From the Assistant Principal 

Junior School

Class of 2029

Our 2024 Year 7 enrolment intake is well underway. It has been uplifting to see the excitement and enthusiasm of prospective families coming along on tours of our school and making the choice to become members of our very special AHS community. 

You may have heard our school mentioned in the media this week as a top-performing government secondary school with remarkable growth in enrolments. This year, the DET has put an Enrolment Management Plan in place for our school. This means we can no longer consider out of zone enrolments, unless applying for consideration on curriculum grounds into one of our unique French specialist programs.

We are so very proud of our growth in numbers, which really is the result of having earned the trust of our local community and achieving our foundational vision of becoming a government school of choice. I would like to acknowledge the dedication of our teaching and education support staff in providing an exemplary school experience for our students and their commitment to continuous improvement in learning outcomes for every student in our community.

Student voice at AHS

This past fortnight has been a busy time for student voice at Auburn High School. Students met in their year level communities to complete the annual DET Attitudes to School Survey, providing their insights as to student/ teacher relationships, confidence and motivation, their sense of connectedness, inclusion and respect within our school community, and their perceptions of student physical/ mental health and help-seeking. 

It was great to reflect on the impressive range of opportunities students have taken up already this year including extra-curricular clubs, celebration of diversity through special events such as International Women’s Day and IDAHOBIT Day, excursions and camps just to name a few. 

In addition to this broad state-wide survey of government school students, AHS implements the Pivot Student Survey. Students completed the 2nd cycle of Pivot for 2023 this past fortnight. This is conducted three times per year, where students provide very specific feedback to all of their teachers across all of their subjects. 

Teachers use this data to inform their professional development plans for the year, and a team of students are trained to analyse this data. They then present a workshop for their teachers, demonstrating the strategies they’d like to see employed in their classes. The result of this process is a rich dialogue between students and teachers that really maximises the classroom experience and learning outcomes.

New facilities for Instrumental Music

More than 10% of students are currently enrolled in Instrumental Music lessons at AHS, and this number continues to grow thanks to the high-quality program provided by our fantastic IM team. 

We are very excited to announce that we will be taking delivery next week of a brand-new relocatable classroom for the exclusive use of our IM program. This room will be located in the Canteen courtyard area, and will comprise 3 practice spaces and an ensemble space. 

If any of our families have any pre-loved instruments in good condition to donate to the IM program, these will be gratefully received. Please email Kristie.satilmis@education.vic.gov.au if you have an item to donate (especially if it’s a piano or electric piano!). If you would like to sign up for IM lessons, please contact the office.

Buildings and grounds projects update

Plenty of progress has been made on our new senior school building, with foundations well underway. It’s really starting to look like a building rather than a pit! Feel free to pop down to the corner of Burgess St and Auburn Rd for a look, taking care to stay behind the safety fencing of course! 

This coming holidays, the windows along the Burgess St façade of the main building and the reception façade will be replaced along with an upgrade of our main switchboard. This will result in improved capacity of our heating system, keeping us toasty this winter. 

Our bathroom upgrade project is moving along, with the tender process due to commence this week. Thank you to those students who contributed their feedback throughout the design process! It is taking a bit longer than we’d hoped, but it will be well worth the wait once finished! 

Speaking of bathrooms, we will we progressing with some small upgrades to the male gym bathrooms over the next couple of weeks. This will undoubtedly make a big difference to the amenity of the space. 

We are only able to make these improvements thanks to the generosity of our parent community and the donations made into our Building Fund. Every dollar donated goes directly into improving our student facilities and are tax deductible. Please consider making a donation this tax-time if you are in a position to do so.

Reconciliation Week

We were delighted to partner with our neighbour, Auburn South Primary School during Reconciliation Week this week. I was honoured to be invited to represent AHS at their Reconciliation Week assembly and was impressed by the warm sense of community and genuine care of students toward the spirit and intention of the week. 

Thank you to Charlotte Dibben, our school’s Marrung Lead, who did a great job raising awareness and sparking engaging conversations this week about reconciliation and our role in this as a school and as individuals. 

We held a small ceremony to unveil our new acknowledgement of country plaques, where our wonderful School Captains and student leaders spoke about the important part we all play in the reconciliation process.

There was a huge response to the Books and Boots Drive. We carried 14 big boxes of donations across to ASPS, to be donated to kids in remote indigenous communities. Thank you so much to all those who contributed.