Principal's Report

Student Achievement

Congratulations to Oskar Mann (Year 11, Pakana House) who was selected as a representative of the Australian Ice Racing  Club to travel to the Netherlands this past February.

Oskar has had great success over the last five months, having received a Gold medal at the Victorian Inline Speed Championships in October 2025 (men aged 15 to 19).   Oskar then headed to his first International Competition in Taiwan in November 2025 where he made his club and country proud. 

Oskar was awarded a bronze medal at the Australian Nationals in January in 2026 (men aged 15 to 19) and then in February 2026 he was selected to travel to the Netherlands.                  

The Netherlands experience was run by International Skate Union (ISU) in partnership with Australian Ice Racing (AIR) and was held at Thialf.  

Thailf is the premier, world-renowned speed skating venue located in Heerenveen Netherlands, known as the "Cathedral of Speed Skating". Thailf is home to the Dutch Olympic speed team.    

Oskar is part of the most successful Inline Speed Club in the country based at the skate rink in Eltham.  

We are very proud of Oskar’s achievements and wish him well as he proceeds with passion in the sport.

If you have any interest in skating as a sport please reach out: elthamspeedskaterz@gmail.com

School Athletics Carnival

After a successful swimming carnival, we are all looking forward to our second whole school event this term, the House Athletics Carnival. This event is taking place Monday 16 March at Doncaster Athletics track. 

All students are expected to attend and encouraged to dress in their House colours (Everard – yellow, Pakana – Blue, Skipper – Green, Toner – Red).

Year 7 students will experience the EHS athletics carnival for the first time and we all need to encourage them to not only attend but also participate in the events. I am sure that they will all have a great time. 

For our Year 12s, the Class of 2026, this will be their last athletics carnival and their last opportunity to participate and celebrate together with their peers, teachers and support staff.  A great deal of effort goes into the design and construction of some very creative outfits for the day, of course reflecting the House colours.

All Year 8, 9 and 10 students are required to attend and are encouraged to participate in the day and to support their House and peers.

A great deal of work has gone into the organisation of this event and I wish to thank Bree Pascoe for her leadership and all the staff who have supported Bree to make sure that the day proceeds well and that everyone has the opportunity to participate and truly enjoy the day.

I look forward to seeing all students at the venue wearing their house colours cheering each other on in each of the events.

International Women’s Day Breakfast

Our International Women’s Day Breakfast took place on Thursday 5 March. It was a well-attended event and one which provided us all with the opportunity to celebrate the amazing work and contribution of women in our community as well as encourage our young women to stand up and be counted. 

The day also highlighted the fact that there is more work to be done in this space to “Balance the Scales” - work that we must do together towards total equality.

Our guest Speaker, Anne Leadbeater OAM, delivered an inspiring presentation. 

Anne is an independent consultant specialising in disaster recovery and community resilience. She has 30 years’ experience working in the community sector and across all levels of government, and has supported communities recovering from drought, fire, flood, cyclone and earthquake in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and New Zealand.

Anne designs and delivers training for recovery practitioners and develops national policy, most recently co-authoring the Australian Disaster Recovery Framework for the Commonwealth Government.

Anne was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her work in the aftermath of the 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires.  She grew up locally, with family members attending Eltham High School.

I want to express a big thank you and gratitude to our Vet Hospitality students and their amazing teacher Yasemin Ziada for the wonderful food they prepared for the breakfast and for their planning and organisation. 

Furthermore I wish to commend the work of our student leadership team with the support of Nadia Devlin for getting this event off the ground and for the hard work they put in to bring it to fruition. Well done all around!

Eltham High School – French Study Tour 2026

As a result of the most recent turbulence in the Middle East, DFAT through Smartraveller has now increased its warning for travel through Qatar.  The following information was updated on 4 March:

“Due to the volatile security situation in the region and military strikes in Qatar, we’ve raised our level of advice for Qatar to do not travel. Retaliatory strikes are occurring following military strikes on Iran. Qatar has closed its airspace, and Qatar Airways has suspended flights to and from Doha.” 

The Department of Education's advice endorses that provided through Smartraveller.

This will affect us as our Qatar Airline flight has a stopover in Doha. Therefore under the current situation we will not be able to travel through Qatar.  

Whilst our trip is still some time away, the Department of Education's advice has been to do nothing and make no decisions for the time being until we hear from the airline. 

Qatar issued the following statement to their booking agents, GET the organisers of our travel being one of them. 

"Your clients' safety is our priority. 

We understand that changes to travel plans can be unsettling, but we are here to support you and your clients.

If your clients have a confirmed booking with a travel date between 28 February and 6 March 2026, they are eligible for a full refund or a complimentary date change, up to 14 days from the original travel date, managed through your GDS or NDC aggregator. 

You can also refer to our schedule change and disruption guidelines. 

For further updates please visit our Trade Portal.

We thank you for your assistance in supporting our mutual customers, and appreciate your patience and understanding while we work through this situation."

Our tour organiser will keep us updated and we will certainly keep checking for changes in the DFAT and Department of Education advice.

I will be in touch with relevant families with an update once I know more.

School Council Elections

The School Council election process is now complete, and we have filled all vacant positions. We will be coopting a community representative at the first meeting of the School Council. I congratulate all appointees and look forward to meeting with you at the first meeting of the School Council.

Eltham High School Reminders

VINCENT SICARI, Principal