Principal’s Report

WELCOME

The story of Cinderella captures the imagination of adults and children of all generations. We empathise with the social discrimination, the unfairness, the personal misery, the poverty, Cinderella’s ‘victim’ status.  Then we celebrate how a life going nowhere can suddenly and unexpectedly be transformed. 

When the bell rang the other day at school, as it does every day at the appointed times, I was reminded of that classic tale.  You see, Cinderella was not merely a passive and lucky player in the saga.  She had to have her hopes and dreams. She had to take up the opportunity to go to the ball. She had to be irresistibly charming to the Prince.  It was though she heard an important ‘bell’ in her life and responded positively and courageously to it. 

Sometimes those important bells come through what we might term ‘our inner voice’ and we have the choice to respond or to ignore. Some of you may remember the British film of quite a few years ago, The Remains of the Day, where the butler of the establishment failed to heed such a ‘bell.’  He wasted his opportunities for personal fulfilment, left his run in life too late, and thus spent what remained of it with a lingering sense of regret.  Listening for and taking note of that ‘inner voice’ can be vital.

At other times a bell rings for us through the difficulties or sadness or trauma of a particular life experience.  Sometimes that bell awakens us to how far we have fallen or drifted away from where we should be; sometimes that bell inspires us to take heart, to stand up, to start again with courage and hope.  More often in those circumstances, however, there aren’t too many big clanging bells to assault our eardrums.  We might have to consciously strain our hearing to catch all the ‘little bells’ that are ringing, pointing us to the beauty and solace to be found in all the trivial things of life - the colour of soups, the delight of Autumn leaves, the roar of a football crowd, the aroma of freshly baked bread, the friendly bark of a dog…

Even the ringing of the school bell!

STAFF MOVEMENTS

Ms Lindy Osbourne has now retired from the teaching profession and we wish her well in the next phase of her life. Ms Osbourne was on leave in Term 1 so we will not need to replace her.

STUDENT ACHIEVMENTS

Molly Bridger

Molly Bridger, a Year 10 student, competed in the Cycling Australian Hill Climb Champs at Mt Buffalo recently and placed in the top 10.

Eleni Kosmidis and Maddison Pearson, from Year 12 in 2014, were both nominated for the Gforce Awards for Most Exceptional School Based Apprentice or Trainee.

ANZAC DAY

Our school captains, Helen Ramsay and Maddie Anderson, organised a sleep over at school and attendance at the Dawn Service at Torquay for the 100th Year Commemoration of the Gallipoli landings. 

Thirty-five students stayed overnight with four staff members (Ms Myers, Ms Deller, Ms Fagan and Ms Taylor) along with a student teacher, Ms Henry . The girls cooked ANZAC biscuits, shared stories, had a camp fire in our Living Garden and slept on the floor of the gym. They got up very early, donned their uniforms, stood in the cold for hours and honoured our ANZACs on 25 April 2015. Later, the girls were joined by more students and parents for the march in Geelong where we carried the Ex-Service Women’s banner. We had a contingent of over 50 students! 

Once again I was very proud of the way our girls presented and managed themselves at the Dawn Service, during the march and at the Geelong service. When our girls gave their flags to young members of the public, I was delighted with their generosity of spirit. What an honour to be the Principal of such wonderful young people. 

SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE

At a recent Principal’s Forum with Deakin staff and people from Skilling the Bay we were presented with information regarding six skills that will be important for future employment.  

These include:

-        Sense making – an ability to determine deeper meanings

-       Social intelligence – an ability to connect with others meaningfully

-         Novel and adaptive thinking

-        Cross-cultural competency

-        Computational thinking – an ability to translate data into abstract concepts and understandings based on reasoning

-         New-media literacy – an ability to assess and develop new media forms and to use these for persuasive communication

As a school we have started to work to incorporate these skills into our daily practices and learning opportunities. I will talk more about these skills in future newsletters.

In this same presentation places where future jobs will be available in the Geelong area were highlighted. They included jobs such as: Engineering, Environmental and Landscape Management, Biotechnology, Occupational Health and Management, Agricultural Marketing, Health Promotion, Environmental Technology, Programming, Communication and Policy Development.

MICHELLE CROFTS

PRINCIPAL