Principals Update

We're almost at the mid-way point of the term and it's certainly been a busy time at school.

On ANZAC Day our College Captains, Louisa and Tyler, represented the school by reading the 'voice' of Joyce Strawhorn, a local veteran, and laying a wreath at the Mt Macedon ANZAC Dawn Service. What a moving service this was for all in attendance and Louisa and Tyler did a wonderful job delivering Joyce's story.  Our Vice Captains, Umme and Timothy, did readings and laid a wreath on behalf of the College at the Gisborne ANZAC Day Service.  I would like to thank the organising committee of the Mt Macedon Dawn Service and the Gisborne RSL Sub Branch for continuing to invite GSC to be involved in these very special commemorative occasions. 

Last Friday night a selection of our Year 11 students participated in the annual Debutante Ball.  All the dance rehearsals and other preparations came together for the 47 couples and their families as they enjoyed a wonderful night on the dancefloor.  It's always a fun night on the school calendar and going by the smiling faces on the dance floor and in the crowd I'm confident everyone had a great night.

On Tuesday we held our annual whole-school Athletics Carnival in Melton.  I would like to thank John Hayward, Sports Coordinator for the tireless work he has done to ensure this day was not only well planned and organised, but that our students wanting to participate in the various track and field events had every opportunity to do so.  It is a significant undertaking to pull an event such as this together, but it also requires the whole school to get behind it, so I thank all the staff and students for making it a wonderful day to be part of.  It would be remiss of me not to mention the amazing efforts put in by our Year 12s with their costumes - they really went all out, and this only added to the fun vibe of the day.

Today, we acknowledge and celebrate Education Support (ES) Day.  Our talented and committed ES staff work in partnership with teachers and leadership supporting the school to deliver the high-quality learning programs, activities and facilities that we are a part of every single day.  Our ES staff are an integral part of GSC, from our Integration team, Wellbeing team, First Aid, Library, IT, Technical assistance (Food Tech and Science), Administration and Facilities and Maintenance, our school quite simply couldn't run without them.  Thank you, ES team, for all that you do for our students and teachers.

Tomorrow we will celebrate IDAHOBIT Day - The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.  

We would normally conduct a flag-raising ceremony of the Pride flag on school grounds, but as our flag poles are not currently accessible due to the major construction works of the new Admin and Wellbeing Centre, a contingent of students together with members of our Wellbeing team will be travelling to Kyneton to join in the IDAHOBIT flag-raising ceremony there.  

Our Wellbeing team have also installed a display in the Library in lieu of having the flag flying outside.

Now that we are well settled into two of our refurbished spaces - Senior School Building (I-block) and Junior School Building (B-Block) we want to give these buildings each a name that reflects their centrality to the school and connects them to the local area and perhaps the traditional land on which the school is located.  We invite suggestions from our school community of meaningful names for these buildings which can be emailed directly to me at sarah.rose@education.vic.gov.au by Wednesday 5 June.

The College Annual Report was endorsed by College Council at the regular meeting last night.  This is now available on our website.  We are working to develop an information evening for our school community early in Term 3 where the report will be presented and discussed in more detail.  Please keep an eye out for an invitation to this event.

I hope you enjoy this edition, which showcases many of the wonderful things that have been occurring across the school recently.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

College Principal