College Principal Message 

Welcome to 2023. 

We are moving into a very exciting era at Copperfield as we consider the possibility of restructuring the school day in order to increase the education we provide students around social and emotional wellbeing.   The Curriculum Committee has created a working party to explore options and seek input from our community.  Student Leaders will be involved and have already contributed some excellent insights, including that they believe education about wellbeing is very important.  Their key words of advice are about making such education engaging, interactive and inspiring.  Obviously, this is something we aspire to in every class, and it links well into our focus on every teacher and every student creating an aspirational learning environment. 

We plan to extend consultation to families and college council.  Families will receive and invitation to participate in an online forum in coming weeks once the working party has prepared a paper. 

In the meantime, we have appointed a team to create the curriculum, some of which will be trialled in coming weeks. 

Our enrolments are slightly down for Year 7 THIS YEAR but are consistent across the area as the local population bubble wanes.  We have 267 new Year 7s, all who have made an excellent start to their educational journey with us.  The transition program was a great success and will continue, with sessions about library use, our IT system etc and will culminate in the extravaganza that is Iron Form Day.  

Overall, our enrolments are sitting just below the 2,000 mark.  We are delighted to welcome more International students this year as the COVID freeze has lifted.  Our International students enrich our community and many contribute to the college’s academic standing. 

So far, we have welcomed nineteen new staff members, 16 teachers and 3 ES to the Copperfield family.  I say ‘so far’ because we still have some vacancies to fill.  Our patience and reputation though are being rewarded and we are delighted with quality of our new recruits. 

Our reputation is cemented as one of the higher performing schools in the state as our median study score of 28 was maintained by our successful graduating VCE students as well as the high percentage successful VCAL completions. 

Year 12 2022 students with ATARs in the 90s.  Sude Ozer (second from left) was the College Dux. 

Our Music Department is basking in reflected glory at the moment, as four of our graduating students have been nominated for Victoria’s prestigious Top Acts, they are Dylan Dunn, Brandon Selimi, Daniel Werchola and Kaylee Sauza.  Congratulations and good luck.  In addition, one of our musical trios has been invited to perform at the Top Class concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre in March.  Those students include one of our former College Captains, Kaye Bautista, and Leon Jemino and Nate Tanielu.  I know they will do us, themselves, and their families proud. 

Also, congratulations to four of our current Year 12 students who have been accepted to do first year university subjects this year through the Centre For Higher Education Studies (CHES):  

Riya Grewal: Law, La Trobe University                                                        

Todd Truong: Law, La Trobe University                                                                         

Mike Wu: Health Science, La Trobe University                                                                           

Gayoung Baik: Innovation Ecosystems and Sustainable Development, RMIT   

It is wonderful to see their aspirations bearing fruit.   

Our International student Coordinator, Ha To received a beautiful thank you letter from the parent of one of our International students who got a 92.3 ATAR at the end of last year. I am quoting a portion of it, “I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the school and you, who helped him grown up. We as a family, feel very happy and fortunate with his achievement…” and on it went.  The thanks go to all his teachers and particularly Ha, who invests a lot of time and energy into nurturing our International students beyond the school gates. 

The Minister of Education, Natalie Hutchins visited on Friday February 10 to celebrate Women and Girls in Science Day in her local electorate.  Natalie asked us about our girls’ participation rate in STEM subjects; on investigation, it turns out that we have excellent participation rates for girls in STEM subjects as well as them seeking post school STEM related courses!  It’s also worth a mention that 9 out of the 14 students involved in Robotics are girls.  Two of these Robotics students attended an International Women’s Day function hosted by the Macrobertson Girls High School last week as the topic under discussion was ‘Cracking the Code’.  The digital world is one that holds many career options. 

Natalie got involved with a Year 12 Chemistry experiment. 

The architect designing the refurbishment of the Kings Park Administration area is currently finalising the plans for the front office and common staff room.  We have been advised to ‘manage our expectations’ given the increased cost of materials; but any improvement will be better than none. 

As one would expect, it has been a busy start to the year but one full of energy and optimism. 

Until next time, 

Ms Pip Griffiths

College Principal