From the Principal

Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends

As the semester draws to a close you will be receiving comprehensive reports about your children’s progress.  Parents and students need to discuss these reports in detail, celebrating successes whilst also acknowledging and planning for areas of improvement.  If students are still unsure about what they exactly need to do to improve, they are encouraged to request detailed feedback from their teachers.  Similarly, parents are welcome to contact teachers to discuss their child’s report should they require further information.

Public Speaking

Mia Davis (Year 11) and Tandie Banana (Year 12) competed in the regional final for the VCAA Plain English Competition on Friday 24 May.   Both girls have six minute prepared speeches and had to do a two-three minute impromptu speech with only five minutes preparation time.  Both spoke exceptionally well, and Mia came second in the region. Accolades to Ms Georgie Long for her efforts in preparing our students to shine at these competitions.

Division Cross Country

Frankston High School had over 100 students participate at the Victorian All Schools Cross Country winning every age division.  This is a phenomenal result! Each team has now qualified for Southern Metropolitan Region (SMR):

     Declyn Tanner 3rd U/14 Girls 3000m

     U/14 Girls 3rd place  

     U/14 Boys 1st place 

     U/17 Boys 2nd place

Thank you to Mrs Chloe Stevens, Mrs Kylie Grech, Mr Mal Burt, Ms Debra Anderson, Mr Steven Bonfadini and Mrs Steph Heyes.

Premier's Awards - Class of 2018

Three of our 2018 graduates were honoured at a government ceremony as they received Premier Awards which ranked them in the top 1% of the State.  These graduate students are Stella Cowan (English), Daisy McDonald (Outdoor Education) and Yande Fu (Top Three International Student) who were taught by outstanding teachers Mrs Cheryl Hodgson, Mrs Laura Cuttriss, Mrs Sharon Koning and myself respectively.

Congratulations Calvin!

Congratulations to Calvin Gu (Class of 2018) for winning the Victorian Global Learning Award for Art Achievement in Visual Arts. Many of you know Calvin and his outstanding films and photographs. He is very grateful for all of the support he received at Frankston High School and especially to all of his Art teachers who worked with him over his time here.  Mrs Sharon Koning and myself were present at the Federation Square ceremony to watch him receive this prestigious award.  We are looking forward to seeing how Calvin develops his skills in the coming years.

Aerobics Teams

Over the weekend we had 26 students from Years 7-10 compete in the State Aerobics Championships. We had excellent results, earning the title of State Champions in four out of the five categories, with all 26 students qualifying for the National Competition in Queensland.  Special thanks to Coach Ms Gen Donovan, Ms Lucy Foskett and also to Ms Kylie Williams for coming to lend support. We wish them luck for Nationals!

STEM Centre News

The Flight Simulator is up and running in the STEM Centre! Here’s a sneak peek of what some dedicated staff and students have been building for our school.

Also, we hosted a Hackathon with Microsoft and Education Changemakers for the ‘Ai for Good Challenge’ in our new STEM Centre. Throughout the day, students pitched artificial intelligence solutions to humanitarian and environmental problems that they had identified. Some of these included apps/websites to notify people of hospital wait times, drones to look for animals before deforestation occurs, and portable waste robots to clean up plastic pollution.  Thank you to the Toorak College students who also joined us!

Hands On Learning Conference

Many of you might be familiar with Hands-On Learning at Frankston High School.  It is a special program for students who are a bit disenfranchised with school to help them feel more connected.  It originated twenty years ago at Frankston High School by combining the vision of Russell Kerr with the practical implementation of former Principal, Marion Heale. Now it has spread to more than a hundred schools around Australia.  Our students have undertaken numerous projects over this time, both at the school and in the local community.  They include the fence around Overport, the beautiful deck outside Frankston High School’s office and two amazing straw bale huts.

The conference was a celebration of this 20 Year Anniversary.  Two of our former students spoke eloquently about the program and its positive effect on their lives.  They shared how it gave them skills and experiences which have made them the people they are today with successful careers and happy lives.  A great thank you to Mr Andy Blackall and Mr Shannon Lee our current Hands On Learning leaders for the wonderful opportunities they provide for our students.

This week the Hands On Learning team showed commitment when working in the rain and were enthusiastic throughout the job.  Well done to the Hands On Learning teams for completing the gabion wall.

Mrs Cathy Hogg

Acting Principal