From the Principal's Desk

 Mid Term Update

We are now well and truly into term 3 with only 3 weeks remaining before the September break. While there continues to be outstanding teaching and learning taking place within the classroom there is much that is being provided for our students beyond the classroom learning and I thank teachers for the rich and diverse co-curricular activities available to students. As always, I encourage students to capitalise on these opportunities as they add much to the learning experience. 

In recent weeks we have seen students participate in a variety of inter-school sport, numerous classroom excursions, rehearsals for the school production of ‘Grease, Rugby matches, a range of Wellbeing Activities, the Be Bold Be Heard program, the Geelong Tertiary Futures Program, Morrisby interviews and of course celebrating wear it purple day with a free-dress day with lunchtime activities and celebrations.

 Year 12 students, and others who are currently studying senior VCE, are very quickly reaching the end of Unit 4 and are faced with the challenge of actively revising key learning from Unit 3, as they complete their classwork and the learning associated with Unit 4, to ensure they are well prepared for the final written examinations in October and November. With only 5 weeks of normal timetabled classes remaining, this is going to pass quickly, and it is certainly very timely to be preparing for the examinations now by embedding the content from Unit 3 that will be examined. 

The upcoming September school break is going to be a wonderful opportunity for this work to continue as we provide  students with a chance to recharge while also continuing their study. We will release a schedule of practice exam sessions and structured subject specific revision sessions to take place on school grounds over the school break in the coming weeks. 

Students studying a Unit 3&4 subject/s will be strongly encouraged to attend to best prepare for the final examinations. 

VCE-VM students are actively seeking to provide both classroom and practical evidence that they have met learning outcomes required to gain their VCE-VM certificate. It is a busy time, but time is passing. I write of this now as there is much advantage in approaching the coming weeks with a very clear plan to ensure students achieve their best possible outcomes and can meet the requirements for further study or employment. 

We are all very excited to see the production of ‘Grease’ next week on Friday and Saturday evenings, the students and staff have done such a terrific job in preparing for this. Tickets can still be purchased  https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1450910 

I would like to acknowledge Jordan Ellis’s incredible achievement of making the U18 Australian Baseball Team. Jordan will be competing at the World Baseball Cup in Japan, which can be watched online, details below. 

Lastly it has been brilliant to have students from our Indonesian sister school, Sekolah Alam Cikeas. It has been a fantastic learning experience for both schools, providing an opportunity look at differences in schooling and culture in both countries and to celebrate the many similarities.  We look forward to continuing to further grow the partnership between the two schools ahead of our next visit to Indonesia and Sekola Alam Cikeas in September next year. 

Student Collection and Car Park Access  

Thank you to families who have been communicating with us about student absences. We greatly appreciate this and have been working hard to ensure that students are at school as much as possible. Research confirms that there is a strong correlation between students attendance and their social and academic outcomes. All students should be aiming for a minimum of 95% throughout. 

Finally, I would like to again remind families of when they are picking students up during the school day that to minimise disruptions to learning, we kindly ask that student pick-ups be scheduled during our break times to allow continuity of learning. Wherever possible it is best if students know what time they will be picked up. If you do need to collect your child during class time we will not make unnecessary calls to classrooms, as we do not want to disrupt the learning of all students. 

Please see our break times below:

Recess: 10:14-10:35am

Changeover between session 2 & 3: 11:49-11:55am

Lunch: 1:09- 1:50pm

I would also like to give a friendly reminder to please drop off students to school outside of the school gates, the carpark next to the school can be an excellent spot for this. We have experienced issues of congestion in our staff carpark.

 Thank you for your assistance with this. 

Luke Skewes

Principal