Principal's Report
A message from the Principal
Success at school breeds opportunity and we want to give every student the chance to progress to their preferred pathway upon completion of their time at Pakenham Secondary College. Regular attendance is key to success in any subject. Parents can support their child’s learning by making sure their child is attending school every day they are well enough to attend. If you child needs to be absent, parents are asked to contact the office on 59451433 before 9am or list their child’s absence on Compass. If absence is beginning to become an issue, please contact your child’s Team Leader so that we can offer the support necessary for it to improve.
While attendance is important, I am also mindful of the need to remind people that if your child develops symptoms of COVID-19 then they should get tested and not attend school until the symptoms resolve. The good news is that Rapid Antigen Tests will continue to be distributed to students for the rest of this term to enable twice weekly testing.
Child Safe Policy
I thought it appropriate in this newsletter to reaffirm with our community the school’s commitment to ensuring the safety of children in our care. It is a responsibility that we take very seriously.
The Child Safe Standards set out to create safe places for students to fully and actively participate in the life of the community benefiting everyone. Pakenham Secondary College staff will ensure that the students in its care are kept safe and responsive to meeting their duty of care and the compulsory child safe standards.
As a community we want students to be safe, happy, and empowered. We support and respect all students, as well as our staff and volunteers.
As a school we are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children and have zero tolerance of child abuse. All allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our and the Department of Education and Training’s robust policies and procedures. Employees are supported to ensure they meet their legal and moral obligation to contact authorities when concern is raised about a child’s safety.
The College is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, with a view to removing and reducing these risks. We have robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers and are committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.
As a community we support and respect all students, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as well as the cultural safety of students from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds. Additionally, we work towards providing a safe environment for vulnerable students and students with a disability. Pakenham Secondary College has specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
Our Child Safe Policy can be viewed at:
School Council Elections
At the close of nominations for the Pakenham Secondary College School Council, the number of nominees was the same or less than the number of vacancies in each of the categories. As a result, I can declare that the successful nominees are:
Parent member:
- Josephine Hughes
- Jarni Sewell
- Karleen Salamon
DET Employee:
- Kay Chandler
Student Member:
- Matt Blanco
Ray Squires
Principal