From the Principal

Brevet results and Bastille Day celebration

Welcome back to Term 3, and I hope all families had a restful break.  I would like to congratulate our Year 9 French Binational students, and their teachers, on their high achievement on the French Brevet exam, which they sat in June.  Our students performed very well with many achieving a Très Bien or High Distinction.  This is fabulous news for our school as we are achieving exceptional results as an internationally accredited French school.

We celebrated Bastille Day in the first week of this term - staff and students enjoyed delicious croissants, pains au chocolat and French music at recess.  There was a French Kahoot competition for staff won by Francophile Louisa Philipson.  At lunchtime students could choose to take part in a comedy show, face painting, photo booth, watching a French film and a pétanque competition.  Thank you to our French teachers Pauline Delhostal, Sophie Oldfield, Geraldine Lautour-Akremi, Sonia Boyer, Jacqueline Wong-Fat, Nicole Marie, Johan Brochet and Genevieve Papon and to the French language students for all their work in organising and running these events.

Senior School Expo 

Last Thursday afternoon, we were excited to host our “Senior School Expo”.  The expo is an opportunity for parents and students to ask questions about what it is like to be a student in senior school, learn about Year 10 and VCE subject offerings and the course confirmation process at our school.  There were current Year 10 and VCE students present at the subject stalls, who shared their experiences and insights, into the skills and attributes they believe are required to be a successful senior school student.

All our VCE teachers were available and manned subject expo stalls with relevant textbooks, reference materials/equipment and student work exemplars.  They met parents and students answering questions on their subject content, assessment task types, and the work commitment required to succeed in a particular subject.

I would like to thank all staff involved in preparing and hosting our expo this year. Thank you to the Leadership team and Craig McPherson - Year 10 Year Level Leader and David Felbel -Year 9 Year Level leader for running the parent information session.  In particular, a big thank you to Ross Pritchard – Senior School Assistant principal and Peter Ryan – Senior School Leading teacher for coordinating the event.  We hope this event has provided our students with more clarity and confidence about moving into our senior school programs.

Yarrawonga College P-12 visit

It was lovely to meet and host members of the Leadership Team from Yarrawonga College P-12.  They were interested in visiting our school to discuss how we have improved our student outcomes over the past nine years.  They were particularly interested in how we have developed teacher capacity and how we have built aspiration in our students and connected with our families.  We explained many of the initiatives we have put in place such as common instructional practices for all teachers, student voice and agency in learning, our school culture and DARE values, and always welcoming parent input.  It is great that our school is seen as a leader in the State system, and we are always willing to share with other schools.  Thank you to Ross Pritchard and Louisa Philipson for assisting with the visit and conducting the school tour.