Year 12 Graduation and Awards Evening
The College was very excited to host our annual Graduation Ceremony and Awards night for the Class of 2024. It was a wonderful evening, held at the Flemington Racecourse, full of music, joy and speeches, celebrating the schooling and achievements of our Year 12 students. Our guest speaker, former student, Salim Hijazeen spoke about his journey of success from school, to where he is now as an academic, lecturer and remote pilot in the field of aviation.
A special congratulations to the major award winners.
- Ampol All Rounder – Jessica Thompson
- Y12 ADF STEM Innovators Award – Kelly Lam
- Year 12 Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award – Sarah Mai
- VET Excellence Award – Johnny Tuimuk
- VCE-VM Excellence Award – Anthony Nguyen
- VCE Excellence Award (Dux) – Kelly Lam
The full list of subject awards can be found later in this newsletter.
We would like to congratulate all of the VCE and VCE-VM students of the Class of 2024 for their wonderful accomplishments. We wish them all the very best in their future endeavours. To our students that have exams over the coming weeks, we know you will work hard and continue to make us all proud.
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.
Progress Reports
Year 10 Progress Reports were published on Compass on Friday 25 October and Years 7-9 will be posted on 15 November. We ask families to discuss the reports with their children and support them with their end of year study routine.
Exams
Students in Years 9-11 have end of year exams and they should be preparing a study routine to ensure they reach their potential. Year 11 exams begin on 4 November, Year 10 begin on 20 November and Year 9 begin on 18 November. Year 10 and 11 students are not required at school when they do not have exams. Year 9 students will have exams for core subjects only and will be given supervised study time at school.
Curriculum Day
Students in Years 7-10 are not required to attend school on Monday 4 November. Year 11 students will have exams on this day. Teachers will be using this time to learn about the new Victorian Curriculum and plan for its implementation in 2025 & 2026.
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 21 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 a welcome to country by a Wurundjeri Elder, the passing on of time capsules and the handing over to the next group of leaders. Both outgoing School Captains Kevin (Long) Nguyen and Sally Li and incoming School Captains Minthu Huynh and Ricardo Vom 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 2025 were also welcomed; Haily Le, Tiana Stepanovski, Talia Bui, Ethan Shaw, and Vanessa Ngo.
Elisha Chau and Jayden Truong 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.
Summary of Awards given out at the Whole School Assembly*:
- Roger Martin Science Award – Josephine Mai (10D)
- Dr Jozica Kutin Psychology Award – Hailey Le (11C)
- Helen Papadimitriou English Award – Tien (Michelle) Duong (10A)
- WPC Award – Year 12 Certificate III Allied Health Assistance Partial Completion – Minh Thu (Kathy) Nguyen Pham (12W)
- WPC Award – Year 12 Certificate II Automotive Vocational Preperation – Marko Majstorovic (12X)
- WPC Award – Year 11 Certificate II Automotive Vocational Preperation Year 1 – Vuk Vujatovic (11Y)
- Year 10 ADF Long Tan Award – Grace Murray (10B)
- Year 10 Future Innovators Award – Stephanie Truong (10D)
- Joseph and Clare Sheen Community Award – Pham (Phuong) Nguyen (10F)
- Joseph and Clare Sheen Community Award – Talia Bui (11A)
- Joseph and Clare Sheen Community Award – Minhthu Huynh (11B)
*Please see the article on the Year 12 Graduation for a summary of the awards given to Year 12 on that evening.
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 – Emily Cauchi (7G)
- Middle Sub school – Thien An Tran (10D)
- Senior Sub School – Jack Hough (12B)
The Crocker House Cup was awarded, to the winning House Buttrose. Well done to Buttrose and all the students who were recognised or received awards. We also thank and congratulate our Facilities and Music Teams who worked behind the scenes to ensure the effective set up and presentation for this assembly, well done to all involved. Thank you to our special guests and all the student speakers and musicians.
Congratulations to our class of 2024, we wish you all the best for your upcoming exams or interviews 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.
Fiafia Night
The College was pleased to recently host our first Fiafia night, showcasing performances from Pasifika students. This was a really special occasion for our school and for the students who performed, sharing with us their culture, their heritage and their stories. For some of our students, this is the first time they have ever performed in front of an audience and we are so very proud of the work they have developed. We would also like to thank the staff who organised this event, Anna Tiatama, Lela Seely and Sam Brown along with our wellbeing team and music department. It was great to have so many parents and family members gather with us a community for this fantastic night.
Mental Health Week
Our Connect, Protect, Respect (CPR) Ambassadors along with our Mental Health Practitioner and Wellbeing Team organised a very successful mental health promotion week. Mental Health Week is a national week celebrated each year in October scheduled around World Mental Health Day. At our school we focused on “being kind to our mind” sharing with students a range of important mental health resources and strategies to help our wellbeing flourish. The team also put together a fantastic program with engaging activities including, a planting and pot decorating session with Bunnings, an art competition, bake sale and market day with stalls form external providers.
More about this event can be found on the Wellbeing page.
