Principal's Message

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

We continue to be a school that is moving in the right direction. We are achieving great outcomes for our students within the Classroom, and in areas such as Sport, the Performing Arts and Student Leadership and Our Community.

We want to celebrate the positives and recognise student achievements within so many areas of our great school. We are proud of our school and everything it has to offer our community. This sense of pride is evident with how we represent the College. Students, families and staff represent the College to the highest of standards and they are proud of what we stand for and what we achieve. Our students continue to show learning growth and they excel in so many areas important to our College Community. We are a great school achieving great things.

The recent College Production, ‘Back to the 80’s, was an excellent example of just how proud we are of our school. It has been some time since we have had a College Production and to see students, staff and families working so well together to produce such a high quality performance was a source of pride for all. We say well done to all involved - Genelle Lentini (PSC Performing Arts Leading Teacher) who led the way with great energy and expertise, our staff for helping out as much as they did throughout, and of course our talented students as part of the cast and crew. We thank our families for their tremendous support of our 2024 College Production.

We work to support learning growth. An excellent example of this is some of our recent On Demand Testing results in the areas of Numeracy and Literacy. For example, a significant number of our Year 7 students have already demonstrated significant learning growth in 2024 – learning growth is incredibly important to our College Community.

We received an update on our Capital Works Program through the week. Please be reminded that the funding received ($11.3 Million) has been set aside to further improve an area of the College referred to as D Wing, which is currently used for classroom and staff work areas, together with housing a significant number of student lockers. The update received describes the process involved in selecting an architect for the Program. This is an exciting next step towards further improving our Buildings and Grounds. We are hopeful of commencing construction in 2024.

Further improvements are earmarked for our Buildings and Grounds over the Term Three School Holiday Break. We will be installing a new cricket pitch for the oval, new outdoor volleyball courts for near the Gym, we will be painting the front facing Administration Wing to provide for a fresher and more contemporary look and we will be completing some landscaping through the grounds – pride in how we present our Buildings and Grounds is important to our College Community.

Interest in our great school continues to be strong. Our Year 7 enrolments at this stage for next year are approximately 30% up on our 2022 intake – we are very pleased with this Year 7 enrolment figure for 2024. On the topic of Year 7, we have been trialing a Year 7 Home Group Program in 2023. After capturing some feedback from our College Community, we are planning to continue with our Year 7 Home Group Program for Term One only in 2024 in order to support the transition process. In place of implementing a broader Home Group Program throughout the College, we will instead have more regular Sub School and Year Level Assemblies across all year levels in 2024.

We have some important events coming up on the College Calendar:

We are in the midst of celebrating and acknowledging Literacy and Numeracy Week. Officially the Week is from 29/8 to 4/9, however we are co-ordinating a number of activities this week and next to best recognise these important learning areas
Term 3 Interim Reports will be distributed Friday 8 September to Families via Compass
State Schools Spectacular, Saturday 9 September – we wish our students all the very best with their participation
Parent Teacher Student Conferences will be held Thursday 14 September (1.00pm – 7.30pm) at the College. There will be no regular classes on this day with students expected to attend the Conference with their parents / carers. Families will be able to book in appointment times for the Conference via Compass. More details will be shared with Families closer to the date.

We continue to use a variety of forums to best showcase everything that is positive about Pakenham Secondary College – more and more people know about what is happening at our great school.

Thank you everyone.

Regards,

Aaron Smith 

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College 