Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Friends,

I hope everyone in our community had a pleasant summer, and that our students and staff are feeling refreshed after their long break from school.

In particular, I would like to express a warm welcome to our new students and staff. I am confident you will find our school to be a supportive and inviting place to be.

Before we look forward to what this year might bring, I would like to briefly reflect on last year’s finishing cohort. Late last year I wrote about the excellent senior results we achieved in 2022. Since then, the results from our first International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) students have been released and converted to ATAR equivalent scores.

I am thrilled to say this group of pioneers (and their teachers and supporting families!) achieved stunning results. Fifty three percent of the group achieved an ATAR in the 90’s, whilst another twenty three percent achieved in the 80’s. No one in the group scored below 70. Two of those students, Max Chivers and Elijah Cordover, were honoured at the IBDP high achievers’ awards ceremony last night. They have done themselves, their families and the school proud.

With the IBDP results included, our senior results from last year are even better.

ATAR band	State-wide % distribution of students in each band	BSC % distribution in each band	BSC % students ATAR band cumulative
90-99.95	10	25.0	25.0
80-89	10	24.2	49.2
70-79	10	14.7	63.9
60-69	10	12.5	76.4
50-59	10	11.8	88.2

You can see that 25% of our completing students achieved an ATAR in the 90’s, just under 50% achieved an ATAR of 80 or higher, and that a massive 88.2% achieved an ATAR over 50. These figures are well above the state-wide distribution. As I said at our High Achievers assembly this week, everything students need to perform at the highest level can be found at our school.

So, on to what is in store for this year. We look forward to another COVID-free year in which our co-curricular and extra-curricular programs can run unencumbered. Our first year-level camps go out next week, and we wish our year 7 and 12 students and staff the best in Anglesea and Phillip Island, respectively.

There will be some changes to the camps experience at years 8 and 9 due to the impact of the time in lieu provisions of the new industrial agreement which have come into force this year. We are designing an exciting program of consecutive day activities for those year levels which we are confident will give them a great experience and allow them to develop some key attributes which underpin effective learning. More details will be published later in the year.

Our voluntary camps will be offered at years 10 and 11 again, and excitingly, our biannual visits to our sister school in Japan, Tokoname High School, will re-start this year after a COVID enforced hiatus.

Our full program of sport will be available, as well at our House Chorals festival this term, and later in the year, our College production.

I encourage each and every student to take the opportunity to become in involved in as many of these events as possible. In ten or twenty years time, it will probably not be grammar or algebra that you will have detailed and fond memories learning at school, but rather the camps, music, sport or dramatic productions you participated in whilst you were here.

I wish everyone a safe and successful year.

Yours sincerely,

Yours sincerely,

Richard Minack

Principal

HANGING ROCK