Principal Update

It's only three weeks since our last edition, but so much has happened across the school. We've seen our Year 12 VCE students commence their final examinations and it's been a delight seeing how committed they are to their studies by working from the study centre and utilising the opportunity to meet with their teachers in the lead up to their respective exams.  Our Year 10 students put on a fantastic showcase of stalls with the Marketplace Day late last month.  The weather shone on us which added to the fun-filled energy of the day.  Final calculations are still being worked through of the incomings and outgoings for each 'mini business' which will determine the figure that is donated to their chosen charity - The Cancer Council.  Our Year 11 students are now preparing for their written examinations which are scheduled next week.

In the junior school, our Year 8 cohort experienced Summit Camp in West Gippsland, and what an amazing range of experiences they enjoyed with blogs from the camp and photos published later in this edition.  Our Year 9 students have continued their RAID program experience with a day in Melbourne at the Aquarium and another day in Bendigo at the Central Deborah Gold Mine.  In Science our Year 7s have been experimenting with dry ice which always makes for a fun day in the lab.

In the sporting arena, I am proud to share a summary our Sports Coordinator, Mr Hayward has put together, showing the breadth of talent that exists across the year levels and variety of sports we participate in, in the Western Ranges Division (see table below). These results are not only a credit to the athletes themselves, but to the coaches, parents and staff that support these teams and excursions.  In addition to this, I'm thrilled to share other student sporting achievements beyond the school sports structure which you can read about a little further on in this edition.  Our young people are really out there doing amazing things in their chosen areas.

I'd like to thank all the students and parents/carers who participated in focus group sessions with the school review panel, in addition to the staff panels that were held as part of the fieldwork component of the process.  This element of the review process is now complete, and I look forward to receiving the reviewers report and recommendations that will help inform the development of our next Strategic Plan.

Finally, last week we celebrated World Teachers' Day - a day to acknowledge the dedication, care and expertise that our teaching profession brings to educating and positively impacting the lives of our young people.  It was really beautiful to read the many messages of appreciation our students wrote for their teachers which were displayed on the 'appreciation wall' in the Staff Room, and a reminder of the critically important work teachers do every single day in education and pastoral care.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

Principal

Overall:

Gisborne Secondary College – 19 1st places!

Sunbury College - 11

Melton Secondary College – 9

Sunbury Downs College – 3

Melton Christian College – 3

Alice Miller School – 6

Staughton College – 6

Kurunjang Secondary College – 2

Heathdale Christian College - 0