Dear Parents and Families

 

Changes to the Principal Team

Acting Principal – Craig Jennings

Craig has been at the school since 1997.  He was Assistant Principal for 12 years prior to acquiring this position.

Acting Assistant Principal – Janet McKenzie

Janet has been at the school since the late 1980’s and she will be working with the Middle Sub School.

Congratulations to Ms Amra Pajalic

Amra Pajalic, award-winning author, an editor and teacher at St Albans Secondary College, has had a memoir piece ‘Nothing is Unfixable’ published in Teacher, Teacher-an anthology about inspirational teachers (Affirm Press 2023). In her piece Amra shares stories of three inspirational teachers she had as a former student at St Albans Secondary College: Ms Denise Kirton, Ms Gael Meadowcroft and careers counsellor Mr K., as well as her own experiences as a teacher at the school. Teacher, Teacher is now for sale in all bookstores.

If you want to know more about Amra’s writing, you can view her website www.amrapajalic.com. 

Year 12 Motivational Lunch

The Year 12 cohort took a break from their very busy study schedule early August to listen to the advice of Alumni and former student Vincent Ton (class of 2014), who provided them with some motivational wisdom and inspiration. It was a lovely opportunity for the students to have a pizza lunch with their teachers and Coordinators and reflect on their successes so far this year and prepare for the final stretch that is to come. Thank you to the Senior Sub School team for organising the event.

Crimestoppers Project

 A group of twenty senior and middle school students were selected this term to participate in a project with Crimestoppers Victoria Marketing and Communications Team to help develop artwork and messaging which can be used in a four-week-long crime prevention campaign in the last quarter of 2023. The program aided to create content that would help to deter young people from being involved in youth crime in the wider community. The students work was commended by Crimestoppers and we are very proud of their achievement.

Empowering Communities Project

Through a series of workshops designed and facilitated by Endeavour Youth Australia, a group of SASC students from Year 8-10 were guided to identify and understand key concerns facing themselves and their peers. They worked in groups to design projects that address these issues. The workshops culminated in a final session where students pitched their ideas to their peers, and voted for their preferred project. The winning project focused on building pro-social behaviours and reducing community violence and has been allocated $50,000 of Empowering Communities funding for the implementation of their plans throughout 2023/24. We are so excited to see the amazing work that these students will come up with to support our wider community to continue to improve.

Attendance – Being on Time

The school is strengthening our focus on attendance and punctuality, and all members of our community play a role in supporting students to be on time to school every day. Research shows that high attendance is one of the most crucial factors in ensuring student success. As well as attending school everyday, it is critical we teach students to be on time to all their classes.

Being on time matters because:

• It ensures students are prepared for learning and sets them up for success. 

• When students are late it disrupts their learning, the teacher’s teaching and the learning of others. Being on time shows students have respect for other people and that they care about other people’s time as much as their own 

• It demonstrates that students are diligent and dependable and care about their learning

• It indicates that students honour their commitments and can be trusted

• It sets a good example to others 

• It prepares students for success in the real world 

Being late just 10 minutes a day adds up to over 17 days of learning across 13 years of school! 

Missing one of school a week adds up to over two and a half years of learning across a student’s schooling life.

Our attendance target is 90% for every student every day. Students and families to find out attendance percentages, talk to your Coordinator or look at your last Semester report. Are you above 90%?

If families need support regarding attendance, please reach out to the relevant Coordinator for a meeting, so we can discuss the supports that can be put in place to strengthen attendance and punctuality.

Strategic Plan

Every four years each school develops a strategic plan which outlines the school’s vision and values, sets goals and targets for improved student outcomes (both teaching and learning) and lists the key improvement strategies that help achieve the goals and targets.  We conducted our review early this term and a strategic plan has been written based on braod consultation with staff, students and families.  On August 17, the students will be dismissed early to give all staff a chance to look at the key features of the strategic plan and to strengthen our collective understanding of the goals.  During the afternoon, all teaching and non-teaching staff will participate in workshops and consider ways to achieve these goals.

MAC – Cinderella: Time After Time

This year we had an original musical as our MAC performance piece and it was a great contemporary take on the traditional Cinderella story. There were plenty of laughs and a great mix of relatable music.  The cast played to a packed house over the 3 evening and matinee performances.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank the cast and crew who did such a professional and entertaining job with the production. We particularly acknowledge Ms Janet Mckenzie as the Director and one of the writers of this magical musical. We also thank the other writer Ms Helen Kent, and the editor, Hannah Sinclair. We also acknowledge Mr Nick D’Aglas as the Producer, as well as Ms Melrose Tran the Musical Director, ably assisted by Mr James Orchard. The band were amazing; consisting of both staff and students, and we thank all those involved with the musical accompaniment. There were breathtaking performances by the lead singers, Year 10 student Tiana Strpanovski, and alumni Zoe Pavlides. Well done to all involved.

 

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews for all students will be held on Wednesday, 13 September 2023 between 1:00pm & 7:00pm.

We would like all parents and guardians to take this opportunity to meet teachers and to discuss their child’s progress with them. Students are expected to attend interviews with their parents so that they can take an active role in discussing their learning and setting goals for further improvement or challenge in each subject.

There will be no regular classes on this day.

The interviews will be conducted in two sessions: 

• Session 1: 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm (last booking is 3:24 pm)
• Session 2: 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm (last booking is 6:54 pm)

Further information will be sent via Compass as we get closer to the date, notifications will be sent to parents. Once bookings are open, to book your child’s interviews, log into the Compass Portal and follow the instructions. Please contact your child’s Year Level Coordinator if you are having any difficulties making bookings once they are open.

Year 10 Parent Information session

The Year 10 Parent Information session for Year 11 2023 ran on Tuesday 18 July at the school in the Gymnasium.  This was a combined session to cover both the VCE and VCE Vocational Major pathways. The session provided an overview of the subject selection process and requirements for each of these pathways.  There was opportunity for parents and students to ask questions on the night.  We were pleased to have such a large turnout for this event with the majority of students and parents in attendance. The information from this session, including the PowerPoint presentation are available on Compass to all Year 10 students and parents.  Year level  course handbooks were also sent out and are available on the school website.

At this stage we have successfully completed the Year 10 and 11 interviews with individual students.  Any student who was unable to attend their interview can reschedule by contacting the Careers Office or speaking with their Year Level Coordinator.