Assistant Principals
Welcome back to term 2!
We hope that you enjoyed the Easter holidays and had a great time with your family and friends. Looking ahead, this term is one for planning and moving forward with assessment and reporting of academic performance occurring. Students are encouraged to consolidate their learning and focus on assessments using a positive mindset. Through improved time management and organisational skills, they should be working towards developing their strengths and reflecting on feedback in a timely manner to improve their performance.
As always, there are many events held across all year levels including a whole school ANZAC Day ceremony held on Friday of last week. The College community paid homage to our fallen war heroes with our College leaders reciting poems and traditional readings in a solemn and respectful manner. Our College leaders held their heads high and thoughtfully conveyed their poems and musical recitals to honour our past history, outlining the perseverance of our fallen heroes and returned servicemen.
On Monday evening, April 26th, our Jazz Night was held at York on Lilydale. It was a wonderful evening that showcased our very talented music students and staff. A highlight of the evening was the talented Jazz Combo who have performed together since year 7. Supporting our music students was the Music Association, an active group of volunteers, who raise funds throughout the year to purchase musical instruments for student use. Coming up soon will be the annual Music Association Chocolate Drive that will involve chocolates being distributed to families in the music program. Further details will be communicated to parents soon. We acknowledge QIC Eastland for their generous donation of a Hot Air Balloon Experience for our ongoing raffle that will be drawn at the Gala Evening held in September. If you wish to purchase tickets for this experience, please contact our Music Secretary, Rae Sedergreen.
Open Night was a successful culmination of many activities and performances with over 700 people in attendance. Showcased were our Junior and Senior School buildings that housed many displays from all learning areas, tours led by our College leaders and staff.
The Year 9 interGREAT evening held on Wednesday provided an opportunity for each student to showcase their ‘passion project’ and parents to enjoy the night of celebration. The breath of ideas was very encouraging with many creative and impressive displays. Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.
Parent-Student-Teacher Interviews were again on-line with rich conversations happening in the comfort of our own homes. With students an active part of these conversations, we look forward to seeing students activate their learning challenges and then witness their growth. Students are encouraged to view Progress Reports not as judgements but observations of where they are currently at in their learning and to choose one area to build their learning muscle.
Coming up soon…Career’s education is an upcoming priority at this time of the year. With the Year 9 Morrisby Testing and Year 10 Work Experience planning underway, middle school students will soon begin selecting their subjects in planning for their future. It is an exciting time in many ways and support from parents through pathways discussions with their son or daughter is definitely encouraged. This term a ‘Work Ready’ program has been organised for all Year 10 students in week 9, followed by Work Experience in week 10. It is essential that work experience placements are organised by week 5.
Education Week will be held in late May with this year’s theme ‘Building Connections’. Special events will be organised to celebrate achievements and it is an opportunity to recognise the valuable contribution of our past and current staff and students. Details will be published closer to the event.
Wellbeing Focus for May-Meaningful May
Next month's theme is all about reflecting on what gives our life meaning. In our positive education ‘Bounce’ lessons students learn about PERMAH (Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, achievement, accomplishment, health and meaning). Being a part of something bigger than ourselves or focusing on things that we value is key to our wellbeing. Being involved with a particular cause or passion can provide this sense of something bigger, or it could be relationships or things that you nurture. Let's take time to reflect on what we care about this month and keep these things at the front of our minds as society opens up. You may wish to download the calendar for use from the Action for Happiness website.
https://www.actionforhappiness.org/calendars
“Research from Stanford University on compassion, which included the input from Dr James Doti and the Dalai Lama, has revealed that the more people give of themselves to help others benefit and shine as people, the less they focus on the negatives in their lives and the more they focus on the positives; the more they give the more they live”.
Sir Winston Churchill alluded to this is by saying, “we make a living by what we get, but live by what we give.” Living by giving to build your and other peoples’ wellbeing fitness is a proactive way to boost our self-esteem. Research also indicated that people who adopted compassion by wanting to do selfless acts of kindness (altruism), showed less anxiety and more positive attitudes to life. With a growth mindset, people will have better health and more meaningful and harmonious relationships.
Maria Allison
Assistant Principal
Agatha Fedrizzi
Acting Assistant Principal
Matt Tucker
Acting Assistant Principal