Principal's Message
One academic year ends and another beckons. We are all very excited that 100 year 7 students are joining us in 2012 which symbolises the strength of community respect for our school.
We are delighted too with our 2011 VCE students, 18% of whom scored ATARs above 90. This success was unprecedented at Glen Eira College and, when added to the 47% of students who scored grades of B and above and the increase in the percentage of study scores over 40, is a noteable achievement. Some of our high achievers are in the photograph below.
We congratulate the many scholarship winners in 2011 and particularly mention Miki Boneh and Joe Blakeney who have become Kwong Lee Dow Scholars –joining Emma and Sophia who were given this honour last year. Melbourne University gives promising Year 10 students the Kwong Lee Dow scholarship to encourage students through the two long years of VCE by helping them feel part of a bigger community of learners.
One project that continues into 2012 is "Spring into Sport" – our appeal to raise money to replace our deteriorating gym floor. Our community launch raised approximately $3000 to add to our initial savings of $11,900 – a small but steady step towards our target of $75,000. It has been wonderful to see the way parents are getting behind this appeal as they know their children will benefit the most. The next planned fundraiser is a Trivia Night to be held in term 1 – watch this space for details!
Our French program is growing too and we are delighted that there will be students studying French at every year level in 2012. We recently held our first Assemblee francaise to celebrate our students’ success in various French language competitions like the Berthe Mouchette poetry competition and the DELF examination. We have also been excited to see quite a deal of parent interest in running Hebrew classes at Glen Eira within the LOTE program. Year 7 Parents have been surveyed and several from the wider community have also expressed interest. We will continue to actively explore this option early in the new year.
In November we held Flourish, which was a superb evening of art and entertainment. Visitors were treated to a wonderful art show followed by music and drama performances in the theatre. It was wonderful that so many attended to view the talent of our students and teachers. Events such as these demonstrate the value of high quality teaching in unleashing the creative potential of our young people.
Success surely breeds success, and 2011 has been a year of considerable success at Glen Eira. I look forward to working with our community in the 2012 academic year to continue to build success for our young people.
