Principal's Report

Our new House Logos!  

It is with great excitement that we release our new House Logos designed by our students.

Our House Captains had a mission this year to ensure that each house had a mascot and logo as a way to increase student connectedness to their House and the entire school. It was also a great legacy to leave behind once they finish this year, which is what we expect of all our student leaders; to make sure their service to Brentwood helps make their school even better.

The students worked through a process of engaging the entire school community in determining the House Mascots and then a design competition to bring the mascots to life. This resulted in nearly 50 designs for mascots being created. These were short-listed and voted on by student leaders and staff. The winning design was created by Valerie in Year 12, who collaborated with a graphic artist in creating the final designs below.

They are a wonderful representation of each house with an additional logo highlighting that our four Houses are what connects students to Brentwood. I would like to congratulate and thank our student leaders for their vision and efforts in seeing their idea come to fruition. Well done!

Term 3 Community Week:

The final week of Term 3 has seen our student leaders in action. The theme of the week has been C.A.R.E.S (Community, Acceptance, Resilience, Empowerment and Spirit). Each day this week our leaders are running activities for students to participate in at lunchtimes. These have included our leaders have led a range of activities: 

I would like to acknowledge all the student leaders who have worked hard over the course of this term to bring the community week together. They have worked collaboratively at lunchtimes and outside of classes with great support from our Director of Student Leadership, Bianca Saathoff and a number of other staff. Congratulations on a great start to the week. I am sure there will be a more detailed report in the first newsletter in Term 4.

One of our year 8 students deserves a special mention. David demonstrated great initiative and care by raising funds to support the International Elephant Foundation. David wrote a detailed proposal to the school leadership and arranged a stall selling various baked goods and his own artwork. A terrific example of both student voice and agency by David!

Student Voice:

In addition to our Community Week, students have been contributing to helping make our school even better both in and out of the classroom. As reported in our last newsletter, students were participating in ‘PIVOT Surveys’ which provide feedback to their teachers about their learning experiences. This has given teachers feedback and an opportunity to make further adjustments to enhance student learning. In doing so, teachers share the results of each class and lead a learning activity where students and teachers identify aspects of the class that are working well and changes that could make the class even better. 

In terms of the whole school. Here is a snapshot of the student feedback: 

The figures above are based on all student surveys conducted across all year levels and subjects. Students respond to a number of statements on a six-point scale with 6 being the highest score. Once again, these results are very positive and consistent with previous surveys. However, one notable difference from semester 1 is an increase in all the areas for conversation. This is a great result as staff have been working hard with students implementing our Lesson Framework and Student Learner model over recent months. 

Over the past week members of the Principal Team, Leadership Team and staff have been conducting forums with students in Years 7 -11. These have been very informative, and we look forward to providing a detailed report early in Term 4. I would like to thank all of the teachers and students involved for their time and commitment to helping continually improve the learning environment at Brentwood.  

Thank you Mr B! 

I would like to congratulate Joel Batalha who has been appointed to the Assistant Principal role at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Joel has been a teacher and leader at Brentwood for 20 years and had a significant impact on our school. On behalf of the College Community, I would like to thank him for his dedication and passion for our students, performing arts and most of all the Brentwood community. Joel has been the driving force behind our college musicals and performing arts program for many years and I have no doubt he will take the performing arts program at his new school to new heights. We wish Joel all the very best and thank him for his incredible service to our school; his impact has been significant and will be long lasting. Thank you!

Good luck to the Year 12’s

This week our Year 12’s finished their coursework for their Unit 4 subjects. This has seen students complete their last ever SAC (school assessed coursework)…. this will be one of many ‘lasts’ over the coming weeks as students have their last class, last assembly, last exam etc. We wish them all the best over the coming weeks as they prepare for their practice exams over the holidays and study for the formal examination period starting in October after the Valedictory on Friday October 14. 

John Ballagh

Principal