Assistant 

Principal Report 

Experiential Learning 

Last Friday Trevor and I took the XP students to Palace Martial Arts in Hamilton, under the tutelage Master Muhktar Kadiri who has worked with many schools in the region, teaching students how be their best and to achieve greater success in life. Upon arrival the majority of students assumed we would just be learning how to fight, but soon learned through Master Muhktar that there is much to learn before one can fight. One student asked, “when do we get to fight each other?’. Master Muhktar responded by saying ‘you need to overcome your bad habits before you can fight’. His key focuses were on respect, firstly for self, and then others and understanding yourself. He said to the students “If you want to be a champion you need to listen, and pay attention to detail, listen, observe and follow through.” He reiterated to students that they need to listen more and speak less because speaking is just repeating what they already know, whereas listening enables them to learn and improve. He taught the students the ‘ready stance’ where the focus is on concentration and thinking before we act and learning to think twice. After some time talking he took us through a series of challenging warm-up activities before learning the basics of taekwondo. 

Master Muhktar taught the students the ABC of self-defense:

A:  Avoid conflict and awareness – when your teacher starts talking you stop talking a listen 

B:  Be calm and breathe

C:  Communicate with confidence, mean what you say and say what you mean. 

He went on to discuss the three E’s of Taekwondo as being Escape, Equalise and Eliminate, reiterating that avoiding physical conflict is the safest option. He finished our session by playing some martial arts activities with his final message being around the concept of TEAM. Together Everyone Achieves More. The messaging from Master Muhktar was timely for our group of students reinforced our school values of being respectful, safe and willing to learn. 

Our students took a lot out of the day and it was pleasing to hear from parents how impactful it was for their young person. It would be great to do some follow up work with him in the future. 

Wimmera Southern Mallee Careers Expo

In the last week of term 2 students from Year 7 – 12 attended the Wimmera Southern Mallee Careers Expo at Longerenong College.  The Careers Expo is always a great opportunity for young people to engage in a variety of seminars and being exposed to a range of potential opportunities they may have never considered. For our younger students, it is a great way to get their minds thinking about the potential future options. 

The day is coordinated and organised by Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN team who have helped provide many opportunities for young people in our region.

Whole School Professional Practice Day

School Council has ratified a whole school Professional Practice Day (PPD) for Wednesday August 9th in line with the Department’s School Dates policy. This means there will be no students in attendance at school. 

Professional Practice days provide teachers with release from their scheduled duties (all duties which would have been otherwise scheduled, including teaching) to focus on the improved delivery of high- quality teaching and learning. 

The work undertaken on these days will be consistent with Departmental and school priorities and selected from the following areas:

• planning
• preparation
• assessment of student learning
• collaboration
• curriculum development
• relevant professional development
• peer observation including feedback and reflection

Chad Frost

Assistant Principal