From the Principal Class Team - St Albans Secondary College

Farewell to Staff

This year we are saying farewell to a number of staff. These staff are taking 12 months leave, Chiemi Shepherd, Peta Burgess, Mark Micallef and Andrew McCarter. We wish them well for next year, look forward to their return in 2025.

We also say goodbye and thank you to Paul Gleeson and Louise Talevska who are leaving the Tutor Learning Initiative.

Edgar Lemnos, Alicia DeSouza, Clara Campbell, Tom Dawson, Julian Swan, Marty Conboy and Heidi Seltman are moving on to other things next year. Thank you to them all for their work and support of our students.

Becky Annetts and Louis Turner have successfully gained promotion positions, as Assistant Principals. Congratulations and good luck at your new schools.

Stewart Fraser and Cameron Beale are both retiring from teaching. We wish you both all the best in the next stages of your lives.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Lauren Morrison and Ray on the birth of Sebastian Alexander Chera Paran.

Both mother and son doing well.

Works Update

The re-blocking and other maintenance work is continuing. It should be completed by the time we return next year.

VCE Results

Congratulations to our Year 12 VCE students for 2023 who received their results this week. The results were very strong and many students achieved above what they expected.

This year 18 students, or 15% of students, achieved an ATAR over 90; and 45 students, or 37% achieved an ATAR result over 80.

Congratulations to Kathleen Phan, who achieved an ATAR of 97.85 with three study scores over 40 making up her impressive exam results. She was in good company with a total of 5 students (including Stella Xie, Meera Mansukhani and Jennifer To) achieving ATAR results over 97. Kathleen has also already been offered a Narm scholarship from University of Melbourne.

Over Median Study Score, has remained strong at 31, a fantastic achievement and 7.8% of study scores were over 40. This year we also had 2 perfect study scores of 50, achieved by Year 11 student Kelly Lam for General Maths and Biology.

As always, success for each individual student can mean many different things, and we congratulate all those students who have had to overcome adversity to get to this point. We offer all of our Year 12 students our heartfelt congratulations for their hard work over their schooling journey. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the hard work of our staff at our school who work so tirelessly to support our students and community achieve these impressive results.

We encourage all Year 12 students to utilise the support offered through the Careers Team to help them with the VTAC change of preference process and to support them achieve the most appropriate pathway for 2024.

NAPLAN Recognition

ACARA recognised the College as a high-performing NAPLAN school. We are one of only two secondary colleges in the West to receive this recognition. Our excellent results are due to the hard work of our staff, and the dedication to their studies by our students.

Well done to our entire school community!

Yr 10 Formal

The Year 10 formal, hosted at Ultima Reception Centre on 8 December, was a delightful celebration. With 200 attendees, including students and staff, it marked a memorable conclusion to the year. This event holds particular importance for Year 10 students, signifying a significant milestone, and we’re incredibly proud of their achievements throughout the year. The conduct displayed by all students during the evening was outstanding, and we extend our gratitude for their enthusiasm and active involvement. A special thank you to the Middle Sub School Team whose efforts made this event possible. It truly served as a positive conclusion to the year.

Year 7 and 8 Activities week – A Celebratory End to 2023 with a Future Focus

This year the activities week program, run during this last week of term, ran a bit differently. Students in Years 7 and 8 took part in a range of activities focused on what they imagined the school could be like in 100 years. The program also included the department of education careers planning modules, Year level awards ceremonies and a concert showcasing performances from students and ending with a performance by the staff band. Well done to all our Year 7 and 8 students who so enthusiastically took part in the activities and congratulations to the team of staff for the creative program they prepared overseen by Avril Goode and Amy Lee. Special thanks goes to the Junior Sub School for their efforts throughout this action packed week for all our Year 7 and 8 students.

Interact Club

Congratulations to the Interact Club for a very successful year in 2023. We completed both our local and International Projects. We again worked with the Brimbank Bicycle Education Centre, this year assisting with a bike education program run with local primary schools. The Club purchased and built solar lights for students in disadvantaged communities to allow them to be able to read and continue their studies during the evenings. The lights were then sent to the student community, each with an individualised accompanying letter for the recipient student, written by the student at our school who put the light together.

We had our annual official event for the changeover of the office bearers on Monday 20 November where we thanked the outgoing executive team of:

President – Minhthu Huynh Year 10
Vice President – Kristijan Stanojoski Year 10
Secretary – Stephanie Truong Year 9
Treasurer – Julien Kanwar Year 9
Public Relations – Talia Bui Year 10
Project Coordinator/Creative Director – Bao Nguyen Year 10

…and welcomed our new Executive Team going in to 2024 of:

President – Salli Li Year 11
Vice President – Rahima Muradi Year 10
Secretary – Jennifer Le Year 11
Treasurer – Aiden Duong Le Year 10
Public Relations – Kelly Lam Year 11
Project Coordinator – Minhthu Huynh Year 10

Western Chances Scholarships

We have again had a very successful partnership year with Western Chances. Our school had 61 scholarship recipients who collectively received $56,700. This can be used for the purchase of mykis, textbooks, stationery and other resources as well as internet access. We value this program and partnership greatly and thank those staff who assist with applications or putting the names of students forward. Particular thanks and appreciation to Marion Mortimer for her oversight of the program and follow up with individual students and families. She is a wonderful advocate for our students and has tirelessly worked to ensure recipients make full use of available funds. Thank you also to Loan Pham, our finance manager, for all the work she does completing the documentation and acquittal for the scholarship process.

A snapshot of information about Western Chances can be found in the infographic in the following pages.