From The Principal

Principal’s Report

Staffing

Firstly, congratulations to Assistant Principal, Mr Michael Tuck who has been appointed Acting Principal at Westall Secondary College for term 2. As a result there will be a number of staff responsibility changes for term 2.  These are still being finalised but I can say that Mr Jamie Cumming will step up to the Acting Assistant Principal position and that Ms Vanessa Leslie will take the Year 10 Level Leader position.  We are currently finalising the appointment of the Acting Year Level Coordinator at year 11.

Secondly, you may have read or heard through the various news outlets of the shortage of staff in Victorian schools. Unfortunately, we are not immune to this situation.  We are currently advertising for two English/Humanities teachers and a Biology/Science teacher. We are endeavouring to cover the classes with our own staff and with CRTs. In our case, as with many schools, staff are accepting positions closer to home therefore reducing that dead commuting time each day – and the accompanying reduction in fuels cost, road tolls etc.  When this happens, we advertise and invariably take a staff member from another school creating a flow on affect.  The number of applicants for a position have greatly diminished since 2019 and anecdotally from the universities the supply is not coming through as in previous times. 

At the start of term 2 we will welcome Mr Sam Walsh (PE/Maths) and Mr Cameron Heine (Media) and welcome back Ms Stephanie Chiocci (PE/Health) to our staff.  In addition, we have made some internal changes to cover English classes on a more permanent basis.

Capital Works

Defect rectification works on the new building are continuing, the locker bay is slowly taking shape and the landscaping works are progressing.  I have been given an end of term completion date but I am not that optimistic of this. We are currently in discussions regarding the commencement of the refurbishment of the old C block toilets and the area in front of the toilets.

I thank all students for their cooperation and understanding of the restricted access around the grounds as the works continue.  We all look forward to be able to take the shortest possible route to our destination.

Respect

One of our school values is respect.  It has been unfortunate that there has been an increase in behaviour that would reflect a decrease in the level of respect by some students towards other students, staff and the school in general.  This has shown itself in the interactions between people, in particular, the tone, language and refusal to follow reasonable expectations.  This has occurred between students and also directed from students towards staff. 

In particular, students have used inappropriate language towards staff when asked about uniform issues, using/having their mobile phone on them during the school day and simple directions in class including where to sit and to start doing the classwork. The expectations to be doing the right thing has not changed and I ask all parents to reinforce this with their child(ren).  These behaviours cannot continue.

Events

The College Swimming Sports were held at the Oakleigh Swimming pool on Thursday 2nd March. The weather was much cooler than last year and contributed to the great enthusiasm and participation by the students. Iluka were the overall winners of the house competition on the day. We are certainly looking forward to another day of fun and competition at the School Athletics carnival in August.

Many students have been involved in the summer round robin interschool sports competitions which again has been pleasing to see after the disruption to sport in previous years.

Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

Parent/teacher/student interviews were held on Tuesday 28th March (Year 10-12) and will be held Monday 24th April for Year 7-9. Given the positive response to the online interviews when we moved to this format during remote learning we have continued run these interviews in this way. 

Term Break

I take this opportunity to wish all members of the school community a restful and safe term break and look forward to our return in Term 2.