Senior Student Leaders Paris, Hemita, and Arushi celebrated
International Women’s Day with Ms Marina Stergiou
Phone: 9547 6822
Email: wellington.sc@education.vic.gov.au
Attendance: 9562 4762 or 0484 009 562
IT Helpdesk: helpdesk@wellingtonsc.vic.gov.au
College Council Office Bearers
I am delighted to announce the Office Bearers results. The following people have been nominated and accepted the respective positions:
– Council President: Cindy Pilepich
– Council Vice President: Jol Alexander
– Treasurer: Eric Du
NAPLAN
This week our Year 7 and Year 9 students participated in NAPLAN. Thank you, Ms Stergiou and Mr Heng, along with all the staffing supporting the administration of NAPLAN. This has been very well planned, and I thank all students for their excellent behaviour. Students will have one more session on Monday March 18 and catch up session will be scheduled next week for students who were absent during any of these sessions. Students will be notified. I look forward to seeing our great results.
International Women’s Day
We celebrated International Women’s Day a day earlier this year. Staff and Year 12 female students were invited to a morning tea on Thursday March 7 to celebrate International Women’s Day. Our College Captains Paris Tong and Hemita Chandramoorthy along with Vice Captain, Arushi Tandon gave an inspiring speech celebrating the women in the room and the women within their lives – mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties, friends etc.
Parent/Carer voluntary financial contributions
Thank you to the families that have made payments towards the Parent/Carer voluntary financial contributions. These contributions allow us to support our students above and beyond the funding allocation set by the Department of Education. As a school we will continue to provide the best available supports to our students and these funds allow us to continue to do that.
If you have not made a payment and would like to, please log into your Compass account, and click on the link under Payment Centre.
Census
Thank you to Mr Dwyer and his team for completing the Student Enrolment Census at the end of February. The initial count was 1679 students (this is slightly up from the 2023 enrolment). This number includes 115 students who are either International full fee payers or on other special visas. This steadying in enrolments is planned and part of the Department of Education enrolment policy and strategy to reduce our overall enrolments over the next five years.
School Tours and Preparing for the 2025 student cohort
We have already conducted several tours through the College for prospective Grade 5 and 6 parents and this will grow in number and size as the term progresses. For families that would like to be a part of our tours please visit the school’s website.
Please pass this information on to any prospective families, who might be looking at sending their child to Wellington next year so that they can see our great school in action.
3 Way Conferences – Tuesday 26 March
Planning for 3 Way Conferences on Tuesday 26 March is well underway. Just like previous years we will be using the Microsoft Teams platform to conduct the conferences. When meeting with your child’s teacher I encourage you to acknowledge what is going well, as well as identify strategies for focussed improvement. Booking will open on Compass from 9am on Monday March 18.
Mr Chris Knight
Principal
The recent Supersport Industry excursion proved to be an exhilarating and informative experience for our female students eager to explore careers in Sports Technologies, AFLW, and Communications. Hosted by St Kilda AFLW players, club officials, and Holmesglen staff from the Faculty of Sport, the event provided a unique opportunity for hands-on learning. Students engaged in dynamic fitness drills utilising cutting-edge Catapult technologies, which generated valuable sports performance data.
The immersive experience continued with an AFL 9’s game, during which students applied the Catapult technology firsthand. Following the game, they analysed their performance data and delved into a session with the AFLW women’s captain, gaining insights into the rigorous routines, expectations, and training schedules of elite athletes. Additionally, students participated in a media and communications workshop, learning how to strategically produce and communicate information in the sports industry.
The excursion also featured a comprehensive social media session, equipping students with the skills to navigate the digital landscape effectively. As a highlight, students explored various career pathways available for women in the sports industry, gaining a holistic understanding of the opportunities awaiting them. The Supersport Industry Immersion truly exemplified our commitment to providing tailored and impactful experiences that empower our students to pursue their passions and excel in their chosen fields.
Mrs Brooke Moon
Health & Physical Education Curriculum Leader
Wellington is focusing on building a stronger House Culture within the College. With that in mind, last week the Year 12 cohort participated in Jeopardy, a House Activity organised and run by the Year 12 student leaders.
Dorothy Cai created the fun and very interactive game. Five members of each house were shown trivia clue phrases and they had to answer with a question. The higher the points allocated, the more challenging the questions. Some categories were Wellington, Geography, Pop Culture, Movies and Sports. We tried to cater for all interests.
Dianella was the winning house and Acacia surprisingly had a score of less than -1000. Overall, the House Activity was a massive success and everyone had fun! We finished off with house karaoke where everyone sang their hearts out!
Arushi Tandon and Manith Seng
12I & 12H
On Tuesday March 12, our Year 12 cohort had a Themed Dress Day. These dress up days are often popular with both staff and students. The theme for this day was “come dressed as a character that starts with the same letter as your name”. It really gave students an opportunity to express themselves creatively!
Can you guess what some of these characters are?
The SRC hosted the Student Partnership Forum on the 6th of March and invited the other leadership teams (College Captains, House Captains, International, Subschool Leaders and Performing Arts) as well as a few teachers. The purpose of the forum was to set two objectives to achieve by the end of the year and discussing methods and strategies to achieve these objectives. With the Student Partnership Forum, SRC aims to foster more collaborative effort between different leadership teams and encourage student engagement and input.
Chris Doan
SRC President
As students are welcomed back into the new school year, it means another year filled with opportunities for Student Engagement, Voice and Agency. However, behind the scenes are a group of students who gather and work collaboratively to empower these ideas.
Last week, the Student Leadership groups across the College gathered for our first Student Partnership Forum of 2024. Myself and the House Captains had the pleasure of coming together with Junior, Middle and Senior School Captains, as well as the Performing Arts team, International team and SRC to discuss and share our goals and plans for the upcoming year. The forum, hosted by SRC Presidents Dorothy and Chris, allowed the student leaders to begin planning actions and priorities for this year’s College Calendar, but also to have meaningful conversations about student leadership at Wellington.
As College Houses Captain, I found that this was a golden opportunity for me to also get to know my fellow House Captains and gain an insight into how students from across all year levels of the school view the future of house culture at Wellington – a main focus for this year. The effectiveness of these forums stem from the encouragement of collaboration and communication between students. From experience, every year in Student Leadership is a chance for growth and no year in Student Leadership is like the one previously.
Ultimately, last week’s forum aimed to further unify the different leadership groups and work on ways to improve and empower student engagement at Wellington. Conventions like these emphasise taking a step away from what happens inside the classroom, and focuses on what more we can do outside of the classroom to improve the school community. Overall, it is not only an opportunity to learn from each other, but an opportunity to work collaboratively so that we also learn about ourselves as leaders.
Sonita So
College Houses Captain
On Wednesday March 6, during our Flexible Learning session, the Year 10 cohort assembled in the theatre for an exciting round of Jeopardy, followed by a lively karaoke session. Five representatives from each of our school houses (Acacia, Warratah, Eucalyptus and Dianella) eagerly volunteered to compete in the initial round of Jeopardy. During the game, our student volunteers were presented with questions formatted as answers, requiring them to respond by framing their answers in the form of a question that identifies the clue’s description.
After an intense battle of wits, Eucalyptus came one on top! Congratulations! Following the Jeopardy game, the theatre was divided into four teams for Karaoke, and students enthusiastically sang “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys, “Baby” by Justin Bieber, and “Shake it off” by Taylor Swift. However, in an amazing display of Wellington community spirit, the entire cohort decided to abandon the idea of teams and sing together as one group. A huge thank you to our Senior Leaders for creating and running this Middle School House Activity.
Ms Claire Caughey
Head of Middle School
