Back in full swing!

It’s been wonderful to settle back in with all students able to return onsite this term. Our priorities as year levels returned were on supporting students’ wellbeing and connectedness as they transitioned back to the routines and structures of school; as well as on understanding where each student was at in their learning, and building on this with manageable next steps. Over the last couple of weeks, we have also been able to enjoy a small number of excursions and special events: we look forward to more of this next year.

It was also very exciting, as students returned, to be able to move in to our newly renovated Library and classroom spaces in the South Building. Both spaces are working well, with students and staff particularly enjoying the added flexibility, range of collaborative and individual spaces, and enhanced natural light. Level 2 of the South Building, our Science labs that were destroyed by the January fire, is still out of action. We are working through the design process for refurbishment of these spaces at the moment, and hope that work on this will commence early in 2022.

Year 12 Exams and Valedictory

The Year 12 VCAA exams concluded on November 18. It seems quite amazing that they have actually run, and to the original planned timeline, given the stage of lockdown and the number of daily COVID cases we were experiencing just a two months ago.

On November 18, we also enjoyed the Valedictory ceremony, with students and staff able to attend onsite and the ceremony streamed for families at home. Our MCs Alex B and Preimi R and Valedictorians Ayumi S and Aarushi D did a wonderful job of setting a tone of celebration and optimism, as did our guest speaker, alumni Laura Kane who graduated from University High School in 2008 and is now the AFL’s General Manager, Competition Management.

End of Year

We are now nearing End of Year activities for other year levels as well. Our Year 10s and 11s have completed their VCE Orientation, and Year 10s are currently on a week’s Work Experience, either in person or virtually.

Year 7-9 classes run until 10 December, with the final week dedicated to special end of year activities.

We will also be able to run Year 7 Orientation Day onsite, on December 7. This is great news as it is a very important day for our students joining the school. We welcomed the Year 7 2022 parents at an online information evening recently. This was very well attended and we look forward meeting the cohort in person soon.

School Review

Our School Review, which was significantly delayed due to COVID restrictions, will finally conclude this week! Extensive fieldwork, as well as document and data reviews, have been conducted by the Reviewer, SEIL and our Challenge Partners. They visited classes and ran focus groups with a wide range of students, staff and parents. It has been a very detailed and valuable process. The next step is for the panel to draw together their findings and make recommendations regarding the school’s strategic goals. These are then considered and refined at the school level in order to develop our Strategic Plan and Annual Implementation Plan, which will be presented to the school community next year.

Hand-in-hand with this has been a review of our School Values. Thank you to all who have participated in the process so far: look out for further opportunities to be part of this work in the new year.

Student achievement

A big congratulations to Year 11 student Allegra S-P who placed second in the National History Challenge. Allegra’s entry essay ‘Comrades of Feminism’ explored the intersection of the Australian Socialist movement and the Feminist movement in the 1970s. It was an interesting, well-written and soundly researched piece: congratulations Allegra!

COVID update

As you will be aware, COVID restrictions in schools have eased significantly in recent weeks. Students are still recommended to wear masks whilst indoors, and to practice COVID Safe measures including physical distancing, good hand and respiratory hygiene and eating only in outdoor areas. Enhanced ventilation and cleaning also continue to be in place.

All visitors to the school, including parents (other than for pick-up and drop-off), are required to provide evidence of vaccination status. This is done via the QR code check-in at front reception.

Planning for 2022

In line with the School Review, we have reviewed our School Leadership structure, including our Assistant Principal roles, implementing a number of changes to support our learning and teaching, and student wellbeing. These positions were all advertised state-wide; and we had a large number of high-quality applicants. A number of existing staff members were successful in gaining new positions; and we will also be welcoming new staff in to the roles of Head of Sub-School; Student Voice and Leadership; and a Literacy Learning Specialist.

Assistant Principal Lisa Vinnicombe was successful in gaining a Principal role at another school. Fred Sandt and Lyndsey Hubber were both successful applicants for Assistant Principal roles for 2022; and will join Sue Prosenica and Chris Jones (who is on temporary secondment to another school until the end of Term 1 2022) in the Assistant Principal team.

Arrangements around 2022 return dates, student-free days and bell times will be confirmed soon via Compass.

Ciar Foster - Principal

Student Hand Mural