Principals Report

I would like to firstly welcome everyone back to school for Term 2.  As you will have read from my communications to families at the very start of this term, I’m Acting Principal for the first 6 weeks while Sarah Rose is on long service leave.  I’m excited to be leading the College during this time and look forward to continuing to engage with students and families to ensure the best student experience and outcomes.

I had the pleasure of attending the Mt Macedon ANZAC Day Dawn Service and the Gisborne ANZAC Day Service last week where our student captains represented the College by doing readings and laying wreaths. These occasions are of high importance for our school, particularly as one of our college values is Respect, and I was immensely proud of how our students represented themselves and the college to the broader community.  We also held our whole-school assembly which was ANZAC themed where junior and senior student leaders did select readings, and we heard reflections and poems from invited guests Rob Funstan, outgoing President Gisborne and Macedon Ranges RSL, Darren Grevis-James, incoming President Gisborne and Macedon Ranges RSL and Dr Francis Donovan OAM.  Later in this edition you will find a selection of photos from our contributions to our local community ANZAC Day commemorations.

It has been a wonderful return to school with routines re-established and enriching activities already underway.  This week our Year 12 Outdoor Education Camp left for Mt Bogong, our Year 9s had their RAID Day where they had an in-school presentation followed by activities in the Gisborne township to further build links within our community. We also held our whole-school Athletics Carnival in Melton on Tuesday.  It was wonderful to see so many students participating in events and showing their house spirit by wearing their respective house colours and cheering on their fellow students.  Today we see the continuation of our successful relationship with the Live4Life program, aimed at empowering rural communities to improve youth mental health. This program will run for Year 8 students as part of their ‘Connect’ class.

We’ve also invited the broader community into the College this week through our regular College Tour for prospective families, as well as hosting a Community Information presentation from Macedon Ranges Health on the topic of Vaping.  This session was incredibly valuable to hear from professionals who have researched vaping, its risks, the reasons it’s attractive to young people, and how we as a community can support them to stop vaping.  You can view the presentation slides below and I encourage you to access the many resources listed to further inform yourself on this topic that has become a broad societal issue.

I would like to congratulate the following Year 8 students who successfully completed the Victorian High-Ability program with Virtual Schools Victoria in Term 1 - Kate A, Blake B, Susannah M and Lucas R. These students were chosen by the Education Department as they had shown high ability in English or Mathematics. Well done for your efforts in line with our college value of striving for achievement excellence!

The College calendar is full of student activities over the next few weeks so please ensure you’re checking Xuno regularly for any incursions/excursions/camps that require parental permission.  I would also like to draw your attention to the work of our Student Representative Council who are this term running a donation drive for the Gisborne Community Care Foodbank.  The SRC heard from Wally, President of the Foodbank yesterday about the important role it plays in assisting those people within our community facing food security issues.  You can read full details of this initiative later in this edition and I look forward to seeing what we're able to achieve as a school community for this fantastic local not-for-profit association.

Before closing I would like to reiterate my message to families sent at the start of the term with respect to uniform, especially as we've started to experience much colder days recently.  We have updated the Uniform Policy which will be presented to school council for ratification on Wednesday 17th May 2023. The main amendment is that students will be allowed to wear jackets/parkas over their uniform to keep warm in the yard however, I would like to remind you that hoodies are not acceptable, either under or over school issued uniform. Students presenting in hoodies will be asked to remove them and hand them into the appropriate sub school office until the end of the school day. If your young person does have an unavoidable uniform issue, please send them to school with a note so that they may obtain a uniform pass. I continue to welcome your feedback with regards to uniform.

Enjoy reading this edition of the College newsletter. I hope it provides you a broad insight into the wonderful school we’re all part of.

Russell Wigginton, Acting Principal