PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Principal's Report - 24/7/26
Welcome to term 3. I hope all our students had a chance to spend some downtime with their families and loved ones during the June/July school holiday break and had a chance to reset. We certainly experienced some very wet, frosty and cold days but it was nice to also experience some winter sun during patches.
Academic Achievers Semester 1 Awards Afternoon Tea
This Tuesday I was delighted to attend the Semester 1 Academic Achievers Awards Ceremony and afternoon tea for students, their parents, and special people in their lives. Students received awards for academic excellence with their semester 1 learning from Year 7 to Year 12. Congratulations to all award winners for semester one.
Congratulations Jordan
A big congratulations to Jordan Knight (Year 10) who was successful in winning the Wathaurong NAIDOC Week Koolay Goopma (Young Male Achiever Award) for 2026. The awards were announced during the annual Flag Raising event at Booln Booln, Pukamitjal games at lunchtime, colouring competitions, celebrating the achievements of local First Nations community members. Jordan is a fabulous young leader in the community mentoring and leading other first nations students regularly in the youth hub and supporting fellow youth to be proud of culture and identity. Well done Jordan, we are very proud of you.
NAIDOC Week Celebrations
We began the term by proudly acknowledging NAIDOC Week across the College. Students and staff came together for a whole-school assembly in the first week back, Pukamitjal games at lunchtime, colouring competitions, followed by a program of lunchtime activities including story walk in the school grounds at lunchtime with members of our school library for all students and staff to join, an opportunity to learn some traditional Waddawurrung words, Sista Studio art workshops, and Koorie culinary delights served through our canteen throughout the week. The VM team also provided lemon myrtle tea and salt bush sausage rolls for morning tea for staff. These events gave our students a genuine opportunity to connect with and celebrate First Nations culture, history and achievements, and I want to thank all the staff and community members who helped bring the week to life.
Pathways and Careers Information Evening
Wednesday night we hosted our Pathways and Careers Information Evening for our Year 9 to 12 students and their families. It was fantastic to see so many of our senior students and their parents/carers come along to explore subject selection, VCE and VCE Vocational Major pathways, apprenticeships, traineeships and tertiary options for 2027. Events like this are so important in helping our young people make informed choices about their futures, and I want to thank our Careers and Pathways team, learning community leaders and all the staff who gave up their evening to support our students and families.
Course Counselling 2027
To further support students with their subject selections for 2027, we will have the following course counselling days occurring.
Year 9 into 10 Course Counselling: Thursday 30th July, in the Library. There will be no Year 9 classes on this day, students and their parents will be required to make one 15-minute appointment for Course Counselling between 11am-7pm.
Year 10 into 11 Course Counselling: Wednesday 29th July, in the Library. There will be no Year 10 classes on this day, students and their parents will be required to make one 15-minute appointment for Course Counselling between 11am-7pm.
Year 11 into 12 Course Counselling: Regular Classes will still run, with students meeting with course counsellors to confirm their courses for 2027 throughout regular school hours from Friday 31st July to Tuesday 4th August.
Bookings for Course Counselling will be through COMPASS, the same way as Student Learning Conferences. Please note: that you only need to make ONE booking with a staff member who has an available time slot.
Our Curriculum Handbook, outlining Course Options for 2027, is available on our website to all year 9 and 10 students at the beginning of Term 3.
Regional Student Voice Planning Day
Last week had several of our student leaders attend the planning day for the regional student voice and leadership conference to be held during the last week of term 3. The students at the planning day reviewed student well-being data, shared their school’s story and designed the September conference, choosing topics, building workshops and driving the agenda for the day. We look forward to the conference later this term.
Curriculum Day – Wednesday 19th August
Wednesday 19th August will be a student free day for all students as our staff break for a professional learning day and continue their work on the implementation of the VTLM 2.0.
Looking Ahead
It has been a strong and positive start to Term 3, and I look forward to keeping you updated on all the wonderful learning, sporting and community events happening across the College in the weeks ahead.
Kind regards,
Fiona Taylor
Principal
Child Safety at WHC
Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse. Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.
Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website.
Commitment to Child Safety
Child Safety Policy
Child Safety Code of Conduct
Child Protection Policy and Procedures
Annual Privacy Policy Reminder for 2026
Our school collects, uses, discloses, and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy (found on the college's webpage).
Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in nine community languages:
* Amharic
* Arabic
* Dari
* Gujarati
* Mandarin
* Somali
* Sudanese
* Turkish
* Urdu
* Vietnamese