Issue 3 2024 - Principal

Principal

Rebecca Kirkwood

Welcome to the final newsletter of Term 2! What a term it has been. After the short nine week term in Term One, this term’s 11 weeks has definitely allowed us more time to fit everything in.

I write this as our Country Week teams complete their final training. This year we are taking a few different teams to Perth, this decision was based on student feedback. Each year we ask our students what sports they would like to nominate in and we do our best to accommodate that based on student numbers and coach availability. This year we have 70 students participating across Volleyball, Indoor Cricket, Hockey, Netball and Basketball. There is a huge amount of work that goes into coordinating Country Week and the work doesn’t go unnoticed – again just one of those things that wouldn’t happen without staff commitment.

Thank you to Mr Kirkwood our Country Week Coordinator, who is also supported by John Overton, Rebecca Goodlife, Bernie Wong, Kaina and Drew Milne. We are very fortunate to have wonderful parent volunteers. A huge thanks to Matt Hartfield, John Mottram and Sarah Smith who are volunteering their time all week. What a fantastic community effort! Thank you. Good luck to all the teams!

It’s important to me that we stay connected to the community where we live, even though our College comprises of students from across the state. We have 50 day students attend our College drawing from Denmark and Albany. All of our seventy staff live within our local community. It is for that reason that the College has been members of the Denmark Chamber of Commerce for many years. As the school representative, I attend functions on the College’s behalf from time to time; however, we have never hosted a function. I saw fit to change that.

Three weeks ago, thirty business owners attended our site in the evening to attend Business After Hours. Over the course of two hours, our Board Chair Mick Pratt and I hosted our visitors. I chose to host the function in our Trade Training Centre displaying our fantastic facilities and student projects. I delivered a short speech to the group sharing some of what we do well and our recent student successes. I was supported by trade training staff, residential staff, students and teachers. Our kitchen team created a fantastic grazing board showcasing our locally grown produce as well as preparing non-alcoholic spritzers and mocktails. It was fair to say that our visitors were impressed. Many business owners had never attended our site and reported always being curious about what lay beyond our tree lined driveway. Those who know me well know that community, public education and positive outcomes for our students are what drives me. It was wonderful to bring those three facets together in what was a great evening.

This year we are experiencing an unprecedented number of enrolments applying to attend our College. We are receiving applications from across the state and have also received applications from Victoria and Tasmania. To put this in perspective, each year we have about 60 places to fill across Year 10 and Year 11. In 2024 we have processed about 80 applications with another 40 or so waiting to be processed next term. All of this is incredibly positive and evidence that our messaging about our great results and programme is reaching the broader agricultural community. They are hearing about our great results and programme and not surprisingly, want their children to experience some of what we offer. If you have intentions to enrol your child at our College, I strongly encourage you to put your enrolments in now to avoid disappointment.

Finally, I’d like to share some personal news. I recently made the difficult decision to take some time away from the College next semester. I have a family member who needs my explicit support and after a few recent events have decided the best way to properly support her, and maintain stability for the College, is to relocate temporarily to Perth. Last week I accepted a fixed term contract until the end of the year as principal at a secondary school in Perth. We are very fortunate in the Great Southern to have fantastic depth in our leadership staff across our secondary schools. It is my pleasure to share that Wayne Austin, an experienced leader from Denmark Senior High School, will be leading the College next term as Principal. I am confident that our community will give him the same unwavering support that I have experienced over the past three years.

I look forward to reconnecting with families and the school community when I return to the College in 2025.

Rebecca Kirkwood
Principal
WACOA - Denmark