Principal's Report

School Council Elections 2025

Please refer to the following documents.

Welcome Back

It was a real pleasure to welcome back all students and staff as they entered the school door with excitement for the start of the new school year and the anticipation of what opportunities will come their way as they engage in our learning program. I welcome our new Year 7 students and any other new students and their families to the school.  

The start of this school year has been different to previous years as on their arrival both students and staff engaged in the new Start of Year Program.

The goal of the program was to establish and reinforce expectations, set up good learning habits, and develop links to peers and the school community. The program focused on students ongoing engagement in learning, positive engagement in class and with peers, understanding school wide expectations and processes, and wellbeing strategies.  Essential information that has an ongoing impact on students' learning across the year was a key focus.

Year 7 students commenced school on Thursday 30 January.  All students were engaged in the Start of Year Program on 30 and 31of January.  The first day of regular classes commenced on Monday 3 February. 

Year 8, 9 and 10 students commenced on Friday 31 January.  All students were engaged in the Start of Year Program on the 31 January and the 3 February.  The first day of regular classes commenced on Tuesday 4 February.

Year 11 students commenced on Thursday 30 January.  All students were engaged in the Start of Year Program on this day and commenced regular classes on Friday 31 of January.

Year 12 students commenced on Thursday 30 January.  All students were engaged in the Start of Year Program on this day in period 1, 2 and 5, with regular classes running in period 3 and 4.  The first full day of regular classes commenced on Friday 31 of January. 

A great deal of work went into the development and planning for the delivery of this program. I commend all the staff who engaged in this work with enthusiasm to support our young people to have a great start to the year. I commend the leadership of Nadia Devlin (Student Agency and Growth Leader), Loren Clarke (Curriculum, Data and Assessment Leader) and Katie Reed (STEAM and Digital Technologies Leader) for their hard work and commitment to the development of the program and the subsequent implementation plan.

We will evaluate and review the program and adjust as necessary for future years.

All in all, it has been a rather smooth start to the year. We began with a fully staffed school which is a good position to be in. Students have shown great enthusiasm and excitement, having engaged well with each other and their teachers and the new approach to the start of the year.  

As has become customary, at each Year-level Assembly, our Student Leaders presented the School Values and what they mean to them and to us as a learning organisation. The School Values visual display below will help you to continue the conversation at home with your children. Now is the time to revisit these or to develop a shared understanding with your children of their meaning, and how these lead to the expectations that we have of the Eltham High School student, staff member and parent/carer.

I congratulate the students on the way that they engaged with and participated in these assemblies, and I thank our two School Leaders and the other Student Leaders for their very well-prepared presentations.

 We are all looking forward to an amazing 2025 for learning and wellbeing.

Welcome to the staff joining us for the first time:

• Orianne Megaloudis – Senior School Team Leader / Science 

• Lucy Ennis – PE / Health

• Alexandra Leather – PE / Health

• Donnie Li – Business Management / Humanities

• Tom Bell – English /Humanities

• Ashleigh Taylor – English

• John Gesson – Accounting / Business Management

• Kevin Zhou – Mathematics

• Lynsey Betts – Business Management / Humanities

• Ancel Franklin – English / Humanities

• Miles Munn – English

• Peihua Cao – Mathematics / Science

• Jane Thomas – Arts

• Daniel Price – Food Technology

Welcome back to the following staff:

• Alice Mackinnon – Health/P.E.

• Ashlea Oates – Legal Studies / Humanities 

• Ela Fornalska – English

Staff in new roles for 2025:

Melissa Hughes – Learning Specialist – Literacy

Suzy Oates – Learning Specialist – Numeracy

Lee McQueen – Whole School Professional Growth Leader

Erin Knight – Middle School Team Leader

Kathryn Boysen – Junior School Team Leader

Katie Reed – STEAM / Digital Technologies Leader 

There are several new coordinators in each sub school, and I am sure that they will Introduce themselves to you directly.

A number of our wonderful group of tutors from 2024 will continue to support our students throughout 2025 as will our amazing volunteer, John Considine.

I wish all the new and returning staff and those in new roles the very best as they engage with the school in their crucial role in facilitating and supporting the learning of our young people.

I take this opportunity to remind parents of the use of the Compass Parent Portal. If you are a new parent and do not have your username and password, please contact the relevant Sub-school Office through the General Office on 9430 5111. The Compass Parent Portal gives parents up to date information about your children’s approach to their learning, timetable, learning tasks, class work, attendance, reports, upcoming events, etc. It also allows you to approve your children’s attendance on excursions and make payments online plus a host of other things including access to your children’s teachers via e-mail. 

If you have accessed the Compass Parent Portal before but have forgotten your password, please contact the relevant Sub-school Office through the number indicated above.

Bell Times 2025

Staff Outside of Work Hours

Parents/carers and students are reminded that regular work hours for staff are 8:30am – 4:30pm. Staff are not available to respond to e-mails outside of regular work hours.

You are at liberty to send an e-mail at your convenience but please be aware that it will not be responded to immediately if it is outside of the regular work hours. However, your e-mail will be responded to within 48 hours from the first workday that it is received.  

Thank you for your understanding.

Should you require immediate assistance with a matter of concern, please contact these external services:

Telephone or Webchat Support for Young People:

1800 55 1800 / https://kidshelpline.com.au/

Parents/Carers Support:

13 22 89 / https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/serviceprofiles/parentline-service

The following link takes you to the Eltham High School staff emails and Coordinator list for 2025.  Staff Email and Coordinator List - 2025

Student Achievement

Congratulations to all the Class of 2024 for their outstanding results and on their success on gaining entry into their chosen pathways. I congratulate our School Dux, Rudy Ranganathan (Class of 2024, Everard House). Rudy achieved an ATAR Rank of 99.35 and has accepted a place in the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) / Biomedical Sciences (Monash University). Thomas Smith (Class of 2024, Everard House) achieved and ATAR Rank of 99.2 and has accepted a place in the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) / Science (Monash University). Emily Matthews (Class of 2024, Everard House) achieved an ATAR Rank of 98.75 and has accepted a place in the Biomedicine Degree (The University of Melbourne).

Our students have been offered tertiary pathways in a vast range of fields, primarily across a range of universities as well as a small number of TAFE and private providers. I take this opportunity to wish all the students the very best in 2025 and beyond. 

VCE Season of Excellence 2025

Congratulations to Aliandra Nasrun (Class of 2024, Skipper House) whose exceptional artwork ‘Wood Song’ has been selected for Top Arts 2025. It will be on display at the National Gallery of Victoria, NGV Australia, from 14 March – 20 July 2025.

In his diptych, two pieces of plywood, with the rhythm of time literally engrained, act as a scoresheet. With the use of an axe and his own momentum Ali creates a score and releases the force within the once tree, now processed plywood, to provoke us and challenge our relationship to nature. 

Ali created the work in his final year of ‘VCE Art Making and Exhibiting’. His art process involved a sincere passion and critical engagement with cultural theory, thoughtful personal reflections on his artistic influences, their aesthetics and artistic concerns, and, finally, investment in original experiments, exploring unorthodox manipulations of materials, through novel techniques and clever use of contemporary technologies.

Top Arts is an exhibition that showcases best practice artworks from VCE art students who graduated the previous year. Out of approximately 1500 Victorian students applying, an average of 45 students are selected for the exhibition. 

The Artist’s Statement:

In ‘Wood Song’, an axe is considered both weapon and instrument. With the axe, a melody is written according to the scale, tempo, and sequence of the plywood scoresheet. The work presents a question about our varied relationships to nature, and whether they function in harmony or in discord: If the axe is both weapon and instrument, how does our being as both musician and assailant follow? 

Ali will be commencing a BA Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture at the Victorian College of the Arts , University of Melbourne, this year. Congratulations Ali, we look forward to what you do next.

Student Leadership

I take this opportunity to introduce our two School Leaders to our community and to congratulate them on having been appointed to their positions. I also take this opportunity to thank the panel led by Nadia Devlin (Student Agency and Growth Leader) for the work that they did to implement the selection process. 

Congratulations to Scarlett Harrison (Year 12, Skipper House) and Will Egan (Year 12, Toner House) who have been appointed to the school leader positions.

I am certain that they will both work hard and represent our learning community admirably.

The remainder of our student leaders are announced in the student agency and growth section of this newsletter.

Swimming and Water-Based Activities

Families will notice additional questions that are now required as part of an excursion event consent documentation where the event includes swimming or water-based activities.

It is important that this information is included to ensure that the student can actively participate in all aspects of the event.

These questions provide information for school staff leading the events on students’ current knowledge, skills, and experience in water environments. 

Students must be classified in the assessment as either:

• Beginner swimmers – students with little or no experience including in shallow water.  Students who are not confident swimmers or not comfortable in the water.

• Average swimmers – students able to swim 25 metres but are not strong or confident in deep or fast water. 

• Strong swimmers – students able to swim 50 to 100 meters and are strong and confident in deep or fast water.

House Sport Carnivals

Eltham High School will be holding two House Sport Carnivals during Term 1. 

The Swimming Carnival will take place at Aquarena, Doncaster Friday 21 February and the Athletics Carnival is on Thursday 13 March at the Doncaster Athletics Track. Both days are considered normal school days and, as such, it is expected that all students and staff attend. 

Families will have received a combined consent form for these events. Please ensure that you have completed the required information about swimming capacity as part of this consent.

Thank you to all families for your prompt approval of events to allow teams to fully plan for the events.

Pride March

The annual Pride March took place on Sunday 2 February. Eltham High School joined several other schools at the March. Although it was a very hot day, we managed to march and represent our community. Many thanks to the students and parents that joined us on the day. 

A big thank you to the staff who marched and, of course, to Carly Young who organised the event on our behalf. It was an enjoyable day supporting our LGBTQIA+ community and demonstrating that we do stand behind and live all our School Values and, in this case, Individuality, Respect for Diversity and Integrity.

Reminders 

Mobile Phone Policy

A reminder that the school Mobile Phone Policy remains in place and requires students to switch off their phone from the sound of the first warning bell for the day and store their phones away securely until they leave the school at the end of the day. Students are not to access their phones at any time throughout the day including breaks. The same expectations apply for the use of headphone and Air pods. Unless requested by a teacher to support learning, these must also be stored securely for the school day. A process for addressing a breach of the policy is in place and all students are well aware of their role in this process. 

Parents/carers must not expect to communicate with their children during the day via their mobile phone. Should there be the need to get in touch with your child during the day for an emergency, please contact the general office otherwise please confine any communication for the times when student can access their phones. A small number of students have Mobile Phone or Headphone exemptions, these are generally for medical reasons supported by relevant documentation.

Privacy Policy

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the DE Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, available in the Policies section of the school website www.elthamhs.vic.edu.au 

Student Accident Insurance

Parents/guardians are reminded that the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Likewise, the school does not have a whole-school policy for personal accident insurance for students. Parents and guardians are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including transport costs. Reasonably low-cost accident insurance policies are available from some commercial insurers. These cover a range of medical expenses not covered by Medicare or private health insurance. Parents/guardians may wish to purchase such a policy for individual students.

Student Exchange Organisations approved by the VRQA and therefore DET

The following is a 2025 update of the Student Exchange organisations approved by the VRQA to provide student exchange programs in Victoria. The list may change each year, so it is important that you check the current list rather than relying on old information. 

Each year we are asked about student exchange programs that provide a reciprocal benefit. It is important that if you wish to engage in reciprocal exchange that you utilise the services of one of the organisations on this list. The school will not be able to enrol overseas exchange students coming through organisations not on this list because they would not be approved by the Department of Education and Training. 

If you need further information, please do not hesitate to call Kate Scalzo on 9430 5111 or e-mail Kate.Scalzo@education.vic.gov.au

School Drop off and Pick Up Times

I remind all parents and guardians, and inform new parents and carers to the school, that student safety is always the primary consideration including both drop off time and pick up times.

Whilst traffic seems to flow smoothly through the circular driveway of the school at the start of the day, there seems to be greater congestion at pick up time in the afternoon.

The circular driveway is to be used purely for drop off and pick up. 

There is very little parking available within the school grounds between the following time (8:00 – 10:00am and 2:00 – 4:00pm). “No Standing Anytime” signs are located within the school, and it is important that parents/guardians adhere to these. Furthermore, double parking is illegal in the street and within the school grounds, it causes further congestion, which in turn impinges on student safety. 

We will be enforcing the use of the circular driveway purely for drop off and pick up of students. 

As you move into the circular driveway, if your child is not at the front of the school you will need to exit the driveway and re-enter. You may need to do this more than once. Alternatively, it is advisable that you organise with your child another location for pick up.

As always, we will continue to expect everyone to abide by road and safety laws and procedures as they move through the driveway. The same applies at the Ely Street end of the school. Staff parking on the street is now minimal and this means that there is space for drop off and pick up. Please do not park in residents’ driveways. No parents are to drive into the school driveway or park in it or across it. This is the only avenue that students have to get to and from the school buses and we must be vigilant for their safety. 

 Subsequently, it is imperative that everyone behaves in a lawful and safe way out in Withers Way, Susan Street, Bell Street and Ely Street. We have informed the traffic division of the Shire of Nillumbik of the school’s strategy, and it is possible that the Ranger’s office may act against people who disregard road and safety laws out in the streets. Likewise, the police will patrol the area at these peak times, and they will not hesitate to reprimand and fine if necessary.

I trust that you will understand the need for this direction, and I ask you for your continued support to ensure the safety of our kids. 

If you do use the drop off and pick up zone on Withers Way, can you please direct your children to cross the road at the school crossing both on arrival and on their departure from school. We certainly do not want students crossing the road in front of oncoming cars and placing themselves at risk.

Thank you for your support with this matter.

VINCENT SICARI, Principal