Delahey Campus Principal Message 

Delahey Campus Principal’s Report

To all the members of our Delahey family, a warm welcome to Term 3. 

While we have taken a bit of a break from the hectic last few weeks of Term 2 and all the end of semester completion routines to go through, students should not see this period as a more relaxing one.

In fact, the quicker our students dive into semester 2, the more it will pay them back in a few months’ time, bearing in mind that semester 2 is shorter than semester 1.

In the meantime, a selection of events that have taken place or about to take place include:

• Coming back to the campus to see a brand new hybrid volley ball court and half basketball court. The college had received a grant from the Active Schools Foundation and after much discussion as to how it would be spent, the consensus was that a volleyball court was the best solution. As the positioning of the volley ball court was over the existing basketball court, a hybrid was commissioned. It’s fair to say students are using it every break and having some team-based fun.

• Our biannual Year 11 Awards assembly on Monday July 24 in the campus gymnasium. Students were recognised for not only consistent efforts in their subjects, but also for academic achievement. Both campus principals Mr. Carinci and Mr Sullivan emphasised not only the need to acknowledge the hard work students are engaging in but also the fact that in the blink of an eye, we have almost reached the month of August. It was a salient message that ‘time stops for nobody’ and that if a student has missed out on an award last semester, it may be a simple goal to work toward achieving. A big thanks to Ms Northorpe and the entire Student Management Team for their work in making this celebratory occasion a success.

• Our Year 12 Vocational Major students attending the Careers Expo at ‘Jeff’s Shed’ on Friday July 14. This is an amazing exhibition with over 100 organisations across so many sectors represented. Staff are there to give advice, provide information and ultimately, stimulate the minds of our Year 12 students who are really only a few months away from leaving Copperfield College.   

• As an aside, another little highlight of the day is the fact that students are encouraged to collect a variety of promotional freebies from the various  exhibitors…who doesn’t like a showbag? 
  
  Pictured is one of our students on a Virtual Flight simulator from our Australian Defence Force. I think I would’ve enjoyed that…mmm, I know I would’ve enjoyed that.

• Our Delahey Student Leadership Team this year have been incredibly proactive and cohesive with regard to using student voice and agency with purpose. Word of the work they have been doing has spread far and wide and a week ago, were asked to provide some guidance and instruction to the student leaders at the Sydenham campus. Our leaders led an informative and structured presentation on how to facilitate events at a Junior campus. They conducted sessions on leading change and speech-writing just to name two. Congratulations to all students for wanting to step out of their comfort zone and to both Mr. Pagonis and Ms. Orford for bringing it all together.

• The Pathways Team from Delahey, as well as Mr Sullivan have been travelling to both Junior campuses this term to support the Year 10 into 11 Course Counselling process. Hopefully, the last couple of months have provided our Year 10 students with opportunities to strongly think about career aspirations and the subject selections that best fit those aspiration. Both the Sydenham and Kings Park campuses will hold ‘Course Finalisation’ Day on Monday 31/7 and Tuesday 1/8 respectively with families attending to ratify the program and subjects selected. Well done to the team here at Delahey for playing their part!

• An incredibly worthwhile initiative from our Vocational Major Leading Teacher, Ms. Jackie Breen utilising the services of the FutureGENorganisation to work with our Year 12 VM students. FutureGen works with young people and a large group of organisations to close the gap for school leavers wanting work and employers struggling to find the right fit. They ran 3 days of workshops at the college over week 3, including Monday 24th, Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th July. This was an alternate program and ran in lieu of their scheduled classes. Our students participated in workshops designed to get them thinking about networking, self-awareness, who's the best candidate (and how do I become that person), developing interview skills, all while taking away a developed resume and cover letter. 
  
  The Year 12 VM students were also given the opportunity to have a practice interview with the potential to walk away with a job at the end of the week if they impress. Having spoken to Ms Breen, she has told me that a few students may have already lined up work from the experience. A few other students who are normally a little shy about self-promotion have had meaningful discussions with FutureGEN with a view to putting themselves ‘front and centre’ should relevant opportunities exist in their chosen area. 

• A reminder that the Year 11 and 12 Family/Student/Teacher Interviews are being held on Thursday August 3. We have deliberately brought the date forward because we want to give students more timely opportunities for both feedback, encouragement and intervention prior to the end of the year (which for Year 11 and 12 students as we know, is a little earlier than the Junior campuses).

Signing off for the moment. 

Stay happy, healthy and safe

Mr Renato Carinci and  Mr Dan Sullivan

Campus Principals