Welcome to this month’s edition of the W-Files. Term 1 has been an exciting and productive period for both student learning experiences and extracurricular activities. A number of activities outside of the classroom have provided students with opportunities to increase their connectedness to WHS, strengthen friendships and impact positively on student wellbeing. These are all key factors in ensuring our students and children are happy, healthy, resilient and productive, and greatly impacts our focus on the “Wellbeing of Learning”.
Some highlights have been our whole-school Athletics Carnival, Harmony Day, International Women’s Day, and the World’s Greatest Shave. School tours have also taken place with demand for a place at Williamstown High School reaching record levels - a fantastic reflection on our wonderful school community, made up of fantastic staff, highly engaged and supportive families and exceptional students. Many other activities, such as immersion program showcasing, sporting, debating, camps and incursions and excursions amongst others, have taken place. Please enjoy reading about some of these events and the photos taken of them in this edition of the W-Files.
Athletics Carnival
Our Athletics Carnival is one of two events on our calendar where we bring both campuses together as a whole school (Town Hall Assembly being the other event). This has truly become so much more than the sporting events alone, with Year 12 dress-ups, students in house colours, music showcasing, Greatest Shave event and a real bonding and celebratory vibe.
The carnival is truly one of the most enjoyable days I personally look forward to as I love walking amongst the groups of students chatting and just seeing the fun they are having. It has become a bit of a ritual for students to approach me for a selfie, and perhaps this is with the intent of having their photo published in the W-Files. This is something I enjoy, so please find a selection below. But this also serves to remind me what is important about my role and how much satisfaction this gives me, that is creating a safe, harmonious and joyful environment where young people can thrive.


School Council Elections
I am pleased to announce the 2023 members of the WHS School Council. The Department of Education positions are occupied by new council members Daniel Pearce, David Child and Andre Bernardi. Joining our returning parent representatives, Kane Harnden, Jake Mansfield, Matt Clarkson, Natalie Goroncy and Emma Harris, is newly elected parent member Natalie Blurt. We also warmly welcome our newly elected student representative, Will Noonan from Year 12, who will work with Ethan Hammon from Year 9, who still has one year remaining on his tenure.
I would like to thank all parents, students and staff for engaging positively in the nomination process. We also welcome the student leaders and Parents and Friends member Elizabeth Cushion, who attend School Council meetings to provide reports from their associated teams.
I would like to acknowledge and congratulate Kane Harnden, who has been nominated and elected as our School Council president for this year. Matt Clarkson has accepted the role as vice president and Jake Mansfield will continue in the position as treasurer.
PFA
I would also like to thank the PFA for their ongoing support and recent fundraising efforts through the Bunnings sausage sizzle opportunity. Their continued donations to value add to curriculum equipment resourcing is much appreciated.
New School Jumper
As promised, our new school jumper is due to arrive at the end of this term ready for Term 2 and winter. A notification advising families the jumper has arrived and of uniform shop opening hours will be sent during the holiday period. I know our students are excitedly looking forward to this significant change in our uniform.
Improvements
By the time our students return for Term 2, we will have resurfaced the Bayview Campus basketball courts (as promised to the students at the end of last year following student lobbying) and a second school bus will have been delivered and ready to use - to reduce transport costs for families for certain activities.
Two new instrumental music pods will have been installed at Bayview to accommodate the significant growth in this program and the Pasco Campus toilet redevelopment will be halfway towards completion. We then have plans to upgrade the synthetic surface at Bayview and resurface one set of the basketball courts at Pasco. These are all significant investments in upgrading our facilities and ones that I am sure will be greatly appreciated by the students.
Creating an Inclusive Culture
Last year all students across both campuses completed a school-based respectful relationships survey. Through this survey students highlighted key work that was having a positive impact on creating an inclusive culture and also identified areas for improvement. The Student Engagement and Wellbeing Team has taken this feedback and developed an action plan that will be actioned throughout the year. Some of the student suggestions, including having more staff available during recess and lunch, have already been implemented.
Through this survey and the attitudes to school survey, our students have told us it has at times been frustrating to report incidents and, due to maintaining student privacy, they have not been aware of what has happened. We are taking this opportunity to firstly provide some education and clear expectations on appropriate behaviour, as well as consult with all stakeholders for increased transparency, of our processes.
Following the positive impact the consultation and development of our statement of inclusivity achieved last year, we are implementing a similar process to provide education and clarity around expectations and procedures for both students and staff in terms of responding to any incidents that may occur. The intent is to have visible displays so that when such incidents occur, there are clear guidelines for what the student is recommended to do and transparency around what the school will do in terms of process, always ensuring privacy is maintained.
The message of zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour needs to be made clear together with the understanding that young people will occasionally have errors of judgement and display inappropriate behaviour. At all times we need to be timely and consistent with our response, maintain individual privacy and address the individual’s behaviour (not the individual), allowing an opportunity for learning, growth, support and a fresh start.
Curriculum Day
Our recent Curriculum Day saw staff come together to work collaboratively on two key areas: highly effective literacy strategies and further work on developmental assessments. With two literacy leaders now in place, one at each campus, staff learnt about high impact literacy strategies that can be implemented in all classrooms to refine the quality of students’ written responses.
Our work on developmental assessments focused on staff learning and engaging with “Compass clickable rubrics”. The aim here is to provide quality feedback to the students so that these tools assist in making clear to the students where they are at and what they need to do to move to the next level - increasing student agency in their individual learning journey. This is work we have been focused on in recent years but now, by using the Compass clickable rubrics feature, staff will have the option of providing this student feedback to parents to enhance the continuous reporting process.
Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club has been in full swing at the Pasco Campus with students introducing new themes throughout the term. At Bayview, we also saw new equipment rolled out in Week 9. This equipment was bought for both campuses through a recent grant. Please see below a tasting prepared by our wonderful students at a recent multicultural breakfast theme:
Principal’s Writing Competition
I am proud of the WHS Principal’s Writing Competition and look forward this year to reading our students’ interpretations of the theme “Destinations”, which has great potential to be explored in a variety of ways. The Principal’s Writing Competition highlights the importance of building and promoting literacy skills across the school, and all entrants will be judged using a set criteria assessing elements such as text structure and vocabulary, which underpin our current whole-school literacy focus.
This year we have an exciting range of prizes on offer. As well as the honour of having their names inscribed on the Principal’s Writing Competition honour board at their respective campus, winners will receive a host of exciting prizes including a tote bag filled with reading and writing gifts, an invitation to attend the Melbourne Writers Festival. This year we will once again have a Principal’s Pick, an overall major prize in the form of an iPad awarded to one student from each campus.
“The pen is mightier than the sword” is a powerful motto, and with great eagerness I look forward to reading the collection of poetry and prose that aim to prove this true.