Campus Principal Report

Welcome everybody to our final Newsletter reports for 2022. We have decided to provide a joint report in celebration of our effort to continually align the campuses both philosophically and practically. 

In 2023 we have had many successes in the areas of student engagement and wellbeing. We have initiated some excellent programs which were aimed at building the resilience of students returning from remote learning. The biggest change to the whole year was our return to onsite learning, whilst it was difficult and rocky as witnessed across the state, and for people at school and in every field of work, we concentrated for the first part of the year on re-integration and re-engagement of students with their learning and re-establishing the norms, values and culture of the college. 

A few of the things we achieved this year include excellent results on the Parent, Staff and Student Opinion surveys as presented to council at previously. The results as indicated through our scores against state and similar schools, as well as our own results over previous years, show that all three groups are very happy with the direction the College is heading. We are definitely trending upwards and rank higher than the state in many categories across the three surveys. Whilst we celebrate these successes, we are always mindful of looking at continual improvement. We seek out areas to work on and improve but overall across the board, Keysborough College is doing very well indeed.  This feeling was borne out through reports to the school from those in higher positions in the department, who complimented us on these results.

Senior Band performing at the Year 7-11 Presentation Night

Middle and Senior bands performing at the Acacia Leadership Assembly

Our students continue to be offered a broad range of activities and outings which enhance their learning. The latest being an orientation day for all 2023 Year 12 students held at Monash University on the first day of Headstart. One of our busiest meetings each week is the planning group meeting which signs off on all proposed incursions, excursions and camps. The sheer volume of events offered across such a large cohort of students is, at times, daunting. Our students, at both campuses, have opportunities aplenty, they just need to take these as they arise. 

Acacia Campus 2022 Dux for each year level

In the last 3 weeks all students moved into their 2023 homegroups, they started relevant work and got a ‘headstart’ on the 2023 year. In the ‘old’ days the last two to three weeks of the school year was a void, nowadays it is a hive of learning. Students have moved into their new buildings and refocus quite quickly on their learning; it gives them a boost for the final few weeks. It also enables students on the first day back next year to confidently step into their new year level and pick up where they finished off. The only group new in 2023 will be the new year 7’s. 

We finished off the 2022 year with a leadership assembly, where we acknowledged the new Captains across the year levels and the House Captains, both Junior and Senior. There will be a number of special awards and acknowledgements to our students and is a nice full stop to the year!

Inside and outside the new canteen at Banksia

Our building projects at each campus continues unabated. Acacia has a refurbishment of the C Block underway to convert it into some multi-purpose flexible learning spaces - as we need more teaching spaces, we are a victim of our own success! Five additional toilets near the 

STEM building will be constructed in early 2023. At the Banksia campus the grand opening of the new canteen was delayed until the end of the student’s year to enable movement of all the fittings; refrigerators, freezers and most importantly the coffee machine. First day back will see it in action. Finally, the administration wing, our big VSBA project, is underway with a very noisy demolition completed.

The start of our new Admin wing

The music wing at Acacia is also part of the new build. Demolition of the interior of the music area has started. We continue to strive at both campuses to improve the environment for learning and to provide a safe, inclusive school both in a wellbeing and physical sense.

The new Wellbeing Retreat

From the Banksia and Acacia campuses, from both of us, have a great holiday, look after your family and friends. Over the last few years, the value of real friendships and family has become even more important in our lives. Never take for granted the good that a few words can do! We say goodbye to a successful year and look forward with excitement and enthusiasm to what the new year brings.

           Natalie Fode & Richard Hastings                                     Campus Principals