School News
Do It for Dolly Day
This was an amazing success with VOS thinking of the idea to sell $2.00 cupcakes to raise the money rather than asking for a gold coin donation for wearing blue. A splendid idea!
Some VOS members, the grade 6 captains and some Year 7 students assisted to bake 270 cupcakes the day before. It was an amazing turn out of cakes, then later in the day Ms Cummaudo and Mrs Benn iced all the cakes.
The plan was to stand out on the soccer field at the start of period 4 to be within the boundary of the butterfly shape, but at that very time the rain came down and we all scattered back into our classrooms. Never mind, the good intention was there.
The rain held off at lunchtime, and the primary school students came over to purchase their cupcake. We didn’t quite have enough for every student to purchase one, but we know for next year that we need to bake 100 more!
Thank you to Mrs King, Ms Cummaudo, Ms Dauphin for all cooking the cupcakes and all the students that helped. It was a great team effort, and the support of the community all helped to raise $538. What a splendid effort. All of this will be sent to the Do It For Dolly organisation.
Thank you
Mrs Benn
VOS Coordinator
House Cross Country
This year our students participated in a new cross country course around the school instead of the rail trail. There was a very special rabbit join the course, to welcome the students in the final stages. Well done to those students that finished and are heading to South Gippsland to compete.
Attendance and Absences
If your child is absent from school please advise the school as soon as possible, you can log the absence via COMPASS, email keith.kerstjens@education.vic.gov.au (56679011) or call the school office on 5667 9000.
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club is back for students on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the senior centre. All welcome, a great way to start the day. Thanks to our local Breakfast Club volunteers.
Year 10 Food Technology (Head Chefs)
The Year 10 Food Technology students are learning the ropes to manage a kitchen as part of their studies.
V.O.S. Voice of Students
The Voice of Students Team is a Victorian Wide initiative in all schools to promote student advocacy. Our VOS Students will share their opinions with our Principal Leadership team to help shape projects with a student viewpoint in mind. So far this year the VOS students have contributed to the implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Program, sharing their thoughts from a student perspective, working with the principal class and coordinators to have their opinions heard.
Our VOS members attend regular meetings at lunchtimes, to share ideas and plan events for our college, the most recent was the Colour run event and the Giant Easter raffle, raising $478 in total. Thank you everyone for your contributions, that is a great effort from everybody.
I am excited to be working with our VOS members this year. It is a big team of 18 students, covering each Year level, except year 10. They are a wonderful team of very thoughtful and helpful young adults. They are super keen to implement new ideas. The process to become a VOS representative was through an interview with Mr Williams and Ms Neill and myself. This was a sound process to provide an interview experience like in the real world when you leave school. The students selected, you see here today, were all keen to represent their year level and bring change, listen to your ideas and leave their mark on 2025! When I introduce each student, I will read out their main goal for VOS this year, but mind you, they had many!!
Year 7 representatives
Alex would like to have more lunchtime activities. He has already set up a list of activities that have been circulated to students.
Reagan is hoping to have more arty activities like making a mural that represents our school and its spirits.
Kayla would like to see more active and fun activities, like more clubs for students to connect and relate to each other.
Lilly-Anne would like to bring to our wonderful school Childhood Toy and Spirit week.
Year 8 representatives
Jade is excited to be in VOS, so she can help with the colour run which she did and other events throughout the year.
Jeremy would love our school to have more school camps and more excursions that are based outdoors in the bush and help around town.
Tiana I hopes to achieve things like more school events, World Macaroni Day on the 7th of July and she wants to inspire people around her.
Sandy would like to contribute good ideas that could benefit the school.
Year 9 representative
Alice hopes to bring more education into classrooms about issues in our world, inequality, conflict and injustice.
Year 11 representatives
Molly’s goal for this year is to relook at the school uniform and that everyone is happy with the decisions made.
Taj would like to encourage and increase student feedback by 50% to help VOS plan events.
Lateesha would like to see a lot of students expressing themselves more and participating in events they would not normally participate and just have a go!
Grace would like to improve the comfort of school uniform and raise money for new learning spaces at school.
Year 12 representatives
Eli would like to make the school greener with more plants, connect with the broader community and do volunteer work.
Jacob looks forward to organising and participating in activities that involve everyone for fundraisers, encouraging everyone to be their best self, inside and outside the classroom and creating a safe and enjoyable environment for kids to thrive.
Olivia would like to encourage every single student to use their voice and contribute their ideas, and through this create a place where everyone is included and accepted. By encouraging this inclusion, Olivia hopes it motivates students to become more engaged and have a more positive attitude towards school.
Billy would like to help in student engagement, while raising money for the school to improve our spaces and environment to make the school a more enjoyable place to by adding gardens and student clubs to make connections.
Jada wants to listen to her peers’ ideas whilst also incorporating her own, such as organising engaging activities for students around the school. She would like students to be excited to attend school.
We congratulate you all on your leadership role this year and wish you every success in making your ideas eventuate over the year. It takes a team, collaborative thinking and working together to make things happen.
It also takes organisational skills, to do schoolwork, homework and coordinate the VOS activities. It’s a commitment and a very rewarding one, unique for every project.
Being responsible, reliable and upholding the values of our college TRUST RESPECT PRIDE is all part of being a good VOS representative. We wish you all the VERY best.
Mrs Benn
VOS Coordinator
XSEL - The Resilience Project
School Uniform Review 2025
The School Council have approved school uniform review for 2025. The process has begun with creating a School Uniform Review Panel that will be lead by Ms Burke. The following people have been appointed from our school community;
- School council Representative (President) Tania McConnell
- Student Representatives: Grace Schill and Molly Mills
- Staff Representatives: Petra Hopkins and Chloe Hogg
- Community Representative: Matt Snell
- Parent Representative: Rachel Woodall
The panel has created a separate survey for the following groups of our school community. Students, Parents, Teachers and local community. We encourage you to complete this survey and give feedback about the current uniform and some of the options for potential changes.
Please note that this is your chance to have a voice in the school uniform review, so please take the opportunity to give feedback. The school uniform will not be reviewed again for five years and we value the feedback from all people in our school community.
The link to the survey for parents and students is available on Compass. Teachers will be emailed the link and the community will have access to the link via the school Facebook page.
The survey link will close on the 27th of May.
Year 9 Science
Year 9 Science students are learning about the nervous and endocrine systems and recently completed a brain dissection.
Year 10 Outdoor Education - Sailing Trip
13 Year 10 students went with Mr Davey and Mrs Hogg to Geelong for a three day sailing experience with the Victorian Sailing School. Students learned to operate small three crew boats, with communication and teamwork skills essential for ensuring that the boats did not capsize.
The students completed three sessions of sailing, learning progressively more complex manoeuvres and becoming more confident in the operation of the boats. This included dealing with some strong gusts of wind on Day 2, which nearly resulted in a few capsizes (Mr Davey's boat came close but stayed afloat, to the disappointment of all students except those in his boat).
The students were also taken on a powerboat tour of Geelong harbour in the afternoon on Day 2, when the wind became too strong to safely sail. Dolphins and penguins were also seen, providing some excitement! Students stayed at a local caravan park and were responsible for the upkeep of their cabins and their own meals, some interesting cooking methods were observed. Students also spent time in Torquay touring the surf wear shops. The camp was a great success, with students saying that they were happy they had chosen to attend. Three other Outdoor Education classes will head to Geelong this year for a similar camp.
Community OP Shop Assistance
