College Principal's Report           

Welcome to Term 3

After a very cold break our students and staff have returned ready for another exciting term ahead. Term three is an important term as not only continue to extend our students knowledge and skills, we are also preparing our senior students for their final exams which commence in early term four and planning programs for 2019.

Staff Updates

Congratulations to Ms Ellen Sawyer and her partner Daniel on the arrival of their baby boy who they have named Benjamin John.  

Welcome back to Ms Emma Morris who has returned part time from family leave.  Ms Morris will work in Senior School to support Mr Chris Knight lead the Senior School for the remainder of the year until our new Head of Senior joins us at the start of 2020. 

Welcome to Ms Beverley Tongue who has joined us part time for the remainder of the year to cover Ms Sawyer's Senior English classes. Ms Tongue is an experienced Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Assessor who brings a wealth of experience to teach the students and prepare them for the end of year examinations.

College Production

Little Shop of Horrors was an outstanding success with full audiences on both nights. Feedback from families, friend and beyond the school community has been exceptional and included many comments about the high quality of show.  Congratulations to Mr Robyn Czuchnowski our Performing Arts Leader and Mr Sam Eddy Drama Teacher who directed the show, student performers on stage and in the band, instrumental and voice teachers, behind the scenes staff, students and family members who were involved in costume design and production, sets, props, makeup, sound and lighting, stage hands, ushers, cafeteria, publicity and promotion.

This year singers were supported by Cheryl Eastwood, an experienced industry performer who volunteered to work with our students.  Cheryl has performed on stage and television and judged music industry competitions.  Our College performing arts program continually draws on industry partners and connections to enhance the opportunities for our students.

National Award

Congratulation to Murray Cronin our Head of Curriculum and Pedagogy for his Australian Council for Education Leaders Scholarship. The ACEL New Voice Scholarships recognise forward thinking, contextually relevant and responsive educational leaders whose work has had an impact above and beyond their immediate context. Murray was the only Victorian government school representative who achieved such high recognition in the New Voice category.

Last year Mr Cronin completed his Masters of Instructional Leadership at the University of Melbourne, developing a model to support teachers and students to work collaboratively to reflect on and improve instructional practice. The findings of his studies have been published and have contributed to Scoresby Secondary College commitment to building teacher practice excellence and the achievement of the highest gains in VCE in Victoria and acknowledgement for NAPLAN learning growth.  Murray will be presented the award at a ceremony in Sydney during the ACEL National Conference in October. This is the second National ACEL Award for Scoresby Secondary College since this category was introduced in 2016.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Skye Inwood Year 12 VCAL who has become the second Scoresby Secondary College student to become a qualified fire fighter before finishing school.  Skye completed her public safety certificate in her VCAL course and extended her skills to become qualified with Scoresby CFA.

Short Term International Students

This term we have groups of short term Chinese International Students attending our College.  These short term visits provide many benefits for students, particularly in developing students, intercultural understanding within the school community, global awareness, personal development ability to adjust to different situations and opportunities for global friendships.  Thank you to our students for being so welcoming and our staff for the learning experiences they offer to our guests. Our International Coordinator and Chinese teacher Ms. Yi Li is to be congratulated for organising these visits and the upcoming excursion for some of our students to the Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo- Qiang at the National Gallery Victoria.

Amplify - Empowering our students through voice, agency and leadership.

We are very proud of the recognition of our staff work in work leading student voice and student agency within and beyond the College.  This week we hosted leaders from the Department Professional Practice Unit who are drawing on our work in leading student voice and agency across the state. The Department of Education is preparing a case study showcasing our initiatives and will be distributed to all schools throughout Victoria.  For the past four years the college has invested in authentic experiences for students to build their skills in these areas. So what does this mean?  We believe our students have a right to be heard beyond the role of student leadership programs. When students are provided the opportunity to have an opportunity to participate in the decisions made, there is greater ownership of the outcomes and increased learning. This was never so evident as it was in the outstanding growth in our student achievements in VCE and Naplan results last year.

Yesterday our Year 8 students participated in a symposium which was led by Mr Murray Cronin and members of the English team.  Staff from Thermo Fisher Scientific,  Jessica Brosnan, Department of Education Professional Learning and Quality Teachers Practice Branch,  Senior Education Leaders, local member of parliament Kim Wells, parents and other members of the community were in attendance. The symposium was the culmination of several weeks of work in English in which the students were engaged in a task prepared with our industry partners at Thermo Fisher Scientific.  Students were each able to select one of the areas of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Mission Statement that they would like to see improved.  The students were empowered to develop their own case for how they would like to see their selected area improved and convince the community to adopt their informed views. The level of student engagement was exceptional.  Students created political campaigns, complete with slogans, speeches, posters and other persuasive mediums.  The feedback from the audience on the day showed how powerful student led learning can be.

VIC SRC Congress

Over the break, three of our Junior School students Aimee Bugeja, Carla Orfanidis, and Amaya Phillips attended the Vic SRC Congress held over three days at University of Melbourne Ormond College. The Congress brings together students from all across the state to forge connections, discuss the issues affecting their education and build capacity to tackle these issues at a school, community and state level. Throughout the three days, students were involved in interactive workshops, problem solving brainstorming sessions which culminated into a presentation to key education stakeholders, including the Minister for Education.

Tree Planting Day

Junior School students joined Rotary Club of Knox to participate in this years National Tree Planting Day at Linear Reserve in Knox.  Our students had a great morning putting in the little tube-stock plants and wishing them a strong, healthy growth for the future. Another example of our students giving back to our community by supporting the wildlife corridor along Eastlink and contributing to the creation of a more sustainable environment for our community.

Annual Surveys

Each year the College gathers the opinions of students, parents and staff through online surveys. The feedback from these surveys is valued and is used to inform and direct our future school planning and improvement.  Last term the students participated in the student attitudes to school survey and now it is the parents turn.

This week a random selection of parents will have received an