From the Principal

As I walk around Yarrabing Secondary College, as I do each day, I am constantly amazed to see our students and our staff engaged in many and varied activities and events. Schools are certainly vibrant places; full of energy, enjoyment and learning.

In this edition of our newsletter, I want to take the opportunity to highlight some of these activities:

Annual Report to School Community

The Annual Report to our school community provides an opportunity to share the school’s achievements and progress with the school community over the last school year. At our last School Council last week, the final report of our Foundation Year was presented and discussed.

I am pleased to announce that school community members can access this document on the link below:

2026 Year 7 Information Night

At the end of last term, we had our Transition Information Night for the new 2026 Year 7 students and their families. We had close to 280 people attend on the night. It gave our Leadership team the opportunity to introduce themselves, our college, and to outline to them the many proactive and positive programs that we have to offer. The feedback received from these families was incredibly complimentary for the college. It is evident that there is a very strong demand for student placement at our college.

Athletics Carnival

Also at the end of last term, the second Athletics Carnival was held by the college. The event was very successful this year and was greatly enjoyed by all that attended. We were very pleased to see the vast majority of our students attend, participate, and encourage their fellow students to do well. It was also quite evident that both students and staff had a very good day getting into the spirit of the day. I would like to acknowledge Mr Paul Arney, who organised the event with the support of the HAPE team and all the staff who contributed to the organisation and supervision on the day. It certainly was a very positive experience for those who participated on the day.

Woodlea Soccer Academy Program - Tour of Hope

On Wednesday 14 May 2025, the college welcomed quite a select group of Brazilian football stars to our school. All of this group of players are very well known in the world of global football and have played all over the world for clubs like Sao Paulo, Sporting Lisbon, Chelsea, Sampdoria, FC Tokyo, and San Lorenzo. A number of them also coached top teams in Brazil and Qatar.

We were fortunate that the Woodlea Soccer Academy were willing to run football clinics for all of our students. Having experienced similar events of this magnitude and grandeur over my years in education, I am certain that many of our students will be recalling this day in years to come as a highlight of the secondary school experience at Yarrabing. It certainly will be unique.

On behalf of Council, I wish to publicly thank the Woodlea Football Academy who were willing to run these clinics free of cost in appreciation of our support over the last two terms, when we allowed them to use our facilities to coach their junior players as they waiting for their facilities to be built.

On a different note, I also wish to mention the following items to our families:

Social Media

As a school we spend time educating our students on the appropriate use of social media, but I also ask our families to further assist us in trying to get the message across by having a conversation with their student on the appropriate use of social media as well. In particular, I ask that you emphasize that students should not be opening any random websites or links.

For further information to assist your conversation please check the eSafety link below:

Youth Road Safety

Last week, I was contacted by Victoria police and I was asked to pass on the following facts about youth road safety to our school community.

Whether you’re biking or riding an e-scooter, follow these simple road safety tips to stay safe and have fun on the move!

John Mitsinikos

College Principal