Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Congratulations to all students and staff for their excellent work this term, settling back into being back onsite fulltime. It is the first full term onsite for everyone since 2019!

School Council

At the AGM held on 17 March, the following parents have been elected to the Council Executive:

Council President – Ian Fox

Vice President – Jason Allen

Treasurer – Adam Wade

I thank them for the extra commitment they are prepared to make to the College in taking on the responsibilities involved in these important roles.

Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

By the time this newsletter is published we will be in the middle of our online Parent – Teacher interviews on Wednesday from 10 am to 6.30 pm. We hope that parents and students have found these to be valuable in terms of meeting your child/ren’s teachers face to face online and discussing your child/ren’s progress and in the feedback received. Hopefully with the remote online interviews you found it easier to manage around other commitments. If you haven’t been able to attend the interviews remotely via Google Meet and wish to discuss your child’s progress with a particular teacher or teachers, please contact them via email to organise a time to discuss on the phone or over a Google Meet at another mutually convenient time. If you have any feedback regarding the interviews set up and process, please don’t hesitate to email my Assistant Principal overseeing the organisation of the interviews, Andrew Moffat.

Facility Development

We have our final site meeting this Wednesday for the handover of our new two storey Year 7 & 8 Learning Centre. The new furniture for all classrooms and science laboratories will be delivered and set up during the school holidays. This includes new lockers for our Year 7 & 8 students that will be housed inside the centre. Year 7 students will be occupying the top floor classrooms and Year 8 students the ground floor classrooms. The Year 7 & 8 teaching teams are also very keen to move in over the school holiday period, so we are ready for student occupation from the first day of Term 2. The facility will be open for the public to see on my weekly tours of prospective parents and on our Open Night on May 5.

Refurbishment work is commencing on Wednesday in the old Year 7 learning centre, and this will continue over the school holidays for the conversion of these spaces into our Senior School Hub. Our Senior School Coordinator team, VCAL team and some senior staff will then be moving into the office spaces created and Year 12 VCE classes and all VCAL classes will be timetabled into the classrooms in this area and the surrounding portables. The central space in this building will form the new Senior Study area and there will also be a common area including a kitchenette. Both spaces will be available for Year 12 student use before school, at recess, lunch, and after school. A new enclosed locker area for Year 12 is being created between the end of the building and Portable 1. Years 9-11 students will continue to have their lockers allocated in house groups, reducing congestion in these areas now with only three year levels using four house locker bays.

Our plans for our new Wellbeing Centre with the refurbishment of D1, D3 and office spaces and associated costs have been approved by the Victorian Building Authority and work should commence during Term 2 to have the centre ready for occupation by Term 3.

Traffic Management

We are working with the City of Kingston around the traffic management issues we currently have in Attenborough Road at peak drop off and pick up times. 40 kmh signage has now been put up and I ask all parents/carers using this road in the morning or afternoon to please take care and drive slowly as it can be very congested at these peak times. Drivers need to be aware of students on bikes, students crossing the road, other cars backing out from one of the parking bays (please note these are only for 15 minutes at peak times), and local residents moving in and out of their properties. The City of Kingston will be producing some parking maps for our community, highlighting other drop off and pick up options for parents (for example, the car park over the creek bridge at the back of our school, off Governor Road). We will distribute this map once it becomes available.

Update on Staffing

Jo Greenhalgh, our Director of Senior School and an outstanding Year 12 English teacher has submitted her resignation with her family relocating to Queensland. Jo will be a huge loss to the College in her leadership of Senior School and as a teacher of English. Jo’s last day was on 23 March however, she has continued to teach her Year 12 classes remotely, complete correction and hold feedback sessions with her students over the remainder of Term 1. Jo will certainly be missed. She has made a significant contribution to the College in her 7 years here and has also spent two years as Acting AP during this time.

I have appointed Julia Phillips an experienced teacher, to her teaching position, and she will be starting from Term 2. Tim Randell has been appointed to the Acting Director of Senior School role and James Nicklen is our new Year 12 YLC, with Alex Brown as an Assistant. With the changes in leadership roles, there have been some changes to some teaching allotments. Impacted English classes with a change in teacher will receive an email from me this week.

Alireza Panahandehfard, Year 8 Discovery and Year 9 Maths teacher, and Jenny Tran, English Language Centre and Year 9 Maths teacher, are both taking leave for the rest of the school year to work at schools closer to their homes. Phoebe Macreadie (Maths/Science teacher who worked with us in 2021) will be returning to the College to take over Mr Panahandehfard's classes and Ms Tran’s Year 9 Math class will be taken by Rosemary Russo, a qualified Maths teacher and one of our current tutors. We are still working through the recruitment process for a new Language Centre Coordinator and teacher.

Indigo Yorke has been teaching PE and Health since Term 4 2021, replacing Katie Loynes who relocated to Sydney to play for GWS this year in AFLW. Katie is returning from leave at the start of Term 2. Indigo will continue to work at the College as a casual relief teacher.

We have also employed another two tutors, Cynthia Leung for Literacy and Zoe Chen for Numeracy. Both will be commencing from the start of Term 2.

We are currently in the recruitment process for a new youth worker and planning ahead to replace two staff going on family leave early on in Term 2. Liz McConville is expecting her second child and will be leaving at the end of Week 3. She currently job shares with Emma Walker teaching in Year 7 who will continue, and we have Ariana Nickou returning from family leave to job share with Emma. Laura Gorman is expecting her first child and will be leaving at the end of Week 4. We are still in the recruitment process for her replacement teaching Discovery in Year 8.

Athletics Carnival

A reminder that, on Thursday, it is our Athletics carnival to be held at the Sandringham Athletics Track. We encourage students to come along dressed in their house colours and costumes adding to the terrific atmosphere we always experience on this day. A reminder that students also need to bring a facemask to wear on the bus travelling to and from the venue. Thanks to our Sports Coordinator, Cory Watters for his organisation of this event, which is always very popular with the entire student cohort.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday break.

Michelle Roberts

Principal

House Cross Country

Tuesday 3 May 2022