PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Western Heights College acknowledges the Wadawurrung People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which our College stands, and pays respect to their Elders past and present.

Principal’s Newsletter Report 

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope that your family had a great holiday break and are keen for the events and celebrations that are part of our final term of the year. For our junior year levels there are 8 more weeks of Term, while our Year 12s soon commence their SWOTVAC just before undertaking their final exams or completing any assessments required for their VCE or VCE VM. Two weeks in and term is flying!

Art and Design Show 2026

What an outstanding three days. The Western Heights College Art Show was a wonderful celebration of creativity, and I could not be prouder of our students. It takes real courage to share your artwork with our extended WHC community, and every student who exhibited should be very proud of the work they put on display.

Thank you to our art staff, led by Art Leader Ms Allesha Fecondo, for the care, vision and hours of work that went into curating and presenting the exhibition. It is a credit to the team and showcased the quality of art education at WHC.

It was a pleasure to welcome so many students from our network of primary schools over the course of the show, and we were delighted by the fabulous turnout of parents and carers at the opening on Wednesday evening. Your support means a great deal to our students.

Thank you also to our VM staff and students, who prepared the refreshments at the opening. Your professionalism and hospitality added to a memorable evening.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

GYE Kokoda 2026

Congratulations to Millie Evans on completing the Kokoda Track as part of the Geelong Youth Engagement Program late in Term 3. This is a demanding challenge that calls for determination, resilience and teamwork, and Millie should be very proud of what she has achieved. We are proud to have you as part of the WHC community.

We also want to acknowledge Amarli Anderson, who took part in the program throughout the year and set a wonderful example for her peers, only to injure her knee in the lead-up to the track and be unable to take part. Her commitment, effort and attitude before her injury were exemplary, and it was disappointing for her to miss out at that stage. We hope Amarli will have the chance to complete the program in 2027.

Thank you to the Geelong Youth Engagement team for providing these opportunities for our students. We are very proud of both Millie and Amarli.

International Soccer Representation

Congratulations to our U15 Boys Soccer Team on representing Western Heights College and Melbourne Victory at an international tournament in South Korea in the last week of the holidays. Thank you to Melbourne Victory for creating the opportunity and to our Soccer Program Head Coach, Joey Didulica, for coordinating the tour. Well done, boys and thank-you Joey – such a terrific once in a lifetime opportunity for our students to experience a wonderful cultural and sporting experience.

Geelong Cup Public Holiday

Wednesday 21st October is a public holiday in Geelong for the Geelong Cup. There will be no classes on this day.

Year 12 Farewell

On Monday and Tuesday next week we will farewell our Year 12 students with a full school assembly where our student community will hear from our college captains and our year 12 learning community leader Brett Bullock. Tuesday our Year 12’s will celebrate their last day of their secondary schooling with a breakfast with staff, fancy dress, and a day of fun at the Curlewis golf driving range. A big thank-you to the Year 12 staff who have coordinated this day alongside the Year 12 students and leaders. On Tuesday 27th October, our students will complete their first English exam. Exams will continue until November 18th with our Year 12 Graduation evening this year being conducted on Thursday 19th November at GMHBA stadium.

Early Commencement Program (ECP 2027)

On Monday 30th November, all students in Year 11 and 12 for 2027 (and 2027 Year 10 students studying a VCE subject) will commence 1 week of an early commencement program to enable the students an opportunity to obtain a head start with their learning for 2027. A timetable will be released shortly for students for this program. It is imperative that all students attend this program until its completion on Friday 4 December for current Year 10 and 11 students. This will be the last day of school for Year 10 and 11 students for the 2026 school year.

End of Year Dates for 2026

•   Monday 2nd November – Pupil Free Day (Teacher Professional Practice Day)

•   Year 12 Graduation GMHBA Stadium – Thursday 19th November

•   Last day of classes for 2026 Year 10 and 11 students – Friday 4th December

•   Whole College Awards Evening Thursday 10 December 

•   Last day of timetabled classes Year 7-9 students –Friday 4th December

•  Year 7-9 Domain Based Learning Activities – Monday 7th December – Wednesday 16th December

•   2026 Report Feedback by appointment only – Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December.

Term 4 AIP Assessments and Planning for 2027

Term 4 will of course also see AIP self-assessments, as well as planning for 2027 AIPs. The 2027 AIP will continue to focus on student learning. We have recently seen the release of some of our key annual data sets, including NAPLAN and the Attitudes to School Survey. These are critical inputs to our planning cycle and the leadership team will work hard to continue unpacking these.  

2027 is our school review year which we complete each 4 years. During this review we will be planning a new strategic plan for 2028 – 2032.

Enjoy the next fortnight,

Fiona Taylor

Principal

Child Safety at WHC

Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse. Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.

Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website.

1. Commitment to Child Safety

2. Child Safety Policy

3. Child Safety Code of Conduct

4. Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Annual Privacy Policy Reminder for 2026

Our school collects, uses, discloses, and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy (found on the college's webpage).

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in nine community languages:

          * Amharic

          * Arabic

          * Dari

          * Gujarati

          * Mandarin

          * Somali

          * Sudanese

          * Turkish

          * Urdu

          * Vietnamese