Peter Corkill
Principal
Dear Parents, Students and Friends of John Monash Science School,
I trust this newsletter finds you all well. The recent fine weather has enabled students to be outside during all breaks and it is pleasing to see the large amount of outdoor activities in action. We are closing in on the end of term, so the normal run of expected assessments is keeping everyone busy.
Some of the key events which have already marked the year include:
- The Year 10 Induction program onsite at Monash University – another huge success and our Year 10s are now well into the swing of life and study at JMSS;
- The Year 12 Camp at Somers – I can’t recall more perfect weather for that event, and all activities were fully embraced by our Year 12 students. We look forward to another fantastic year with our leaders and the rest of the Year 12 cohort;
- Our whole-school swimming carnival – some superb performances in the pool, and still some urgent work needed on the engineering of our makeshift rafts for the annual House race. If memory serves – ALL of them sunk before the finish line – again - hilarious!
Ritsumeikan High School International Exchange
We were exceptionally pleased with the success of the exchange with one of our major international partner schools in the International Schools Science Network, Ritsumeikan High School in Kyoto, Japan. We were very pleased to host a team of ten students, as well as the accompanying teacher Ms. Ichikawa. We were also honoured to host long standing educational leaders and former Ritsumeikan Principals Dr. Hiroshi Tenaka and Dr. Miki Horie. There were several highlights during the week, one of course being the full day visit to Healesville Sanctuary, where our visitors are always amazed by seeing the very famous characters of the Australian bush - koalas, wombats and kangaroos, live for the first time for almost all of them. There were also highly successful visits to the city, as well as immersion experiences in Science and IT within the University itself.
On behalf of all at JMSS, can I sincerely thank our parents and students for hosting these wonderful young people, and giving them an opportunity they will never forget. I would also like to thank our Head of Languages, Mr. Daniel Cussen, for all his hard work in getting the visit organised. And also our colleagues at Monash for their generous hospitality. Our return visit will be later in 2024.
Other significant events
We were also pleased to host a very large delegation of educators from Taiwan’s Maoli County for a full day at JMSS last week. The group comprised Teachers, Principals and University educators, and they were most impressed by JMSS’s use of educational technologies and use of teams in both teaching and learning. The power of genuine collaboration between students was a genuine highlight for them.
The annual Year 12 Formal took place at the Merrimu Centre in Murrumbeena on Wednesday evening last week, I trust everyone had a fantastic night. Sincere thanks to the Year 12 organisers and Assistant Principal Mr Jeremy Mackinnon for all of their hard work in planning this event.
Leadership Arrangements in Term Two
I am taking long service leave for the first six weeks of term two to travel overseas with my wife, visiting Italy with friends, then Croatia, and travelling back home via Singapore and hopefully Brunei, where I was the founding Head of Mathematics at Jerudong International School when it began operations in mid-1997.
While I am away, Assistant Principals Andrew Chisholm and Jeremy Mackinnon will share my duties at various times, and their Assistant Principal roles will be taken up by Dr. Mel Denney and Mrs. Kathryn Grainger. Mel and Kathryn will still teach senior classes during this time, but will obviously be released at various times in order to manage their respective leadership portfolios.
School Council 2024
I would like to inform everyone of the results of our recent elections to School Council in both the parent and student categories. We were really pleased with the high level of interest from both parents and students, producing so many highly qualified and passionate candidates willing to help JMSS in this capacity.
Our successful parent candidates were Ben Waterson and Natalie Isborn. This is Ben’s second stint on Council and we welcome his return. Natalie has been re-elected following her first term which ended last year. Both will add great value to our team.
Our new student representatives are Liam Novoleso (Year 11) and Matthew Stephen (Year 10). This will be their first time on Council and they will work alongside our Student Parliament to ensure the JMSS student voice continues to be represented well on Council.
I would like to thank retiring members James Wright for his leadership as President, parent representative Mary Harrison, and student representatives Nargis Mozafari and Siddharth Deshmukh, for their valuable contributions to Council over recent years.
I would like to thank everyone for a fantastic first term’s work, and wish you all a wonderful and very well-earned rest over the holiday period. I look forward to catching up with everyone later in term two once I return from leave.
Kind Regards
Peter Corkill
Principal