Linda Maxwell

Welcome back to everyone for the 2019 school year. We have had a very smooth start to the year, settling in 247 new Year 7 students and over 20 new students at other year levels. We have also welcomed seven new teachers and three new Education Support staff. We go in to 2019 with 1425 students, which is about as big as we want to get.

We ended 2018 with excellent VCE results, achieving a median score of 30 which puts us into the high-performing range of schools in the state. Our students also achieved 7.6% of 40+ study scores, well above the state average of 6.3%. Our Dux, Shane Hong, achieved an amazing ATAR of 99.35 and a total of 19 students achieved ATAR’s over 90. Our new Honour Board will need to fit 44 photos, as this was the number of students who achieved scores over 80. One of our students, Sasha Reljic, achieved a perfect score of 50 for Health and Human Development. The whole Year 12 group did extremely well and the vast majority have gone onto their chosen career pathway.

One of the big events this week was the opening of the new library to students. This was our major facilities project for 2018 and cost over $250,000 of our reserve money. The result is spectacular and student reactions have been very positive and excited. There are still a few minor finishing touches to be done, but we will hold an open house for parents and families before the end of term so that you canvisit the new facitity. If you go to the school’s Facebook page you can see a short ‘before and after’ video to give you a bit of a preview. I wish we could provide this quality of facility in all the areas of the school but as always, finances dictate the limits of what we can do. However, we are gradually working our way through the various areas of the school and the Arts areas will be our next target for an upgrade.

In some exciting news, we have decided to do a whole school musical this year. We are having a High School Musical (junior) and hope to involve as many students as possible in every aspect of the production. We will also be calling for interested parents who can volunteer their talents such a sewing, painting or crafts. Stay tuned for more details in the next newsletter and on Compass.

Wishing everyone a great Term 1,

Board Games - FLC

Pictured are 7R2 boys Nathan Nguyen (left) and Heng Ngo playing, with Shoun Gerwargis looking on.

Chess