PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

17/10/25

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 9 more weeks of Term, while our Year 12s now 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! 

Geelong Cup Public Holiday

Wednesday 22 October is a public holiday in Geelong for the Geelong Cup. There will be no classes on this day.

Year 12 Farewell

On Monday we 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. On 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 with some indoor bowling, dress ups and fun. A big thank-you to the Year 12 staff who will coordinate this day alongside the Year 12 students. On Tuesday 28 October, our students will complete their first English exam. Exams will continue until November 17 with our Year 12 Graduation evening this year being conducted on Thursday 20 November at GMHBA stadium.

Europe Soccer Trip

Congratulations to all students and staff for their participation and engagement in our first ever Europe Soccer Tour to the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The students and staff had a wonderful time experiencing life as an elite soccer player taking in some amazing experiences and playing great Soccer against some of the world’s biggest and best soccer clubs academies. Please read later in our report for a more in-depth detailed report but we must thank Joey Didilicia for his wonderful leadership in arranging this once in a lifetime experience for our students.

Early Commencement Program (ECP 2026)

On Monday 24 November, all students in Year 11 and 12 (and 2025 Year 10 students studying a VM subject in 2026) will commence 1 week of early commencement program to enable the students an opportunity to obtain a head start with their learning 2026. All students in Year 11 or 12 VCE subjects in 2026 will complete 1 week of ECP commencing Monday 1st December – Friday 5th December after exams.  A timetable will be released shortly for students for these programs. It is imperative that all students attend this program until its completion on Friday 5 December which will be the last day of 2025 for current Year 10 and 11 students.

End of Year Dates for 2025 

• Year 12 Graduation GMHBA Stadium – Thursday 20 November
• Last day of classes for 2025 Year 10 and 11 students – Friday 5 December
• College Awards Evening Thursday 11 December (Costa Hall, Geelong)
• Last Day of timetabled classes for Year 7-9 2025 students is Monday 8th December, Year 7-9 Adventure Park Day, Tuesday 9th December and an Activities Program will run from Wednesday 10th December – Wednesday 17th December for Year 7-9 students.
• 2025 Report Feedback by appointment only – Thursday 18th and Friday 19th December.

Term 4 AIP Assessments and Planning for 2026

Term 4 will of course also see AIP self-assessments, as well as planning for 2026 AIPs.  The 2026 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. At a regional level, the focus will be on continuing our focus on supporting numeracy improvement in Geelong schools with a particular focus on reducing the disadvantage gap and looking at ways to improve the experience of schooling for many of our students through a focus on positive climates and behaviour.

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 2025

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