Principal's Report

David Reynolds - Principal

​Budget Funding

Great news just in - Melton SC has been granted $2,500,000 in funding for the first stage of our capital works program! Announced in the Victorian Budget  today, this money will allow us to start work on our facilities master plan that will see first class buildings provided for learning in all subject areas. More information will be provided in due course.

Testing Teachers 

Over the past two weeks the school has  received many different responses from parents and students about the documentary. Many expressed gratitude and appreciation at the work that teachers do to educate their children.  Some commented on the need for us as a school and as a community to do even more to strengthen student well being and respectful behaviours. There has also been a consistent call for the college and community to highlight the many positive relationships and events that are a regular feature of students’ experience at the College but were not captured by the documentary. This has encouraged the college to re-double its efforts in these areas which are already very high on our list of priorities and to reach out further to parents and the community so that our partnership will lead to even better results for students.

The media have been very interested in the insights that the show has given people about teaching and the challenge of meeting the learning needs of twenty five students at a time.

In a recent newspaper article, one of the Melton SC teachers in the documentary Kitty Van Cuylenberg’s reflected on why she agreed to take part and what she hopes it will achieve:

 “Teachers put their hearts out there and they put their energy out there and I think that might surprise people. I just hope that people will be able to sit with the complexity of teaching and the complexity of school education, and the complexity of the lives of our students that we teach… It’s complex, but it’s wonderful and I hope that’s what people take away from it, that teaching is complex and wonderful”.

Emmanuel Kubwange was also interviewed by the Star Weekly and he offered some great insight into what it takes to meet challenges head on and succeed as student and an educator.

If you would like to learn more about the documentary please follow the link below. The third and final episode of Testing Teachers airs on SBS tonight at 8.30 pm.

Community Forum

There has been strong interest from parents and students in taking part in a community forum where we can discuss issues raised in the documentary and ask questions. The college has recently undergone a School Review and will soon start the process of writing a new Strategic Plan. It would be great to gather the views of the community about how we can work together to keep on improving our school and feedback about the documentary will assist us with this work. So that the Testing Teachers forum can be well planned and advertised widely, we have rescheduled the date to Thursday 8 June from 6.30 – 8.00 pm. I encourage all parents to put this date in their diaries and make it a priority to attend.

House Athletics Day

This Friday is our House Athletics Day and a great opportunity for students to take a break from their academic studies and support their House by participating in the many fun physical activities that are offered on this day. It is also a great day to do things with different groups of students. Houses at Melton SC are organised vertically, and include students across all six year levels. This means that students get to mix with students outside their regular home group and class groupings. 

House events are also an important opportunity for everyone to get behind the college STARR values of Success, Team Work, Ambition, Respect and Responsibility.

Students were recently asked What do successful athletes do that successful students also do?  If you have a spare minute or two in the coming few days, it's a question worth considering.

David Reynolds

Principal