Principal Message

Dear Families and Community,

It has been another busy and productive few weeks across the college, with a strong focus on supporting our students to achieve their best while continuing to strengthen the learning taking place in our classrooms.

Recently, our VCE staff came together to review our excellent 2025 VCE results. These sessions were an important opportunity for teachers to celebrate the success of our students, while also looking closely at the data to identify areas where we can continue to improve. This ongoing reflection is a key part of ensuring we keep building on the strong results our students are achieving.

We also held the first session of our VCE Excellence program. This program brings together a group of committed students who are working after school to maximise their VCE outcomes. The first session focused on strategies for success and developing effective study habits, particularly in English. It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm and dedication from the students involved.

Unfortunately, our Swimming Carnival had to be cancelled due to poor weather conditions. While this was disappointing, it was great to see our Year 12 students still bringing plenty of energy and humour through their Senior Splash competition (goggles, floaties and all!). We now look ahead to the upcoming District Swimming competition and hope to once again see our students performing strongly.

This week’s Curriculum Day provided staff with an opportunity to focus on maintaining high expectations for learning in our classrooms. Research consistently shows that young people rise to the expectations we set for them, and our staff spent time discussing how we can continue to challenge and support students to do their very best. Teachers also undertook professional learning around retrieval practice, a key part of our EMC Instructional Model, which helps students recall important knowledge at the start of lessons, so they are ready to engage with new learning.

Our Year 7 and Year 9 students have also begun their NAPLAN testing. At the time of writing there have been some disruptions to the online NAPLAN platform across the country. Our students have handled these interruptions extremely well and should be commended for their patience and resilience. We will share further information with the community once more details are available about how this disruption will be managed.

Our Year 12 students have also recently taken part in programs designed to support their VCE journey. Students attended the VCE Planning for Success Day at RMIT University, where they participated in sessions linked to their chosen pathways and heard about the importance of persistence, motivation and hard work. Our Year 11 students also participated in an Elevate Time Management Seminar, building on the study skills sessions they completed in Year 10. The seminar focused on practical strategies to help students find the time to study effectively while balancing their other commitments.

This week we are also excited to welcome Tom Sherrington to the college. Tom is a highly respected educator who works with schools around the world on effective teaching practices. Staff will take part in workshops focused on securing attention in the classroom (another important part of our EMC Instructional Model). In the afternoon, Tom will also run a session on instructional coaching with our leadership team and leaders from across our network of schools.

Looking ahead, our Year 7 students will be heading off to Alexandra Adventure Resort next week for their camp. The Ranch is located just outside Alexandra and overlooks a lake surrounded by beautiful farmland. It offers a fantastic range of activities and is always a highlight of the Year 7 experience. Camps like this are a great opportunity for students to build friendships, confidence and independence, and we are looking forward to hearing all about their experiences when they return.

As always, thank you for your continued support of the college. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to reach out.

Kind regards,

Ryan McGlade

Assistant Principal