The end of Term 2 and Semester 1 is always a busy time at Elevation. In amongst all this activity it’s important that our students remember to find some time to relax and take a break over the coming school holiday period.
Year 12 Formal
Last Friday evening our Year 12 formal was held in a highly successful event at the Grande Reception and Function Centre in Epping. 140 students and 50 teachers enjoyed the night together, celebrating 13 years of education with food, socializing and dancing. Thanks to the Senior School team including Asli Dulger, Jing Ci Li, Stacey Cartwright Smith and Kylie Tillbrook for their work in organizing the evening – and supporting the Year 12 students to have a wonderful night.
General Achievement Test – GAT
This Tuesday our Year 12 students and accelerated Year 11 students completed their General Achievement Test – an important test in the whole scheme of their VCE and milestone on the way toward Year 12 completion.
English Year 12 Orals
A major aspect of the Year 12 English course in the Unit 3 Oral Presentation. I was excited to observe our whole cohort of Year 12 students in action last week completing these presentations. I was really impressed to see how seriously our students took the task and the amount of thorough preparation that had gone into them
Work Experience
Next week our Year 10 students head out onto Work Experience for the week. Good luck to everyone on these placements.
Year 10 Exams
Our Year 10 exams are well and truly underway this week. Once again, I have been witness to students preparing themselves really effectively in class, after school in the library and at break times talking with their teachers. On Wednesday I sat in for the first exam and once again was really impressed with the seriousness with which our students took the exam. Exams are where preparation begins to pay off and the effort and rigour that students have put in over their time at Elevation can be seen in their approach to these.
Bheaviour & Suspensions
Finally I wanted to write a brief message about the use of suspensions in schools and as a serious consequence for behaviour. There has been some talk in the media recently about suspensions – much of it misguided and a lot of it plainly wrong.
As most of you are aware, we take misbehaviour very seriously at Elevation. Many families have chosen us as a school because we do have high expectations of student behaviour and our actions on behaviour lead to a safer school environment and classes which are more focused on learning than in many other schools.
Let’s be very clear. Misbehaviour disrupts learning and impacts on student and staff safety. Safety and learning drive everything we do here. Suspensions are issued for major behaviours that impact on student safety and wellbeing and severely disrupt learning.
When a suspension is issued, someone has always been impacted in a negative way.
When a suspension is issued, things have been made less safe for other people.
When a suspension is issued, learning has been disrupted in a severe way that impacts on the learning of all the other students in the class.
Suspensions hold students to account for their behaviour. The vast majority of students who do receive a suspension do not repeat their behaviour.
All schools have misbehaviour – students will often do the wrong thing, make a poor decision or make a mistake. Consequences (including suspensions) are an important step in rectifying that behaviour.
The decision to suspend is never taken lightly. All staff are invested in creating a positive and safe learning environment that aligns with our school values and behavioural expectation of Aim High, Work Hard and Be Good.
Principal Team Changes
We would like to thank Mr. Liam McKenna – Middle School Assistant Principal for his strong leadership over the last 18 months. Mr. McKenna will be returning to the UK at the end of the term and we thank him for his contributions to Elevation.
For the remainder of the year, Middle School will be managed by Mr. Williamson and Mr. Schutz. Mr. Williamson will manage the Year 9 cohort and Mr. Schutz will manage the Year 10 cohort, in addition to Year 11 and 12.
Planning is underway for a revised and expanded Assistant Principal structure for 2027.
I would like to congratulate Ms Angela Lane who has just been promoted to Acting Principal of Sunbury Downs College for the rest of the year. This is a wonderful achievement for Ms Lane who moved to Sunbury Downs from Elevation at the end of last year. This means that two Elevation SC Assistant Principals (Ms Lane and Mr Stock) have been promoted to Principal positions in the last 6 months – a wonderful recognition of their work at our school.
Winter School Holidays
Wishing all of our students a safe and restful winter break. School returns for all students on Monday the 13th of July. We know that many families travel during this winter period. If you are lucky enough to do so, wishing you safe travels.
Colin Burke
Principal