Principal's Report
Principal's Report
I am excited to deliver the final Principal report for our newsletter in 2024. The finish to the year has been magnificent and highlighted the wonderful abilities of our Collingwood community. I would like to thank all parents, carers, guardians for their support of our College and their young people throughout 2024. Their achievements and growth are due to your support of our teachers. Here is a summary of some of our fantastic student results.
Wizard of Oz
It was wonderful to see students from Grade 5 right through to Year 12 collaborate to perform the musical - The Wizard of Oz. 6 nights of performances was a huge endeavour and tested their endurance. However, it gave each cast the time to perfect and improve their performance, the Saturday night show was magnificent.
Thank you to Sarah Adams, who has overcome some obstacles throughout the year, to lead and curate this performance. There were many other staff, families and friends of the community that gave of their time to give students the opportunity to
Grade 6 Graduation
The Grade 6 graduation ceremony took place on December 9th. Thanks to all families for attending and making the occasion special. It was wonderful to see students receive their graduation certificates and traditional gift of cordial made from our award winning Kitchen garden.
The students and teachers of Grade 6, delivered a fantastic performance of “Time of Your Life” by Green Day and “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars.
Thank you to Bernice, Claudia and Ben for their teaching, leadership and organisation of this event. We wish all the best for their transition to secondary school.
Year 12 Results
The Wurun Year 12 graduates received their VCE results on 12 December.
We are pleased with our overall results, with a median of 28 and scores of 40+ of 4.5%. This is a large improvement in the median score which was 26 in 2023.
Our ATAR results included 9.6% of students receiving an ATAR above 90% and 21.6% above 80.
The DUX for Wurun Senior Campus is Leo Huang with an ATAR of 97.35. Congratulations to Leo on his achievement.
We also had two students; Alkira Aares and Ella Smith make the Top Arts this year and one student; Sha’Quilla Williams make Top Talks. We are very proud of these students and the amazing work they have done.
In addition to our VCE results we had 28 students successfully complete the Australian Learner Competency Credential for 2024, including our year 12 VM cohort. These students will receive a credential from the Melbourne University with their certificate.
We are pleased with the improvement in our results and congratulate all of our students who received their VCE, VCE VM or VPC certificate last week. We wish them all the best for their next stage of the journey.
Roof works update
We have had further updates from the building team regarding the replacement of the roof. This will not take place during Term 1. A building permit still needs to be issued for the works to be carried out.
There will not need to be any classrooms vacated during Term 1. There may be some noise disruptions in Term 2 and this may provide the need for classrooms to temporarily move during this time. We will be able to update closer to this time.
International students
To our international students community who will return home over the summer holiday break. We wish you all the best and are looking forward to your return in 2025! Thanks to Felicia and the whole international student program team for their work in 2024.
Staffing update
We will be wishing a number of staff all the best for the next part of their teaching journey at the end of 2024.
Alex McDonald
Ben Guest
Dani Tzivakis
Felix Swindale
Rebecca Grimaud
Sarah Powers
We also have a number of staff who are finishing up their time at Collingwood College.
Kristina Smith - Kristina is our current assistant business manager and a wonderful Collingwood College person. Kristina has performed many roles including daily organisation, occupational health and safety and high level financial operations. We will miss her as she takes on the new challenge of Business Manager at Bundoora Primary School.
Tarryn McRae - Tarryn has been the face of Collingwood College for a significant period. Her daily interactions with staff, students and families are phenomenal, her cheerfulness is enough to brighten every interaction. She is the person that you would hear from when first aid incidents occurred, her care and level of attention to every student was amazing. Tarryn is moving to a new challenge at Port Melbourne Primary School. We wish her all the best and know that we will miss her significantly here at Collingwood.
Helga Hornung is also departing. Thanks Helga for all your contributions as well during your period of time at Collingwood.
I would also like to thank Scott Duncan. Scott joined us on secondment during the second half of 2024 as the Primary School Principal. Scott has had an immediate impact on the primary school bringing energy and a fresh point of view on operations. Professional learning communities have been reinvigorated and much of the leadership and direction that Scott has provided will be built upon in 2025. We wish Scott all the best for his return to his home school - Lalor East Primary School.
I would like to advise of the successful appointment of Sormeh Afkari to the Primary School Principal position at Collingwood College, 2025 - 2029.
Sormeh comes back to Collingwood with renewed vigour and clarity for continued improvement in our Primary School years and for Collingwood College as a Prep to Year 12 school. Her strong relationships, understanding of Collingwood and focus on improved learning for all, is why I am so pleased that she has applied and been successfully appointed.
We are so excited to have Sormeh back at Collingwood College. I am sure she will be in touch with the community early next year when she begins her role.
We are also very excited to welcome new teachers who will join us in 2025.
Anna Ephraim - Year 7 Steiner class and English teacher
Callum Blackburn - Grade ⅚
Brenton O’Hoy - Grade 3/4
Daniel Arnott - Year 11 and 12 English, Philosophy and Sociology
Li Zhou - Year 11 and 12 EAL and English, Year 10 Chinese
Swati Singh - Year 11 and 12 Mathematics, VCE Physics
I would like to wish all families a safe and restful summer break. Enjoy the holiday period and we look forward to seeing you all in 2025.
Kind regards,
Chris Millard
Acting Principal
Dear Parents/Carers,
This is gentle reminder regarding our voluntary Family Financial Contributions request for 2024.
Whilst Government funding is provided to every public school to fulfil the standard Victorian curriculum, it is contributions made by parents/carers that help ensure that our can continue to offer the best possible additional opportunities, facilities, and resources to develop to foster student learning and a passion for education.
With your continued financial support, we will be able to achieve this by contributing to the cost of consumables and resources that our students require throughout the 2024 school year. Any financial contributions you make will also assist in the development and maintenance of our school programs, our library and our buildings and grounds.
You can make contributions to the school at any time via Compass course confirmation, located in the top right corner of the Compass Parent Portal. You can also contribute over the phone, or in person at the school office.
If you need any assistance with this, please do not hesitate to contact us at the office by phone 9417 6681 or via email Collingwood.co@education.vic.gov.au
If you have any queries, would like to set up a payment plan or need support for any payments, please contact our Assistant Business Manager Kristina Smith.
Chris Millard
Acting Principal