Principal's Report

For this week’s Principal Report I have used my Awards Night report.

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are meeting. I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be here today.

I am really grateful to be the principal of Staughton College. I am excited to able to play my part in the continued improvement of our school, building on the work of our previous Principals such as Jenny Malberg and Shane Lakey. I love working and learning together with all of you to develop a culture where ambition meets excellence. Whether it is academic, social and or personal achievement, we learn together to overcome challenges and succeed

Tonight is about celebrating success across our school community. I would like to just briefly mention a couple of examples of this in 2017 which were extraordinary.

At Staughton College we have a world champion. Wow! Thomas Armstrong won the world junior championship in trench shooting.

Congratulations also to Jack Carr for his achievements in the swimming pool at state and national level.

I have been told that I am not allowed to include the amazing, inspirational, emotional, 37 year drought breaking premiership victory by the Richmond Football Club so I promise I won’t mention it.

In such a large community we sometimes have tragedy that affect some or all of us. A strength of our Staughton family is the way we come together at these times I would like us to pause for a short reflection for those in our community who we have lost this year.

We have had a great year at Staughton. We had an external school review that said the ducks were really aligning here. We have a laser like focus on doing what schools do when they continue to improve. It is working. Our academic results continue to improve, but I am probably most proud of two other areas in which we are improving. These are our collaboration and our effort. The climate in our school is becoming increasingly cooperative and hardworking, whether we are talking about students staff or parent involvement.

Staff effort is top notch here. I am often in awe of the commitment, time and patience they show in working with our students. I am also particularly thankful for the work of assistant principals Ben Russell and Daniel Xuereb and our senior management team of leading teachers. They are passionate, hardworking and give me great support. And most importantly they also tell me when I need to improve. We care about making each other better.

There are some staff that are moving onto other schools, some of them in promotion positions. I would like to sincerely thank them for the part they have played in the development of our college. Moving onto new schools and/or opportunities.

Paul James

Kat Lofts

Neil Dorney

Alex Chan

Mallory Van Moorst

Tanele Spiteri

Sue Hatton

Mary Pithie

Grace Hawke is moving onto a promotion position at as a leading teacher at Wyndam Central.

Vanessa Shipp has been a particularly long serving teacher and leader at Staughton. We wish her well in her new leading position at Geelong High school.

I really enjoy working with and meeting our parents. It is a little bit frightening to me that I actually taught a small but growing number of you. I would like to thank you all for the work you do in getting students to school on time, in uniform, and with the correct materials and mindset to be successful. I would like to thank you for your record attendances at our first two parent teacher nights this year. We really want all parents to come to these nights. I am very confident that if parents, students and teachers meet regularly to check in on progress then outstanding results are possible. Lastly I would also like to thank all the parents of school council ably led by School Council President Yvonne Sebire.

Tonight is all about student achievement, effort and input. It is impossible to list all the examples of this at Staughton this year. I just want to give a few.

Our sporting teams are becoming increasingly successful

I have really enjoyed watching senior students work together in intervention extension and the quiet study rooms at lunchtime

We pride ourselves on our performances, and again we exceeded expectations in events such as the Little Shop of Horrors and the Music Concert

This year I ran student forums at all year levels to increase the student voice as input into our future plans. I found what our students had to say valuable in making our plans for the future.

I particularly love working with our leaders. Next year’s school captains have been busy visiting primary schools with our transition team and doing a magnificent job. It was great to see students at orientation day today coming up to them and saying hello in the yard. Lastly I would like to thank this year’s VCE leaders. They supported our school in many ways. Leading the leaders this year were our school captains Ethan McIntosh and Emily Steward. They have provided great support to staff and students in many ways this year.

I wish everyone in our community a happy and safe break, and look forward to seeing everyone in 2019.