Acting Principal's Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing term break and are feeling refreshed for a busy and productive Term 3. 

Our students made a great start to their Semester 2 classes in the last few weeks of term.  Our Year 7 and 8s have started new sports, arts and technology subjects for Semester 2, which is the start of exploring their areas of interest as they progress from Middle School.  Our Year 9, 10 and 11 students will be moving to the next step of planning their programs for next year with course confirmation starting next week. Our Year 12 students will be finishing their course work for VCE and VM this term - they will be making decisions about apprenticeships, traineeships, TAFE courses and University courses and completing practice exams. 

Building Works

We have had more improvements around the school over the break! This includes a great start on the refurbishment of our balcony in the Administration two storey building. The back and side walls, windows and the upstairs balcony are part of this refurbishment. The top floor will be enclosed and it will have an updated colour scheme. 

Although great progress was made over the term break the builders still have a little while to go until complete. Students may have restricted access and possible room changes on Compass. We are all looking forward to seeing the final product.

NAIDOC Week

“The theme for 2023 National NAIDOC week is For Our Elders. 

Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families. They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones. Our loved ones who pick us up in our low moments and celebrate us in our high ones. Who cook us a feed to comfort us and pull us into line, when we need them too.   They guide our generations and pave the way for us to take the paths we can take today. Guidance, not only through generations of advocacy and activism, but in everyday life and how to place ourselves in the world.  We draw strength from their knowledge and experience, in everything from land management, cultural knowledge to justice and human rights. Across multiple sectors like health, education, the arts, politics and everything in between, they have set the many courses we follow.  The struggles of our Elders help to move us forward today. The equality we continue to fight for is found in their fight. Their tenacity and strength has carried the survival of our people. It is their influence and through their learnings that we must ensure that when it comes to future decision making for our people, there is nothing about us - without us.  

We pay our respects to the Elders we’ve lost and to those who continue fighting for us across all our Nations and we pay homage to them. In 2023, how will you celebrate For Our Elders?”  https://www.naidoc.org.au/awards/current-theme

Thank you to our Assistant Principal Simon Cummins, Koorie Coordinator Krystle Woodbridge and Mental Health Practitioner Melanie Raike for their planning of the NAIDOC Whole School assembly yesterday and for planning events for our indigenous students and whole school community. 

Thank you to Ms Georgia Davey for organising the NAIDOC staff polo shirts. Funds from this project go back into the local indigenous communities, as well as create employment and training opportunities for indigenous people.

Bully!

We also enjoyed a sneak preview of our College Production of Bully! Thanks to our cast, to Mara Sears and our ex-students Bronte Taylor and Eliza D’Alberto for their preparation over the term break. 

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased via Try Booking https://www.trybooking.com/CJBGE  

Semester 1 Reports

A reminder that Semester 1 reports were available on the Compass portal as of the last day of term. If you did not have the opportunity to discuss these reports over the term break, please access these reports this week. 

Morrisby interviews

We will have the final three days of Morrisby interviews for our Year 9 students next week. Details for students who will participate in these sessions will be visible on Compass this week. Thanks to our Careers Coordinator, Emma White, for organising the testings, careers adviser interviews and schedules for our students. 

Course Confirmation

During Term 2 our 2023 Year 8, 9, 10 and 11 students began working through elective choices, pathways planning and course selections for 2024.  Thank you to our Learning Leaders, Year Level Coordinators, Directors of Middle and Senior and Careers for preparing our comprehensive Course Selection guides, videos, assembly presentations and Mentor sessions for our students. Thanks to families for supporting students complete their pre-selections for 2024. 

Next week we will begin individual online course confirmation session to discuss their choices further and finalise their preferences. Scheduled classes for the year level will not run on the day and more details have been sent to families, including their individual session time. 

A reminder of our dates for our Online Course Confirmation sessions: 

• Tuesday 18th July            2023 Year 11 into 2024 Year 12
• Wednesday 19th July      2023 Year 10 SEAL into 2024 Year 11
• Friday 21st July                 2023 Year 10 into 2024 Year 11
• Wednesday 26th July      2023 Year 9 SEAL into 2024 Year 10
• Thursday 27th July           2023 Year 9 into 2024 Year 10

If families have further queries that are not answered in the course selection information material, please contact our Director of Senior School, Susan Cochrane, or your Year Level Coordinator. 

Looking forward to a great Term Three!

Tracey Bastin

Acting Principal