From the Principal

 

 

 

2019 - fees, facilities and festivities

Recently we have posted the schedule of fees for 2019 on the Preshil website, following the School Council approval of the School’s budget for next year.

This budget guarantees the ongoing sustainability and continued enhancements of our two campuses, ensuring that we have the resources and the facilities to offer the breadth of programs, small class sizes, with highly qualified and committed teachers that underpin our educational offering.

The average fee increase is a little over 4%. The decision to raise fees is a considered one as we know that it does impact on our families. This increase follows several years of below average fee increases, when measured against other private schools, and we intend to continue to contain fee increases to the lowest levels possible.

• The Primary School fee table is now stepped, with Kinder and Prep year tuition fees at the lower end, moving up as the student progresses through the School.
• The Secondary School is stepped in two-year blocks, aligned with the program grouping of students within the MYP and the DP.
• The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Composite Fee at Years 11 and 12 incorporates an exam fee averaged over the two years. The Diploma exams are moderated internationally, as quality assurance, which is essential if the IB is to maintain its reputation as a truly international qualification.

The cost of undertaking the IB programmes at Preshil is considerably less than in schools which continue to offer both the VCE and the IB and is part of our commitment to ensure that we can offer an inclusive and accessible programme of international standing to all of our students, not just a hand-picked group of students the School deems worthy of this ‘elite’ programme. The School Council is also committed to continue to provide the financial support necessary for all of our teachers to undertake ongoing and rigorous professional development as part of our participation in this international network.

As always, please accept our invitation to discuss fees, payment plans and any difficulties that families face and where the School can assist.

2018 celebrates 50 years of the International Baccalaureate, which makes all Victorian iterations of the State Curriculum look very recent. The IB is the product of ongoing, international feedback and re-evaluation, strengthened through a huge, rigorous research commitment and tested by educators across some 150 countries.

It is ‘an education designed to break down the barriers of race, religion and class; an education that extols the benefits of cultural diversity; an education for international-mindedness – above all else, an education for peace.’

I believe we can be very proud to align Preshil with these ideals and to make them a lived experience for each one of our students, from the youngest children in the Primary School to the young adults in the final years of their secondary education, as they find their place in the world beyond school.

While staff and students at Blackhall Kalimna prepare to say farewell to their friends and colleagues who are leaving the School at the end of the year and get ready for the annual, long school break we are well on the way to finalising plans for a number of events to be held in 2019.

The Preshil Independent Film Festival has finally grown out of its in-house format, as witnessed by the very enthusiastic turn-out for it last week. In 2019 we have plans to host it in grander style and to expand it in a number of exciting ways.

We are finalising the date, the venue and the line-up of keynote speakers for our reinstated Philosophy Conference and indications are that the Spring Dinner will once again be a brilliant feast to showcase our amazing students.

Kalimna will become the hub for the IB Diploma Programme and we have a number of plans underway to ensure that it is a welcoming and highly resourced facility, with maybe a whiff of coffee… Our Careers program and our Wellbeing services will have a new home, our Science facilities will be expanded and we are developing some more outdoor study and recreation spaces to accommodate our growing numbers of students. Exciting times!

Thank you to all who have read our newsletter this year – and a very special thank you to Judy O’Donnell and Jan Pietsch who work tirelessly to produce this publication, on time, every fortnight.

Marilyn Smith

Principal

marilyn.smith@preshil.vic.edu.au