PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
PREMIERS AWARDS
I would like to congratulate and acknowledge students who were recognised at the prestigious Premier’s Awards held at the Melbourne Convention Centre yesterday.
Nicholas Parkinson received the honour of a State “All-Rounder” demonstrating exceptional excellence in all his subjects.
An All-Rounder category award is given to students who achieve a Study Score of 46 and above out of 50 in five or more of their Year 12 subjects.
Nicholas achieved: Biology (47), Maths Methods (46), Chemistry (50), English (50), Physical Education (50) and French (47).
Nicholas was one of nineteen exceptional recipients of this prestigious award. He also achieved a Premier’s Excellence award in Physical Education.
Samuel Dunn received a Premier’s Excellence Award in Psychology (50); Eliza Fischer received an Excellence Award in Business Management (50), and Dafni Samuni received an Excellence Award in English as An Additional Language (50).
Their teachers, Mr Hudd, Mr Jewell, Mr Fernandez, Ms Felmingham and I were so proud to join their parents at the event to acknowledge and celebrate this achievement.
LANGUAGE PERFECT
Last Thursday saw the end of the Language Perfect Championships for 2015 – the largest language learning competition in the world. Out of 1220 schools across the world, McKinnon Secondary College placed 4th – an exceptional achievement!
The effort of our staff and students across the ten days of the competition was enormous, and showcased their enthusiasm and curiosity for languages and language learning.
In total, our students answered 1.6 million questions across 17 different languages. This placed us 2nd overall in Russian, 3rd overall in Greek, 6th overall in German and 17th overall in French,
With over 1200 students participating, as well as 48 staff members, there was a terrific feeling across the ten days of competition. While some students and teachers will now have to revert back to their normal daily routines, we will revel in our success and acknowledge outstanding individual efforts at our next General Assembly and upcoming year level assemblies.
I would like to acknowledge Mr Kamener and Frau Fowler for their extraordinary efforts in providing our students with an opportunity to participate in this competition and I would also l like to thank our staff for rallying behind our students to help our school achieve such an outstanding result. Language learning is certainly rife at McKinnon.
COUNCIL OF INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS (CIS)
We are currently busy completing our self-study in readiness for our accreditation visit in August.
Ten representatives from all over the world will be here for a week to provide an objective assessment.
The team members will visit classrooms and other work places and talk to students, parents, teachers and council.
They examine all aspects of the school in light of the self-study – the schools own guiding statements (vision, mission and values) and the accreditation standards and indicators.
The job of the team is to review the quality of the educational experiences offered at the school with an emphasis on student learning.
At the conclusion of the visit, the team will write a report to every part of the self-study and will include its significant commendation, recommendations and additional advice.
The report will be sent to the CIS and then the team will make an overall recommendation with regard for possible accreditation of the school directory to the CIS.
The team can either: award for accreditation, award for accreditation with specific qualifications, postpone accreditation or not award accreditation. We hope we will achieve accreditation.
Benefits of Accreditation: It is an indication to the school community that the school offers a quality education – with a global perspective, it is an opportunity for self-assessment and school improvement, the introspect has been the most valuable aspect of the entire process, the opportunity to meet collaboratively across all disciplines to discuss issues, identify concerns and propose improvements, an opportunity for improved intra-school contact, a unifying force in a school which builds collegiality, an opportunity to receive an external assessment and it allows us to develop a plan for the future.
SENIOR MUSIC CONCERT
Congratulations to all involved in the music concert last week and thank you to the many family members and friends in attendance.
The standard of music was exceptional and it was a most joyful occasion to attend.
The tremendous efforts of our music staff to inspire, teach and guide young musicians needs to be both acknowledged and appreciated.
I thank Mr West and his team for the difference they make and I also pay tribute to those many young musicians and wish them continued success.
DRAMA NIGHTS
Congratulations to students involved in the drama performances.
I am often astounded by their talent and the confidence they have to perform to audiences.
Thank you to Ms Doctor for working with these students and providing such an enjoyable learning experience.
I appreciate all the staff, parents and students who were in attendance and offered support despite it being such a busy time of the year.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
With great anticipation we are looking forward to our school production that begins next Wednesday 10 June.
I know that the cast and crew have been working tirelessly to put the show together, and again I would like to acknowledge Ms Doctor with her team of helpers for all that they have done to give students this wonderful opportunity.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased via TryBooking http://www.trybooking.com/HSWO or the Bursars office.
Tickets: Adults $25, Students $17.50
EXAMINATION WEEKS
Good luck with exams. It is indeed a stressful time for students but revision and doing practise questions will assist them to perform as well as possible. I thank everyone for their tremendous efforts.