Principal’s Report March 2024

Dear Fitzroy High School community

What a great term it has been! You can see from the other articles in this newsletter how much has been going on and what students and teachers have achieved together. As well as wonderful things happening every day in classes, our co curricular program is expanding and excelling, with debating, sport, music, chess, as well as other clubs and activities providing students with ample opportunity to try things out and meet like-minded people.

We have appointed Auri Parker as the new Humanities and English teacher at the 7-10 campus with Ned Daniher moving fully to Wurun in his position as the Year 12 Leader. I want to thank Paul Cahill and Lucy Marshall, who acted as Assistant Principals during Term 1. They worked extremely well as a team and helped to make my return to the position of Principal as smooth as possible. Lucy is returning to Wurun to fully take up again her Leading Teacher role, while Paul is taking leave and going to Ireland. We wish Paul all the best and acknowledge his ten years of service to FHS, where he has been a much-loved year level leader, team leader, acting Assistant Principal, English, Health and PE teacher and Careers practitioner. We will be acknowledging Paul in assembly.

Andrea Thompson has been provisionally appointed to the role of substantive Principal at Richmond High School, where she has been acting during Term 1. We wish her success and once again thank her for the incredible contribution she has made to Fitzroy High School over the past few years. As a result of Andrea staying at Richmond, and Lucy and Paul not continuing in the Acting Assistant Principal role, I have made an interim appointment for six weeks. I am very pleased to announce that Margaret Doucas, who was Acting Assistant Principal for part of 2023, and Zoran Vasic, who has been a Director of tech schools, have been appointed to the Acting Assistant Principal role for six weeks. Margaret and Zoran working together will bring a range of skills that will benefit the school. During this period, Jacinta Buzacott, who has been assisting Margaret in the Disability and Inclusion role, will take over that role. Margaret will still be involved from her AP position. Zoran will continue to take his VCE Applied Computing classes at Wurun and we will recruit another teacher to take Zoran’s 7-10 Science classes for that period. We wish Margaret and Zoran all the best.

There has also been a lot of work going on in School Council and I want to thank the outgoing members of School Council, as well as acknowledging the continuing members and welcoming the incoming members. Moira Finucane has been reappointed as School Council President, and we are also lucky to have Finn Romanes continuing as Treasurer and Toni McSweeney as Vice President. Even if you are not on School Council, there is an opportunity to join one of the subcommittees: Education, Buildings and Environments, Policy or Community Engagement. There is also the very important Wurun Senior Campus Subcommittee which has parents, students and staff from both Fitzroy High School and Collingwood College. Please get in touch with us if you are interested, and we will continue to keep you posted about opportunities.

The first week of Term 2 is already a busy one! We have Open Day and evening on Wednesday April 17. Please encourage families that you know to attend this. We also have 7-10 Three Way Conferences on Thursday April 18 and a Student Free Day for staff to work on curriculum on Friday April 19.

The new four-year Strategic Plan is now on Compass and the school website. Next term, you will receive the 2023 Annual Report and I will be holding a public meeting for our school community, where people can ask questions about the report. I wish you all a lovely term break and a restful time with your loved ones.

Warm regards,

Linda Mitchell, Principal