Principals Report

Dear Homestead Community,

At schools, we tend to notice the obvious and overt moments.

The performance on stage. The sporting result. The presentation in front of an audience. The final grade. The graduation certificate.

What we don't always see, and more importantly, not often look out for, is everything that happened beforehand.

The rehearsals when nobody was watching. The training session after a long day. The teacher who read another draft. The student who stayed back at homework club every day to ask one more question. The practice exam completed when it would have been much easier to do something else.

Increasingly, I think this is where success actually lives, in the work nobody sees.

Yesterday, our Year 12 students begin their practice exams. Unlike previous years, these exams will continue into the term break, and for our students this marks a very real shift into the final stage of their secondary schooling.

There will be plenty of visible moments ahead. Final classes. Celebration day, VCAA examinations. Valedictory. Results. Life.

But what will determine how our students feel when those moments arrive is largely the work they do when nobody is watching.

It is choosing to complete another practice question. Acting on the feedback a teacher has provided. Turning up when motivation is low. Asking for help rather than pretending everything is fine. Making the small corrections, over and over again, that eventually become significant improvement.

This applies whether a student is striving for a study score in the 40s, working towards their personal best, or simply determined to successfully complete their VCE or VM certificate. The destination may be different, but the principle is the same.

We saw another, very different, example of this recently in our café.

Our students hosted a high-end canapé lunch, where they were able to put into practice the skills they have been developing in class. As part of the experience, students invited a special teacher to join them, before preparing, presenting and serving their food in a setting that demanded care, professionalism and attention to detail.

The finished canapé is the part we get to see. What sits behind it is the planning, preparation, practice, feedback and sometimes the dish that didn't quite work the first time. These authentic experiences matter, because they give our students the opportunity not simply to learn something, but to demonstrate what they can do with what they have learned.

Our STEM students have also been busy this term, and I am very pleased to announce that Dylan Lawler was the lucky winner of our 41-inch curved screen, generously donated by JB Hi-Fi. Congratulations Dylan, and a sincere thank you to JB Hi-Fi for supporting our students and our STEM program. Partnerships like these allow us to provide opportunities and experiences beyond what happens in the classroom, and we are very grateful for their generosity.

Perhaps there is no better example of the work nobody sees at Homestead right now than Team Typhoon-Ryan Vaidya, Samhith Alluri, Jai Roda and Rutvij Patel from Homestead and Hashir Hussain from Alamanda College.

On 30 September, our F1 in Schools team will fly to Singapore to compete at the World Finals, returning in Week 2 of Term 4. That sentence is the visible bit.

What it doesn't capture are the extraordinary number of hours that have gone into earning the right to write it. 

Behind the opportunity to represent Homestead and Alamanda College, and Australia, on the world stage are countless hours of designing, testing, refining, presenting, problem-solving and starting again when something didn't work. There have been late nights, weekends, setbacks, deadlines and an enormous amount of learning along the way.

I could not be prouder of what these students have already achieved.

I will have the privilege of travelling with Team Typhoon to Singapore, and I am incredibly excited to see them represent our college on the world stage. Whatever happens in the competition itself, they have already demonstrated so much of what we hope a Homestead student becomes: purposeful, curious, innovative and resilient.

They have also reminded us that the impressive things we eventually get to celebrate rarely happen by accident.They are built quietly.

The same is true across our college every day. It is true of the student preparing for an exam. It is true of the teacher providing feedback late into the evening. It is true of our Year 10 and 11 students developing the habits they will need next year. And it is true of families providing the routines, encouragement and stability that allow young people to do their best work.

As we reach the end of Term 3, there is much for our community to be proud of. But there is also important work still ahead.

For our Year 12s particularly, the coming weeks matter enormously. Use them well. Keep turning up. Keep asking questions. Keep accepting feedback. Keep doing the work, especially the work nobody sees. 

Because eventually, people will see the result.

Danijel

Principal