GSSC Executive Team

It’s been a bumper fortnight at Greater Shepparton Secondary College. While some might think that things tend to wind down over the last half of Term 4, I can assure you that this is not the case. 

The warmer weather, and the easing of restrictions, has started to have its effect, with students enjoying some relaxed social time in the yard during recesses and lunchtimes. While we have said goodbye to our Year 12s (and our Year 11 students also as of today), our various campuses have remained buzzing with activity, as students finish off their assessments, and begin to look forward to the summer break.

The Year 12 graduation videos will be live on the college utube channel at 7pm tonight (Friday 27th) via the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/c/GreaterSheppartonSecondaryCollege

Award Ceremonies

This week saw the beginning of what we might call the ‘award ceremony season’! Due to some remaining restrictions, we have put in place a schedule of year level award ceremonies that will continue over the next couple of weeks. 

Yesterday saw the beginning of these ceremonies with the Year 11 ceremony at McGuire campus, and today I was honoured to read the closing address to this year’s Wanganui Year 11 class. My key message being that only those of us who get out there, take risks, including the risk of failure, will be the people who will succeed, do great things, and be leaders in the future. I am sure that they will return to us in 2021 ready to hit the ground running for their final year. 

It was a real privilege to be able to present awards to our highest achievers, and credit should go towards the those that put in the hard work to get these ceremonies organised in such a short timeframe. The remaining award ceremonies are as follows:

• Year 10 (McGuire):  Wednesday 2nd December – 9.00am
• Year 10 (Wanganui): Wednesday 2nd December – 2.00pm
• Year 7/8 (McGuire): Thursday 10th December – 1.40pm
• Year 8/9/10 (Mooroopna): Friday 11th December – 9.00am
• Year 8 (Wanganui): Friday 11th December – 1.40pm

Ceremonies will also be live streamed for parents to watch. Links will be posted on Compass and our GSSC Website, as they become available. 

2021 Transition

Plans for transition are well underway. Again, some relaxation of restrictions has given us a little more freedom to ensure a positive and successful transition for all students, from the Year 11s who have undergone orientation week this week, to the remainder of the College (including the 2021 Year 7s) who will have their transition days from 7-9 December.  Specific details will be available elsewhere, but in short:

• Current Year 7-10 students will attend the three-day transition at their 2021 campus. Staff who have transferred to other campuses will also move for those three days, giving both staff and students the opportunity to connect and establish relationships.
• Year 6 students from primary schools throughout the area will attend McGuire Campus for a full day’s transition on 8th December. We are very much looking forward to welcoming them to our GSSC community!

Buses will run as normal to get students to their campuses for these transition days. Bus route details are available on the GSSC website.

Staffing & Timetable Arrangements 2021

The Executive and Principal Teams have been working hard (behind closed doors, in some pretty long meetings!) to put together our staffing and timetable arrangements for 2021. 

This is a herculean task, and is on a scale that few of us have ever encountered. However, we were able to let our Year 11 students know about their subject allocations for 2021 late last week. 

While there were some expected hiccups, our Principal Team (and our Careers staff) have been working through as many of the issues that have arisen as possible. I commend our students and parents for their patience as we work through this mammoth process. 

Staff too, have been informed about their campus placements for the year, with all decisions being made to ensure that they are allocated according to student learning needs, and the skills and abilities that they can provide.

We are getting close to finalising our arrangements, and some of the Executive and Principal team members will be able to see sunlight again soon!

Jon Neall

Wanganui Campus Principal

The Executive Team

Greater Shepparton Secondary College