Principal's Message

We Grow Through Connection

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

We are now approaching the half - way mark for Term Two with so much happening at Pakenham Secondary College!  Take this week as an example with Camps, Excursions and various other co-curricular activities being provided to our students - it is all happening at our great school!

Students of course are busy completing their assessments across their subjects. I encourage students to keep up to date with their assessments and study commitments, and to ask for assistance from their teachers as required.  I again thank families for supporting the College with student resources for learning, together with student uniform and attendance.

The Year 7 Camps this week were a tremendous success.  Our Year 7 students had a great time at Camp Rumbug (Foster North) and we thank staff Susan Banfield (Leading Teacher) for all her hard work in organising these Camps on behalf of our students.  Furthermore, we thank all of our staff who were in attendance on the Year 7 Camps through the week.

In partnership with our four local State Secondary Schools, Registered Training Organisations (RTO), the Department of Education and Training (DET) and local learning and employment networks, we were again able to stage a successful Vocational Education and Training (VET) Information Night earlier in the week (Wednesday 27 May) for families interested in VET for 2027. 

Our ‘VET Mini Cluster’ made up of the four local State Secondary Schools (Pakenham SC, Koo Wee Rup SC, Officer SC and Edenbrook SC) has been in operation for a several years now and it serves to provide a broader range of VET options to students from across our schools.  Our ‘VET Mini Cluster’ has been hugely successful allowing for breadth of choice for our students in so many VET Training Programs.  Further information concerning VET Training Programs across the four secondary schools for 2026 can be gained from Nicole Robertson (VET Co-ordinator) at the College.

The College Production of Mary Poppins Junior continues to grow from strength to strength with a record number of students involved in rehearsals.  Our students are having a great time rehearsing and learning key aspects of the Production, and we thank Genelle Lentini (Performing Arts Leader) and her team for all their hard work in support of our students.

Sport is incredibly important at PSC.  Students have been participating in Interschool Sports and Cross County Events this term.  Please be reminded that our Basketball and Netball Development Programs are available to students – please contact the General Office (pH – 5945 1433) to learn more.

Our Art and Technology Exhibition will be held next week at the College, Wednesday 3 June.  Our students will be able to develop and exhibit their high quality Art and Technology projects as part of this important event.  We thank in advance everyone involved, including Emily Schinzig (Acting Curriculum and Teaching and Learning Leader) and her team for their dedication in staging what will be another high-quality Exhibition at Pakenham Secondary College  – I am sure our staff and families who attend will be impressed.

The Interschool Chess Tournament was held at our College earlier in the week (Wednesday 27 May) was a huge success.  We welcomed several schools to the College to compete in what was an outstanding Tournament.  We thank Gabe Scheepers (Library; Chess Co-ordinator) for helping with the success of this event. 

Our $11.5 Million Capital Works Building Program is progressing well.  The next few weeks and months will be a busy time for the College as we move into the new Building, D Wing will get demolished, and significant landscaping will be added as part of the Program.  There will be some disruption whilst we work through the closing phases of the Program and we appreciate the patience of our College Community.  This is such an exciting time for our College whereby modern and purpose built facilities will be provided to further support our Teaching and Learning Program.

It was Education Week last week (18 - 22 May) and it was an opportunity to further acknowledge the wonderful learning and co-curricular opportunities on offer at our great school.  Importantly, it was also an opportunity to further celebrate student learning, effort and achievement.  There are so many examples where students continue to shine given their involvement at PSC and I encourage families to read further into this Newsletter to see the many photos of how we are engaging with our students to meet their learning and wellbeing needs; we thank everyone involved.

Our Student Representative Council (SRC) continue to do some wonderful work throughout the College.  They have been involved in leadership activities with a school overseas, they played an important role with Do It For Dolly Day (8 May), and, for IDAHOBIT Day (17 May), and they will continue to be involved in organising events and activities throughout the College for the remainder of the year – we thank our Student Representative Council.

We have been so pleased with our PSC Reading Challenge.  Joanne Nadal (Acting Literacy and English Key Learning Area Leader) and her team have done wonderful work in developing, launching and promoting the Challenge.  The Challenge has further emphasised the importance of reading with so many students and staff involved – well done everyone!

Whilst co-curricular activities and student achievement remain important, Learning Growth is our priority.  We are continuing to work hard in partnership with families to further the Learning Growth of our students across their subjects – we appreciate the ongoing support of families in this work.

Interest in our great school continues to grow.  Our recent Open Night (29 April) was very successful, and we continue to offer College Tours for prospective families.  Many families are choosing to send their children to our great school and we are expecting our Year 7 enrolments to again be strong next year.

Please continue to check our College Calendar (PSC Compass, PSC Website), our Social Media Platforms and updates as they come to hand via Compass to try and keep up to date with what is happening at our great school,

Thank you everyone

Regards

Aaron

Aaron Smith

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College