PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

As the 2017 school year draws to a close, all of our Year 7 to 11 students have finished their 2018  course commencement programs and have had the opportunity to spend time as Year 8 to 12 students.

Hopefully all parents and students have been able to access the Semester Two student reports which were distributed via Compass this week. Congratulations to all students who have made a concerted effort to achieve their best in their studies.

Year 12 VCE Results Released

Year 12 results are now released and special congratulations goes to our Dux, Samuel Kleinig-Neumann with an ATAR of 97.9, and to Jamie Hoang who followed closely with 97.3.  The college is very pleased with the overall VCE performance for 2017. There were many students with impressive results and congratulations goes to the whole cohort who achieved a 99% completion rate.

Staffing Update for 2018

We will be farewelling a number of our staff and welcoming many more on board for 2018.

Those who will be leaving us include Emma Banks, Jodie O’Connor, Kalinda Ashton, Penny Owens, Ross Cornell, Bill Lensky and Cleo Constantinou.

Emma Banks who has taught Maths and Science at the college for seven years is off to Mernda Central College to be closer to home. Jodie O’Connor, another Maths/Science teacher who has been with us for three years is taking up a position at Carey Grammar. Kalinda Ashton, an English/Philosophy teacher, has been with us for two years and is off to St Helena’s SC in Eltham to be part of their extensive Philosophy program. Penny Owens who came to us from New Zealand to teach English, Humanities and EAL, and has more recently been a Leading Teacher in Curriculum & Pedagogy, will be taking up an Assistant Principal position at Laverton P-12 College. Ross Cornell who is already on leave this term, is retiring after 12 years at the college. As well as being an English/Humanities teacher, for a number of years he was the Leading Teacher in charge of the Student Wellbeing & Special Needs program. Bill Lensky and Cleo Constantinou, our two longest standing staff members are also retiring. Bill joined the school in 1976 and Cleo in 1981. Together they have run the successful TAFE Media program since the 1980s.

We thank all of these staff for their varied and valuable contributions to the college and its students and wish them the very best in their new ventures ahead of them.

We also have several teachers joining our staff in 2018 and they include:

Pru Mann                                     Humanities/Psychology

Atish Singh                                 Maths/Science/Physics

Scott McDowell                         Maths/Science/Chemistry

Maria Chrisant                           Humanities

Ariel Halperin                             English/Humanities

Adrian Panckhurst                   English/Humanities

Piri Jakab Von Szengelice     English/Humanities

Martin Weekes                           Drama

Sue Hansen                                 Art/Head of the Arts

Reena Ding                                  Maths/IT

Anne Langdon                          English/Special Needs

There are still a few more appointments in English/ Humanities and Maths/Science to be completed.

The number of new staff required for next year is a result of staff leaving and the continuing increase in our enrolments at the junior end of the school, and particularly with approximately 265 Year 7s joining us in 2018.

Thank you to FCC Families

Thank you to all parents for your support and willingness to work together with the school for another year. Also, the generosity of those who volunteer their time and energy for the benefit of the school is very much appreciated. Parent representatives on school council in 2017 have included Lisa Heap, Claudia Meyer, Karen Ingram, John Symons and Justin Burdett. Volunteers on Friends of Footscray have included Annette Dulfer, Tracey Doherty, Barbara Braun,  Trish Anderson, Anne Parsons and Anne Shute. This is a small group numerically, but they raise significant amounts of funding to be redistributed to the school for the benefit of our students and we are most appreciative of this. Thank you also to the parents who have volunteered their time to help in areas such as the theatre productions.     

To all families, we extend our best wishes for the festive season, and hope the holiday period is a relaxing one for all, and we look forward to the return of our students in late January.     

Maria Bawden - Principal