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Dear families,

In the 5 weeks since I last wrote our school has been buzzing with activities in and out of the classroom. We have seen our years 3,5,7 and 9 students complete NAPLAN to the best of their ability and look forward to seeing how well everyone went. We have also had our Year 7 camp at the Summit in Trafalgar, where our new cohort were able to connect and progress their growing sense of identity as a whole cohort. That giant swing terrifies me every year and the mud run always seems to bring home the message that we are always stronger together (apologies for the smelly mud stained clothes families)!

This week, our year 4-6 students have been off at Waratah Beach Camp enjoying surfing among a range of other coastal activities. I have been reliably informed that although very well behaved, the younger students kept our teachers up later than the year 7’s did!

In other news our Volleyballers continue to dominate across all age groups, with first and second placings across many competitions. Our Vocational Major students have undertaken white card training, Ms Carters cross country team have been training hard, parents and senior students have supported primary athletics training, Year 9’s visited the Melbourne Holocaust museum and primary swimming was a source of great excitement! I’m exhausted just thinking about all of the activities our students have been immersed in.

Today, we conclude celebrations for Harmony Week with a splash of orange to acknowledge that although we come from many backgrounds, we all share one community that is made so much richer with tolerance, empathy and understanding. We are all human after all.

Next week, we turn our attention to Athletics as both primary and secondary students will head to the track to earn valuable points for our houses. I hope everyone will attend and take an opportunity to either compete, assist in operations or at the very least cheer for their team.

School photos

On Monday 24th, we will hold our school photo day so I encourage everyone to look their best. Some secondary year levels will have a group photo presented as a whole year level this year for the first time. This represents the diversity of class sizes and structures we now offer, with no two student programs looking the same from Year 9 onwards. We hope that the year level photos will allow our senior students to remember the valuable connections they have made across their whole year level, rather than the small part of it that was previously represented in a home room. Families should check the package options carefully to ensure they order correctly.

Our school council

Our first school council meeting enabled us to elect office bearers for the year. We have a great team and I am excited to announce the following office bearers and committee leaders:

President: Liz Lazarus
Vice President: Adeel Ahmad
Treasurer: Carl Marchant
Friends and Family of Altona College (FFAC) council rep: Charmaine Russell

We also discussed and look forward to getting to work on several other initiatives including support for sports, arts and STEM. It will be an exciting year.

Facilities

After our devastating water leak prior to the start of term, all initial insurance works have been undertaken and final repairs are scheduled for the holidays. As part of these works, we will also make some adjustments to Block E, converting a carpeted space into a second secondary art room. During capital works, the space was planned as an art room, but was carpeted while we awaited further growth. The carpet will be repurposed elsewhere to avoid waste and new vinyl will be installed. This means we will now have a fully equipped primary STEAM space for science technology and arts, as well as three secondary science labs, two art rooms and a dedicated digi-tech space. We have come a long way and the growing interest in the fine arts highlights the incredible efforts of Mrs Cutelle, Mrs Krieger and more recently Ms Parker. The repairs also mean Ms Foreman and Mr Fell can re set their dedicated primary and secondary performing arts/music spaces. We are all very grateful for their flexible teaching during the disruption.

In addition, we are working with our cleaning contractors to improve waste management, general cleaning and hygiene. We are hopeful that an additional afternoon shift will soon be in place to better service our rubbish bins and bathrooms, allowing the later shift to focus on learning spaces. We will keep you posted. Many may not know that our full-time maintenance manager John arrives early every morning to clear paths and collect what rubbish he can before the morning rush. He then carries out routine maintenance throughout the day but is noticing more rubbish than usual. He takes great pride in his work, but is only one person on a very large site. We can all do our bit to help him by getting waste in the bins, picking up some strays when we see them and treating our facilities with the same care and respect that he does.

Thanks John, we really appreciate what you do for us!

End of term

Term 1 will conclude at 2.30pm on Friday 4 April. With Easter falling at the end of the break, families are reminded that we return to a short week with two public holidays. The first Monday is Easter Monday and ANZAC Day will fall on the first Friday of Term 2. Although an extended break might be tempting, we encourage everyone to make best efforts to be here for the Tuesday to Wednesday. For families who have a planned absence, please reach out before the term ends so that we can support (some absences can be approved if an absence learning plan is in place).

I hope everyone can hang in there and finish strong before taking a well-earned rest.

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