The Principal, Mr Blaikie and Regional Director, Karen Money with the 2022 90+ Club at the Honours Assembly
A beautiful moment captured featuring the Vanellus Centre (Courtesy of staff member Peter Jarvis)
2023 Council Membership and Executive
I am delighted to announce the results of our recent Council selection process. As the number of nominations did not exceed the number of positions, an election was not necessary.
Following the co-option meeting held prior to Council earlier this week, I formally welcome the College Captains, Victoria Nikolaou and Ben Wellman as the co-opted members of Council for 2023. I congratulate those elected and thank new and returning members of Council for supporting our school. A special thanks also to those Council members who are retiring.
Also, at the Council meeting last Tuesday, the new College Council Executive was elected.
It is our intention to continue the blended approach to meetings in 2023, with some conducted remotely (especially during the winter months) and the rest conducted at school face-to-face.
Principal’s Long Service Leave
As indicated last year, I will be taking 3 weeks LSL during the first 3 weeks of Term 2. I will return to duty on Monday May 15. I have asked Mr Brendan Dwyer to undertake the Acting Principal role for the 3 weeks of my absence, and along with the other members of the Principal Team, I know the school will be in good hands.
Census
Mr Dwyer and his team completed the Census on February 28. The initial count was 1672 students (this is down from the 1758 in 2022). This number includes 80 who are either International full fee payers or on other special visas. This reduction in enrolments was planned and predicated on the more stringent application of DET enrolment policy and the instruction to reduce our overall enrolments over the next five years.
School Performance
We received our Annual Performance Rating in early February, and I am pleased to report that we continue to perform at a consistently strong level across all indicators. This data will be part of the Annual Report to the Community to be released later in Term 2.
NAPLAN
We are geared up for the 2023 NAPLAN season – again, it will be an online experience and begins next week. I thank Ms Stergiou and Mr Heng for the meticulous preparation of the back-end technology. The PAT-R and PAT-M testing conducted in February was a great test run for the students to experience whole-of-year level assessments like this. I wish everyone all the best. I remind all students participating to charge their computers each day and to bring their earphones.
We should be incredibly proud of our NAPLAN status as the “9th Highest Performing NAPLAN school” in Victoria – covering primary, secondary, government and private. Along with our beautiful buildings, it makes marketing our school a fairly simple task – our reputation continues to grow at numerous levels. This great achievement was recognised through the Melbourne media a couple of weeks ago.
| Victoria’s 20 highest performing schools in NAPLAN 2019-2022 (excluding 2020) |
| School | Sector | Well above average | Above average | Average |
| 1. Dandenong North Primary School | Gov. | 100% | ||
| 2. Beverley Hills Primary School | Gov. | 97% | 3% | |
| 3. Kings Park Primary School | Gov. | 97% | 3% | |
| 4. Presbyterian Ladies’ College | Ind. | 95% | 5% | |
| 5. Serpell Primary School | Gov. | 93% | 7% | |
| 6. Oakleigh South Primary School | Gov. | 93% | 7% | |
| 7. Braybrook College | Gov. | 93% | 7% | |
| 8. Killester College | Cath. | 90% | 10% | |
| 9. Wellington Secondary College | Gov. | 83% | 17% | |
| 10. St Albans Secondary College | Gov. | 83% | 17% |
Honours Assembly
We conducted our first full Honours Assembly since the pre-pandemic Assembly of 2019 a couple of Fridays ago. Our Regional Director, Karen Money was our guest of honour, and she was incredibly impressed with the conduct of our students and the magnificence of our beautiful buildings when I took her on a school tour. It was great to see our 2022 College Dux, Manjot Bhullar, and other members of the 90+ Club on their return to school. Student Leaders for 2023 were also presented with their blazers at the assembly. There are some lovely photos in other parts of the Journal.
Open Night – Wednesday March 22
Mr Dwyer and Head of Junior School, Ms Jess Wallis will be visiting key primary schools in the lead up to the lodgement of preferences for 2024. We have already conducted a number of tours through the College, and this will grow in number and size as the term progresses. Like our Honours Assembly, our Open Night will return to an in-person format with a presentation in the Fogarty Gym and further information with Curriculum leaders in the Senior School Precinct. Our Edutest Exam for the High-Flyers Program will be held later in Term 3, after the student preferences have been lodged. DET are ensuring that these tests are not being used as “scholarships” or “entrance examinations” for direct entry into secondary schools. Wellington has for a number of years only used the Edutest data for those already enrolled and as a part of formative selection into our High-Flyers class. Please pass this information on to any families you think might be interested.
3-Way Conferences – Tuesday April 4
The 3-Way Conferences will be held on Tuesday April 4. Bookings will be open on Compass soon and parents are free to request interpreters through the teachers of their children. We will be using the Microsoft Teams platform (not Webex), as we did last year. We plan to make reports available to families on Friday March 31. Further specific instructions will be forwarded closer to the day.
Hugh Blaikie
Principal
Watch this space for a periodic series highlighting outstanding student achievement!
About me: Hi all! I’m Paris and I’m currently attending Wellington Secondary College. This year, I am undertaking my first year of VCE as well as studying a Year 12 subject. Outside of school, I commit to areas such as tennis (personal training and coaching), as well as opportunity involvements with Tennis Victoria and Tennis Australia. In my spare time, some interests I have include playing and watching sports, spending time with family and friends, volunteering involvement, travelling, and experiencing events.
Sporting timeline:
Highlights:
Statistics / Results:
SSV Students Leaders Program 2023:
I have been selected as 1 of 16 students selected to provide feedback and advice to School Sports Victoria (SSV) that will help to guide and shape the future of school sport in Victoria.
Where I see myself in the future:
Contact me if you have any ideas:
These ideas will be considered and implemented upon Wellington Secondary College and advised towards School Sports Victoria.
Thank you all.
Have a great day!
Paris Tong
(e-mail: paristong2006@gmail.com)
We have been fortunate enough this year to participate once more in the Victorian Young Leaders to India program. The program encourages collaboration as students will work together with their buddies (from JAIN International Residential School in India) to undertake a STEM Design Thinking challenge to solve a global issue. Students will also complete a certificate in Global Competency where they learn more about and build global awareness. Our lucky participants this year are Kanish Kapoor, Yashvi Mehta, John Modouris and Tanishka Srivatsan. Below is a short reflection from an in-person “opening ceremony” event where the Victorian schools got to meet each other (something the students couldn’t do last year!), and we were also introduced to our counterparts in India.
On February 21, we travelled to the city for the VYL in-person forum. During the event, we participated in teamwork and global learning activities ranging from social bingo to an “8 Minutes, 8 Ideas” activity. We also listened to an inspiring story from Daizy Maan, which taught us about cultural diversity. Near the end of the day, all students hopped online to join the Indian schools, where we met our school team for the rest of the program. Reflecting on the day, I can confidently say that I and others have made many friends from other schools and have improved our intercultural and global awareness skills.
John Modouris (9A)
About epilepsy:
Epilepsy is diagnosed when someone tends to have recurrent seizures.
It is a neurological disorder and seizures are caused by a temporary disruption of the electrical activity in the brain.
Approximately 3% to 3.5% of Australians will be diagnosed with epilepsy at some point in their lives and over 250,000 Australians currently live with epilepsy.
Epilepsy can start at any age, although it is more likely to be diagnosed in childhood or senior years.
There are many different types of epilepsies and people’s experiences differ greatly. Some types of epilepsy are age-limited, and the person eventually stops having seizures. For others, epilepsy is a lifelong condition.
Approximately two thirds of people with epilepsy become seizure-free with medication.
Everyone’s brain sends electrical messages to their body, which tell the body what to do. Seizures happen because of a disruption to electrical activity in the brain, leading to a change in a person’s movement, behaviour, level of awareness and/or feelings.
A person with epilepsy may experience one or more seizure types. Their behaviour during a seizure depends on the type of seizure and the area of the brain being affected.
Around 70% of people living with epilepsy will gain control of their seizures by taking anti-epileptic drugs.
For more information, please visit: https://www.epilepsy.org.au/
Danielle Delaney & Olivia Thompson
First Aid Officers
