Welcome back to Term 4

We would like to welcome everyone back for Term 4. A special welcome back to our staff who were on leave, Ms Effie Goulas and Ms Judy Blum.

Term 4 is a busy term for all of us, with assessments, exams and reports all happening.  Students should be working hard, and preparing for their final assessments to best prepare for 2024.

A couple of important dates:

• Thursday 16 November will be a pupil free day for staff planning and assessment.
• Monday 4 December is also a pupil free day for Report writing.

Liz Hedger Garden

Liz was a long standing member of staff who passed away last year after a battle with cancer. In recognition of her work in the facilities and finance of the school as Business Manager, the garden outside Nindethana was named in her honour. Last week we held a short ceremony to remember Liz and officially name the garden. We were joined by one of her sons, Andrew.

 

 

Year 12 Graduation

This year we returned to Moonee Valley Racecourse to celebrate the Graduation of the Class of 2023. It was a wonderful evening, full of music, joy and speeches, celebrating the schooling and achievements of our Year 12 students. Our guest speaker, Lydia Tesema spoke about her journey of success from school, to where she is now.

A special congratulations to the major award winners.

These were:

• Ampol All Rounder – Kelly Chen
• Y12 ADF STEM Innovators Award – Victoria Au
• Year 12 Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award – Karli Keskin
• VET Excellence Award – Onesemo Brown.
• VCAL Excellence Award – Tracy Nguyen
• VCE Excellence Award (Dux) –Victoria Au

The full list of subject awards can be found later in this newsletter.

We would like to congratulate all of the VCE VM and VCE students of the Class of 2023 and wish them well in their future endeavours.

Congratulations to the Senior Sub School team for their organisation of the event, and to all those staff who volunteered their time to support the students.

Fashion Awards

Congratulations to our fashion students and their teachers. This was the first year since COVID that the schools’ fashion awards have run. Traditionally, SASC has done extremely well in the fashion awards and this year was no exception. The school took out the major award, the Claringbold Cup, and several other individual awards. Make sure you read the full article written by Mr D’Aglas. Thank you to our dedicated and talented fashion teachers Mr Michael Bowden and Mr Nick D’Aglas for their vision and tireless efforts. Thank you also to Ms Della Butler and Ms Kristy Le who accompanied the team to the fashion awards on Friday 13 October.

School Captains 2024

Our 2024 school leaders were announced at Monday’s whole school assembly. The process to become a school captain was quite rigorous with a written application including references, an interview, a formal speech to peers and a video. Thank you to all students who applied to be a school captain. It is wonderful to see so many students putting themselves forward for leadership positions and wanting to contribute to the school community in such a positive way. Thank you also to Ms Avril Good for her comprehensive coordination of the selection process.

Congratulations to our School Captains for 2024 Kevin (Long) Nguyen and Sally (Xin) Li.

Whole School Assembly

Each Whole School Assembly held is an important part of our school calendar and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate our Year 12 cohort and wish them well as a whole school community on their last day on Monday 16 October. This assembly provided a valuable opportunity to farewell the Year 12s as they make their way onto the next part of their journey.  It was also an opportunity to showcase our school values of Respect, Integrity, Leadership and Excellence. The assembly included rituals such as the passing on of time capsules and the handing over to the next group of leaders. Both outgoing School Captains Kathleen Phan and Karli Keskin, and incoming School Captains, Kevin (Long) Nguyen and Sally (Xin) Li,  addressed the school community and it was clear that both sets of leaders felt a sense of pride in their school. The rest of the school student leadership team for 2024 was also welcomed, Kelly Lam, Sarah Mai, Jessica Thompson and Angela (Wren) Truong.

 

Phuoc Le and Trang Ngo from Year 7 responded to the leaders and thanked the Year 12 cohort on behalf of Year 7 and the rest of the student body.

Awards

Dr Jozica Kutin Psychology Award & Helen Papadimitriou English Award

During the award presentations we heard from two alumni from Dr Jozica Kutin (class of ’84) and Helen Papadimitriou (class of ’83).   Jozica presented the $250 Psychology Award she donated to go to a student who has shown commitment, potential, and is continuing their studies in Psychology into Year 12.  This award went to Elizabeth Tran of 11F . Helen presented the $250 English Award she donated for a Year 10 student who shows outstanding growth and achievement in English, this was awarded to Ricardo Vom of 10D.

 

Roger Martin Science Award

Also presented was the Roger Martin Science Award which is $120 donated by the Martin family in recognition of Roger who was a previous Science teacher and Assistant Principal of the school. This is awarded to a student who shows outstanding achievement in Science and is continuing their Science studies into VCE. This year this award went to Haybel Verma of 10E.

Joseph and Clare Sheen Community Service Award

The Joseph and Clare Sheen Award for Community Service that has been donated by Mr Greg Sheen, a recently retired teacher of the school naming the Award in honour of his parents.  Greg wishes to acknowledge those students who contribute to improving their community and is awarded to one or more students for voluntary and active tasks benefitting the community.  This year there were 3 recipients Paul Mifsud 9I, Stephanie Truong 9C and Sally Li 11C.

 

ADF Long Tan Youth Leadership & Team Work Award and ADF Future Innovators Award

The Year 10 and Year 12 Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Awards are awarded to one student from each of year 10 and year 12 who demonstrate leadership and teamwork within both the school and the broader local community. These students must display strong values, such as doing one’s best, respect for others and “mateship”, characteristics that are integral to Australian society.

The Year 10 Long Tan Award was awarded to Minhthu Huyn of 10E and the Year 12 Long Tan Award was awarded to Karli Keskin of 12B.

The Year 10 and Year 12 ADF Future Innovators Award which recognises student achievements in STEM areas was awarded to Ethan Shaw of 10E and Victoria Au of 12A.

Student Recognition Award

The student recognition Prize is awarded at the end of each year to a student from each Sub School who exemplifies the school values of Respect, Integrity, Leadership and Excellence; this includes having over 90% attendance, always behaving respectfully to other students and staff and in accordance with expectations including always being punctual.  The students who were drawn from the pool of those eligible for each Sub School are:

• Junior Sub School – Afsana Abbasi of 8K,
• Middle Sub school – Gabrielle Olinares of 10C, and
• Senior Sub School – Deniz Daymen of 11A

 

Fashion Award

There was a parade of the fashion items created by our Senior Fashion classes assisted by Mr Michael Bowden and Mr Nick D’Aglas.  This year, after a 3 year hiatus, the Fashion Awards returned and took place on 13 October, the school won or placed in all categories and brought home the overall Cup. 

The Crocker House Cup Award

The Crocker House Cup was awarded, by Mr Ian Crocker, to the winning House which was Rosewall who last won the House Cup in 2013.  Final House points for the year were:

      

Well done to Rosewall House and all the students who received awards; all were thoroughly deserved.

We also thank and congratulate our Facilities and Music Teams who worked behind the scenes to ensure the effective set up and presentation of the event that we experienced, well done to all involved. Thank you to our special guests and all the student speakers and musicians.

Class of 2023

Congratulations to our class of 2023, we wish you all the best for your upcoming exams and placements and look forward to hearing about your accomplishments beyond school.  Each of you will forever be part of the
St Albans Secondary College community and we hope to see many of you return as part of our alumni program.