Macleod College Newsletter

Principal's Report

Remembrance Day

We were very proud to hold a whole school assembly to commemorate Remembrance Day on the 9/11. These events are an opportunity to reflect on the cost of war and the sacrifices made by those who fought in the various conflicts around the world and are an important touchstone for young people to recognise community contributions to their current way of life.

 

We welcomed:

  • Mr Jeff Mawkes, former president of the Watsonia RSL 
  • Cr. Tom Melican, Banyule City Council
  • Mr David Cannavo, representating Kate Thwaites MP, Federal Member for Jaga Jaga
  • Bronwyn Jones, representing the Hon. Anthony Carbines
  • Bernadette Khoury, Liberal Candidate for Ivanhoe
  • Kirsten Langford, Liberal Candidate for North Eastern Metro
  • Retired Macleod College Assistant Principal Mrs Elizabeth Evans

Thank you to our College Captains, Anja Duncan, Marcus Jones, Liv Bake and Taha Al-Aubaidy who ran the service, as well as students Ibrahim Hajimahamoud, Ryan Hocking, Annie Dellios, Zinnia Stevens, Sofia Tsetinis, Laura Hre, Liban Abshir, Sabir Ahmed and Dylan Starmans for their readings. Thanks also to Cadet Corporal Baxter Sloan and Cadet Trinity Chiew for their contribution to the day.

 

Additionally, I would like to thank Helen Spanos and Joan Cave for putting together such a polished and meaningful event; Jim Griffiths, Tessa Bodenham, Annette Eldridge and Paloma Bica for preparing the beautiful musical performances, as well as Michelle Wallis, Candice Hickey, Kerry Karalis, Karen Egan and the many other staff who contributed to making this such a special event.

Year 12's

Wednesday 16 December was the last day of year 12 exams, and with it comes a collective sigh of relief from our senior students and their teachers. This has been quite a term for them; practice exams, the Year 12 Valedictory and final week celebrations, all culminating in the final exams. 

 

This can be a tough time of transition for some students (and of course parents) - a sense of emptiness, anti-climax or boredom is not unusual once the euphoria of completion has settled, and often young people will go through an almost mourning period for their secondary schooling. 

 

The cohort of 2022 has been amazing contributors to the college, highly active across Leadership, Music and Sport, as well as driven to achieve their best academically. Importantly they have shown themselves to be wonderful people; respectful, kind and caring, and irrespective of academic achievement these are the traits that will put them in good stead for their futures.

Staff Changes

 We will be saying farewell to a number of staff at the end of 2022:

  •  Diane Dolly – Diane is retiring from the Department of Education after spending the last 24 years at Macleod teaching Drama and English.  She leaves behind quite a legacy over her long and distinguished career. 
  • Swati Julka - Swati will be heading to Melbourne High School in 2023 after 10 years as a Senior Math teacher, VCE and Year 12 leader, and Learning Specialist of Data and Analytics at Macleod. She has set the standard for how you build relationships with students that support their Wellbeing and Learning, and has put in place a great number of initiatives to build student engagement in the senior years. 
  • Lonni Allan - Lonni has been with us for 2 years as the Learning Specialist responsible for the Personalisation of Learning portfolio. She has been instrumental in the work getting Hold Fast up and running and in building a greater focus on student voice in the program for 2023. She will be moving to Buckley Park College in the role of Learning Specialist of Learning Engagement
  • Stephanie Pepprell - Stephanie has taught German, EAL and English at Macleod for 2 years. After 6 months of leave in the latter half of 2022, Stephanie has resigned from Macleod to explore other interests. 
  • Nikita Shee - Nikita joined Macleod at the start of 2022 as a Math and Chemistry teacher, as well as breadth math in our International Intensive English Centre in semester 2. She will be heading to Rosehill Secondary College for 2023.
  • Ashley Butler– Ashley joined us this term teaching English and Humanities as a graduate teacher. She has been able to secure her dream job teaching VCE Ancient History at Preston High for 2023.

Each of these wonderful people has contributed heavily to the tone of our college (for some, over many, many years) and we wish them well for whatever comes next.