Principal Report  

Term 3

After a very busy Semester 1, we have returned in Term 3 and hit the ground running. We began the term by hosting students and staff from our sister school in Japan-Matsudo Municipal High School, or as it known locally as Ichimatsu. This annual exchange sees our students both developing their language skills in Japanese, and developing friendships, connections and relationships with students and staff in a global context. Please see the page in this newsletter with more details of this year's exchange. 

We hosted our Semester 1 Academic Excellence and Endeavour Award ceremony in Week 2, which acknowledged students for their hard work and achievement in their academic studies in Semester 1. Click this link to go directly to this page on the newsletter. We have seen many teams representing the College on the sporting fields, as well as in other events such as Chess and Debating. We have again won the District/Zone championship for the Northern Star Chess Zone Championship and have progressed to the regional tournament, and our Year 9 Debating teams experienced outstanding success in their first year back in the DAV Ringwood/Eastern Melbourne competition. Our Year 9 team went through the competition undefeated but unfortunately lost by a point in the final while our Year 8 team, competing in the Year 9 competition, finished in the top 10 in a 24-team competition. 

We have seen two of our feature tours to Mt Buller with the Snow tour and the Central Australia tour for Year 10 and 11 students, so please visit the Koonung on Tour page of this newsletter for more information. We have completed parent information nights, subject selections and course counselling as part of our Pathways Planning with students in Years 8 to 11 and we have seen three timetable changes this term as we moved into our new buildings. Of course we can't forget our amazing run of Mamma Mia in our annual KSC musical. Please see the musical page in this newsletter for photos and more information.  The first month of this term has been very busy!

We look forward to inviting you into our new spaces at this week's Student/Parent and Teacher conferences. 

NAPLAN Results

Every year in all Australian schools, students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 undertake the NAPLAN. NAPLAN is a series of test to identify student proficiency against the domains of reading, writing, numeracy, spelling and punctuation/grammar. The test is a snapshot- that is, it occurs at a point in time rather than as a developmental piece of assessment. While the overall value of the NAPLAN test is debated across the media and in schools, at Koonung we use the NAPLAN test and its results for individual students to refine both our teaching and learning program in Literacy and Numeracy, as well as providing targeted support to students who are both above and below National standards. It is seen as a diagnostic tool to support students in their development of the key 21st Century skills of Literacy and Numeracy.

The NAPLAN is not designed as a comparative tool to measure schools against each other. It is a tool that we use at Koonung to assess our program in Literacy and numeracy, and to support students to develop the foundational skills required to support them in their pathways learning in Years 9 to 12.

Having said that, it is also important to feedback to our community the performance of our students in these 'snapshot' assessments. 

The key measure for secondary schools is with Year 9 students. The achievement of our Year 9 students in the NAPLAN in 2026 has been exceptional. We are particularly proud of their performance in the field of writing, with our students performing well above similar, network and all schools in Victoria. 

Similarly, our students continue to excel in Numeracy and Mathematics. Our students are again higher when compared to similar schools, network schools and all schools in the state. 

Our students achievement in Reading is again exceptionally strong, the equal of similar and network schools and again above state. However, we know that there is further improvement in our approach to the teaching of reading skills, and we are currently engaging in cycles of whole staff learning in Literacy in addition to hiring extra staff to support students with their Literacy development. 

Further data has become available to schools which is designed to measure the growth in learning for students after the NAPLAN and is measured by VCE achievement against the starting point of NAPLAN. This data looks at our Year 9 NAPLAN achievement in comparison to the the matched cohort's achievement in VCE. We are exceptionally proud of the achievement and growth in achievement of our students. Below are the three graphs measuring Reading, Writing and Numeracy and performance of our students from Year 9 to Year 12. 

Rebuild Koonung and the College Master Plan

In a previous newsletter I posted about our College's Concept Master Plan. 

You will have also seen the amazing advocacy of Koonung by a local community group called 'Rebuild Koonung'. This group of parents and wider community members is keen to support our goal of a complete rebuild of Koonung Secondary College and they have developed a community website to gather support and petition local, state and federal politicians. 

Here is a link to their community website and please check out the Rebuild Koonung page in this newsletter

What is in the College 'Concept' Master Plan?

1. Our current Stadium converting to a Performing Arts space with a 300+ seat theatre. Work will begin in September/October in transforming the facade of the JD Stove Koonung Centre (the official name of our stadium) and upgrading access with new stairs, ramps and an internal elevator. 

2.  Middle Years building- now completed

3. A 3 Story STEAM Centre. The next stage in our rebuild is a modern centre for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. The STEAM subjects are booming at Koonung, and we need facilities to match our exceptional programs.

4. A new Senior School building

5. Community Sports Centre- a three court indoor stadium to support our program, and community sport including basketball, badminton, volleyball and other sports in our area. 

Below is an image of the Concept Master Plan. 

Please note that this plan is not funded- it is a plan for our future. The work of 'Rebuild Koonung' is to advocate for that funding. 

Please check out the Rebuild Koonung site for more information. 

Building Works- Stage 1C completed!

Well, it may have taken 7 and a half years, but our Stage 1 Middle Years Building and Administration has finally been completed! In 2019 Koonung received $6.05 million to create a new Middle Years building and Administration with the front entrance on Box Hill Crescent. Unfortunately, COVID dramatically impacted the project, and we received a further $8.9 million in 2023 to complete the project. With the extra funding, we have been able to increase the footprint of the building and have 14 classrooms, two new staff spaces, and auditorium, two sets of student toilets, a flexible multi-purpose Science and Technology learning space, flexible learning spaces, outdoor seating and landscaping and a new carpark for the school and community use. 

We are exceptionally pleased to now be learning in our new spaces and for access to the College to be returned to normal. The spaces are warm, inviting and fully focused on supporting the Koonung approach to learning in discrete classrooms with lots of soundproof visible glass. We are also very excited that a package of additional works will begin in September/October in modernising the facade of the Stadium, providing modern accessibility with new ramps and stairs, more outdoor undercover spaces and a new foyer and performing arts learning space inside adjacent to the theatre. This project has a scheduled finishing date of Term 3 2027.

Here are some photos of our new learning spaces. 

New and returning staff

We welcome to Koonung three new staff members in Term 3 and also welcome back staff returning from family leave. Welcome to Ms Becky Reynolds, who is employed in a new role as Literacy Support Officer, Mr Simon O'Brien in the HPE team and as Sports Coordinator and Counsellor Ms Grace Paine. We also welcome back from family leave Ms Stephanie Goto.

College social media channels 

The College utilises social media to provide quick updates, interesting events, and lots of photos to our community.  We have one official Facebook page and three Instagram pages for members of our community to follow. 

FACEBOOK

OFFICIAL COLLEGE ACCOUNT

https://www.facebook.com/koonungsecondarycollege/

INSTAGRAM

OFFICIAL COLLEGE ACCOUNT

https://www.instagram.com/koonung.secondary.college/

LIBRARY ACCOUNT 

https://www.instagram.com/ksclibrary/

STUDENT LEADERS ACCOUNT

https://www.instagram.com/koonung_secondary_college/

ALUMNI PROGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

The Koonung Secondary College alumni program utilises social media to stay connected with alumni. 

FOLLOW THE ALUMNI PROGRAM ON SOCIALS.

Andrew McNeil

Principal

andrew.mcneil@education.vic.gov.au