Dear students and families,

Welcome back to school, and welcome to our new families. After a lovely week chatting to students and parents, it sounds like everyone had a great break and are excited to be back at school.

Tuesday’s weather made the staff return difficult, but we had a busy day of professional learning and preparing for the student return. Wednesday was wonderful to see all of our new Year 7s and families, as well as our VCE students, who were straight into their classes like there was no break at all. The engagement from both groups of students was very impressive. Thursday was the whole party with all levels returning, and a lovely whole school assembly to start the day. We celebrated the successes of 2025 and looked ahead to the exciting events of 2026.

Hopefully you saw some footage on our socials (over 16 year olds!) of the assembly with the Year 7s getting a special welcome, being cheered and clapped in. We also welcomed our new staff for 2026: teachers starting, Ms Nalder and Ms Kim, as well as new Learning Support staff, Chloe, Chloe, Steph, Tilly, Carys, Evan, joining our instrumental team is Aleks, and joining our grounds maintenance team, Lance.

The assembly began with a respectful Acknowledgement of Country and National Anthem, which was provided by our Koorie leaders, Anthony, Ryder, and our McC alumni and 2024 Dux, and new employee, Steph Armstrong. I have provided a copy of their beautiful words below.

For our new families, if you haven’t already, please join our socials as we have a McClelland College page where we regularly share lots of information, photos, and footage of all the fun at McClelland.

Some reminders for our new and existing families, please consider school drop off and pick up and aim to reduce traffic around the college, in particular Belar Avenue. The ELCC opens fully this Monday so there will be additional cars dropping off babies and toddlers, given our McClelland students are big teenagers (even if they still feel like your babies!), let them walk! Please drop students off at surrounding streets, Ballam Park either Cranbourne Road side or off Benanee. We have a second access road to our school from Alexander Cresecent, which along with all of those surrounding streets means your child has many ways to safely walk to school without needing to be dropped off at Belar Avenue entrance. Students should avoid traversing properties of other schools including Ballam Park Primary, Naranga, and the new ELCC next door.

All students started the year with excellent uniform, they slipped straight backinto our classroom routines, were ready with their laptops and materials, and most importantly were happy to see each other and our staff. We look forwardto an exciting year of quality learning and school events; so please encourageyour child to get involved in everything they can fit it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Whole School Assembly 29/01/2026

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples represent the worlds oldest continuous living culture, with evidence confirming their presence in Australia for at least 65,000 years.

McClelland College is located on the land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. The Bunurong people have lived in this area for over 40,000 years.

An Acknowledgement of Country recognises that our First Nations people have a strong and proud Aboriginal history and pays respect to the Traditional Owners of the land around us here today.

We’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where we meet today, the Bunurong people of the Kulin nation. We celebrate the rich history of the longest living culture in the world, and pay our respects to past and present Indigenous Elders.

McClelland College commits to truth telling and will continue to educate our school community of the histories, cultures and achievements of our First Nations peoples. We encourage the emerging First Nations voices of our youth and the future generations.

COG Newsletter

Community, Ownership and Growth

Issue 1, 2026 · 30 Jan 2026

In this issue