Principal's Report

School Leaders 2025

It is with great excitement we introduce to you our 2025 School Leaders, Scarlett Harrison (Year 11, Skipper House) and Will Egan (Year 11, Toner House). Will and Scarlett will be joined by other members of the Student Voice and Leadership Team, who we look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks.

Thank you to the Senior School Team and Members of Principal's Advisory Group who participated in the interview process. 

Congratulations, Scarlett and Will. We wish you both all the very best as you take on these important roles in Student Leadership and we look forward to your leadership of the student body in 2025.

I also congratulate all the other candidates who were part of the process for 2025 and remind them that leadership isn’t always about the badge, but about the way we live the School Values day-to-day and how we lead those around us to do the same. 

The concept of “Leadership Without the Badge” at Eltham High School is of equal value and importance to the leadership roles identified through the formal Student Leadership structure.

Part of the responsibility that Will and Scarlett will have in 2025 is to identify the day-to-day interactions of our students that clearly align with the concept of “Leadership Without the Badge” and recognise these students for their achievements.

I take this opportunity to thank Nadia Devlin (Student Agency and Growth Leader) for her work in overseeing the Student Leadership process and for her continued work in this sphere.                     

Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024

The Eltham High School Council submission to the Senate Education and Employment Committee was sent off on 23 October. A copy of the submission was sent to our local Federal Member the Hon Kate Thwaites MP. The School Council received the following response from Kate Thwaites.

“Dear Eltham High School Council members

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your views with me on the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024.

And thank you for the work you do to support Eltham High School. 

I assure you that I support and value the work of all public schools in our community and am committed to ensuring every child has access to quality education. 

I have written to the Minister for Education to raise your concerns directly with him and will share his response with you in due course. 

In the meantime, I have attached for your information a letter the Minister recently sent to Victorian peak education bodies. 

Thanks again contacting me on this important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Kate

The Hon. Kate Thwaites MP

Federal Member for Jagajaga

Assistant Minister for Social Security  |  Assistant Minister for Ageing  |  Assistant Minister for Women”

The letter from the Federal Education Minister that Kate refers to is presented to you in the Community Announcements section of this Newsletter. Irrespective of what is outlined in this letter, the fact remains that if the Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 goes through, it will not provide a legislated guarantee of more than 20% of the SRS (School Resource Standard). However, it will set the minimum federal contribution to 20% meaning that even if one government contributes more than 20% a new government coming into power is only obliged to meet the minimum contribution which could potentially result in a cut in public school funding. The minimum federal contribution must be set at 25% SRS.

I take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Eltham High School Council who contributed to the writing of the submission. A volunteers, they put their heads together and through the submission represented our school and community in an admirable way. Furthermore, I wish to thank anyone else in our community who did take the time to write to Kate Thwaites on the behalf of all the young people in public schools.

Arts and technology Exhibition

I take this opportunity to extend a warm invitation to all members of our school and wider community to the 2024 Arts and Technology Exhibition, which will open on the evening of Tuesday 19 November. Preview from 6:00pm and formal proceeding at 7:00pm. Come and be part of the celebration of the creativity of our students and our staff. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Year 12 Exams

The Year 12 exams are in full swing with some students already having completed all exams, whilst others have at least another week to go. Year 11 exams are also on the way and should be completed before the end of this week with Year 10 exams to follow and then Year 9.

Courses have been published for the students and Year 12 Head start program (two weeks) will begin shortly followed by the Year 11 Headstart program (one week). The teachers taking the Year 12 classes will be the designated teachers for 2025, whereas for the Year 11 students it is the current teacher of the subject delivering these classes.

All the planning for the end of the year is going well and we are hopeful that we will have a fully staffed school for the start of 2025.

School Review 2025

As mentioned in a previous edition of this newsletter, Eltham High School will be undertaking a School Review towards the end of Term 1, 2025. The Review will involve a pre-review self evaluation of the school’s achievements over the life of the current School Strategic Plan (2021-2024); identification of the work that the school will continue with in the next four years; the development of the new School Strategic Plan detailing the goals, targets and key improvement strategies (KIS) that will support us to work toward the achievement of the set goals. 

Alongside this, the school will be reviewed in terms of its legislative requirements for continued registration as an education provider as assess through the VRQA (Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority). This latter work is almost complete, and I am very confident that we have met all of the legislative requirements.

We are currently undertaking the Pre-Review Self Evaluation (PRSE). The members of the school leadership team are all working on this and consulting with staff, students and where relevant, parents/carers. The School Council have been briefed on the process and on its responsibility and the Planning and Policy Review Team of the School Council will be consulted through this stage of the process.

The tentative dates for the review are 12, 14, 28 and 31 March 2025. 

The School Review will be led by the assigned Reviewer Lucy Glover from an organisation called VALAD Solutions in collaboration with the Review Panel which will consist of the principal, relevant staff, students, a representative of the School Council and two Challenge partners (usually principial class officers from other schools that the principal will invite).

The Review is divided into 

Day 1: Validation Day

Days 2 & 3: Field Days 

Day 4: Panel Day - Summation of the review and Identification of Gaols, KIS and Targets for the next School Strategic Plan 2025-2028.

Validation day will be spent looking at the goals and targets of the current School Strategic Plan and making some judgements as to whether the goals and targets have been met. Identifying the enablers and the barriers to achieving the set targets and goals.

The field days will include a number of classroom observations as well as meetings/conversations/ discussions with key members of the school Community including student groups, parent group, staff groups, past student group, and a community group. This will hopefully provide a rich summation of Eltham High School as a learning community.

The Panel day is set aside to sum up the school performance of the past four years and set the new goals, KIS and targets for the next School Strategic Plan.

The process is one of discovery as well as affirmation of the great work that takes place in a rich learning community as Eltham High School.

Update on the STEAM CENTRE Building

The project has now gone out to tender. We have had a number of contractors visiting the school to get a sense of the landscape of the school and the location of the new STEAM Centre. As I said previously, fingers crosses that the costing will come in within budget and we will not need to exercise the tender options strategy. Tenders are to close soon and we will then have a better understanding of how we can move forward.

This is a very exciting project and we look forward to seeing the build start. We envisage minimum disruption during the construction period as we will have access to all school facilities including the current Science Centre which will only be demolished post the completion of the new STEAM Centre. The Ely Street relocatable buildings will be repositioned near the others on the back oval making them fully available for classes from the start of 2025.

A digital tour of the architects’ view of what the building will look like will be available on the school website soon. I will inform you through compass Newsfeed when this is posted.

Pat Cronin Foundation Be Wise Education

The celebration of the quarter of a million Australian high school students who have so far taken part in the “Be Wise Education program”, which took place at Eltham High School, has been published in the Education Matters - Secondary Journal (October-December edition).

Our students are feature in the article, which outlines the amazing milestone of the program and the benefit that young people have gained from the tragedy that occurred for the Cronin family. 

Pat Cronin will be remembered for a very long time. The foundation named after Pat and the programs that it runs has helped and continues to help young people both within and beyond our community.

Student Safety at the Start and End of The School Day

I once again take the opportunity to remind parents/carers of the importance of obeying road rules all the time and especially in the vicinity of the school. I ask you all to be cautious around the children’s crossing and to always follow the guidance provided by the crossing supervisor.

It is important that you are constantly vigilant, watching for students whilst driving on Withers Way and Susan Street during peak times (8:30 – 9:00am and 3:00 – 3:30pm) and adhere to the speed limit.

I also remind you that the front of the administration building is a “No Standing” area during peak times; and you cannot queue there prior to pick-up. If you arrive early and your child is not standing at your pickup point you are required to drive through the circular drive and enter as many times as needed until your child is there for pick up.

If you have been fortunate to find a parking spot when entering the circular drive, we ask that you reverse park as this will reduce the risk of colliding with a student on their way out of the school as well as with other cars. 

It would also be reasonable and sensible for you to reverse park in the parking bays at the front of the school as this will reduce the risk of you backing out onto oncoming traffic when you leave.

Signage already exists in front of the administration area about it being a “No Standing” zone between 8:00 - 10:00am and 2:00 - 4:00pm. We are looking at installing additional signage reminding parents/carers to reverse park.

Please be aware that if these measures do not improve safety for our students especially at peak times we will engage with local authorities (Victoria Police and/or Council) to discuss the possibility of increased enforcement of parking restrictions and/or road rules. 

I look forward to your ongoing support with this matter.

VINCENT SICARI, Principal