Principal's Report 

As we mark the official end of Term 3, we warmly welcome the substantive appointment of our College Principal, Fern Brisbane. As a community we look forward to embarking upon our new 4-year strategic plan under the direction of our new leader as we work towards further building student learning and wellbeing.  

Last week all our Year 12 students, and those Year 11 students who are studying a Year 12 subject, completed the General Achievement Test (GAT). The GAT assesses skills in mathematics, science, technology, the arts and humanities. It also assesses against the new literacy and numeracy standards introduced this year. I would like to express how proud I was of all our senior students who completed the GAT. Their conduct and level of maturity exhibited on the day was nothing short of exceptional! 

Over the past few weeks many of our students have been going through their subject selection process. Over the coming weeks we will be finalising these selections and working on the task of building the timetable for 2023. We thank Jeremey Woods, Cameron Patience and Kerrie Lay for their leadership in this area. We envisage that students will be advised of their subject choices by the end of October.  

Alongside subject selections, we continue to work hard to fill staff vacancies for the remainder of 2022 and also 2023.   

Recently we have welcomed the following staff to our college: 

• Krista Rainsford teaching English and Humanities 
• Phyllis Chee teaching English 
• Kwan Nok Chan teaching Science and Humanities 
• Celine Tsang working as Wellbeing Counsellor until the end of the year 
• Current job advertisements include: 
• English- fixed term till end of 2022 
• English- ongoing – To commence 2023 
• Maths/Science- ongoing- To commence 2023 

I would also like to recognise the outstanding work of Jeremy Woods, who has been acting Assistant Principal during Term 3 whilst Andrew Dixon has been on long service leave. Jeremey stepped seamlessly into this role and supported the Principal Team during our school review and has been instrumental in setting up the new timetable package and designing an adjusted schedule for 2023 to reflect the new requirements of the Victorian Government School Agreement (VGSA).  We welcome Andrew Dixon back at the start of Term 4. 

I would also like to acknowledge the following staff members for stepping into roles that required filling this term: 

• Yeneo Pousoulis – acting Leader of Senior Subschool in Michelle Galli’s absence 
• Megan Hodgkinson- acting Leader of Middle School while Jeremey Woods was acting AP 
• Louise Ford- Year 12 Year Level Coordinator during Anna Annetoudis’ Long Service Leave 
• Paul McGlynn for stepping into the Daily Organisers role in the last week or so of Term 3.  
• We also bid farewell to Aileen Little who will finish up at the college on the 16th September. Aileen commenced in Term 2 this year as our Daily Organiser, and we thank her for all her work in this area. 

Last Thursday, the college recognised RU OK Day. Students had the opportunity to take part in activities in the library at lunch time and were able to speak with members from Headspace and the Youth Resource Officers from Victoria Police. Following on from this, on Friday there was an extended homegroup where students undertook further activities relating to wellbeing. We thank Fosia Mohamud and her team of staff helpers who helped make this event a success. 

At this point in time, we also recognise the sad news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom from 6 February 1952 until her death on 8th September 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the second-longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign  country.  We are now witnessing a significant time in history with King Charles III acceded to the throne on 8th September 2022 upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.  

During the term break, many of our Year 12 teachers are conducting practice exams on site. Holiday exam schedules have been published to students and we encourage all students to attend these sessions as part of their preparations for the fast approaching end of year examinations. 

At the end of this week, we remind all families that the cycle 3 reports will be made available. If you have any questions relating to your child’s report, please contact the relevant subject teacher at the start of Term 4. 

Wishing everyone a safe term break and we look forward to seeing you all on October 3rd, day one of Term 4! 

Principal Team 

Fern Brisbane, Judy Anderson, Jeremy Woods