Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to the start of 2023 and I hope your holiday season was both enjoyable and relaxing. As our College continues to grow we find ourselves each year looking at the path ahead with excitement and enthusiasm. This year is no different with the introduction of Year 11 and a wide range of subjects to equip and support students to achieve their chosen pathways.

Whether students are on an ATAR pathway, undertaking vocational training at school or with an external provider, participating in our foundation Health Academy or participating in school-based apprenticeships or traineeships, they are afforded opportunities to chase their dreams and passions. Such diverse and varied pathways aren’t possible without the countless hours of work completed by teachers and support staff to plan and prepare these classes. As such, a huge thank you must go to all the teachers and staff who have been involved in planning and preparing for this phase of our students’ educational journey.

As I met with our Year 11 students this week, I encouraged them to look for the small areas in their life they are able to improve by 1%. David Brailsford, past coach of the British Cycling team, calls this strategy the aggregation of marginal gains. His philosophy is that if you break down every aspect of a larger task and improve each part by 1%, when you add them all up, you make a large improvement overall. My encouragement to students was for them to look for areas in their lives where they can improve by 1%. This could be putting their phone in another room while studying, getting better sleep, exercising to reduce stress, reading over notes each day, submitting complete drafts, planning assessment tasks or developing a study plan and so on. Each one in itself is a small change, however the accumulation of all those 1% improvements leads to greater overall improvement. Take the time to sit down with your student and discuss the areas where they have an opportunity to make small changes.

As we head in to 2023, I look forward to continuing to work with the Year 11 students and their families to turn their dreams and aspirations into reality.