From the Principal 

This is our last edition for the term and there is much to celebrate already this year. Over the last fortnight, we have held our Whole School Athletics Carnival, our Senior Outdoor Ed class has been out on their hiking camp, we have run our (rescheduled) Year 12 Meet and Greet and enjoyed a fantastic picnic with our Year 7 families (a big thanks to the families that attended). Our senior year levels (Year 10-12) also participated in their Careers Expo and Careers Day on Monday. We have also had a large number of excursions taking place that have extended the classroom experience.

Our Year 7s have nearly finished their first term of secondary school and will be heading off on camp to Phillip Island Adventure Camp early next term. While they have settled in, we have begun school tours for our next cohort of students that will join us. I would like to thank our student leaders, who have been taking the families around the school, for sharing their experiences of the school with our prospective families.

Our Parent Student Teacher Conversations start today with over 3,500 interviews booked throughout the day. I hope that those that booked for today enjoy the flexibility of attending online and that our transition across to the Microsoft Teams format goes smoothly – a big thanks to the staff that have worked to set them up and our staff for practising using Teams, please bear with us if there are any teething issues as we look forward to using this environment going forward. Our families also now have access to our first round of Learning Behaviours Reports. They are a great way to start a conversation at home about how our students perceive their own learning behaviours and how they compare in different subjects.

A reminder that this Thursday (6:00pm) the School Council will hold the 2023 Annual Report Presentation in the PAC Theatre, all families are welcome. This report looks at the data that is gathered from surveys and highlights the achievements of the year, including the VCE Season of Excellence awards. On Friday night last week, I attended one of the first VCE Season of Excellence awards: Top Screen, with two of our Media staff and celebrated with Gabe Hartshorne, whose short film was judged the winning entry across the whole state. Well done to Gabe!

Our School Council Annual General Meeting will follow straight after the presentation and the new council will be formed. I would like to thank Liza Grage-Perry our current School Council President and Stefan Gruenert, our Vice-President for their time and contribution to the school. Liza has been on School Council for the last 8 years and has provided an unwavering commitment to representing the interests of our school community and advocating to local council, the Department of Education and State Government when required, on behalf of staff, students and our families. Their representation will be much missed and I am looking forward to working with our next School Council Presidents.

I wish you all the best for the remainder of the term and hope that all of our families have a safe and restful break.

Chris Jones

Principal