Congratulations to Year 12 Students on their VCE Results

Friday 14th December, when the VCE results were released was a day of celebration for us. Our 2018 students topped the VCE results for the college across the years, with

17% of FCC students in the top 10% of the state with 90+ ATARs
30% of FCC students in the top 20% of the state with 80+ ATARs
Top ATAR of 98
9% of 40+ study scores – very good for this category
A median study score of 30 – really 30.7, so we hope to gain the extra 0.3 next year to make it 31

Congratulations to all students on reaping the rewards of what was a lot of hard work and effort for many. Special acknowledgement and congratulations must go to our Dux, Spencer Davis with an ATAR of 98. Special mention must also go to the two runners up, with Sony Nguyen achieving 97.9 and David Nguyen with 97.7.

Spencer will accept a Vice Chancellor’s scholarship to study a Bachelor of Law/Commerce at Monash University. There are also other scholarship offers coming through from universities to our top performing students which we will acknowledge when we know the full details.

Two early course offers we are aware of include Mia Britten – one of our top 17% - being accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA – University of Melbourne) Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre), and Madeleine Jamieson accepted into the VCA Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film & TV). Congratulations to Madeleine and Mia as these offers are an affirmation of their exceptional creative talents, as it is very rare for students to be accepted into VCA courses immediately after completing year 12.

We have also just been informed that a group of our Year 12 Music students have been selected to perform in Top Class Music as part of the VCAA Season of Excellence 2019. An invitation to perform in this event is in recognition of the students excelling in their group performance examination for the subject of Music Performance. Unfortunately there is an embargo on us publishing the students’ names until February.

We wish all of our year 12s in VCE and VCAL the very best in their future pursuits and will follow their next steps with great interest.

Acting Principal Appointment to FCC for 2019

For those who may not have seen the Compass post, I would like to welcome the new acting principal for 2019, Angelique Den Brinker. Angelique has been a principal for many years and has most recently been at the Victorian College for the Deaf, and at Yarraville West Primary this last term. I wish Angelique all the best for her next year at the college.

Farewell

After eleven years as principal at FCC and as a teacher and assistant principal in the years prior, it is with much mixed emotion that I say farewell.

While I feel a great deal of sadness about leaving, I also feel immensely proud of the school, our students and staff.

I believe we have come a long way from my first days as principal in 2007, and we have evolved into a different school in many ways. Arguably, we were not the school of choice in the community eleven years ago, but working with the school council and the staff, together, I believe we have achieved many successes, and the doubling of student numbers with our year 7 intakes in recent years suggests that we are now the school of choice for a significant part of the community.

There have been major changes along the way and change can be challenging, but at all times the vision has been on providing our students with the best opportunities to succeed academically, to develop their creativity, to be equipped for the future, and to grow as well-rounded young people with strong ethical values based on respect and inclusion, fairness and justice, and active responsibility towards others in our communities - local and beyond.

It has been incredibly rewarding over the years to watch our students contribute to the life of the school in their varied and individual ways, whether it be through their academic achievements, their creative expressions, their sporting achievements, their involvement in leadership and community oriented work, or even the manner in which they go about their daily school lives.

As the school moves into its next phase as part of the Footscray Learning Precinct (FLP), I hope the strengths of FCC will be carried forward to help shape the new entity. I also hope that the vision for the precinct will be realised.

As explained in our last newsletter, the outcome of the merging of FCC and Gilmore and the consequent abolition of the principal positions of both schools at the end of 2019, is not ideal for me personally. Nonetheless, I absolutely hope the FLP is a great success and the promised resourcing is forthcoming to provide even greater opportunities for our current students and those of the future.

Finally I want to express my gratitude to you, the parents for your support of the school over the years and to those who have generously volunteered their time to school council and the Friends of FCC; to the staff for their hard work, and care and interest in the students; and to the students for being so special and being the core of what enriches the life of the school. It has been an honour and privilege to serve as your principal.

Best wishes to all students for success and happiness in your futures, and all the best to families for the festive season and the new year.

Maria Bawden

VICTORIAN SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES