The Score

College Principal's Report           

Welcome to 2019 

Welcome back to students and families and a special welcome to our Year 7 students, international students and other families new to the College.  I look forward to working closely with you all throughout the year. 

 

We have already had a positive start to term 1 with Year 7 students enjoying the special start up program, whole college assembly and commencement of timetabled classes. The program for Year 7 students was organised by the Junior School Team and followed on from the transition programs, which commenced last year. It was a great opportunity for all students to develop positive relationships with members of their classes, home group teachers and sub-schools. Based on observations of student engagement and feedback from students, parents and staff it has been a highly successful start to the year.

 

New and Returning Staff

Our growth in our student enrolments has meant we have had the opportunity to employ a number of new staff.  Welcome to

Ms Casey Mayne               Art, Technology and VCAL

Ms Isabelle Riley              Health

Mr Hao Wang                      Mathematics & Science

Ms Foroozan Jamali       Mathematics & Science

Ms Clara Zhao                    Mandarin Language Ass't

Mr Mike Bolwell                Integration Assistant

 

We also welcome back Ms Andrea Burke following her leave last year.

 

2018 Success Publicly Recognised

Our College Facebook followers, readers of the Herald Sun and other media, may have seen the articles that were written following the Department of Education’s media release, announcing our College as one of three schools across the state for having the highest growth in VCE average study scores.

 

 I would like to acknowledge the strong commitment and work ethic of our staff and so many of our students who have worked together to transform our College. Last year we had six staff selected to assess Year 12 examination papers for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and students had access to an outstanding program throughout the year including residential camp at University of Melbourne, careers advice, holiday study programs, presentations by past high achievers, industry partners and external examiners. The results in not just VCE but also our VCAL program meant that students were able to successfully access courses of choice or employment. Some of our students were also lucky enough to receive scholarships awarded by University of Melbourne to support their tertiary studies.

 

On behalf our college community, I would also like to congratulate Jessica Saunders, our Dux from our Class of 2018, who obtained outstanding results.  Jessica was one of the scholarship recipients, and has chosen to continue her studies at The University of Melbourne.  Jessica also represented Victoria in the National Science Olympiad in Canberra early last year.    

 

Assembly

On Thursday last week our College Captains led our first whole college assembly. Students had the opportunity to welcome our incoming students, meet new and returning staff and be provided with an overview of what 2019 has in store for them. One of the highlights of the assembly was the official presentation of our student leadership team.

College Captains for 2019

  • Maddy Beet
  •  Jared Larter
  •  Damon Towart

College Vice-Captains

  • Skye Inwood
  • Tristan Morgan
  • Mitchell Spooner

We are fortunate that our College has excellent leaders to represent our students and the College.

 

Thermo Fisher Scientific Partnership

During the holiday break Chris Knight and I had the pleasure of being invited to present at Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Annual Conference which brings together over 300 commercial and technical teams from across their Australian and New Zealand businesses.

 

We formed a partnership last year following our commitment to develop authentic experiences for our students and inviting Stephen Pickering, the Vice President and General Manager, to be Principal for a Day.

 

Thermo Fisher Scientific are the largest science company in Australia and are locally based in Scoresby. There is information on the company at the following web link. They have recently developed scanning for strawberries so they could be returned to shelves, DNA testing and other forensic solutions, tests that are leading the leukaemia research and more https://www.thermofisher.com.au/show.aspx?page=/content/Top-Menu/About-Us/Our-History/Our-History.html

Some of the exciting initiatives which we have been discussing working together on are:

  • STEM Programs
  • Opportunities to visit
  • Experiences for senior students in Thermo labs
  • Student opportunities for work experience
  • Leadership team sharing leadership strategies
  • Student participation in Thermo Fisher Community Events
  • Access to equipment and resources

 

At the end of the presentation, we received a silver platter in recognition of part of our work in supporting their community

 

Our partnership with Thermo Fisher is part of Scoresby Secondary College’s Vision and adds to our existing partnerships which include

  • Rotary Club of Knox
  • University of Melbourne (as a challenge partner and who are including a study of our transformation in a research project)
  • Monash Universities and Australian Council Education and Research  (on student voice)
  • Bosch
  • Bunnings

 

Our College

At the start of the year I revisit the College vision and values with students, staff, parents and the community. These are the key drivers of everything we do. This is a very important year as it is the year in which we undertake our review with an external reviewer looking at our progress against the goals and targets for the four year period 2014 – 2018 in term 1 and establish our new strategic plan for 2019 – 2022.

 

This term we will be inviting parents to participate in information nights and focus groups. These evenings will be an opportunity to provide feedback on how we have progressed against the goals and targets established four years ago. This feedback will support the self-evaluation we are required to conduct in term one prior to the external review team commencing their visits in term two.  Dates for the information evenings are listed in diary dates section of this newsletter.

 

Vision

Scoresby Secondary College’s vision is to be the College of Choice and to be respected by parents, community, tertiary providers and employers.

 

Our purpose 

Scoresby Secondary College’s core purpose is to provide a safe, supportive and rigorous learning environment that focuses on nurturing the whole person so that every child gets the opportunity to be their brilliant best.

 

Our values

Underpinning our purpose is our strong desire for our students and school to have strong links to the local community and our genuine care for students’ personal growth. These are embodied in our College values of I.N.S.P.I.R.E.

 

Integrity·Nurture·Success·Pride·Innovation ·Respect·Excellence

 

College Priorities

Below are our key priorities for this year. These priorities are in addition to the work we will be carrying out for our school review.

Excellence in teaching and learning

  • Building high quality teacher practice
  • Excellence in curriculum planning and assessment

Professional leadership

  • Building leadership capacity throughout the College
  • Modelling and promoting college vision and values
  • Strategic resource management

Positive climate for learning

  • Maintain our culture of high expectations and consistent practices that support student engagement and learning
  • Student Voice and building school pride
  • Safe Supp