
Finally, thank you to our Year 11 NT students who, reportedly, were an absolute pleasure to take on camp. The NT staff can't speak highly enough of how engaged and connected this group were and they have proudly been singing their praises since returning. Big thank you to our NT staff who gave up a week of their holidays to ensure our students have the trip of a lifetime. Read on for all the details of the 2024 NT Tour!
Carrie Wallis
Principal