Principal Team Editorial

We’ve had a great start to 2025 with lots happening both in and out of the classroom. 

Last week our VCE students attended the Honour Roll assembly acknowledging the outstanding academic achievements of 12 of our students who placed in the 10% of VCE students who received 90+ ATAR results. Nathan Krause, our Dux from last year, achieved a near perfect score of 99.25 and shared his insights from the previous year. He spoke of high expectations and aspiration and, most importantly, not being afraid of striving to achieve a high score. He also encouraged students to enjoy these special years at school where they strengthen lifelong friendships with peers and partner with their teachers to get the very best out of their final years of schooling.

At the other end of the school, we welcomed our Year 7’s home from camp where they spent three days having a wonderful time forging new friendships and connections. It was great to see so many smiling faces as the buses arrived back, and teachers couldn’t speak more highly of how connected, respectful and lovely the students were. A special shout out to our year 10 Peer Support Leaders who spent 3 days leading the activities and offering help and guidance, again teachers couldn’t speak more highly of how brilliant they were in supporting the Year 7s and helping them feel more connected to our school, to each other and to their teachers. 

In the classroom…

To start the year strongly, our focus across 7-12 classrooms has been on building meaningful connections. Teachers are working hard to get to know their students both as people and as learners which is imperative to ensure they understand where students are at so they can teach to their point of need. Furthermore, teachers are fostering calm and productive classroom environments through learning routines and high expectations. I’ve enjoyed visiting lots of classrooms throughout the past couple of weeks and seeing how engaged students are in their learning. This year, we are very excited to have VCE rubrics live on Maestro which means parents can see their child’s learning growth in each VCE learning outcome and we look forward to Maestro supporting students to achieve great learning outcomes. 

Beyond the classroom…

Do The Right Thing is back!

Last year we launched an environmental campaign to raise awareness of our collective responsibility to care for our outdoor spaces. Our campaign was based on the 1980’s ‘Keep Australia Beautiful’ campaign which was highly successful, and we were overwhelmed by the success it had last year as we launched our own ad campaign, video competition and catchy school bell. Our teachers role modelled positive behaviours of picking up rubbish whilst on yard duty as the catch phrase ‘do the right thing’ stuck. 

This year, we are relaunching our campaign and moving up a decade to the 1980’s catchy phrase – ‘you gotta do the right thing, it’s your obligation, and mother nature will thank you for your cooperation.’ I’m sure we have some parents who still remember that one? This year, we are asking students to take the lead with this campaign through the Environmental Club and we look forward to sharing with our community the proactive things we will be doing, not only in raising awareness but leading initiatives such as recycling and waste management. I’d love parents or families who may be interested in being involved in our Environmental Club to contact me via the General Office. 

Alumni

One of the greatest things about our school is the connection many of our students retain with Wantirna College when they leave. Many of our students who go on to study teaching will often return to Wantirna College as teachers with Mr Brooks, Mr Hoogkamer, Mr Ganeson, Ms Murnane, Ms Cavarra to name a few. Moreover, many of our students continue working with our College as volunteers or stay connected with us, such as our School Council president, David Cartwright, who not only attended Wantirna College as a student but has three children have attended our school. 

From a personal perspective, my daughter is in Year 11 at Wantirna College, our Business Manger’s four children have attended, Assistant Principal Mr Lewis’ children all attended the College and many more of our staff have their children attending too. Suffice it to say, Wantirna is a special place and we are eager to strengthen connections with past students by starting an Alumni Program where we celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful achievements and pathways that our graduating students embark on.

In Term 2, we will be inviting Alumni to come back to Wantirna College to revisit, remember and reconnect with our school.  We will have tour followed by refreshments. More details will come later this term. 

Parent Forum

Tue 4 March, 6pm to 7.30pm

Finally, feedback is a gift! All parents are welcome and encouraged to come along to our termly Parent Forum to find out more about the school, meet other families and provide much valued feedback. Our focus for this term is on High Expectations and Challenge. We look forward to sharing with families how we are establishing high expectations and challenging all students to achieve their very best. Light refreshments will be available. Please follow this link to RSVP:

 https://forms.office.com/r/WVknGjycQE

Carrie Wallis

Principal