Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

School Council

At the AGM held on the 16th of March, the following parents have been elected to the Council Executive:

Council President – Ian Fox

Vice President – Jason Allen

Treasurer – Stuart Kerr

I thank them for the extra commitment they are prepared to make to the College in taking on the responsibilities involved in these important roles.

Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

By the time this newsletter is published we will be in the middle of our online Parent – Teacher interviews on Wednesday from 10:00 am – 6:30 pm. We hope that parents and students have found these to be valuable in terms of meeting your child/ren’s teachers face to face online and discussing your child/ren’s progress and in the feedback received. Hopefully with the remote online interviews you found it easier to manage around other commitments. If you haven’t been able to attend the interviews remotely via Google Meet and wish to discuss your child’s progress with a particular teacher or teachers, please contact them via email to organise a time to discuss on the phone or over a Google Meet at another mutually convenient time. If you have any feedback regarding the interview set up and process, please do not hesitate to email my Assistant Principal overseeing the organisation of the interviews, Tracey Bastin.

Student Achievements

Jake Ridley

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Jake Ridley is the recipient of a 2022 Victorian School Sports Award for Swimming. This is an exceptional achievement that recognises Jake's hard work and dedication to his sporting endeavours.  As a state and school swimming champion, Jake had a record-breaking year in 2022.  As the captain of the Mordialloc swimming team, Jake set 5 new records for the Kingston Division, also winning 5 individual School Sport Victoria State swimming titles.  Jake then competed at the Australian National Age Championships.  Over 6 days of competing, Jake raced in 16 heats across 8 events, with four finals and a top-5 place - an outstanding performance for a national championship.

The Victorian School Sports Awards were presented at an award ceremony on Monday 3 April in the Members Dining Room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Jake and his parents attended the ceremony.

Jess Turner

Jess recently came first in the Under 16s National Beach Volleyball competition and was named the most valuable player - an outstanding achievement for Jess.

In the Beach Volleyball Schools Cup, Jess, with partner Ellie from Geelong placed second. They lost to Benowa (school in Queensland) in a 3-set final. Scores were 21-19, 17-21, 13-15, so a very close second!

Sarah O’Neill

Sarah (Year 7) has been selected as part of her dance team to represent Australia at Disneyworld, Florida at the World Summit Dance Championships during late April/early May. We congratulate Sarah on this fantastic achievement as one of the youngest members to be selected and it will no doubt be an amazing experience for her. 

Staff Achievements

James Evans

Congratulations to James Evans, who has been selected as  Head Coach of the Australian Pool Lifesaving team, who will be competing at the Commonwealth Championships in Windsor, Canada in September this year.

Julia Phillips

Congratulations to Julia Phillips for representing Victoria at the recent Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships and finishing fourth in the beach sprint event. Although Julia is disappointed to have just missed out on a medal placing, it is still a fantastic achievement to finish fourth in Australia at this event.

School for Student Leadership

The School for Student Leadership provides experiential education that supports personal growth, aspiration and transformation of all students as global citizens. This immersive state-wide residential program for Year 9 Government school students enables them to grow into better citizens and leaders through increased self-awareness, social engagement, community connection and environmental stewardship.

Next term we will be welcoming back our Year 9 students who attended the School for Student Leadership at the Don Valley Campus this term. In the photo included here, from left to right, we have our Director of Middle School, Brendan McFarland, who attended the camp on Friday to listen to our students' final community learning project presentation; and Year 9 students Zander Howell, Reny Zhang, Tash Konisberry, Emily Field, Oscar Goudy, Seb Welsh and the teacher from Don Valley, Nikita Stiberc.

We look forward to their return and listening to their presentation at a future school council meeting and in year level assemblies; and in assisting them with the implementation of their community learning school-based project.

Front Building - Balcony and Side Wall Refurbishment

As previously mentioned, the school received funding last year to replace the upstairs balcony of our front two storey building. We finalised the schematic design plans with the architects about a month ago and they are currently completing the construction/refurbishment documentation so that the project can be put out to tender. The plans include replacing the upstairs balcony and enclosing this area to protect from the weather, carpeting the walkway and providing some breakout spaces upstairs. The balustrade, posts, whole side wall and windows downstairs are also being replaced and we are looking at a more attractive colour scheme than the current yellow. The timeline for completion is currently set for during the June/July school holidays given we will not be able to occupy the front building during these works.

New Sign 

Our new electronic front sign is now operational, and we have started to populate it with photos, key messages, key event reminders and celebration of our student achievements. 

Tutoring for our Year 12 Students

Each year we utilise the services of some of our former top Year 12 students to provide tutoring support to our current Year 12 students afterschool onsite. Thanks to our Year 12 Year Level Coordinator, Mr Randell, for organising the students from last year who are returning to offer tutoring in the subjects listed below. We highly recommend that our students studying Unit 3 and 4 subjects take up these valuable opportunities for some extra support during the year. These sessions started last week after school and our current students need to register their interest in attending on the shared Google doc provided by Mr Randell. 

Update on Staffing

Liz McConville – Maths/Science teacher returns from family leave from the start of term 2. Liz will be job sharing with Ariana Nickou teaching Year 7-9 Maths/Science. They both work part-time, 0.5 each week.

Sonja Hill - Maths teacher will be on Long Service Leave for all of term 2 and we wish her all the best in her travels. Nick Elmes who has been replacing Liz McConville this term will be taking Sonja’s classes for term 2.

Food teacher – we have advertised this position four times to date this year and have not been able to find a suitable replacement. We have appointed one of our Casual Relief Teachers, Aisa Dizdarevic, to continue to take the classes in this teaching load during Term 2, as we continue to work through the recruitment process to find a more permanent replacement.

Caroline Lazarus returns from family leave next term and will be working two days a week as one of our literacy tutors for the rest of the year. Aine Bennett has been working full time with us to date this year as a literacy tutor and will continue next term.

Athletics Carnival

A reminder that on Thursday it is our Athletics carnival held at the Sandringham Athletics Club. We encourage students to come along dressed in their house colours and costumes adding to the terrific atmosphere we always experience on this day.  Thanks to our Sports Coordinator, Cory Watters for his organisation of this event, which is always very popular with the entire student cohort. 

Have a safe and relaxing Easter and holiday break with family and friends. 

Ms. Michelle Roberts

Principal