Principal's Message-

Amadeo Ferra

Mid-year mark

Parents and carers should be aware that first-semester student reports (and all past reports) are now available on Compass. Students have all made progress in their learning. Many students have made enormous gains while a number of students have many absences -both explained and unexplained. We trust you will identify aspects of your child’s school performance of which you can be very proud. I was once again struck by how well our teachers know their students and how comprehensive their reports to you are. The reports reflect our attention to academic rigour and regular assessment to determine the direction of our teaching. I strongly encourage parents and carers to read them and discuss the importance of attending every class every day. Too many students have high number of absences which not only impact their academic progress and potential, but also their social and emotional health and wellbeing.

International Student Program Recruitment Recommencing

At Monday night’s School Council meeting a detailed report on the International Student Program was presented to members, a number of whom are relatively new to the school and therefore not aware of the program that we have had in place since 2015. A very quick summary is that in 2018 we had a very strong and vibrant international program with 52 students and six staff working within it. This was quickly decimated as the VRQA put a statewide freeze on recruitment that year. Our program was quickly decimated due to natural attrition but mainly the VRQA freeze on recruitment in followed by the pandemic which prevented students we had recruited from entering the country. With the borders now reopening the International Education Department once again running recruitment trips, we are able to reopen our schools to international students. Our largest number of international students came from China, however the Chinese government is not allowing us to visit them for the purpose of recruitment so we are focusing on other markets we have successfully recruited from in the past. Ms. Miller will be spending much of the term break with other Department of Education and school representatives visiting agents and attending fairs in Vietnam and Cambodia, in order to recruit prospective students. Apart from the many cultural benefits of the international program, it has enabled us to consistently run subjects that didn’t run before, such as accounting and specialist maths. One of the other advantages in recent years we have been able to use the money raised to put towards refurbishment of buildings. We have just had School Council approval to engage with architects to refurbish the ABlock (and also another space in the IC) and this would not be possible without the international program. 

Today was the last day of our exchange student Tobia from Venice, Italy. On behalf of the college, I’d like to thank Tobia for being such a wonderful representative of his country and connecting so well with staff and students alike.