Assistant 

Principal Report 

Term 4 has sprung upon us and we are on the last leg of the school year. Typically, it is always a very busy term with a lot of activities on the calendar, but there is still some uncertainty on what we can and will be able to do before the years end, particularly our senior students as they finish up their secondary schooling. 

The first week of term we had Year 12 students returning to school onsite. The GAT was held on Tuesday 5th October and went off very successfully. Thank you to the students and our external examiners (Liz Kealy and Alex King) who did such a great job to ensure that everyone was safe, warm and able to do the best they could in this exam. 

The following day saw the return of our Year 11 students which started the chain of events for the staggered return for all our students. The Year 7’s were back last week and we are focusing on supporting our students to settle back into their routines and re-establish their social connections and connectedness to learning. It is so pleasing to have students back and it will be great to have everyone on-site next week. 

Year 12 students are now focused on preparing for the end of the year external VCAA examination period. Our Year 12s have shown a lot of resilience throughout the remote learning process and appear very calm as we move towards their final examinations, although they have mentioned a few recent nerves, which is totally normal. They can only control what they can control, such as using the advice of their teachers, maintaining strong study habits and not pushing themselves to breaking point. It is very important for students to maintain a healthy balance and ensure they get some fresh air. The independence they have had to develop and demonstrate over the past two years, will go a long way to their future successes whatever they choose to do.  

Our VCAL students are reengaging with the integrated projects which kicked off with them planning and running a series of activities for our on-site supervised students. It was a challenging task for the VCAL crew, but everyone had fun particularly playing sprouts. 

Alana Ryan has jumped straight back into her calf leading project, working with a range of junior students to try and break-in our 7 calves. The COVID break has meant that the calves are a fair bit bigger now and a bit more challenging, but the kids are having a ball and the transferable and soft skills they are learning and demonstrating are unbelievable. Will Hosie has continued with his teacher aide project and the feedback we are hearing about how well he connects with young people and supports them at school is just superb. Will may have found his calling! 

The remainder of Term Four will be busy with transitions, exams, Headstart for 2022, and importantly some time for students to recalibrate and reset for 2022 – which we all look forward to with a lot of optimism! 

Chad Frost

Assistant Principal