Sydenham Campus
Principal Message
Sydenham Campus Term 2, June 2026
Semester 1 concluded last week with students from all year levels completing exams. Students were able to use feedback from their teachers to compose study notes and exam preparation guides. Exams assist students to gain valuable practice in recalling information and following procedures as set out by VCAA. We encourage all students to reflect on their exam performance and to set goals for semester 2. Thank you to our Campus Leaders, Mrs Karen Martin and Mr Ercan Hasip who oversee this process, ably assisted by Team Leaders.
This semester we welcome teaching staff Mr Hamish Carr (Art/Tech) to the Sydenham Campus. We also ‘welcome’ Ms Roison McLauglin (Food Tech) and Mr Hao Nguyen (Eng/Hums). Ms Ita Altas (Art/Tech) has moved to the Kings Park campus. Ms Altas has been a long-standing member of the Sydenham campus, and we thank her for her work in E Team and in inspiring students in Art Club over the years.
Thank you to all the staff who have been supporting student clubs throughout this term. Students have a range of interesting activities they can be part of during break times, from Dungeons and Dragons, Reading and Games, Chess and Colouring Club. Our newest club is Garden Club. Students have been working to clear the planter boxes from last season’s vegetables and planting new seeds.
Thank you to Ms Ferreira and Ms Garrard for facilitating this group of students.
This term we were pleased to host several visitors to our College. Premier Jacinta Allan and Natalie Hutchins MP provided valuable insight into their work with young people during a visit to the Delahey Campus.
Sydenham campus hosted our Federal member for Gorton, Alice Jordan-Baird, who met with students from 9B1. Student Leaders, Maria and Emilia (9B1) were excellent ambassadors for the College, leading a school tour and presenting their Challenge Day learning from their recent Elections unit.
Ms Jordan- Baird was very impressed by the confidence and content of the presentation, commending the students for their knowledge and expertise in the preferential voting system. Thank you to Mr Paul Singh (Challenge Day co ord) for his leadership and support of the students.
We also welcomed another ‘visitor’ to our campus- Jetson the robot. Jeston provided a great show of what is possible in the field of IT. Staff from VU- Brimbank Tech accompanied Jetson and shared with students how they had programmed the robot to move and ‘respond’ to commands.
Female Leaders also welcomed back to our College Councillor Victoria Borg and Alumni Demi Djemal for a panel discussion at their latest Be Bold Be Heard (BBBH) session. Leaders from across the College continued their discussions on student data to inform their 2026 project. Thank you to Dr Gruis and Ms Hatton for their ongoing leadership and support.
We have had great success engaging with our Alumni, and we continue to welcome more ex-Copperfield students back to the College. We thank Ms Chiara Mastilli, our Alumni Co Ordinator, for her work and dedication in connecting past students to our current students and programs.
Term 2 also begins our formal Pathways presentations and counselling sessions for Year 8,9 and 10 students. Information evenings for students and their families were well attended, and students have followed up with questions and appointments. Thank you to our Pathways Leader Ms Tina Tsaloukis and Ms Julia Di Salvatore (Syd) for their work and commitment in providing accurate and timely information to our students and their families.
Our Performing Arts students have been working towards two events this term. Our School Production rehearsals - School of Rock – are well underway and we were treated to a sneak peek at our semester 1 Music Concert last week. The production will be staged from 12/08-14/08/26 at the Bowery Theatre.
Congratulations to all the students who performed, and to Ms Taylor Van Orsouw (Performing Arts Leader) and staff for their continued support of the students.
Last week students were treated to events to celebrate LOTE – Japanese and Italian- immersion activities. Thank you to Ms Pina Powell (LOTE KLA Leader) and staff for organising.
Year 8 Well Being Day is always a highlight of the end of term and students participated in sessions presented by Brainstorm Productions and Body Kind as well as African Drumming. Thank you to Mr Adam Ammouche, Hannah, Bayley and Elle for their support and leadership.
Whilst we have officially started semester 2, we encourage all students and their families to read Semester 1 reports. These will be available from the end of the week. Current data suggests that not all students and families read and review these reports. We thank Jenny Nguyen 10B1 our student representative on Curriculum Committee who is conducting a survey of all Years 8-11 students, about our current reports. Jenny will be collating the data from the survey and presenting it to the Curriculum Committee next term.
We will be celebrating our end of term with our Campus Assembly this week. We congratulate all students on their success and thank performers, in advance. Details of award winners will be in the next newsletter.
We wish all students and staff a restful term break.
Mr. Andrew Atherton and Ms. Mary Chiodo
Campus Principals- Sydenham