Assistant Principal's Report
I am excited to welcome you all back for term two!
It's hard to believe that we are already in week four of term and that three absolutely jam-packed weeks have already passed. So far, it has been a really positive start to the term. We have loved watching the way that our students have embraced new challenges.
We began the term with a whole school assembly, where we welcomed new staff members, Mrs Hon, Ms. Walton and Mrs Andrews. We also introduced our positive behaviour focus for the term: Contribute to our inclusive and respectful environment. From there, our year level teams have begun running mini lessons in classes and running some team building activities focused on this expected behaviour.
We also had some students represent the school with pride at ANZAC ceremonies this year. Jaxon Marshall, Kaicee Reid, Declan Collins, Harlan Freeman, Elsie Smith, Aiden Murphy and Felicty Brooks represented our school with pride, laying wreaths at services in Heyfield, Briagolong, Stratford and Maffra. As the recipient of the RSL John Sargent Memorial Scholarship, Jaxon also presented his essay on ‘What ANZAC Day Means to Me’ at the Maffra RSL, which was a beautiful reflection on how ANZAC Day has evolved over time, but is still such an important day for us to reflect and honour the sacrifices of others
Our cross country event was also a huge success in week 2, with many students training for weeks in the lead up to the event. Everyone gave running or walking the track a go, and we currently have over 60 students who will be representing our school at the next round of cross country in Yarram. We are excited to see how they go!
Finally, this term we also had the Australian Education Research Organisation 'AERO' come in for a day to observe and film some of our classes and meetings. We have been working with AERO for the past 18 months to embed explicit teaching into our teaching and learning and are proud of the way that staff and students have embraced these changes. As the first secondary school in Victoria undertaking the two year partnership, we were chosen by AERO to film these demonstrations so that they can be used when implementing these practices in other settings. Later this term, Ms Roep and Mrs Clark will also be presenting alongside AERO at the Victorian State Principals Conference, sharing the work we have done and our key learnings. This is a huge opportunity for our school and a reflection of the hard work of both our staff and students!
With 7 weeks left of the term, we still have lots of different activities ahead, such as interschool sport, mid year exams, work experience, camps and excursions. We look forward to continuing to celebrate our learning and extra curricular activities with you as we progress throughout the term!
Elise Westphalen
Assistant Principal.