Principal's Report

As we reach the halfway point of term, I can report that things are moving in all the right directions here at the college. This year, our big focus as a school is on developing a strong sense of connectedness and belonging, in line with our college values and this extends to all students, staff and parents as well as members of our wider school community. It is pleasing to see that we are already seeing increased student engagement in many of our programs and classes including student leadership, sports and the performing arts. Across the year, we will be aiming to run numerous events to draw families into the school and provide opportunity for everyone to be involved. Mr Shane Hunt (Leading Teacher) will be communicating with families around these events and strategies so keep an eye out!

The whole school swimming carnival held in week 2 was a huge success with Flynn House taking home the shield collecting the most points across the day. The staff vs student water polo match also made a comeback this year and I am very happy to report that the staff narrowly defended their title by scoring the most points. The number of students participating in both serious and social events was impressive including for my favourite event each year, the costume parade, which did not disappoint and saw Aidyn W and Tia M take out first place with their version of Dr Seuss’s Thing One and Thing Two from ‘The Cat in The Hat’.  Most pleasingly, the staff at Aquanation were greatly impressed by the behaviour and manners of all students and reported that our school was the best they had hosted in a long time. I would like to thank Mr Andrew White for his work organizing the event as well as the staff who supported the day and the student leaders who also jumped in and proactively supported the engagement of all students. 

Our Parent / Teacher / Student conference held on the 14th of February were a huge success with many families reporting that they appreciated the opportunity for proactive conversations about their child’s learning and to be included in the process. The information that teachers were able to find out about the individual students who came to the interviews will also help to inform their teaching across the term and teachers very much appreciated the chance to have these one-on-one conversations which we so rarely get time for in the regular classroom. We will be looking to host further opportunities like this one to enable parents to discuss their child’s progress with teachers. 

Interschools sports has also kicked off this term with both senior and intermediate sports days running prior to this newsletter. Congratulations to all students who participated in these days and, in particular, to our intermediate baseball team who are off to regionals! 

Coming up, we have more events planned for this term including the Year 8 camp which will be heading to Lake Eildon again this year although we are hoping for much better weather than last year! Please note that this Year 8 camp is being offered through the Department’s Positive Start initiative and all costs are being covered by the department and the school is covering costs of staffing to ensure that students have this amazing opportunity. What this means though, is that the school will not be able to run an alternative program back at school and so all Year 8 students are expected to attend this camp. Families who do not believe that their student will be able to attend, will need to contact Ms Meagan Merlino or Mr Jack Lynch as soon a possible to discuss this. The camp will run from Monday the 20th of March until Thursday the 23rd with Friday being a debrief day for students to capture what they learnt from the program and share this with their teachers. This may impact on regular classes on this day. 

Additional events and things to watch out for this term include NAPLAN (which is running earlier this year from the 20th of March), Year 7 and Year 8 sports days, and Open Night in the last week of term. We will also be hosting a very special event for a member of our staff who retired last year – Ms Jeanette Barton. This event will be held on Monday the 27th of March and members of the community including past and present students and parents will be invited to come into the HOPE centre to wish Ms Barton a happy retirement. Further details will be published very soon so please keep the date free and an eye out for these details. 

Open night, which will be held on Tuesday the 4th of April, is a big event in the college calendar. Please be aware that on this day, students in Years 8 to 12 will be dismissed from the college at 1.20pm except for those students involved in supporting the evening or the clean up and preparation for the evening. Year 7 students will be dismissed at 2.30pm unless they are involved in the Open Night proceedings. We do encourage students to be involved in Open Night and there are many roles that students can take on the night. Ms Meagan Merlino, Ms Allana Constance, Ms Danielle Growse and Ms Ally Vance will all be working to get students involved over the next few weeks so you may receive a request from them for permission for your child to attend.

Kerryn Sandford

College Principal