Principal's Report

Welcome

On behalf of our College community I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr. Peter Cameron and Mr. Chris Young who will be joining us at the College next week. Peter will be taking on the role of our College Business Manager and Chris will be our new Facilities Manager. We look forward to welcoming them to the team and working with them to continue to provide the best opportunities for our students.

Literacy for Learning

Last week, our teachers and Education Support Staff completed their final professional learning module for Literacy for Learning. As you would be aware, improving the writing of our students has been one of our main goals from our AIP this year. Over several days throughout Semester 1, lunchtimes were shortened so that teachers could engage in the Literacy for Learning modules, developing their own understanding of how language works, the Register Continuum and further developing their own skills on how they can teach students to become better writers. We are very grateful for the support and understanding of our College Community during these restructured days as it has allowed our teachers to immerse themselves in developing a consistent understanding of the Literacy for Learning concepts and skills. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our Literacy for Learning Tutors who took on the important role of teaching us all about Literacy for Learning through a range of engaging workshops. Thank you to Catherine Ford, Carrie Wallis, Debbie Mantzanidis, Mark Oudshoorn, Jacinta Gallagher and Geoff Shaw.

For Semester 2, our teachers will be working within their Professional Practice Teams to plan and implement some of the Literacy for Learning strategies within their classrooms. We look forward to the new learning opportunities that this will provide to our students and the impact that this will have on their writing.

Year 8 Challenge Week

From the 20th – 24th May, our inaugural Year 8 Challenge Week took place. This program was developed to support the Year 8 theme of ‘Challenging Yourself’ and encouraged students to challenge themselves physically, intellectually, creatively and socially. Students engaged in a range of activities that supported the development of their skills in team work, communication, problem solving and critical and creative thinking. Each day students went out of the College and took part in a range of activities that included bike riding, geocaching, canoeing, an Amazing Race challenge, an Escape Room, raft building, a team design challenge and a tree surfing experience! What a fantastic week! It was wonderful seeing our teachers and students out of the classroom and engaging in learning in a range of different environments. A massive congratulations needs to go to Darren Hoogkammer, Leader of the Middle Years, and Daniel Brooks, Year 8 Year Level Leader, for their development and organisation of this week long program.

2019 Performing Arts Showcase

The 2019 Performing Arts Showcase began this week with the Unit 3 Music Showcase on Monday night, followed by the Year 9 and 10 Dance Showcase on Wednesday night and the VCE Dance Showcase on Thursday night.

Watching these events is always such a wonderful experience as is highlights the many skills and talents of our students. The variety in the musical performances and dance styles that were presented during the evening performances allowed audiences to be captivated by not only the talent that was on display, but the storytelling and emotions that the performers communicated to their audience. Congratulations to all of the performing arts students and staff that have been involved. There are still more performances coming up over the next few weeks, so make sure that you grab some tickets to these wonderful events.

Shane Kruger

Acting Principal