Principal's Message

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

As a College Community, we continue to make great progress through Term Two.  Our high-quality Teaching and Learning Program continues to be well complimented by extensive co-curricular activities for our students in a number of areas.  I thank our families and staff for again working as a team in their outstanding support and guidance of our students.  We are committed to an orderly learning environment, a focus on what matters most, shared leadership and high expectations.  

The financial commitment towards Capital Works Funding at our College was announced through the week as part of the State Budget.  The Capital Works Funding we are to receive is $11.3 Million to further improve our teaching and learning spaces at the College (eg D Block - classroom and staff room spaces).  We are thrilled with this announcement with a portion of the funding to be received next financial year in order to commence the works.  We will provide our College Community further details as they come to hand.

Our recent Open Night (9/5) was outstanding.  The event was incredibly successful with so much positive feedback from families in attendance.  Our presentations were professional and informative, our KLA displays were well organised with staff helpful in their ability to take questions and speak with families, whilst our tour route was effective in keeping staff and families together in a more dedicated area within the College.

We are a great school that is further on the rise.  Interest in PSC is very strong.  More and more families are checking out our great school and everything that we have to offer.  With 160 Year 7 students in 2023, our Y7 enrolment this year was up 20% on the year previous - I am hoping that we will enrol a similar number of Year 7 students in 2024. 

Our 'footprint' within the local community is becoming stronger and stronger given our excellent use of social media, website, Compass and the College Newsletter - more and more people know what is happening within our great school and the outstanding results we are achieving for our students.  Importantly, the excellent reputation our College enjoys in the community is due in large part to the dedicated, hardworking and supportive approach of our staff.  We look forward to the opportunity of welcoming more Year 7 students and their families to our great school in 2024.

Staffing our Teaching and Learning Program continues to be a challenge.  We currently have a small number of teaching vacancies to fill.  I have written to several families who have had their children directly affected by these challenges over extended periods of time in 2023.  Despite the current circumstances, we continue to provide a high - quality Teaching and Learning Program for classes that are affected, and I thank my colleagues for developing lesson plans and assessments where required.  I thank families for their ongoing understanding and support.

Our recent Whole School Assembly (4/5) was an opportunity to commemorate Anzac Day.  Our student leaders were superb in their organization of this important event.  Our students were respectful and attentive throughout the Assembly.   

The Whole School Assembly also gave me the chance to welcome our students back for Term Two.  I touched on the importance of students using their recent Interim Reports and Parent Teacher Student Conferences to reflect on their learning goals across their subjects. I also reinforced with students the importance of following our College Motto, ‘We Grow Through Connection’, and using our SOAR Goals to guide them in their learning, wellbeing and participation at the College.   We are now halfway through the term with teaching staff giving thought to the completion of End of Semester One Reports.  I urge all students to work as hard they can to complete and submit their assessments across their subjects leading into Report Writing Day on the 9th June.

I again provide for your reference a summary below of our Areas of Focus for 2023 (as per Our Annual Implementation Plan or AIP).  As a staff, we are working very hard to make some gains in these important areas of the College:

• Further Growth in Literacy (particularly Reading) and Numeracy  
• NAPLAN Achievement - Reduce the Bottom Two Bands of Achievement and Increase Top Two Bands   
• Further Improve the Way We Teach and implementing Compass Assessment and Reporting 
• Further Improve How We Use Data to Inform Student Progress  
• Further Embed Student Positive Behaviours, Voice and Agency
• Further Improve Student Attendance  
• Embed the Senior School Certificate and our new Electives Program
• Provision of a broad range of Co-Curricular Activities  

The four key area important to our College Community are:

• Learning Growth and Pathways
• Sport
• Student Leadership and Our Community
• Performing Arts

I would like to touch on one of these areas, the Performing Arts, as part of this Newsletter.  Our Performing Arts Program is growing from strength to strength.  Our Classroom and Instrumental Music Programs are figuring prominently.  A number of students for example are taking in Instrumental Music lessons as part of their attendance through the week.  Student participation in our College Production (Back to The 80’s) and in the State Schools Spectacular is outstanding with so many students involved.  It is so pleasing to see our Performing Arts Program providing so many opportunities for our students.

Continuing to improve our Buildings and Grounds is important to our College Community.  In recent times, we have furthered our work in this area.  Our new Wellbeing Department is now on line, we have built a new retaining wall outside the library, further painting works have occurred throughout the College, new classroom spaces have been created within our Science Department and we have received an order of new classroom furniture to update Teaching and Learning spaces throughout the school.  We are discussing updating our Bike Shed, completing further painting throughout the school and updating some of our garden areas as part of the Term Two School Holiday Break.  

We are already discussing plans for 2024.  Programming and staffing is already being considered for the year ahead.  As I mentioned earlier, we are a school that is on the rise where we continue to work hard as a College Community to best meet the needs of our students – I thank our College Community for their wonderful support of PSC, 

Regards,

Aaron Smith  

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College