From the Principal Class Team
Dear Parents and Guardians
Welcome back to Term 2. The start of this term marked the first time since January 2020 where we ended one term and started the next all together as a whole school. It is lovely to be enjoying assemblies, music performances, and the lunch time dance competitions for International Dance Week, our ANZAC ceremony, excursions, and the Athletics Carnival, amongst other things. I hope you enjoy reading about and seeing the photos of all that has been happening over the last few weeks.
Term 2 is also busy for students and staff in terms of teaching and learning with semester exams and tests only a few weeks away now. The Principal team has visited all classes across the school in the last few days, and we are so impressed with the positive attitude to learning that we have seen. The vast majority of students are putting in a consistent effort and setting themselves up well for success in their mid-year assessments.
A special welcome to Van Rudd who will commence work as our new Maintenance Officer next week. We look forward to Van joining the Facilities Team.
At the same time, we farewell Greg Cusick who has been our Maintenance Officer for the past 16 months. We appreciate Greg’s thorough and dedicated approach to every aspect of his work, and to his positive, community-focused attitude. On behalf of the School Council and staff, we thank Greg and wish him well in his (partial) retirement. We will still see Greg around in his OHS inspections role.
2021 Community and Business Partnerships Breakfast
We were delighted to have been able to run the annual breakfast with our community business partners after a break in 2020 due to the pandemic. This event held, on Wednesday 28 April, was a chance to network with community members from Brimbank Council, The Smith Family, the Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN), and a range of local business representatives.
The breakfast was catered by the Year 12 VCAL class who did a fantastic job of preparing the food, completing practice runs of many aspects, including some of them learning barista skills, others taking responsibility for menu design, others being front of house, and even one mastering intricate serviette folding skills. Congratulations to the VCAL students, the VCAL staff and, in particular, to Ms Marlene Cassar and Ms Laura Gough. Ms Cassar arrived at the school very early on the morning to support and supervise the students who also had a very early start.
The guest speaker was Mr Greg George, the Regional Manager of ABCN, who shared stories and insights of how these sorts of programs have an impact on the lives of the young people involved and also for the businesses and mentors who work with them. We thank Greg for delivering an engaging speech that incorporated information to inspire and encourage each of those present, whether a student, teacher or business partner.
Janet Huynh and Holland Phung, both completing Year 12 VCAL, spoke on behalf of the students and highlighted the impact such partnerships have had on them and why they are so important. Both students are to be congratulated on their speeches in which they connected with the audience and provided examples all could relate to. It was an inspirational morning for all who attended. The Year 10 Peer Mentors were also in attendance and provided support to Mr Adrian McCall and Ms Lynda Vo who organised the event.
We thank all of the community organisations and businesses who support and work with us and we look forward to continued opportunities to build on these connections and strengthen ties within the community. To view the photos from the event, please see the Sub School Report pages of this newsletter.