Principal Report  

Another busy term!

End of Semester 1

As we finish Semester 1 this week, I would like to thank all of our students, families and staff for their endeavour and efforts, resilience, creativity and collaboration across the Semester. Schools are generally very busy places, and this past semester at Koonung has been both very busy and very productive. 

I would like to congratulate our students for this semester. There are so many opportunities available for our students on top of our academic program, so thank you to our students for demonstrating our College value of ‘endeavour’ through working hard and having a go at a wide range of activities. Thank you also to our students who completed the recent period of End of Semester exams and to all students for their diligence and effort in completing Assessment Tasks. Well done to our Year 10 students who have recently completed Work Experience, our amazing Year 7 cohort completing their first semester of secondary school, and finally, to our brilliant Year 12 cohort. Year 12 is hard. The societal expectations placed on our young people, both academically and socially are immense, so it fills me with pride when I enter a Year 12 class, or the VCE common room and see both how hard they are working, and also how they interact with each other, our staff and the younger students.  I encourage them all to have a break over these upcoming holidays and prepare themselves for the final stretch of their schooling when they return in Term 3. 

I would like to acknowledge all of our VCE students, including the Vocational Major students and our Year 11 students on a fantastic semester and thank them for an outstanding evening last night with our 2026 Senior School Formal. Held at the San Remo Ballroom in Carlton, it was a great night and an excellent opportunity to dress up and let the hair down and celebrate the hard work of the semester. 

Thank you to our teaching and education support staff. I am constantly in awe of our hard-working staff, who on top of their excellent classroom practice, continue to offer their time and skills in a wide range of co curricula and extra curricula activities. Finally, I am thankful of our parent community for your support of your child and their learning. Thank you for your ongoing support. 

It has been a busy semester, so please take the opportunity over the winter break to recharge your batteries, spend quality family time together and rest before coming back for the start of Term 3 on Tuesday 14 July.

The Semester 1 reports will be published today, Friday 26 June, through Compass. 

Term 3- Pathways Planning

Term 3 is traditionally the term where our thoughts turn towards Pathways planning. This includes a wide range of activities including subject expos, handbooks and information nights for parents about programs, subjects and subject selection.  Please be mindful and pencil into your calendars the following key events and their dates:

Friday 26 June (today)

All Pathways Handbooks on College Website

Week beginning Monday 20 July

VM/VPC Intake interviews begin  

Wednesday 22 July

Year 10 into Year 11 Subject Selection Parent information session 6.30pm

Monday 27 July

Year 8 into Year 9 Subject Selection Assembly

Wednesday 29 July 

Year 9 into Year 10 Subject Selection Parent Information session 6:30pm

Year 11 into Year 12 1:1 Subject interviews (no Year 11 classes)

Friday 31 July

Year 10 into Year 11 1:1 Subject interviews (no Year 10 classes)

Tuesday 4 August

Year 9 into Year 10 1:1 Subject interviews (no Year 9 classes)

Building Works

Work is progressing well on the two storey Middle Years building. Our builders are nearing the completion of the project and we will be moving in for classes early in Term 3. When students return for the start of Semester 2 on Tuesday 14 July, our Semester 2 timetable will begin with room allocation in the older parts of the College. Please note that we will be starting a new timetable when we are ready to move into the new building.

You may have noticed that the carpark works were stalled during a period of bad weather. this has caused a slight delay to the completion of the carpark and landscaping works, but again our fantastic builders are working towards a complete handover by the end of July.

We are very excited to be hosting our Semester 2 Parent Teacher Conference onsite at Koonung on Thursday 20 August. We will be using our new Building as the central location for these conferences. More information to come early next term on Compass. 

College Master Plan

In a previous newsletter I posted about our College's Concept Master Plan. 

I have recently been approached by a community group called Rebuild Koonung. This group of parents and wider community members are keen to support our goal of a complete rebuild of Koonung Secondary College and have developed a community website to gather support and petition local, state and federal politicians. 

Here is a link to their community website-

https://rebuildkoonung.com/

What is in the Concept Master Plan?

1. Our current Stadium converting to a Performing Arts space with a 300+ seat theatre

2.  Middle Year building- due to be completed in June 2026

3. A 3 Story STEAM Centre. The next stage in our rebuild is a modern centre for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. The STEAM subjects are booming at Koonung, and we need facilities to match our exceptional programs.

4. A new Senior School building

5. Community Sports Centre- a three court in-door stadium to support our program, and community sport including basketball, badminton, volleyball and other sports in our area. 

Below is an image of that concept Master Plan. 

Please note that this plan is not funded- it is a plan for our future. 

Please check out the Rebuild Koonung site for more information. 

College social media channels 

The College utilises social media to provide quick updates, interesting events, and lots of photos to our community.  We have one official Facebook page and three Instagram pages for members of our community to follow. 

FACEBOOK

OFFICIAL COLLEGE ACCOUNT

https://www.facebook.com/koonungsecondarycollege/

INSTAGRAM

OFFICIAL COLLEGE ACCOUNT

https://www.instagram.com/koonung.secondary.college/

LIBRARY ACCOUNT 

https://www.instagram.com/ksclibrary/

STUDENT LEADERS ACCOUNT

https://www.instagram.com/koonung_secondary_college/

ALUMNI PROGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

The Koonung Secondary College alumni program utilises social media to stay connected with alumni. 

FOLLOW THE ALUMNI PROGRAM ON SOCIALS.

Andrew McNeil

Principal

andrew.mcneil@education.vic.gov.au