Principal's Message

Dear Students, Parents and Guardians, Staff, and Community Members

What an outstanding first term it has been at the college!

We welcomed 2563 students through the gates, which is our highest ever enrolment, and yet the school keeps going from strength to strength. There are so many fantastic highlights across the term and these are just a few of them:

Our staff took on the senior students in a range of sports which were all played in a fun spirited and enjoyable manner. It is so great to see the students and teachers interacting and having fun outside the classroom. (I believe the teachers may have come out on top in terms of wins).
Rehearsals are up and running for the Year 8-12 production of 'We Will Rock You' and we look forward to seeing them perform early in Term 3. We will also have more information to share about the Year 7 production later in the year.
All our Year 7 and 9 students gave it their best shot in the NAPLAN tests.
Our 430+ Year 7 students made a great transition to secondary school.

Every day there is a buzz at the school, and it fills us with pride to see so many students working together with staff to make this the best college it can be.

Over the last few weeks, I have been working on finalising our college’s 2025 annual report, which requires a summary of key achievements and performance data. We again achieved solid academic results which were published late last year, but I wanted to share again with you some cultural insights so you can get an understanding of the great work our students, parents and staff have continued to develop and work on over the last few years. As normal, there are always things that can be improved as our job is never done, but it is still worth celebrating.

Yet again, our student attitudes and experiences of school data has been maintained or improved dramatically. We have once again increased the average percentage of all measures in the Students Attitudes to School survey. What this means is that if you bundled all the data together and created an average, we now currently sit in the top 20% of the state with our average moving from 67.16 to 69.68 in 2025. I have attached the graph below which shows our growth from 2020, which every member of the Kambrya community has played a role in.

2026 School Council and Student Leadership

I recently met with the newly elected School Council. Kambrya college has a long tradition of working with school council openly and transparently to ensure good governance. I have no doubt that this tradition will continue.

Thank you to all those who nominated to be a part of Kambrya College’s School Council.

It was great to have so much interest from our community. Five people nominated for the three vacant Parent Member positions and it was a close result.

Congratulations to:

New councillors Deepika Anand and Suzie Floros, with Stephen Carle voted in for another term as Parent Members. They will join our current parent representatives Kim Halford, Karin Keylock, Galina Romantsova and Ramji Subramanian.
Our newly elected Student Member is Aishreen Tatla who will join Nasima Ahmadi as our student representatives.
Penny Cardinili who joins our council with Jordan Dubrulle Sarkissian returning for another term as Staff Member representatives.

We would like to say a very sincere thank you to our outgoing councillors:

Catherine English (President, Parent Member, Community Member)
Dave Wright (Vice President, Parent Member, Community Member)
Katie Johnstone (Staff Member)

Following the first meeting, I am also pleased to advise that Stephen Carle was elected by the Council members as President, and Galina Romantsova has been appointed as Vice President. I thank them both for their ongoing support of the college in these roles.

Toilet Facilities upgrade

As per my letter during Term four last year, we have been working on a major upgrade of the toilet facilities located near our courtyard. These have been closed all term and we are excited to be able to open them up to our students as we begin in term two.

During this period, students have access to five alternative toilet blocks located throughout the school. These facilities remain open all day for students to access. These would only be temporarily closed if any damage occurs that needs to be immediately addressed.

Again, in relation to further questions I have received, students do not receive a "Compass strike" if they attend the toilet during class time. The college uses Compass to record any reason a student may be leaving the classroom. This may be to visit IT, sickbay, front office, prayer room, toilet or for some other reason. This is to ensure that we are aware of where all our students always are for welfare and safety purposes. This is not a strike system.

Kambrya College Facebook Page

Just a message to all our community members regarding our college’s Facebook page.

We are starting to use Facebook to increase our promotion of all the wonderful items and achievements that happen at our college on a day-to-day basis.

As a college, it is crucial to emphasise that any information provided on other Facebook accounts other than our account is not affiliated with our college. While social media platforms allow for diverse voices and perspectives, it’s essential to clarify that content shared on other individual accounts doesn’t represent official college statements or policies unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Our college maintains its official communication channel as Compass or our own verified Facebook Page or website, where accurate and authorised information is provided. Therefore, it is important for our community to exercise discretion and rely on official sources for updates, announcements, and communications pertaining to our college.

Our official college Facebook account can be found using the below link:

https://www.facebook.com/KambryaCollege?mibextid=eQY6cl

Year 12 camp

I had the pleasure of joining the Year 12 students during their camp at Lord Somers this Term. It was a great opportunity for them to reflect on their priorities and goals for the year while forming new friendships. A heartfelt thank you to all the teachers and support staff who dedicated their time to support our students during the camp.

Year 7 Mini Athletics

Our Year 7 students participated in a Mini Athletics Day. This event featured athletic activities not typically included in our regular college athletics day (which was postponed until later in the year). The day albeit warm, was a great success and it was fantastic to see all students participate in such a positive and enthusiastic manner.

Year 10 Numeracy, Literacy and PDS Fundraiser

Today our Year 10 Numeracy, Literacy and PDS (Personal Development Skills) students held their annual fundraiser. This year the funds raised are going to Fight MND - a very worthy cause.

The students have spent all of this term putting together this fundraiser which included various food stalls, physical activities such as a the push up challenge and of course, as usual, the chance to 'dunk' a staff member in ice cold water (in this instance it was tipping a tub of iced water over the staff member). As seems to be tradition, the Principal always seems to be one of the staff to be 'dunked' and this year was no exception, finding myself with a tub of ice water all over me!!

This fundraiser is one of the highlights of the year and all the students and staff involved deserve a huge congratulations for putting together one of the best Year 10 Fundraisers yet!

Road Works

We have been informed that works will continue to widen the Clyde Road Overpass by pouring concrete over the newly installed beams and panels, connecting the new structure to the old. They will be also upgrading the city-bound Princes Freeway entry ramp and the Warragul-bound exit ramp, installing new drainage, relocating services, building two new lanes to support additional turning movements at the Warragul-bound exit ramp and laying asphalt.

These works require overnight closures of the Princes Freeway and Clyde Road in both directions, along with long‑term closures of the city-bound entry and Warragul-bound exit ramps. They've scheduled the works to occur at night and over the school holidays to reduce the impact on the local road network and reduce overall disruption.

They'll also open the intersection of Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard and Clyde Road on Monday 20 April. Vehicles will be able to enter and exit Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard from each direction on Clyde Road, however, you won’t be able to travel across Clyde Road to access Sir Gustav Nossal Boulevard from Kangan Drive until mid-2026.

How will these works affect you when school returns?

There will be delays of up to 20 minutes on Clyde Road and surrounding works during day shifts and up to 15 minutes delay on the Princes Freeway during overnight closures. Please allow extra time for your journey through the project area.

I wish all our families and community members a fantastic holiday break and look forward to a great term two ahead.

Kind regards,

Martin McDonald

Principal

Kambrya College