Principal's Reflection

Dear families,

I can hardly believe we are winding up another year. Although it still feels like the finish line is so far away for some of us, we have already farewelled our Year 12 students. Our Year 11 students concluded today, and our Year 10 students finished classes and start work placements next week.

For our F-9 community, learning continues, but the energy is starting to increase as revision and assessment slowly starts to be replaced with celebration, forward planning and preparation classes. Our Year 5-6 students have been in the deep end undertaking water safety ahead of the summer break and our Volleyballers have continued their success, reaching the gold medal match in their most recent tournament. Our cast and crew for the upcoming ‘Big Little People’ show have been tirelessly rehearsing as our performing arts culture takes another step forward this year. These Big Little People have made a gigantic effort and have already started preparing for an even bigger event next year. Please no broken legs… I am sure you will put on a great show without them!

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of speaking at our secondary school awards assembly and leadership presentation. At the time, I was also excited to share a significant performance milestone for our school that comes as a direct result of student achievements and opinion. Our 2025 school performance report was issued earlier this year and combines the results of NAPLAN, VCE results, Attendance, Student Opinion Survey and Teacher Judgement data. These metrics are common across all government schools and are measured against a common set of benchmarks to place schools in one of four performance categories, the highest being the ‘HIGH’ performance group. In 2025, student achievement and positive endorsement surpassed the high benchmark in both Learning and Wellbeing measures, meaning we were officially assessed as a HIGH performing school. Further, we were one of only 3 schools among a group of 25 schools of comparable size, structure and demographic that achieved this result. I shared this with the students and staff to highlight that when teachers work together with families to support our students, they can achieve exceptional outcomes here. Furthermore, it is the hopes, dreams, aspirations and hard work of our students that make this place a success and so I felt it was important for our students to know that as a collective, they now stand shoulder to shoulder with the best schools in our state. What a way to end the year!

Moving forward into the new year, our team are prepared and ready to launch into even more improvement, with strategic planning around Mathematics, Wellbeing and Engagement and a range of complex learning theories that we will leverage to make our classrooms even more powerful places for our students to be! I am so thankful for the work this incredible team of staff continue to do and hope that over the coming weeks, families will take time to share their gratitude. This level of performance does not come without hard work and sacrifice. Our staff are incredible, and I know they were thrilled to see the fruits of their labour. 

In other news, we have also confirmed that some significant projects will proceed in the new year after months of planning. Soil tests and site preparation for the new playground are booked and set to begin. Shade sails will be installed over the gaga pit play space, before new turf will be lain in term 1. Some new windows and doors will arrive for Block B, helping contain the excitement (noise) that now bursts out of our F-2 classrooms and some new seating, shelter and landscaping is under planning for the ever-growing secondary school. Lots to look forward to in 2026.

Before then though, we have more graduations, fun activities, productions and a soiree to squeeze into the final weeks of the year. I encourage everyone to bring enthusiasm, joy and goodwill to our end of year celebrations. I wish everyone a safe, restful and joyous summer break and look forward to another year of growth and achievement in the new year.

Warmest regards,

Nathan Guthridge

Principal