Principal Update
Womin Djeka – Hello and welcome to our first edition of the ‘THE WESTERN PORT WORD’ which will continue to provide our community with a range of updates throughout the year.
As we wrap up a fantastic first term, I want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible achievements, events, and community spirit that have shaped the beginning of 2025 at our school.
Our school values — Community, Achievement, Respect, and Engagement —are at the heart of everything we do. A special congratulations to all students who have received Term 1 ‘Best and Carerest’ Awards across year levels for their dedication to embodying our CARE values in all that they do.
It has been inspiring to see our 2025 School Captains Jenna Chalkitis and Marcus Harwood along with and Vice Captains Hala Riyad and Rory Kingdon leading by example, demonstrating excellence in both learning and participation in school life.
Our Year 7 students have transitioned smoothly into our school community and their new Year 7 Hub, embracing the opportunities that come with joining the Western Port family.
We have kicked off the year with several wonderful events that have strengthened our culture of engagement and connectedness. Notably, we hosted the Koorie Emerging Leaders in Schools (KELiS) event, in which a significant number of our Koorie students took the lead in hosting 13 Secondary Schools and many VIPs. This level of self determination was incredibly inspiring and further speaks to the strong identity, connectedness and pride our students have.
Our annual Women of Western Port International Women's Day event reached new heights this year, with an outstanding panel of women and men from various sectors engaging in meaningful discussions on breaking down barriers, challenging stereotypes, and paving the way to true equality.
The 2025 College Open Night was another very successful event with large numbers of Primary School families attending to see our very deliberate approaches to teaching and learning along with our amazing facilities. Of particular interest was our direction in the Science of Learning including our Classroom Mastery program which creates consistent predictable routines and automaticity for our students while reducing cognitive load. This annual event reinforced that we continue to build our profile as a school of choice for our community which is something that we are all very proud to share.
In the sporting arena, our students continue to excel, proudly representing our school at interschool, district, and state-level competitions. A huge thank you to our Sport Coordinator, Jamie Henaghen, whose leadership has seen our students and staff secure an impressive five pennants so far which is our highest total in a single term for many years!
As we look ahead, a reminder that Conferences will take place at the beginning of Term 2:
Tuesday, 22 April – Student-free day with onsite conferences from 11:30 am to 6:00 pm.
Wednesday, 23 April – Online conferences available from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
Lastly, our school leadership team is again inviting your feedback on our focus with
improving curriculum and building and fostering a safe, orderly and engaging learning environment through Classroom Mastery and Science of Learning.
Please assist us by filling out this short survey to help our team track our progress.
Link to the survey here.
I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Easter break with your family and friends. We look forward to welcoming our students back to normal classes on Wednesday, 23 April.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Quinn
Principal