PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our first newsletter for Term 3, 2026. Despite the cooler weather and darker days, there is always a lot happening around our campus. I hope that you enjoy reading about some of the recent activities.

At Surf Coast Secondary College, we believe it is very important to share learning data with our school community. One reason for this is that we are extremely proud of the outcomes our students and staff are achieving. It is also because we believe the best way to share our ongoing improvement story is by showing the evidence, as presented by the Department of Education.

Relative VCE Performance.

Department of Education has made a new VCE data set available to schools. In short, it tracks student performance in Year 9 NAPLAN and measures their relative growth - high, medium or low (noting that ‘low’ is still growth!) - with the study scores achieved by the students in Year 12. This data is then compared with similar schools, network and state averages.

It pleases me very much to be able to share the follow data with you all from our last two years VCE results…

NAPLAN Writing to all VCE English subjects:

NAPLAN Reading to all VCE English subjects:

NAPLAN Numeracy to all Mathematics subjects:

Our English faculty are clearly excelling in ensuring that our students are achieving results higher than expected, especially when compared to similar schools, network and state averages. And our Mathematics faculty, while slightly behind on some measures, are making up ground with annual improvements (more evidence of this can be seen in the NAPLAN data below) that we know will lead to continued improvement.

And while results will always vary a little year-by-year, it is safe to say that VCE students at Surf Coast Secondary College are benefiting immensely by learning from a teaching team of subject experts, using highly impactful instructional practices. I’d like to congratulate all our VCE staff and students on these excellent results.

NAPLAN Proficiency Levels.

Our Year 9 Literacy and Numeracy data continues to improve with more students achieving results that place them in the ‘Exceeding’ and ‘Strong’ proficiency levels. Here is our data summary since 2023:

Year 9 NAPLAN Numeracy:

Year 9 NAPLAN Writing:

Year 9 NAPLAN Reading:

It is extremely pleasing that we are maintaining a consistently high number of students in every Year 9 cohort in the exceeding and strong categories every year.

Of particular note is the ongoing improvement in our numeracy results - a clear trend and a testament to the shifts in teaching practice and classroom routines that are being actioned by our mathematics teachers and education support team. The team have worked very hard in recent years to develop a guaranteed and viable curriculum, ensuring consistency across classrooms and placing the learner experience at the core of our instruction.

All students at Surf Coast Secondary College have the potential to learn and grow under the guidance of our dedicated staff. And while we are very happy with our progress and learning outcomes, we will never cease strategising for future growth and improvement!

Industrial Action.

I would like to thank all parents and carers for your understanding as school staff negotiate a new enterprise bargaining agreement with the state government. We are aware that at times taking strike action can be an inconvenience and may require you to make alternative arrangements for your children on the day.

As you will be aware, school staff are extremely passionate about their work and have your children’s best interests at heart. We want to ensure that schools are fully funded to delivery the best educational opportunities and outcomes that our community deserve. Hopefully we will see this matter resolved soon. I thank you in advance for your ongoing support.

Please enjoy the rest of our newsletter.

Take care,

Shane Elevato

Principal.