Principal's Report

Principal -

Mr. Tristan Lanarus

Dear Westall Secondary College Community,

As another Semester draws to a close, we should all be proud of what has been achieved over the last 6 months.

The formal recognition of these achievements is via our whole school awards ceremony scheduled for 10.15am on Thursday 27th June, in the School Gymnasium. I warmly invite any parents/carers who are able to attend to come along. It is via this ceremony we recognise academic excellence and personal best for each subject at each year level. It is also important to remember that whilst not every student will receive an overall award, achieving growth and personal improvement each semester is really the most important thing. This growth and improvement is reflected for every student via the Semester One reports. The format for these reports has changed slightly in 2019. Common Assessment Tasks are now consistently implemented across each subject and year level and A-E grades for achievement on these tasks along with Learning Behaviours such as Effort and Organisation, will appear on the reports. These reports will be made available to students and parents at the beginning of Term 3.

The last 2 weeks have been very busy with final assessments, Year 11 exams and the VCE GAT exam, to name a few. iCreate activities have continued throughout and planning for 2020 is well underway. In the last week of term, all students will receive some course and subject information for 2020. A parent information evening is scheduled for Tuesday 23rd July to provide further information around courses for 2020. Please talk with your sons and daughters over the holiday period about their subjects and preferred career pathways to inform these decisions that will be made early Term 3. The resources around 2020 courses will be made available via Compass prior to the holidays.

At Westall we are very proud of our consistent teaching and learning method. It is an instructional model called Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI). Student results are improving each year and the Education Department are noticing this. Our ranking as a school is getting higher and higher. Such is our reputation we have just presented our teaching model at a Schools Network Meeting this week. Other schools are very impressed with what we are doing and the results we are getting. I know the students enjoy many aspects of the EDI, especially the Check for Understanding activities such as the use of mini Whiteboards.

The final School Council meeting for Term 2 will be Wednesday 26th June at 4.30pm. Final day for Term 2 is Friday 28th June when students will be dismissed at 1.30pm. The 3rd of our 4 Student Free Days is scheduled for early next term, Friday 19th July.

Have a great holiday period, stay safe and see you back on Monday 15th July.

Until next time!