Principal Team Editorial

Welcome back to Term 2! 

As you will have seen in various media stories over the past few months, staffing in schools continues to present many challenges and a shortage of teachers is being experienced by school across all sectors. 

We have not been immune to staffing changes and at the end of last time we farewelled our Leader of Art and Technology Vicky Rumble who is taking a period of family leave preparing for the birth of her first child. We will also shortly lose a couple more staff for the same reason. We also said goodbye to James Gibney who has transferred to another school and a couple of staff, Michael Paneris and Ivy Ma are also heading elsewhere. 

Jake Leopold is on leave and we are joined by a number of new staff who begin with us this term including, Belinda Glass (Music), Nelum Liyanage (HUMS), Sophie Lee (Arts), Scott Miller (English), Mark Orwin (Technology), Iryna Jericic (Technology), Grace Zhou (ILA) and Nicole Dean (ILA). I’m sure you will join with me in welcoming all of the new staff to our school. 

There are a few other very experienced and very capable teachers who will also be joining us and I look forward to confirming their start in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately, changes like these are not uncommon in schools this year. Though we have been busy recruiting since the start of the year, the impacts on the operation of our school have not been felt as sharply as at other schools. I am hoping our staffing situation settles and there is less change in Term 3.

Just a reminder that voluntary parent contributions provide us with an opportunity to increase the resources that are available to our staff and students and if you haven’t paid yet, you can still do so via the Events portal on Compass. 

ANZAC Day Assembly

On Mon 24 April, we held a special assembly to commemorate ANZAC day and heard from special guests, Jackson Taylor MP and Ian Benier.

Jackson Taylor spoke about the trials of war and the the importance of commemorating ANZAC day. Ian Benier is a local resident who served in the Navy for 21 years in anti-submarine warfare and has a strong connection with Wantirna College. He spoke about his father-in-law's experiences in the trenches and the experiences of his sons who both fought in Iraq.

The assembly was run by our College Captains who gave readings, laid a wreath and raised the flag. Chrystin Gosios played 'The Last Post' and our Voice students sang 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and 'Advance Australia Fair'.

Kevin Murphy

Principal