“You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!" – Dr. Seuss

As we look back on the year that was 2022 it is a time to reflect on our first full year for a few years being back onsite! It still has been a challenging year in regard to COVID, flu and staff shortages but as always, our school community rises to any challenges thrown our way and this year has been filled with much success and positive outcomes.

Our wonderful teachers have displayed incredible determination and dedication this year to engage our students and families and I thank them for their hard work and commitment to improving our students’ learning outcomes throughout this year.

Our amazing ES staff have worked tirelessly this year on continuity of learning too and I thank them sincerely for this.

To our families, I thank you again for your efforts and contributions to supporting our school community. I am in awe of you as parents /carers of our students in everything you do to support your children and am looking forward to continuing this journey with you in 2023.

Graduation

We had a beautiful graduation ceremony this year at Mulgrave Country Club as we celebrated the school journeys of 7 of our students and wished them well on the next steps into their adult lives. We will miss them and their families very much.

Congratulations on graduating from Monash SDS to Albert, Teui, Sara, Marsha, Liam, Blair and Dylan. Special congratulations go to Dylan for being the worthy recipient of the Principal’s award given to the graduate who has stood out in all aspects of their school life here at Monash SDS and to Teui who was the first recipient of our SRC Award for his commitment and dedication to our school community.

I had the pleasure of spending time with our graduates during SRC meetings this year. We had a lovely morning tea for them this week to say thank you to them for their contributions.

Thank you School Council!

Without a strong and supportive school council the smooth running of the school would be impossible, and I can’t thank them enough for their positivity and valuable contributions they have given this year.

Capital works

Over the holidays we are having our new car park done so please keep an eye on compass for any updates on parking, drop offs and pickups. The building will definitely be taking shape by the time we are all back for term 1.

Saying goodbye and welcome

We would like to say goodbye and good luck to the following staff at the end of 2022:

Alex Robson, Ruth Magagna, Elena Necovska, Heatheranne MacDougall, Jozelle Jamero, Jeremy Everett, Neeru Sachdeva and Jodie Rasmussen. Alex Campbell Squires is leaving us for a year out to take up a position in Perth.

We would like to warmly welcome the following staff to our school community:

Mal Munasinghe (ES), Julie Gaughran (Teacher), Prabah Pannamperuna (ES), Alyssa Marshall (Teacher), Sher Van Koh (Teacher), Brianna Ballard (ES), Martyn Drysdale (Teacher), Andrew Mc Pherson (Teacher), Kat Lee Liew (Speech Therapist).

Despite our best efforts we have not managed to recruit everyone for next year yet but please be reassured we will be busy recruiting over the summer. We will only appoint the right staff that fit our school and the needs of our students. If we are unsuccessful, we will place casual staff into classrooms until we do.

I would also like to congratulate Luciana Balotta (leading teacher for Primary school) who has just recently welcomed a baby girl into the world and she will be on maternity leave in 2023. The leadership team for 2023 will consist of:

Lindy Abernethy – Principal

Sandra Battisti – Assistant Principal

Elizabeth Mason – Leading Teacher (Early Education and Prep)

Patrick Goodman – Leading Teacher (Primary)

Luke Goodman – Leading teacher (Secondary)

May I take this opportunity to wish our students, their families, and our staff a restful, festive season. I look forward to working with you all in 2023.

Kindness, love, gratitude to you all.

Lindy

Group 23