Principal's Message
We Grow Through Connection
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
In our first College Newsletter for 2025, I would like to again welcome you all back for what will be another exciting year at Pakenham Secondary College. Our main priority is Student Learning Growth - we will work hard in partnership with families to support our students to further grow and improve their learning.
We have been so pleased with the start of the year. Our students have settled into their learning across their subjects, and they are already accessing our Co-curricular Program. Our students want to do well, and they are proud of our College. They are willing to make the most of the wonderful opportunities that our College Community provides and they are outstanding representatives of our great school. We wish all our students all the very best with their studies in 2025.
We Grow Through Connection. We are proud of our College Motto. It supports everyone to connect and work together to achieve the best outcomes we can for our students and our College Community. There is an outstanding sense of team work at our great school, and this has again been demonstrated by the excellent start to 2025 – great work everyone!
Please be reminded of our College Values. We have our SOAR Values at PSC which guide us in our approach to Teaching and Learning, and to how we support and guide our students more broadly:
Social and Personal Responsibility
Opportunities for All
Achieving Your Personal Best
Respectful Relationships
Of the four SOAR Values, Respectful Relationships will be our focus during Term One.
I again highlight the Four Areas Important to Our College Community – through 2025, we will provide many opportunities to our students in the following areas:
Student Learning Growth and Pathways
Sport
Performing Arts
Student Leadership and Our Community
A special mention is extended to our Year 7 students – they have settled in so well! As a College, we work hard to support our Year 7 students and families with the transition from primary to secondary school, and our year 7 students are to be commended for how well they have started the year. I would also like to acknowledge and welcome several new students from across other year levels that have enrolled with us for the first time in 2025. Finally, I would also like to recognise our Year 12 students – we wish them well across their subjects in their final year of secondary school.
It has already been a very busy start to the year. Beyond our excellent Teaching and Learning Program in the classroom, students have already had access to Interschool Sport, Excursions, our Lunchtime Clubs, our Whole School Assembly and our Swimming Carnival. We are very pleased with how our students are willing to access the co-curricular opportunities provided.
We are continuing with our work relating to An Orderly Learning Environment. We have been really pleased with how students have established a sense of routine with their classes. Students are on time lining up out the front of their classrooms, they are wearing full uniform and having the correct resources with them to support their learning (eg laptops), and they are polite and co-operative, settling into their various classes after some teacher instruction on the learning to be covered for the period. We say ‘well done’ to our students.
We have had several New Staff join our great school this year and already they are having such a positive impact about the College. We welcome our new colleagues to PSC and this Newsletter gives you the opportunity to learn more about some of our new staff.
We are thrilled to learn today that our College Production for 2025 will be Beauty and the Beast. Our students are very excited about the prospect of participating in what will be another first class Production this year – we can not wait to see it!
Pakenham Secondary College Council Election process commenced Monday 10 February, 2025. After completing the process, I am pleased announce the composition of College Council from March, 2025:
Aaron Smith, Kate Logan, Michelle Scheiwiller, Kay Chandler (Department of Education and Training, or DET Representatives)
Wayne Hampton, Jodie Tamblyn, Lauren Leeder, Cheryl Memodovski, Jarni Sewell (Parent Representatives)
Noah Tsui – Po, Libby O (Student Representatives)
We welcome new members to Council in Lauren Leeder and Cheryl Memodovski.
We thank those members of Council who will be leaving Council after our March Meeting (2025) in June Edwards (DET) and Heidi Gilbert (Parent) – we thank them both for their service to our College Community
Our next Meeting of College Council will be March 18, 2025 (5:30pm at the College) and it is on this date and at this time that our Annual General Meeting (AGM) will also be held. If Students, Parents and Carers would like to attend our AGM, please contact the General Office.
Our College Council seeks to involve our College Community (Parents, Staff and Students) in the future planning and direction of the College in terms of further improving student outcomes.
Annual privacy reminder for our school community - Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please read our privacy reminder on our Community News page, as part of this newsletter.
Year 7 Parents and Carers Morning Tea, Thursday 20 March (10am) - if you are a Parent/Carer of a Year 7 student in 2025, you are invited to come along to a special Year 7 Parents and Carers Morning Tea, Thursday 20 March (10am). To register for this special event, please click here.
I mentioned earlier that we had our Whole School Assembly recently (Tu 18 February) and it was a wonderful event. A major theme of the Assembly was to recognise our Student Leaders for this year. Please read on for a list of PSC Student Leaders – we thank our Student Leaders in advance for their work and leadership throughout the year in 2025.
Please be reminded that we have received approximately $11.5 Million in funding to further improve our Buildings and Grounds as part of our Capital Works Program. As a College, we met with the Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA), the Department of Education and Training (DET) and the architects recently to further discuss our Capital Works Program. We can now expect building works to commence at the start of Term Two this year – exciting times for our College.
There is huge interest in our College. Enrolments have surged over the last two years with a net gain of a further 250 students across the year levels. To further demonstrate the huge interest in our College, we have over 250 Year 7 students alone this year. The interest in our College is enormous because of the great results we are achieving in partnership with our families for our students.
2025 will be another big year at our great school. Capital Works and our School Review will feature prominently this year. Importantly though, our main priority is Student Learning Growth, and we will work with families to further the learning outcomes of our students. We thank our families for continuing to work in partnership with us as their ongoing support means so much to our great school.
We are recognised for our strong and regular communications. Please refer to our Weekly Updates, Newsletters, Compass Posts, College Calendar and our Social Media Platforms to continue to keep informed about is what is happening at our College.
We are a great school. There is a real sense of community at Pakenham Secondary College with families and staff working in partnership to further improve student outcomes. I thank our College Community in advance for their support and advocacy of our great school in 2025, and I wish our College Community all the best for what will be another successful year at Pakenham Secondary College – We Grow Through Connection,
Regards
Aaron
Aaron Smith
College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College