PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents and Carers,

It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself to you as Surf Coast Secondary College’s Acting Principal for the remainder of Term 3.  I’ve now been at the college for one week and I’ve been enjoying re-connecting with the school community and meeting many of your children in classes or in the yard. I  say I am ‘re-connecting’ because I was a staff member at SCSC during our first three years where I taught a range of subjects, including; Media, Art, English and Humanities right across the College from Year 7 to 12.  I was also Leading Teacher for Student Learning during this time.

I often think that parents and carers may be interested in knowing a little more about the person who is leading the team of education professionals responsible for their child’s schooling.  So, with this in mind and as a form of introduction here’s a little bit more about me…

In the nine years since I left SCSC I have filled various leadership roles in other school communities including Executive Principal at Colac Secondary College, Principal of Lorne P-12 College and Assistant Principal and Acting Principal at Newcomb Secondary College.  I’ve enjoyed leading in these varied school and am excited to be able to rejoin SCSC this term.

I am a Torquay resident and first moved here in the late 90’s when the town’s population was about one third the size that it is now.  I’m a father of three school aged children, the eldest of whom is completing VCE this year, while my youngest has just started in Grade Prep at Bellbrae Primary School.  When not at work, I enjoy surfing, gym, running, travelling, art and film.  And you may also see me riding around town and down the Great Ocean Road on my Harley Davidson. 

As a Torquay resident I’m very aware of our town’s culture, challenges and future opportunities.  This knowledge, combined with extensive school leadership experience will help inform my contribution to our upcoming school review.  Over the coming weeks we will be working with a team of educational leaders and external consultants to complete five days of review.  The final outcome of this review will be to acknowledge and celebrate the College’s success to date and then setting the future direction through the creation of a new four year School Strategic Plan.

It’s certainly an exciting time to be part of the Surf Coast Secondary College community. Over the coming weeks and months there will be change, new opportunities and clear goals for academic excellence, student wellbeing and school engagement.  I feel very privileged to be here and I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the term.

Recognising Academic Excellence

On Monday this week we acknowledged and celebrated the academic success of our students at two assemblies.  We awarded over one hundred certificates to Year 12 students who have maintained 80% or above averages in various subjects throughout Semester 1.  And we awarded over 80 certificates to students in Year 7 to 12 who have maintained 90% averages on their Semester 1 assessment tasks. 

I have to say I am extremely impressed with the academic excellence achieved by so many of our students in the first half of the year!

Course Counselling

During Term 3, students in the senior and middle school start the process of selecting subjects for the next academic year.  Over the last week this year’s Year 11 and 10 students have been sitting down with a course counsellor and a parent to discuss their pathway options linked to their post-secondary schooling ambitions. 

I’d like to thank all those parents who came along to support their child in these important discussions that will help shape the future success of our young people. 

Parent Meeting Times

Maintaining close communication between parents and school staff is the best way to support our young people to have success at school.  There are often times when school staff need to speak with parents and sometimes this is best done face-to-face.  We acknowledge that it can be challenging for parents to find the time to come up to our school during business hours for meetings.  However, when this is required these parent meetings need to occur during school operating hours. 

Like other professionals, full time teachers in Victorian schools have a set 38 hours of contact time with their workplace. Our school hours are between 8:30am-4:30pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and 8:30am-3:30pm Monday and Friday. All parent meetings must fall within these times. 

Thank you and take care,

Shane Elevato

Acting Principal.