Issue 1 2024 - Princpal

Principal

Rebecca Kirkwood

Welcome to families new and returning. I am pleased to report that the year has begun well with staff and students hitting the ground running!

Transition

We started the year a little earlier and welcomed new residential and day students as they engaged in our transition activities. Student feedback was incredibly positive. Huge thanks to our student leaders Jesse, Phoebe, Will, Bree, Laura and Lucia who were an integral part of this process. I sent all new families a survey two weeks ago and am looking forward to receiving parent feedback about our extended transition process. The staff leadership team will reflect on the feedback and build on this years processes to make next years even better!

Year 12 celebrations

Before we get too far into 2024, I think it’s timely to reflect on the hard work of our 2023 cohort. Year 12 WACE data was released at the beginning of the year and there is much to celebrate. Our OLNA achievement is not only well above the state average, but above anything achieved in recent years. This year we saw 100% of our Year 12 students achieve Writing and Reading and 98% of students achieve Numeracy. An astounding 81% of students graduated with three or more vocational courses. These fantastic figures paid great dividends for our graduating class, that saw them achieve a 98% graduation rate, our highest seen in the past six years.

Congratulations of course go to our entire 2023 Year 12 class, but a special mention must be made of our high achieving students. Ella Cameron achieved an ATAR score of 97 and received a Certificate of Distinction from SCSA. Sara Bray, Charlotte Brown, Willow Donohue and Lily Furphy all performed well in their ATAR courses and received Certificates of Merit. Last year, for the first time, we nominated five students in the state-wide VET Certificate of Excellence awards. Congratulations to Dakota Dalton for receiving an excellence in VET award in Primary Industries, and Luke McPherson for achieving excellence in Automotive / Engineering and Logistics. These results don’t happen by accident and in a school such as ours, many staff, not just teachers and trainers, support our student’s learning. Many of our staff go above and beyond to assist our students in and out of the classroom. Congratulations to everyone on a job well done!

I believe it’s important to celebrate success but equally important that we continue to improve. We do this by reflecting on our work from the past. Teaching and vocational trainers spent the first few weeks of the term analysing our data looking for areas of improvement. We will continue to adjust our support processes and curriculum programming to get the best outcomes for our students.

Maintenance work

Over the Christmas holidays we were fortunate to have some aesthetic work completed on our buildings. The administration building, teaching offices, D Dorm and the Dining Hall all received new carpet, paint and lighting upgrades. It was a long time coming and has really given the College a breath of fresh air. In addition to this, we commissioned a mural to be completed in the Dining Hall and the Trades workshop. This work, led by our Marketing Officer Alexis, sends a clear message to our visitors about what’s important to us at the College. Strong agricultural outcomes for all students remains our core business.

School Review

This year the College will engage in two significant external reviews. The first is being directed by the Department of Education. This whole school review occurs in all schools every three to four years. It involves the Leadership Team submitting documentation to the Department outlining how we are tracking against predetermined domains. A member of the Review Team as well as a Principal Peer Reviewer will attend our College in April to meet with key staff, community members and industry to validate our commentary.

The second review is directed by Training Accreditation Council (TAC) and relates to our status as a Registered Training Organisation. This is quite a large review given one has not been conducted for seven years. Similar to the school review, members of our Vocational Education and Training Team submit documentation to TAC, allowing an initial desktop audit to occur. I envisage this being followed up by a face-to-face audit later in the year. Dates are yet to be determined, but I suspect this will occur in the second half of 2024.

I am really excited about the reviews. In both cases there has been quite a time lapse since we were last reviewed and there is much celebration to be had. I look forward to applauding the hard work of staff, that consistently results in strong outcomes for our students.

Rebecca Kirkwood
Principal
WACOA - Denmark