Principal's Message

We Grow Through Connection

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our first Newsletter for Term 4.  It has been a busy start to the term with students settling into their learning across their subjects, together with accessing the many co-curricular opportunities provided; we have been happy with what has been a successful start to Term Four.

Please be reminded that we as a College continue to provide high quality opportunities in the areas important to our College Community: 

• Learning Growth Across all Learning Areas 
• Sport 
• The Performing Arts 
• Student Leadership and Our Community 

Our School Wide Positive Behaviour theme for this term is to ‘Be The Best That You Can Be’.  We have shared and reinforced this theme with students at Sub School Assemblies and in the classroom.  We have explained the following to students in terms of how they can demonstrate this theme throughout Term Four:

• Showing high rates of school attendance and getting to class on time 
• Being in full school uniform and being prepared for all classes (including bringing along a charged laptop to every class) 
• Completing all set work and submitting it on time 
• Using their class-time effectively and continuing to be respectful to others 

We acknowledged the Class of 2024 in a special Year 12 Farewell Assembly earlier in the week (Tuesday 22 October).  Many of our families were also in attendance to farewell our Year 12 students after thirteen years of primary and secondary education.  The Assembly was a tremendous success and we thank our staff for organising this special event on behalf of our College Community.

We are proud of our Year 12 students and what they have achieved at our great school over an extended period of time – the Class of 2024 have left a positive mark on the Pakenham Secondary College Community.  We thank our Year 12 students for their wonderful contribution to our great school, including Year 12 College Leaders in Jemma Kendall and Holly Falkingham (College Captains), Grace Groves (College Vice Captain) and Indigo James (SRC Leader).   We also thank the Senior Sub School Team (Ms. Jo-Anne Duggan – Leading Teacher, Mr. Brad Matthews - Year 12 Team Leader, Ms. Alexandra Goodie - Year 11 Team Leader) and Year 12 Teachers throughout the year for all of their hard work in supporting our Year 12 students in 2024.  We wish those Year 12 students about to embark on the VCE Exams all the best of luck, and we wish the Class of 2024 every success with their future endeavours.

As per my PSC Community Post on Compass recently (18 October), I made mention of Student Leadership being incredibly important at our great school.  After working through a process, we are pleased to announce that our College Captains for 2025 will be:

Katie Brooks – College Captain

Gurleen Kaur – College Captain

Dylan Purvis – College Vice Captain

We congratulate Katie, Gurleen and Dylan on their appointments - they will all be outstanding student leadership representatives of our great school.  The process to appoint further student leaders for 2025 will continue over the coming weeks.

We continue to make improvements with our Buildings and Grounds with some recent works during the Term Four school holiday break really adding to the appearance and operations of the College.  For example:

• we now have new carpet in the Senior School
• new flooring in the B Block Bathrooms
• more painting has been completed throughout the College
• some minor maintenance of the College Building and Grounds

Our Year 7 Enrolments for 2025 currently sit at approximately 240.  Whilst this number is subject to change over the coming weeks and months, we should be very pleased with the level of interest in our College from the Community. Given the outstanding outcomes we are achieving for our students, we are increasingly being seen by families as the secondary school of choice in the local area.

We welcomed back a number of our past students to Pakenham Secondary College to help celebrate their PSC 50 Year Reunion.  We held a Tour of the College last Sunday (20 October) which helped our alumni in attendance to reminisce about yesteryear.  It was wonderful to see past students recount so many of their positive experiences and memories of their time at Pakenham Secondary College – their Reunion was a fabulous success!

Please be reminded of arrangements in and around the Melbourne Cup Weekend as per a recent PSC Community Post on Compass (18 October) – please see below:

• Monday 4 November – we will be running an alternative program on this day given that many families choose to use this day to extend their family holiday commitments.  It is noted that the student attendance on this day in years previous is very low.
• Tuesday 5 November – Melbourne Cup Day Public Holiday
• Wednesday 6 November – Student Free Day to allow staff time to plan, and assess and report on student progress

World Teachers Day today (Friday 25 October) and we recognise and thank our teaching staff for all of their hard work in best supporting our students. Our Teaching Staff are incredibly committed to further improving the outcomes of our students and we are very appreciative of everything that they do to support our students in the classroom and with co-curricular activities at the College – a very happy World Teachers Day to all of our Teaching Staff.

The coming weeks are incredibly busy.  Students will be working through their learning and key assessments in the classroom, and Exam Periods (commencing today with our current Year 10 and 11 students, 25 October), Headstart Programs and Co-curricular Activities all figure prominently on the College Calendar.  We thank our families for working so well with us as a College in best supporting our students.

We continue to have high standards for our students.  We want to see our students do well with their learning and participation at our great school.  We remain committed to learning growth where quality relationships, catering for individual difference and high - quality teaching practice can provide improved student outcomes.   

As per our Motto, ‘We Grow Though Connection’, we can all grow and improve through the positive connections we have with others. Importantly, Learning Growth is Our Priority and we will do all we can to work with families to further improve student outcomes across learning areas within the College – this is the work; be sure to have a great weekend everyone,

Regards,

Aaron

Aaron Smith

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College