Principal's Message-

Amadeo Ferra

Despite the challenges we continue to face with COVID, and particularly the impact this has had on both student and staff absences due to being unwell or isolating, Term 2 has seen our school programs and environment continue to return to pre-COVID conditions albeit with some changes due to staffing shortages which are being felt at all schools and in fact in all workplaces across the country.

We saw the return of our athletic carnivals, and events such as IDAHOBIT Day were conducted in the last week. Our senior student leaders have spent time at the St. Kilda FC planning events and building their own leadership capacity.

School tours have flowed on from our highly attended Open Night and our student numbers sit at 1069 which is evidence of our positive reputation in the wider community.

We experienced for the first time a hybrid model of Student Progress Meetings with almost a 50-50 split of parents and carers choosing to either meet face to face for those who preferred it or online for others who felt this was more convenient. Sporting and other organisations resumed the hiring and use of our school community facilities this year and we even hosted voting for the Federal Election last Saturday. And camps, excursions and incursions have continued taking place, including a highly engaging and well planned VCAL Expo just this week.

We are delighted that our Year 8 Learning Centre refurbishments are finally underway and no doubt the staff and students -who are currently relocated in our Information Commons -will be excited to move in to their new space in about 11 weeks time. The other long overdue refurbishments currently underway are to our school camp Mahaikah which, up until now  has been periodically maintained by our Property Manager Gary Hofert in conjunction with our VCAL students who have done some excellent work in recent years. The major renovations include redoing the floors, painting, refurbishing the shower blocks and toilets and installing a whole new kitchen. We will replace the old school blackboard with a big screen tv as the camp is often booked out by sporting and leadership teams. It is also available to the public to hire out and we have a number of families that hire it out. Camp Mahaikah is in Tolmie which is twenty minutes from Mansfield and therefore a short drive to Mt Buller so you do need to get in early if you want to book it during the snow season.