Principal's Message

Dear Sunbury College Community,

Term 1 has been a wonderful term. It has been great to see the students participating in the many weekly learning, wellbeing and engagement programs on offer across the school to compliment the learning that occurs every day in our classrooms.

Celebrating Diversity

This year, Sunbury College will celebrate the 25th anniversary of our sister school relationship with Nagano High School in Japan. In Term 3, to celebrate this important relationship, we will be welcoming students from Nagano HS to Sunbury College and to stay with our families. This will be a great experience for our students and compliment the learning they experience in their Japanese classes. This is the first time students from Nagano HS have been able to visit since 2019 and we are planning to send some of our students and staff to Nagano on an International visit in late 2024.

The school celebrated Harmony Week recently and it was wonderful to see our student leaders plan and conduct sessions celebrating diversity in Connect classes across all year levels during the week. Their thought and planning was appreciated by both students and staff.

With the return of international travel, we have been able to accept a number of International Exchange Students this year.  They will be staying with Sunbury and Diggers Rest families. In Term 1 we had Mirea join our school in year 11 from Germany, and we look forward to welcoming Martin in year 10 from France in Term 2 and Silvia in year 11 from Italy in Term 3.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC day is an important day of reflection when we honour those who have served and fallen for both Australia and New Zealand. Our school has a significant number of students and families who were born in New Zealand. Our school will be holding an ANZAC day ceremony for all students and staff on Monday 24 April during period 4 on the front oval of the school with our student leaders leading the ceremony. The school places white crosses on the oval to honour those who have fallen from the Sunbury community, which includes a cross for Larry Sheppard, our school’s inaugural school captain and who we also honour with the Larry Sheppard Award each year for a Year 12 student. On ANZAC day on Tuesday 25 April, our school has been given the honour of writing the keynote speech. This speech will be delivered by our school captains.

School Council Elections

Congratulations to Karen, Austyn, Sharna and Bernadetta on being re-elected to School Council, and to Tracey and Fiona for becoming new School Council members. The number of nominations equalled the vacant positions, so no vote was necessary for the 2023 elections. If parents or carers are interested in school council, please contact me for a chat at the start of Term 2. Our school councillors make a great contribution to the school community.

School council members for 2023

Parent members

• Robert Torcutti
• Sharna Small
• Bernadetta Martella
• Karen Johnson
• Tracey Ozane

Student members

• Lachlan Bullows
• Austyn Edwards

School employee members

• Jennifer Metcalf
• Fiona Scott-Young
• Craig O’Bree

I would also like to acknowledge the significant contribution that Eric Eastaughffe has made to school council, included undertaking the role of school council president from 2016 to 2021. Eric has retired from school council at the end of 2022 after making significant contributions to school council and the school community over a number of years.

I wish all our families a great time together over the Easter break.

Sincerely,

Craig O’Bree

Principal