Principal's Report
We are coming to the end of a great term and commend our students for their continued effort, application and stamina. Students have been diligently working on completing their examinations, CATS - Common Assessment Tasks, for students in Years 7-10, and SACs School Assessed Coursework and SATS - School Assessed Tasks, for VCE students.
We encourage parents to reflect on the Semester One reports that will be published on the XUNO portal, Friday, 4 July. We celebrate each child’s achievements and progress as well as discuss how they can better address any areas that require further attention for next semester.
On Tuesday 10 June, the Premier Jacinta Allan and the State Member for Box Hill Paul Hamer, visited our school, providing an opportunity to celebrate our fantastic students, dedicated teachers, and staff, and to showcase our great programs and facilities. The Premier particularly enjoyed visiting our STEM Centre, covered outdoor learning area and meeting the students in the Senior Jazz Orchestra, who recently returned from a successful tour of New York. Their visit also gave me the chance to discuss the importance of a much needed Performing Arts Centre at Blackburn High School.
A whole school assembly conducted on Monday 30 June recognised the outstanding student achievements of students in the Senior Jazz Orchestra and their New York tour, and the 60 students who participated in the Generations in Jazz Festival in Mt Gambier.
Pathways and Careers has been a big focus this term with the very popular Careers and Subject Expo held on Wednesday 25 June from 2pm - 4pm in the Gymnasium. A large number of tertiary institutions and universities were present as well as stalls from the Blackburn High School Learning Areas. In addition, on 2 July, we will be conducting the Year 10 subject selection conferences, where each Year 10 student will meet with a member of the school leadership team to discuss their VCE and Pathways options.
On Tuesday 1 July, the new federal member for Menzies, Gabriel Ng, visited Blackburn High School and met with the Principal, students and staff. There was a sense of excitement and anticipation as we discussed the funding of a new Performing Arts Auditorium on our school site.
During the second last week of this term, Year 10 students participated in the Road Smart Program, an evidence-based, highly interactive, road safety education program. It was designed to reflect contemporary, best-practice approaches to road safety education and utilises the latest immersive technology to guide students through a series of experiences that will engage students in thinking about how they can be part of the solution to eliminating road trauma.
All the best to the Dunlop House Team with their fundraiser planned for Thursday 3 July which will feature the new charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). The fundraiser will be led by the Dunlop House Captain, Sasha, the Dunlop Vice Captain Dane, and Ms Shona Perrin, the Dunlop House Leader.
Preparations are in full swing for the Melbourne Robotics Tournament, combining the excitement of sport with the rigours of science and technology, that will be held at Blackburn High School in the gymnasium from 11-13 July. Our Blackburn High School Robotics Team are eager to test our robot 9146 against the other robots.
We congratulate the following students for their notable sporting achievements:
Charlie Year 7 and Austin Year 8 who have qualified to contest the Under 14 Australian Basketball Championships in Perth later in the year.
Tomas Year 7 placed second in the State Orienteering Championships and in September will be competing interstate in Queensland.
Alistair Year 8 placed second in the National Intermediate School Fencing Championships.
The Assistant Principals, Mr Conte, Ms Jenner and Dr Hartley, and I wish the students, families, and staff a safe term break and look forward to seeing everyone back for the start of Term 3 - on Monday, 21 July.
Joanna Alexander
Principal