Principal's Report 

Instrumental Music Program Spring Concert 

Last Thursday (10th September), the close to 400 students involved in our Instrumental Music program gathered alongside over 500 family and friends for the annual Spring Concert. The Spring Concert is the premier event of our Instrumental Music Program and was a fitting celebration of the commitment, discipline, talent and hard work of our students, Instrumental Music teachers and support staff.

At a time when young people are increasingly connected digitally, it was refreshing to see the performances from our ensembles. Ensembles remain one of the few places where students disconnect from technology and learn to listen carefully, work together, contribute to something bigger than themselves and strive for excellence as part of a team.

I would also to thank you, our families and supporters for the success of this program. The values, ethic of focus and commitment to education that you instil in your children, is brought into our school, and is one of the key drivers of our ongoing success.

I would also like to thank those who make this program possible, our Instrumental Music Teachers: Sally Barkla, Tanya Balka, Liz Clark, Ben Delves, Josh Licht, Blake Lica, Jim McGuffie, Ben Muddyman, Lam Nguyen-Hoang and Imagine Wilson as well as our Instrumental Music Co-ordinator Khristian Mizzi and our Musical Tech Wizard Frank Pearce. 

At the Spring Concert I was honoured to be able to share two exciting announcements in relation to our program. The first, was to announce that Jim McGuffie has been appointed as our inaugural Head of Instrumental Music (Leading Teacher). Jim will work alongside Khristian to provide educational and artistic leadership for the program and will be responsible for delivering a high-quality, high-profile program that promotes excellence in performance, participation, engagement and achievement.

The second announcement relates to our vision for the continued growth of Instrumental Music and the Performing Arts more broadly. The school has identified its next major capital works project: the redevelopment of our former gymnasium and theatre into a modernised, larger-capacity theatre and flexible performing arts space. Mike Stevens has commenced work with architects to develop the initial concept designs. 

We look forward to sharing those plans with our community next year, alongside a fundraising campaign that will help us create facilities worthy of the extraordinary talent and aspirations of our students.

Classroom Technology Use at Vermont Secondary College – 2027 and Beyond

Many of you will be aware of the ongoing debate in education circles relating to the use of digital devices such as laptops by students in classrooms. An article was published in the The Age relating to this last week and the Department of Education has implemented a number of policies relating to Digital Learning.

Some of you will also be aware of the work of Jonathan Haidt an American Social Psychologist who in his book, the Anxious Generation, makes the argument that young people’s use of devices, and in particular social media, has had a profoundly negative impact on wellbeing.

Specifically with education as his focus, Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, an educational neuroscientist from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education published The Digital Delusion in which he uses international student testing data to argue that student use of technology has had profoundly negative impacts on student learning. 

We are fortunate here at Vermont Secondary College that, at a time when literacy and numeracy results are falling, we have experienced continued growth, but we need to carefully consider the impacts and risks of classroom device use by students. To this end, this year the School Improvement Team has conducted a detailed inquiry, looking at the research, as well as how devices are used here at the school. The result is the development of new guidelines that will inform our approach from the beginning of 2027. 

We know that learning is hard. It requires sustained effort over time in an environment that is free of competing demands for attention. Thus, while technology will remain an important component of education, planning around how devices are used will support us to ensure it is used purposefully for specific learning tasks, rather than as a default.

PARENT CARER OPINION SURVEY – Please Have Your Say

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Carer Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is seeking your feedback. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.

Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. 

The Parent / Carer Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 17 August to Friday 18 September 2026. All families are invited to participate in the survey.

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Resources are also available in additional languages to assist parents / carers who speak a language other than English at home. Please reach out to the General Office for survey guides in your language.

A word from College Council

The school council had its meeting on Tuesday 15th of September and it approved the reports of its various subcommittees (finance, VSCCA, canteen). Child Safety is now a standard issue on the council agenda. Child Safety is always an important issue for the council but in order to reflect the fact that it involves everyone at all times it is now also prominently listed on the agenda of each council meeting. It was good to hear that there were no Child Safety issues since our last council meeting.

The council was informed of the amount of the voluntary and curriculum contributions for the year 2027 which will go out in a few weeks time. The Council approved the updated policy on support for students on co-curricular activities and it was informed about plans being discussed on how to change the old gym into a music centre. Those ideas are still in the very early stages and nothing will happen this year. The changes to the front of the school and in particular the landscaping is making good progress.

The school captains presented a proposal on how the year 12 students could celebrate their end of school time. In the recent past there have been some issues with some of the festivities and hence VSC is more cautious on what it allows: Once bitten, twice shy. Their efforts were welcomed but as it is not up to the council to decide on what form the celebrations could be in, separate talks will be held with the students by the principal team.