From the Captains 

School Captains - Toby, Molly, Ruby and Kobus

Hello everyone, on behalf of your 2025 College Captains, we hope that everyone has had a relatively easy start to the year. With lots of new changes to the timetable and curriculum including our Strong Start program – with its aim to offer students a reset before the day ahead, as well as a safe space and a teacher to help out with any issues that may come up.   2025 also saw the introduction of planners to help ensure organisation in a world that always manages to get busier.

Throughout this term we’ve had many great opportunities being in year 12, and as a School have had the privilege to participate in many activities such as the Swimming Carnival, Weekly Club participation, Incursions, Excursions and Interschool Sport. It’s been great to see a climb in participation and attendance, especially in some of these activities.

Year 12 Camp came and went in the blink of an eye, Portsea was full of fun activities, with some highlights being the Year 12 jumper presentation/dress up parade. It was a great start to the year and the feeling of being in Year 12 and our final year of schooling really set in.

Sailing Camp saw all the Year 12 leaders venture down to the Royal Geelong Yacht Club to learn to sail, with the main purpose to grow as a leadership group and start to plan out the many goals we wish to achieve in each respective domain.

Term 1 ended with the great success of School showcase on the 25th of March. Tons of keen parents and potential future students came to learn about the college. Over 100 student volunteers giving their time to show what the college means for them, allowing for the best first impressions on any new families considering St Helena. Each domain and part of our school was able to be represented in the best possible way. A huge thank you to all the Teachers and student volunteers who gave up their evening to unsure the event was run the best way possible.

Finally, looking ahead to August, a proposed ‘Teach The Teacher Day’ was recently approved. As Captains we will be looking further into the specifics of what that looks like and means for our College going forward, and are excited to be able to work with the teachers to ensure student voice is heard.

We hope everyone has a safe and peaceful Holidays, and we look forward to seeing each and every one of you in the community at future events or even in the school grounds throughout the rest of the year.

Music Captains - Sam & Andrew

Things in the Music Department have been off to a swingin' start this term!

Our Senior Stage Band kicked things off by opening the Eltham Jazz Festival in February, showcasing some of the outstanding talent they have to offer. Later, they performed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Baptcare Strathalan Macleod Retirement Village, much to the enjoyment of the residents. Our Stage Band was also seen performing at the school showcase, providing a vibrant atmosphere for our visitors. Similarly, the Senior Concert band also performed at the year 7 information barbeque night, welcoming the parents and students for a wonderful evening.

We would also like to commend Siena (Ross) Laidler (Year 12) for their performance at the Pauline Toner Award, which was truly impressive.

Our VCE music performance class is hard at work developing their setlists for their end-of-year examinations. Recently, they visited Top Class Music in the city, where they had the opportunity to watch high-quality performances and gain inspiration, as well as helpful techniques for their own performances.

Finally, we are thrilled to welcome all the new members of our music program from Year 7 and other year levels, who started in Rookie band just a few weeks ago and are already making excellent progress. Rehearsals are also well underway for the remaining school ensembles: Junior and Intermediate Concert Band, Junior Jazz Orchestra, Big Band, Flute Ensemble and Choir.

It's shaping up to be an exciting year ahead for everyone in the Music Department! - Sam Thiel and Andrew Pilkington (2025 Music Captains)

Performing Arts Captains - Zoe & Charlotte

To begin the term, all leaders took part in a Sailing Camp down in Geelong, to brainstorm ideas, develop leadership skill, and bond before starting the year. On the camp, we took pride in being the only group to capsize our sailing boat (for educational purposes), starting the year with a bang.  

We then returned to make posters to advertise PA club to the younger year levels and an overall logo for the PA department, featuring the Dance, Music, and Acting elements of our cohort. PA Club has began meeting once every week, creating a space to meet people with shared interests, and play some theatre games. 

Alongside PA Club, we have been organising auditions for the school play, The Importance of Being Earnest, and recently started rehearsals with our amazing cast. We have been working alongside Director Laura Zinghini to begin production, getting ready for our performances in May.  

This last week, we have been scheduling auditions for this years upcoming musical, 42nd Street. We have been collaborating with Dance Captains Charlotte McFarlane and Sienna Kardas to book students from all year levels a spot to demonstrate their singing, dancing and acting talent. We are awaiting the start of the musical, and hopefully will be show ready for the opening around late August.  

On the 25th of March, all the captains lent a hand on the St Helena Showcase evening, either taking tours or presenting in our specified areas. We guided a tour around the school, displaying all elements of Performing arts, from the dance class in the studio, the rehearsals for the play, and the band performing in the agora.  

STEAM Captains - Zane & Lincoln

Hi everyone, us STEAM captains have been working throughout the term on a few things. We’ve asked for a year 12 General Maths help session to be run weekly, which is currently being run by Mr Sekkouah after school on Mondays in the S building. If you’re a year 12 student undertaking General Maths, you are more than welcome to attend. 

Furthermore, we’ve been communicating with the tech domain in regards to periodically opening up the tech rooms for student usage after school. This would be for students to get extra work done on any school or personal projects under the supervision of a teacher, allowing them to use certain machinery and materials that are otherwise inaccessible from home.

We’ve also started planning for Earth Day on the 22nd of April, involving a schoolwide E-waste drive for recycling purposes, which should take place during the first week of term 2. More details regarding the drive will be released closer to the date, but please keep this in mind.         

Additionally, STEM club will begin running in term 2, run by Mr Mourelatos. This club will run fortnightly and involve frequent excursions to the Banyule Nillumbik Technology School, use of 2D and 3D design software for prototyping of ideas, and collaboration with peers to tackle design challenges. 

There’s lot to come throughout the year, so be sure to stay tuned. – Lincoln Novak & Zane Corrigan (STEAM Captains).