Sally Cheah - Johnson

Assistant Principal

Dear Parents, Students and Colleagues,

This is my last school newsletter.  The last few days have been most memorable for me in my career. I am so humbled by your love in the farewell messages that you sent me for my retirement.  This has been a most exceptional week for me. 

The Farewell Assemblies:

On Tuesday 7th December, I was given a surprise farewell assembly organized by the incoming 2022 School Captains. The students wrote messages in their origami creations which I will always treasure and keep in my retirement album.  Thank you so much.  I am so sorry that I didn’t say very much in response to your presentation at the assembly as I was overwhelmed with emotions by your kindness and love.

On Wednesday 8th December, the Year 12 students came back to school for their final assembly to farewell the school.  Again I was surprised with the beautiful video dedicated to me by the Year 12 students.  Thank you so much.  You are all simply amazing. 

The Year 12 Graduation Ceremony:

The Class of 2021 also had their Graduation Ceremony in the evening of 8th December. It was held at the Karingal VMAX Cinema.  It was a last minute arrangement as many of our plans and organization of events (earlier in the year) were cancelled due to the Covid pandemic lockdowns.  As soon as the pandemic restrictions were lifted (to some extent) two weeks ago, I searched everywhere for a venue for the Graduation Ceremony.  I was determined to find a venue to celebrate the graduation of our Class of 2021 that had soldiered on throughout their 2 years of VCE through the Covid pandemic periods.  Whilst I only had less than 2 weeks to organize the event, the Graduation Ceremony turned out more than fine.  It was fantastic!  I feel so proud of our students as each of them came on stage to receive their Graduation Folio and JMSS Diploma. 

The Graduation Ceremony was a great success and it went without a hitch (except for a couple of surprises) because of a collective effort.  I want to take this opportunity to thank the following colleagues for supporting me to make the Graduation Ceremony as successful as it was:   Ms Erin Hayley, Mr Smyth & the Music Team, Mr Chris Mann, Mr Malcolm Anderson, Mr Peter Thompson, Mr Greg Sargent, Mrs Samantha Webber, Ms Sarah Adoph, Mrs Caitlin Ryan, Mr Greg Whyte, Mrs Adriana Abels, Ms Nadine Phillips, Mr Cameron Senn-Sanger, Ms Doreen Khor and Mrs Kathryn Wallace.

At the Year 12 Graduation, I was taken by a couple of surprises: 

Firstly, the Music Team lead by Mr Sean Smyth played the song (Mustang Sally) dedicating the song to me!  It was produced with an awesome video digital compilation.  What a beautiful farewell gift.  I will always treasure the video.  My grateful thanks to Mr Smyth, the Music Team, Ms Erin Veldsman and all my colleagues involved in the singing in the video. 

My second surprise for the evening was the Presentation of the House Shield as the ‘JMSS Cheah-Johnson House Shield’.  I am so very honoured by this.  It was presented to me by Angus Chu, Cameron Robinson and Skye Hornidge. My grateful thanks to Mr Peter Corkill for this very special honour.  I am so humbled by this most precious gift.  THANK YOU.  

My Retirement Farewell:

I love my work, and I don’t say this lightly.  So it will be a big adjustment for me when I retire.  Working at school is never a ‘job’ to me, but a privilege.  I look back with gratitude. I entered a profession dedicated to helping young people achieve their aspirations and potential.  As I leave, I will be taking many of you with me. You will live on in my memories. I'll always remember the things we achieved together and the challenges that we have overcome.

I did a bit of a calculation about the number of Year 12 students whom I have seen graduate from all my previous schools until now, and it came out to be no less than 12,000 students.  The role and responsibility of being an educator has always weighed strongly on me.  I have always seen my main role as in helping young people achieve their learning goals and to support them in attaining a healthy and purposeful life.

I am very proud to be part of JMSS and to have had the privilege to be part of JMSS’s inaugural Principal Class Officer Team since its commencement in 2010.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of people for their ongoing support:

•           The House Leaders, Mentors, Faculty Leaders, Music Team, Subject Teachers and the Emerging Science Victoria team (ESV): Your commitment and dedication to student engagement, learning, pastoral care and wellbeing have facilitated the outstanding achievements of our students. My sincere congratulations to you.

•           The Counselling Team and Education Support Team (Education Aides, Careers & Pathways Coordinators, VCE Administrators): You have provided first class support and guidance to our students. 

•           The IT Team:  Your technical support for staff and students enables us with the best technology for our work especially during this year’s Covid pandemic lockdown period where all learning and communication are conducted online.

•           The General Office Staff, Audio-Visual Team and Marketing Team:  You are all the ‘Engine-Room’ staff whose work and support enables all operations at school to run smoothly.  Thank-you. 

•           The JMSS School Council, Parents & Friends Association and Programs & Policies Committee.  It has been a great pleasure to work in partnership with you and I am very grateful for your contribution and support.

•           The JMSS Executive Team (Peter, Alison and Andrew):  We started this school together.  We built it with so much passion and determination, to develop a strong culture for learning at JMSS.  I am very honoured to be part of this inaugural Executive Team. 

To my colleagues, a big ‘Thank-You’ to you for your support, friendship and encouragement. I will always remember our shared laughter, our joys, as well as our challenges. Thank-you for the cups of coffee that you have brought me to help me through my day. Thank-you for the messages of encouragement and most of all for your sincerity, support and trust in what I do. You are awesome! I will miss working with you.

I am very privileged to conclude my career in education with JMSS.

To all students, I would like to say that it has been an amazing year because you have made it so. I am very proud of you.  You have persevered and adapted to the changes and challenges brought on by the Covid pandemic lockdown restrictions.  You should be very proud of your accomplishments. You will be a generation who will successfully live in challenging times. Your adaptability and flexibility will benefit your chosen careers.

I would also like to commend our Student Leadership group.  I am most appreciative of the close working relationship with our JMSS School Captains: Hannah Parkin and Felix Chung; and with the Vice-School Captains: Caitlyn Lewis and Sasha Melnikov. It was my privilege to work with these outstanding student leaders.  They were exemplary role models for the student body and they worked tirelessly to achieve all that needs to be done.  I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the 2021 House Captains and Vice-House Captains for all their work and contribution in leading their House:

Blackburn House:  Enza Rayen and Matilda Reeve; Aabshaar Ahmad and Parsa Aghajani.

Doherty House:     Maya Bakin and Arjit Sachdiva;  Diya Dhaliwal and Dulvin Bandara.

Flannery House:   Clare Konstanty and Linda Chau; Cameron Robinson and Angus Chu.

Wood House:       Januda Weerasinghe and Jesse Marquis; Moin Vohra, Fae Saberi and Indiana Phillips.

Thank you for your amazing work and support throughout the year. 

The Student Parliament is also strongly led by Captains from a diverse range of areas.  My congratulations and grateful thanks to the following Student Parliament leaders for their achievements and contributions: 

Arts Captains: Sophie Swiatlo, Jodee Chiong, Ravon Chew and Tanasha Saruro. 

Humanities Captains: Jenna Lee, Zahra Zubair, Layla Carmeli-Wolski and Yvonne Le.

Media / AV Captains:  Nicole Lee, Rahul Chitra, Mohit Singh and Vedansh Melhan.

Music Captains: Danna Lei Pabayo, Julee-Ann Vu, Ariel Smolic and Jeremy Lim.

Sports Captains:  Ishpreet Singh, Jordan Yu, Stephanie Lee and Tahlee Ferguson.

STEM Captains:  Lachlan O’Brien, Daniella Lambrechts, Vimasha Ashtom and Anthony Verbni.

Sustainability Captains:  Olivia Wilksch, Zahara Harrison and Emily Howells.

There are two student members in the 2021 School Council.  I would like to thank Jonathan Purcell and Saanvi Arcot for their contribution towards the work of the School Council.  They have represented the school community well and we are very proud of them. 

The Coronavirus Pandemic has been a global challenge for people everywhere and has been a strong reminder of how much we rely on the support of others, be it in the workplace or elsewhere.  I am personally grateful to the support from the school community: parents, students and staff.  The support, kindness and cooperation that we have for each other in our school community are the key ingredients for our JMSS success throughout this Covid pandemic. 

To all parents, I thank you for all your support and messages of encouragement.

To the the Class of 2021, I wish you the very best in your days ahead. May you be successful in all that undertake and be future leaders who serve society with humanity. I will miss you.

I wish you all the very best for 2022.

Goodbye and thank you.

Sally Cheah-Johnson

Assistant Principal (2010 – 2021)