Thank you to everyone who joined us on Monday night for our awards evening. Your presence there to celebrate the achievements of our students means so much to us.

This year brought significant changes to Alternate Programs, particularly with the classes we offer and shifts in our staff team. Programs like ours, which thrive on the strong relationships built between staff, students, and families, could have faced challenges with these changes. The resilience and determination of the students who won awards is a credit to them, and we couldn’t be prouder of your accomplishments. Congratulations again to:

Julian Schultz – Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Liam Robson – Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Tabitha Clee – Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Flynn Heeps - Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Kane Willshire – Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Gavin Sluggett - Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Values Award
Kayden Williams – Chaplaincy Committee Top Achiever Award
Julian Schultz – Chaplaincy Committee Top Engagement Award
Lloyd Lambourn – Horsham Rural City Council Engagement Award

To our Alternate Programs staff, thank you for your tireless dedication in supporting our students and their families. I want to extend a special thank you to the experienced team members who welcomed the new staff members this year (me included). Your guidance and insights have been invaluable as we settled into our roles.

We also want to acknowledge the incredible support we have received from our community partners throughout 2025. While there are too many to name, we would especially like to thank the Wimmera and Southern Mallee LLEN, the Horsham Chaplaincy Committee and the Horsham Rural City Council for sponsoring our awards earlier this week. Beyond this sponsorship, these organizations continue to provide invaluable support to our students, and we are deeply grateful.

Planning for 2025 is already in full swing, and we are excited to continue building on the successes of this year. We are still reaching out this week and next to organise some check-in meetings before the holidays, and then will be in touch later in January to organise induction meetings to start the 2025 school year.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Senior

With just one week left of term, we have seen some great achievements in the group. At the Horsham College Alternate Settings awards night, three students received awards for high engagement and commitment to their studies over the year. One of these students received the Top Achiever award and a completed VPC certificate.

VPC certificate. These are great outcomes that they should be very proud of. In recent years we have steadily increased our numbers of students undertaking VET studies. We also were very proud that two of our Students topped their VET classes for 2024.

Well done to all in the Senior VPC class . We look forward to mor success in 2025.

McKENZIE CREEK

2024… What a Year!

What do you mean you mean that we are at the end of the year already?!

A big thank you to our Creekers and their families for a wonderful school year. The growth and development demonstrated by our students this year has been off the charts.

End of Year Celebration

A family gathering was held on Tuesday 3 December at the Horsham Angling Club with the Creekers preparing the refreshments for our families and special guests. We were able to enjoy the beautiful view of the Wimmera River as we acknowledged some of the individual achievements accomplished this year.

The below students had received awards for their engagement (attending school 80% or more of the time) and academic growth (in their PAT testing results).

Certificate of Excellence

PAT-Math Growth

PAT-Reading Growth

Julian Schultz

Gavin Sluggett

Chris Okely

Shakira Brown-Cottier

Liam Robson

Asher Laing-Smith

Liam Robson

Gavin Sluggett

Gavin Sluggett

Julian Schultz

Koby Offer

Alternate Programs Awards Night

The annual Awards Night for Alternate Programs students was held on Monday 9 December and the event was well attended by families, staff and community members.

We would like to congratulate the following students who were recipients of various awards on the evening.

LLEN School Values Award – Liam Robson

Most Positive SEQTA Notes Award – Julian Schultz & Gavin Sluggett

Top Engagement Award (Junior Program) – Julian Schultz

Thank you to both the Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN and the Horsham College Chaplaincy Committee for sponsoring the awards.

Start of Year 2025

Families will be contacted at the end of January next year to schedule an Induction for each Alternate Programs student. The meetings will go for 20 minutes in duration.

During this time, we will set student goals, complete relevant paperwork and ensure that your student is prepared for another successful year ahead.

Final Thank-you!

Whilst there are probably too many to fit in the one newsletter I would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their support and assistance throughout 2024 and wish you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

McKenzie Creek students & families
Alternate Programs Team
Principal Team
Student Wellbeing Team (Treena Hogan & Justin Amor)
Creek Elective Teachers 2024 (Cat Clarke, Ebony Tate, Sue Pavlovich, Nick Shirrefs & Sue Roberts)
The Navigator Program (Peter Both & Matt Martin)
Creek staff (Ronnie & Pascall)
Jenelle, Yolande, Bonita & Genni in the school library
Ed Support Staff Members (in particular Katrina Kerr & Di Hall)
Assistant Principal Dan Garner – exceptional first year!

Finally, a special shout out from me personally to Ranaye Johnstone. You’ve been an excellent support to me the past 12 months in transitioning over to Alternate Programs from the main campus. Your leadership, expertise and care will be missed and on the behalf of the team we wish you all the best as you commence in your new role for 2025 as the Leading Teacher of Year 12 on the main campus!

Merry Altmas Christmas!