It is with great pleasure that I warmly welcome back our students and families to Term 4.

I am the Acting Principal for this term as Mrs and Mr Ogden are taking long-service leave and are travelling through Morocco and parts of Europe. We wish them both well on their exciting adventure.

Term 4 is always a special time of the school year, as it is when we reflect on and celebrate the achievements of our students and prepare to farewell our Year 12 students. This is always a bittersweet time, as we feel immense pride of the young people we have helped shape, combined with a sadness as we prepare to say farewell to our Year 12 students as they embark on their own journey into the world.

The term has started very positively with students focused on consolidating their learning and completing further assessments. In week 1 of this term, the Principal Class Team held Year Level Assemblies, where students were encouraged to draw on their determination, focus and self-belief, so as to achieve success in all aspects of their schooling.

Students were reminded once again of the Department of Education policy that clearly states that mobile phones must not be used during school hours. In the Assemblies students were spoken to about the impact that mobile phones have on their concentration and their ability to commit new information to their long-term memory, which is essential to the learning process. All students were urged to consider how addictive their mobile phone use may be becoming and to take back control of their device before their device controls them. I would ask that our parents and families re-iterate this same message at home and ensure your child is not using their phone at school between the hours of 8.55am and 3.20pm. If a student does use their phone at school, it will be confiscated and only returned to their parent at the General Office. We appreciate your support with ensuring our students are able to learn and engage with one another without the distraction that phones provide.

The inaugural Year 11 Formal was held on Friday 7th October at the Grand Princes Reception Centre in Mulgrave and it was an incredible evening. The students looked amazing and enjoyed celebrating with one another. This will now become an annual tradition in the Dandenong High School calendar of events, as it is an important milestone for our Year 11 students, as they prepare for their final year of school in Year 12.

In the second week of term, we had the opening of the Arts/Design and Digital Technologies Art Exhibition in Melaleuca. It has been three years since this event has been held and it re-opened in spectacular fashion. The quality of art produced by our students from across Years 7-12 was exceptional. The diversity of artwork included fine art, artisan wooden pieces, graphic design and short films. Congratulations to all involved in the Exhibition and we look forward to having many more of these in the future.

Week 3 of term saw our Year 12 students engage in a variety of celebrations, including the House Luncheons and a day out at Gumbuya World. The Year 12 Final Assembly was held earlier this week on Tuesday 25th October and as always, is a true highlight of the school year. The last time this event was held was in 2019, so this year’s Final Assembly was more significant than ever before. The entire school community was able to come together to celebrate and acknowledge the enormous contribution every Year 12 students has made during their time at Dandenong High School. They are a remarkable group of students.

We wish all of our VCE students who are sitting the VCAA Exams the best of luck and we look forward to being able to celebrate with all of our Year 12 students, including those who have chosen the scored pathway, the unscored pathway and those undertaking VCAL at our Awards Night.

Our Year 10 and 11 students are preparing for the Exam program, which starts in a couple of weeks. This is an important opportunity to help our students experience the expectations that the formal exam process involves, which will help them achieve the highest level of success when in Year 12.

I look forward to celebrating the numerous achievements of our students with you all at our Awards Evening at Robert Blackwood Hall at Monash University on Monday 5th December.

Katie Watmough

Acting School Principal

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