Principal's Message

We Grow Through Connection

Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

We have arrived at the end of Semester One having achieved so much as a College. We continue to be seen as a school of choice within the community. We are providing wonderful opportunities to our students in the areas important to our College Community:

Learning Growth and Pathways
Sport
Performing Arts
Student Leadership and Our Community

Our students are to be commended to for their hard work in Semester One. Our students continue to demonstrate a committed, polite and positive approach to their learning. We are proud of our students at PSC and we thank them for making the most of the opportunities provided to them.

Our staff continue to work hard to improve the learning and wellbeing outcomes of our students. I can not speak highly enough of my colleagues here at Pakenham Secondary College and their dedicated and committed approach to best support students and families.

Our high-quality Teaching and Learning Program continues to be well complimented by extensive co-curricular activities for our students. Furthermore, we are here to help our families with any support that they may need. I thank our families and staff for working as a team in the outstanding support and guidance of our students.

It has been a busy time at PSC! Some key events to round out Semester One included rehearsals for the College Production and the State School Spectacular, the recent Duke of Edinburgh Camp, Year 10 and 11 Exams, the General Achievement Test (or GAT) for our senior students, various excursions, a visit from Year 6 Pakenham Consolidated Primary School students and Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June).

The release of the Semester One Reports to families will be today, 23 June. Teaching staff have been working tirelessly in the last few weeks of this term finalising assessments and reports. Families are encouraged to make contact with the College should they have any queries concerning their child’s Semester One Report. Sub School Award Assemblies have been used to celebrate student achievement, effort and growth. Semester Two will provide us with an opportunity to consider more student learning data with NAPLAN (Y7 and 9) and On Demand Testing Data (Y7 to 10) becoming available. The data analysed will determine student learning growth in Numeracy and Literacy.

All Victorian State Schools are required to have an Annual Implementation Plan. The Annual Implementation Plan (or AIP) guides schools in their work to further improve learning and wellbeing outcomes for students. The key areas of our AIP this year includes Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing. Our ‘23 Annual Implementation Plan (or AIP) Mid Year Assessment has been completed with College Council endorsing our progress against our Plan through the week (20 June). We are making progress against our AIP this year with work remains for Semester Two to further student development in the key areas of Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing.

The Victorian State Budget was released recently (Tue 23 May) and the Budget Documents reveal that we will receive $11.3 Million to further update of our facilities as part of a Capital Works Program. The funding is earmarked for an upgrade of an area of the College which currently includes class and staff work areas in a section of the grounds we call D Block. This is an exciting time for our College, and a real confidence boost for our College Community. We have launched some communications with staff, students, families and the local neighbourhood. We have begun working with the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) as part of the process associated with our funding, and feedback has been sought from our community. Furthermore, we have our PSC Capital Works Consultation Group (Phase 1 Discussions - Planning) that has been established with staff, student and parent representation to work through the development of the Draft Report required to be tabled College Council early next term. Please contact the General Office on pH - 5945 1433 to learn more about our Capital Works Program.

We have established a VET ‘Mini Cluster’ with neighbouring State Secondary Schools. Pakenham SC, Officer SC, Edenbrook SC and Koo Wee Rup SC are all working together to provide opportunities for our students with respect to VET Programs. The VET Mini Cluster concept is designed to allow for a broader range of VET Programs for our students to include in their VCE or VCE – VM Program for 2024. We had our VET Mini Cluster Information Night at the Cardinia Cultural Centre on the 8 June and we were very pleased with the attendance from interested families and students. Year 9, 10 and 11 students who would like to enrol in VET next year as part of their VCE or VCE Vocational Major Course, will need to adhere to the PSC Course Selection Timelines and Process moving into 2024 (details with respect to the PSC Course Selection Timelines and Process, including revised Handbooks, will be shared with families soon).

At this stage, our Year 7 enrolments for 2024 are approximately 179. Whilst we are expecting this enrolment number to fluctuate over the coming weeks and months, this current number is very pleasing representing a 33% increase in Year 7 enrolments from 2022. This sort of enrolment data helps with our planning moving into next year. Other planning considerations will stem from the Course Selection Process which will commence early next term.

I encourage families to reflect on their children’s Semester One Report released via Compass today (23 June). It is an opportunity to reflect and review learning goals for the remainder of the year. I would also encourage families to help ensure that their children are well prepared for Semester Two with uniform and classroom resources (eg laptops, school texts and books, etc) in place to support involvement and learning at the College.

We are a school on the rise everyone where we work to best meet the needs of our students. I thank our College Community for their wonderful support of PSC and I hope families have a safe and enjoyable mid year break with classes returning Monday 10 July, 2023.

Thank you and regards ,

Aaron Smith 

College Principal – Pakenham Secondary College 