Principal's Message
We Grow Through Connection
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
Welcome Back for Term Two! I hope that families have had a wonderful school holiday break and that students are very much looking forward to the term ahead.
I have been happy with the start to Term Two. Students have returned with a positive approach to their learning across their subjects, and we thank parents and carers for their ongoing support of our great school. Our College Motto, We Grow Through Connection, is something that can resonate with us all as we strive to further improve through the positive connections we develop with others. We are an outstanding College Community with Staff and Families working in partnership to further improve the outcomes of our students.
The recent school holiday break was an opportunity for families to read through our new look Term One Interim Style Reports as made available on Compass. Our new SOAR Grade Point Average Program aligned with these Reports is a means of monitoring the progress of our students across their subjects when it comes to the their Learning Behaviours – we look forward to seeing how our students have improved when it comes to the next round of Reporting using our new SOAR Grade Point Average Program. Subject to what was provided in the Term One Reports, I do encourage students to review their Learning Goals with their families for the remainder of year ahead.
Families are reminded of our College Motto, We Grow Through Connection. Our College Motto highlights the need for positive connections to support our quest for further improvement.
Our College SOAR Values underpin our College Motto:
Social and Personal Responsibility
Opportunities for All
Achieving Your Personal Best
Respectful Relationships
Whilst all SOAR Values are important, our focus with students for Term Two will be Achieving Your Personal Best through the lens of High Expectations and Striving For Success.
We are a great school achieving so much for our students and the local community, and the four areas important to our College Community include:
Student Learning Growth and Pathways
Sport
Performing Arts
Student Leadership and Our Community
We will continue with our focus on an Orderly Learning Environment in Term Two. We will support students to adopt a strong sense of routine across their classes – notions of consistency and predictability are important to our students and our College.
Our College Open Night earlier in the week (Wednesday 29 April) was a tremendous success. Such was the interest from prospective families that we again held our Open Night in the Gym this year – the level of attendance outstanding! It was so pleasing to see so many families coming along to learn more about what our great school has to offer. We thank Kay Chandler (Assistant Principal) and her team of staff and students for leading the way in implementing such a successful event.
Due to the timing of the return for Term Two and Anzac Day, we decided to have our special Anzac Day Whole School Assembly last week (Tuesday 21 April). We invited Mr. John Coulson (Army Reservist for over 30 years, served in the Vietnam War) to speak at our Assembly. John has had a long and distinguished career with the Australian Defence Force and we thank him for his service. John spoke incredibly well sharing his thoughts on the importance of Anzac Day. We thank John for his time and contribution to this important Whole School Assembly. Our students were outstanding on the day – attentive and respectful throughout. We thank Nicole Erjavec (SRC and Student Leadership Co-ordinator) and her team of staff and students for what was an outstanding commemoration of Anzac Day by our College.
Our Capital Works Program is on track with the Program to be completed by the end of the year – we are very much looking forward to be able to use this new space to further support our students with their learning. Our College Community are reminded that the $11.3 Million Capital Works Program is supporting works in the top corner of the College with a new build adjacent to the existing D Wing being developed, and, in time, the existing D Wing will be demolished and replaced with landscaping. Some improvements are also planned for the existing Technology wing. We are thrilled with the level of progess being demonstrated by the Builder with our Capital Works Program.
We continue to further improve our Buildings and Grounds. Over the recent school holiday break, we completed more painting works, added new carpet to our Yawa Centre, and we further added to the appearance of our College Grounds with some gardening works.
Our recent Parent Teacher Student Conferences (Wednesday 1 April) and Athletics Carnival (Thursday 2 April) were hugely successful. We thank the many families who attended the Conferences to check in with teachers, and we thank our students for their House Spirit and level of participation during our Athletics Carnival.
Our Sports and Performing Arts Programs continue to be such important part of the College. We had several Intermediate Sports Competitions last week whereby our students were able to compete against other schools in football and netball, whilst our recent Cross Country Event at the College (Wednesday 29 April) was very successful. We have a big term ahead with respect to the Performing Arts with the Battle of the Bands, Performing Arts Showcases and rehearsals for Mary Poppins Jnr all figuring prominently. We wish our students every success in these areas of the College.
Our Student Free Day today (Friday 1 May) was a great opportunity for our staff to engage in some professional development and planning – it has been a very productive day and our work today will hold us in good stead for the year ahead.
Our Families are reminded of below with respect to a list of our Sub School and Team Leaders at our College for 2026. Our Sub School and Team Leaders can be contacted with any queries and / or to provide further support for students, parents and carers. Please use the link below to access a list of our 2026 Sub School and Team Leaders:
Our College Council has been established for the next period of Council and our next meeting will be Tuesday 5 May, 5.30pm. We currently have a Parent Vacancy on Council so if any Parents or Carers would like to join our College Council, please contact our General Office on pH – 5945 1433. We typically have one College Council Meeting per month and we meet at the College.
Student Learning Growth is Our Priority – we want to work with families to further the leaning growth of our students across their subjects. In addition, we will continue to provide wonderful opportunities to our students in the key areas important to our College Community – Sport, Performing Arts and Student Leadership. Please check out our Socials (Instagram, Facebook), Website https://www.pakenhamsc.vic.edu.au/ , Compass Posts and Newsletters to find out more about what is happening at our great school.
I am very much looking forward to the term ahead. I am proud to be the Principal of our great school and I look forward to again working with families and staff to support our students and further improve their outcomes,
Thank you everyone,
Regards
Aaron
Aaron Smith
College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College