From the School Council

As a recent addition to the school council, I have found the meetings I have attended this year to be informative and interesting. Our most recent meeting held on 19 June, though, was the most exciting with not only the reports and discussions on topics I will further detail below, but due to the addition of our two new student representatives to the council.

The Department of Education and Training Victoria issued a directive that from 2018 school councils should include student representation. The school sought nominations earlier in the year and two committed, enthusiastic and confident students joined us for the first time for our June meeting. We heartily welcomed Nazanin Jalali (Year 10) and Sinead Garry (Year 9). We look forward to their input and perspective in all council matters.

The council discussed numerous matters and topics during our most recent meeting. Some of the more salient items included; the upcoming strategic review and development of our new strategic plan for 2019 – 2022, the review of risk assessments for various school events/outings, discussion and appraisal of the Senior Music Tour scheduled for July 2019 - Rhapsody Rotorua. There was also some robust discussion on how we can support and effectively guide fundraising efforts for the sporting, leadership and musical opportunities that our students earn or are offered.

As per our last report, our School Council President, James Malliaros and Vice President, Rachael Angus have continued to highlight to various members of parliament, both state and federal the great work and role the school plays in the community and what they can do by way of funding to further support us to deliver our objectives and aspirations.

Opportunities to excel, nurture and develop leadership skills, participate and showcase skills as well as behaviours were abundant yet again with some of the key activities including:

The Year 9 camp at Anglesea afforded the students abundant opportunities to manifest teamwork and leadership.
Hosting the annual VASGSC (Victorian Association of State Girls'Secondary Colleges) Year 8 Friendship Day.
The fantastic musical soiree co-ordinated by Mr Veevers and his team and enthusiastically supported by performers at all levels of the school.
The Junior Music Showcase gave many of us an evening of auditory pleasure and entertainment.

Also on the performance front the Theatre Studies production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream released the inner "Pucks" of many of us, and the Year 10's production of Hating Alison Ashley proving a success. Two of our aerobics teams – Creative Stage and Stage 2 (Year 12 team) pushed through the state finals and are now preparing to participate in the National Aerobics finals on the Gold Coast. Furthermore on the national sporting front, hearty congratulations to Sascha Pribil in Year 8 who has been selected as a member of the Victorian Under 15 Australian Rules Football team to compete in SA. We also saw our Year 7 Mentone Games energetically held and led by Year 10 Sports Coaching class along with our Health and Physical student leaders.

Academically a large part of the school cohort sat exams, SATs and other assessments, as our teachers worked on semester reporting.

Ms Rosa Ferrari

School Councillor

2018 Parent survey – we want our parents to tell us what they think!

We are conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 23 July to Sunday 26 August.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September and will be presented at School Council.

Please contact Bronwyn Moline if you would like more information.

Ms Carol Duggan & Ms Bronwyn Moline

Assistant Principals

In our community

World Challenge Fundraiser

Shirley that's Beauty and the Beast in Parkdale

Invitation