Preston Life

Chess club checkmates and champions

by Keira Chetty, Year 8 student

2025 has been a fantastic year for the Preston High School chess club, filled with excellence, growth, and plenty of checkmates. 

We held lunchtime practices every Monday, where students not only developed opening, middlegame, and endgame skills, but also built friendships, solved tactics, and supported one another through friendly competition. It has been especially great to see players helping each other improve and prepare for the Northern Star Chess Interschool Competitions.

In Term 2, we competed in a zonal event, with several students qualifying for the Northern Star Chess Secondary Open State Final. In Term 3, we took part in another zonal competition, where students could qualify for the open state final, the girls state final, or both. PHS won this tournament and despite some tough matches, Lewin Blanch (cohort 2027) was the overall winner with a nearly perfect score. 

Consequently, we had a large team represent our school in the open state final, and although we didn’t win any medals, everyone played exceptionally well. 

In the girls' state final, our smaller team of just four players achieved an outstanding result, finishing second overall and Luna Scenna (cohort 2030) took on the Year 7&8 Top Player Trophy.

It has been wonderful to see students improve their skills, compete with enthusiasm, and represent our school with pride this year. 

We look forward to welcoming even more students in 2026, expanding our tournaments, and continuing to build a strong chess community at PHS. We congratulate all chess players for their dedication, sportsmanship, and achievements!

Preston Presents a celebration of our 2025 VCE arts students

Preston High School proudly celebrated our senior creatives during VCE Arts Week 2025, a vibrant showcase spanning subject areas of Media, Art Creative Practice, Visual Communication Design, Music and Drama. 

The week featured a screening of Media films, an evening of Music and Drama performances, and a stunning VCE Arts Exhibition at Darebin Town Hall. Families, friends, and staff came together to recognise the dedication, skill and hard work of our Year 12 students as they presented their final works. 

A memorable celebration of creativity, collaboration, and achievement across our school community. 

A smash Performing Arts 2025 round-up

What a BIG year it has been for Preston High’s Performing Arts community! There have been so many ‘firsts’ this year, and we are joyful and grateful for all that we have accomplished.  

2025 has marked our first year of Year 12s studying Drama and Music Repertoire Performance. We applaud the effort and bravery involved in all our students for their performance exams, and for presenting their work at Preston Presents earlier this term. We also thank these students for the leadership and efforts across their time at Preston – you have paved the way for the Performing Arts department for years to come. Congrats Performing Arts class of 2025: Holly, Nicola, Ava, Chloe, Asher, Stellan, Marcus, Maia, Charlie, Victor and Jasper! 

This year has also been our inaugural year of Junior and Senior Plays for our Preston High Acting Ensembles. After the Senior Play - Exiles - earlier in the year, we experienced the hilarious and crazy Fight With All Your Might The Zombies of Tonight by the Junior School Ensemble at the end of Term 3. With two casts, a dancing zombie apocalypse and a spaceship meteor, a great time was had by all. Many thanks to Ms Ellie, Ms Finlayson and Ms Perkin for their efforts here! 

An exciting part of this year has been our capacity to use C04 as a Theatre. Updated sound, lighting and staging gave us the ability to host many more performing arts events, particularly student led opportunities such as the VCE Music and Drama Performance Nights this term. 

A particular shout out to our student sound, lighting and backstage crews who have supported us so well across this year – Zai, Jess, Tabby, Felix, Lucien, Hazel, Jackie, Viyan,… we appreciate you! 

2025 has been a wonderful time for our Performing Arts students. We hope you have enjoyed the students’ work, and are looking forward to many more Performing Arts opportunities in 2026.  

Preston High School duo say I CAN

The 10th annual I CAN Expo was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, bringing together 400 students to celebrate neurodiversity and build confidence through workshops, talks, and panel discussions. 

A special congratulations to our students Ruben Harwood and Harley Uttering, who bravely ran the Student Panel on Dungeons and Dragons, stepping on stage to share their experiences with the crowd. Their courage and insights made a memorable contribution to the event and inspired their peers. 

Ged Kearney bake sale hits the charity sweet spot

The Ged Kearney Scholars Student Leaders whipped up some serious joy (and sugar highs!) at their bake sale on Tuesday, 25 November. By the time the last crumbs were swept away, they’d raised more than $600  - an incredible effort! A huge thank you to every student and staff member who baked, bought, stirred, sprinkled or taste-tested for the cause.

The queues started forming early, with students eyeing off brownies, cupcakes, honey joys and slices like seasoned pastry critics. Rumour has it the caramel slice sold out in record time and that at least one teacher was spotted doing a strategic lap to secure an extra honey joy “for later”.

To keep the spirit high, students were encouraged to add a pop of orange to their school uniform in support of the UN Women Unite to End Violence Against Women campaign. Between the bake sale and the Compass event, our school community raised more than $2000 - a tremendous contribution to an important cause.

A special icing-topped shout-out to the following students who worked hard to set up the cake stalls and clean up afterwards: Eva Ogrady, Meadow Rodriguez-Butterworth, Audrey Miller, Emma Mai-Lane, Olivia Paktitis, Rosalie Mcconville-Robson, Jess Clarke, Zia Lim, Tabby Rees, Eddie Rees Green, Tess Sinton.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the day such a happy, colourful and sweet success!

Art Enrichment Program 2025 

In 2025, selected Preston High School students across Year 9-11 participated in the Art Enrichment Program, delivered in partnership with Brunswick Secondary College. 

This  initiative extended students’ artistic skills and fostered new connections through shared workshops. Students were invited to join based on strong achievement in their most recent visual art rotation, demonstrating advanced stretch skills and a clear passion for the arts. 

Across the year, students took part in a series of monthly workshops, including specialist life drawing sessions, a monochromatic oil painting workshop with artist Liz Gridley, and a guided gallery visit to Gertrude Contemporary. 

The program concluded with a celebration event where students showcased their portfolio of work to friends and family, reflecting on their learning and growth throughout the year. 

The Art Enrichment Program offered students a unique opportunity to deepen their artistic practice, connect with peers from another school community, and engage with practising artists across a variety of creative experiences. 

Preston students win community art prize

Cohort 2026 were invited to take part in the Coburg Table Tennis Clubs mural competition to design a vibrant entrance artwork for the club on Murray Road. The brief challenged students to reflect the spirit of table tennis, community and inclusivity. 

Congratulations to Blaise Kramer White, who won first place, and Abigail Costi, who placed second for their outstanding designs. 

A reopening was held on Wednesday 8 October, where Paralympian and club member Danni Di Toro presented the prizes. Local MP Anthony Cianflone also attended the celebration. Look out for the new mural appearing soon! Well done Blaise, we can't wait to see your design proudly displayed for our community. What a legacy! 

House updates 

by Alicia Morgan, Cohort 2026, Acacia House 

The House Competitions continued this term with House Theatre Sports that allowed students from every year level to take the stage and showcase their quick wit, teamwork, and acting talent🎭🍿🎬. This event celebrated our school spirit and inclusivity as all year levels with all different ranges of skills were invited to show off their amazing acting skills.🕺💃 

At the time of writing this, Acacia had the lead but there were still opportunities to change the standings. Throughout the year when students get green chronicles they also contribute to House Points, so as our classes round up for the year, try and get some more green chronicles! 💚💜❤️💙 

Kingfisher Carnival 

by Andy Ye, Cohort 2027, Gecko House

Bridging a connection between Cohort2027 and Preston High School’s junior and senior years, the Ada Leaders have worked diligently alongside the Year 10 and Year 8 mentor leaders to collectively design an event which reflects on ‘Legacy’ and represents what Cohort2027 is as a community. Throughout the year, the Cohort2027 mentor leaders have gone through the processes needed to build a whole school event in hopes of bit ecoming long-lasting and leaving a legacy within Preston High School. 

Assisted by Head Of Cohort, the proposal of a Preston High carnival event known as Kingfisher Carnival where students have a time to come together and celebrate their year worth of accomplishments was approved. This approval was not only the most important step, but also the first of many collaborative initiatives.  The mentor leaders worked passionately on the carnival’s logistics during meetings and lunchtimes, promoting the Kingfisher Carnival idea concisely to the students and teachers. Passing the financial checks through the funnel of risk assessments, they created a Preston High School Carnival event completely initiated and run by students (with the supervision of teachers) that is sure to be remembered and leave a legacy.  

Welcome to Preston event

It's been a fantastic first year of high school for Cohort 2030, capped off by hosting the annual Welcome to Preston event for our incoming Cohort 2031 families. 

On the night there was plenty of highlights, including students hosting a ‘get to know your teachers’ stall, slime making, school tours and quizzes, and learning about the languages students will study next year. Cohort 2030 students shared their own highlights from the event, including showcasing their hard work, the musical performances and, of course, the food trucks! 

Through utilising the Design Thinking Process, students learnt the skills of trial and error, seeking and utilising peer feedback, and how to create an inclusive and welcoming environment. 

We cannot wait to welcome Cohort 2030 students back next year, as they transition to being the leaders of the Da Vinci years. We hope they have a wonderful and safe holiday break. 

Bandler Parks crew get physical at Preston Primary

This term in our Bandler Parks unit, our Year 9 students have been exploring meaningful ways to give back to the local community. In class, they have audited the supports available in our area and learned about the wide range of services offered to residents. They’ve also researched volunteer opportunities through Darebin Council, with several students already signing up for positions that allow them to contribute beyond the school gates. 

A standout moment of the program has been watching our Year 9s plan and deliver a PE lesson to the Grade 1 and 2 students at Preston Primary School. Their enthusiasm, patience, and genuine care were evident throughout the sessions. Many of our students commented on how rewarding and enjoyable the experience was, and it was wonderful to see them step confidently into leadership roles. 

Green team  

by Ava Obrien, Cohort 2028, Tawny House 

Recently, the focus of the Green Team has been our 10c cans / bottles recycling project. Our aim is to reduce the amount of litter produced by the Preston High School community. The Container Deposit Scheme can help us generate profits for new H03 sports equipment. We collaborated with the Year 12 VM Students to set up two specific bins around the school for can and bottle collection, as well as publishing a survey for students to select the sports equipment of their preference. 

After the great success of our second-hand uniform stall at the last Welcome to Preston event, we’re planning to run it again. We have also put in an application to receive 180 pollinator plants for next year, as part of our Indigenous Garden Beds 2026 proposal. 

Cohort round-ups: the year that was

Cohort 2029 & 2030

by Amelia Kaszubska, Gecko House and Xavier Riordan, Tawny House

This year was full of lots of amazing experiences for the Year 8s. We kicked off in starting to think about what they wanted to do next year at their Subject Selection Assembly, worked hard in the Junior Play rehearsals and performed brilliantly, and enjoyed several PE sessions while working as a team at GH Mott Reserve. Students also went on a fun Chinatown Excursion with a scavenger hunt and a delicious lunch of fried rice and dumplings! The Year 8s joined important workshops during National Week Against Bullying, and some visited NCAT for a Creative Arts Day. With sports training, table tennis, wellbeing sessions, and helping at the Pathways Expo, Year 8 had a busy and exciting term of learning and lots of fun filled activities.

This Term the Year 7s partook in a bullying prevention incursion, which is a workshop on being safe and kind to one another and had lots of opportunities to get involved in sports such as Futsal, state and regional tennis, netball, basketball, and regional athletics. We thank both Cohort 2029 and 2030 for a wonderful year and wish the incumbent Da Vinci leaders a great 2026. 

Cohort 2028  

by Edie Jiricek, Glider House & Emma John, Acacia House 

In Bandler Parks this term we've done many exciting things like volunteering at Preston Primary School to teach PE lessons to the students. We had a scavenger hunt along High Street to find out more about organisations in our area that provide community services. We also had a incursion from Tony Birch the author of The White Girl, the book we are currently studying in English. This provided many helpful insights into the book and the meaning behind it. Overall, it has been a great term filled with exciting things and a fantastic way to finish off the year. 

Cohort 2027 

by Andy Ye & Felix Griffin, Gecko House  

Cohort 2027 has had an exciting final term of Year 10. Week 2 saw us participate in mock job interviews, to prepare us for any interviews in the future. Those of us doing units 1 and 2 VCE subjects had exams across weeks 6 and 7. Exams, of course, come with a flurry of nerves and much study but congratulations to everyone who completed them! 

The Year 10s also planned the Kingfisher Carnival; a special, carnivalesque event for the junior cohorts to enjoy. In the coming weeks we’ll complete our head start to prepare us all for Year 11 in 2026. 

Cohort 2026  

by Misha Dench, Glider House, Annalise Pingitore, Acacia House & Alejandra Payne Garcia, Tawny House 

As our last-ever term before heading into Year 12, Cohort 2026 has achieved many monumental milestones to close off our first half of VCE and beyond! We've had workshops to remind us of the importance of a positive impact, whilst others taught us valuable skills in the lead up to our exams. Many of us have already began to sit the exams for our Unit 3/4 subjects, concluding a chapter that has lasted nearly two years! 

Preston Presents also marked an amazing opportunity to showcase the incredible, raw talent of our Year 11 Arts students. Ada Day, featuring a scavenger hunt in Melbourne's CBD, will be a chance to celebrate and relax after our exams for Units 1/2, which many teams have already been nabbing extra points for in our daily activities!!

There is so much for us to be proud of as we take the next step to our final year - one that we hope will be marked by many more achievements, celebrations, and festivities as we go on. 

Cohort 2025  

Cohort 2025 is officially FINISHED! It’s been a massive Term 4 for the Year 12 students. In addition to countless revision sessions, the two major highlights of the term were Celebration Day and Graduation Night. Celebration Day was full of energy and laughter, featuring a colour run, obstacle course, and the always-popular dunk tank - giving students the chance to dunk some of their friends and teachers. Graduation Night was held at the Melbourne Town Hall, a stunning venue that provided a fitting backdrop for recognising the achievements of this fantastic group of students. Congratulations to all our Year 12s who completed their VCAA exams and finished the year on such a strong note. It’s been a challenging journey, but one filled with hard work, growth, and well-deserved success. 

Kelly McGrath, Head of Cohort 2025