Principal Update

There's no doubt been a collective sigh of relief across the Year 7 and Year 9 cohorts as they've now completed NAPLAN.  The results are just one aspect of analysing student capability and progress and assist in determining where support is required to increase, maintain and/or extend individual achievement.  A big thank you must go out to our Junior School team for the considered and attentive manner in which the NAPLAN testing schedule was managed, and to the students for the way in which they approached the tests.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of formally investing our 2025 College Captains, House Captains and Student Representative Council, as well as presenting our Year 7 scholarship recipients at the annual College Investiture Evening. It's always a proud and happy occasion on the school calendar for all involved, and it's wonderful to see so many students opting to take on leadership roles within the school.  I look forward to seeing what they achieve throughout this year.

We've seen a number of excursions and incursions occur over the last few weeks including our VCE-VM students heading to the Melbourne Grand Prix, our Yr 12 Drama students attending the Top Class showcase which provides them the opportunity to view the highest scoring Drama exams from 2024, our Yr 7 and Yr 8 students participating in the Brainstorm incursion.  Further, as you can read a little later in this edition, the SongMakers incursion that our VET Music students participated in saw them create and produce original pieces of music!

Additionally, Yr 11 and Yr 12 Outdoor Education students have had some pretty amazing experiences as they headed out on camps to the Great Ocean Road Hike and Bogong High Plains respectively.

In the area of sports, I'm thrilled to advise that the team who recently competed in the Western Ranges Swimming Carnival, came away Division Champions!  The team scored 492 points to take out first place, ahead of Sunbury Downs on 477 points and Sunbury College on 382.  There were a number of notable individual and team performances from the day, including PJ E, Isabelle K, Ben J and Oliver G who all had individual wins and Charlotte B who entered 6 events and won all 6!  The following teams also took out 1st place blue ribbons – 4 x 50m male open medley relay, 4 x 50m 16 y/old male medley relay, 4 x 50m 17 y/old relay and 4 x 50m 20 y/old female relay.  Asher V and Anna T must be acknowledged for their work on the day supporting the team and undertaking marshalling duties. Thanks also to the staff who supported the team on the day – Nathan Mills, Karissa Sexton and Janette Greed.  A wonderful achievement for the school.

On Friday last week, we had the honour of the Honourable Mary-Anne Thomas MP visiting the school for the official turning of the sod on stage 2 of our Capital Works program which will see the delivery of our new Trades Hub.  The event also included the official opening of the new Administration Building and Wellbeing Centre.  It was a wonderful occasion where we were joined by our Stage 1 builders, Monaco Hickey; Stage 2 Builders Raysett; Stage 1 and 2 Architects: Kosloff, as well as VSBA/DET representatives, and local representatives from Lions Club, Gisborne Community Bank, Gisborne Gazette, Sunbury Cobaw Health, Gisborne Proactive Policing Unit, School Council members, amongst others.

Photo credit: Kate-Ida Lee and Georgia Garvey

As we approach the final weeks of the term there's a couple of items of note for our school community.  In Week 10, the final week of the term, we will hold our first Parent/Teacher Conferences for the year.  Detailed communication will be sent to families next week when the booking system opens, and I encourage you to take up the opportunity to meet with your child/rens teachers to discuss their progress and build on the important relationship that is strong communication between home and school.  Progress reports will be published mid next week in order to further support you in determining those teachers that you might like to prioritise booking an appointment with.  Thursday 3rd April 2025 will be a student free day in lieu of the conferences.

Finally, I would like to let our school community know that we will be commemorating ANZAC Day with our whole-school assembly on Thursday 24th April which is Week 1 of Term 2.  Additionally, the school will be represented at both the Mt Macedon ANZAC Day Dawn Service and Gisborne ANZAC Day Service.  All are very special occasions on our school calendar, and I look forward to sharing further details about these events next term.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

Principal