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We have come to the end of a busy and productive term. Our students have excelled both academically and through their involvement in the many extra-curricular activities that comprise the outstanding teaching and learning program offered at Footscray.
One recent highlight has been this week’s celebration assemblies where many students were recognised for their academic achievement and for their positive contributions to our school.
On behalf of the staff of the school, I would like to wish our students and their families a very safe and happy holiday. We look forward to welcoming you back in term 3.
NAIDOC Week starts this Sunday 6 July. The 2025 theme is a focus on the next generation: strength, vision and legacy. At Footscray High, our First Nations students have been working hard and building skills across their subjects. Some have had outstanding results and others have made personal achievements, such as interschool sport or building connections and friendships. Some of the junior students have been participating in the Nallei Jerring program at the Western Bulldogs Foundation, where they have been strengthening their understanding of culture and building community connections. Well done to these students.
I encourage all members of the Footscray High School community to make the effort to engage more with First Nations culture during NAIDOC Week. You may want to try a new recipe with bush food ingredients to share with your family, or watch a movie together, see local public art at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, read a new book or listen to a new album made by a First Nations film-maker, author or artist.
The review concluded on Thursday 5 June. The key directions for the next School Strategic Plan have been formulated as part of a rigorous process. I will table the report at Council on the key directions and key findings once the documentation has been finalised. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who assisted with the review process.
The Annual Report to the school community provides an opportunity for the community to celebrate achievements, reflect on the school’s performance, and understand where and how improvement efforts have enhanced student achievement, engagement, and wellbeing.
The Annual General Meeting will be held at Kinnear Campus from 6.30pm-7.30pm on 19 August. Please notify Kaylene Tanti via the school email – info@footscray.vic.edu.au of your attendance by 12 August so that a suitable venue can be arranged.
Jillian English
Principal
On Sunday, 22 June 2025, the 100 Centenary event took place at 298 Barkly St, Footscray. It was a wonderful success in so many respects, with blue skies, huge community turnout, a blending of old and new staff and students, an opening of a teacher made magnificent time capsule officiated by Katie Hall, MP and a teacher handmade centennial quilt. There was a fantastic Eatwell effort of delicious offerings by super stars Jenny and Teresa and their student crew; a tree planting by FHS students Addicus, Kevin and Jason; tree plaques by FHS Teacher Doug and generously made garden ready by Steven and the team at Braybrook Men’s Shed; a moving smoking and welcome ceremony by Aunty Merilyn and Uncle Shane, refreshments by our Friends of FHS volunteers and Adrian, along with all sorts of other displays and happenings.
The working party of Jill, Oki, Hung, Julie, Paatschi and past Alumni stars Margaret and Jan (who also shared their stories on the day) are delighted with how the day came together after several months of ‘endeavour’. Thanks to all for being part of it and sponsors like Jas Stephens who helped promote the event. The 298 Barkly St, 100 Centennial community day embodied the school’s education history and continuing community spirit, which so much powered this day and beyond.
Wednesday this week, the Year 7 Community Inquiry classes representing the three themes of Social Justice, Wellbeing and Sustainability came together to share all their hard work at Year 7 Celebration Day. Students undertook a range of projects that tackled real-life problems in a variety of ways. From a vertical garden, food drive raffles for a range of community organisations, animations on bullying and LGBTQIA+ education, a plastic pollution art installation, healthy sleep campaigns, and other inventive and creative solutions, each project was inspiring and demonstrated the breadth of interests, skills and passions of our students.
Using the Design Thinking framework, our students went through the five design stages of project development: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. They worked in small teams, developing their social, ethical, and critical and creative thinking capabilities. It was wonderful to see students share their project journeys with each other and community members at Celebration Day. Congratulations Year 7 Community Inquirers!
Next Semester 7A, 7B, 7G and 7H will start their Community Inquiry journey, starting Week 1 at their home campus in their homegroups.
7H and 7B had a wonderful Art experience on Wednesday 18th June; attending an Art scavenger hunt at The National Gallery of Victoria.
Students viewed and learnt about artworks from the collection at NGV Australia and NGV International. This included artworks from The European Collection, Modernism, Impressionism and Contemporary Art.
Year 7 students brought enthusiasm and a positive attitude to our excursion and had insightful discussions about the artworks viewed.
A wonderful and enriching Art experience was had by all and will kick off our Year 7 NGV Art experiences, to continue through the year for our Year 7 students.
A great effort by both our Barkly and Pilgrim soccer teams in icy conditions at Fairbairn Park. Barkly finished off the day with a 3-2 victory over Maribyrnong, which was the major highlight. Fun day out for the 7’s capped off with Subway cookies and good vibes.
Great day out. It was the first time for the majority of our students to play Badminton at an interschool level. All of our students were really competitive and had heaps of fun. Footscray had a few individual wins but unfortunately didn’t progress through to the Regional Finals.
Well done to all involved.
The boys all played well, in tough conditions. They gave it their all, but were unfortunately not able to get any wins.
Everyone had a great time, and we were proud of the effort they all made.
On Thursday June 19th, FHS runners hit the Keilor park track for their 3km and 5km races in the regional cross country championships.
All 25 runners in our squad pushed themselves to their absolute limits through sickness, injury and cold conditions.
Special congratulations to our Silver Medallist: Elli M who ran a 11.45 time in the 3km race in her Girls 12-13yr age bracket and our 15yr old Boys team who won gold as the top finishing team of runners in their age with Anthony H finishing 5th with 9.58, Zeph G finishing 6th with 10.00 and Eney K in 11th place with 10.27.
Top 12 in each race progresses through to State Finals on Thursday July 24th held at the Yarra Valley racecourse. Congratulations to the following students who finished top 12 in their race:
12-13yr GirlsElli M: 2nd
14yr GirlsEvie M: 5th
15yr BoysAnthony H: 5th Zeph G: 6th Eney K: 11th
16yr Boys Harry L: 4th
Congratulations to all of our runners on the day, excellent representation of FHS talent in the region. Best of luck to our State Finalists.
Congratulations to Manusri K from 7G for achieving the Gold Award for Japanese in the Education Perfect International Languages Championship. Manusri placed in the Global top 2% of competitors. What an incredible achievement!
Our English Language Centre (ELC) students have had a busy and enriching term, filled with hands-on learning experiences that supported both their English development and their understanding of the world around them.
As part of their Science unit on classification, students visited the Melbourne Zoo, where they explored the diversity of animal life and deepened their understanding of how living things are grouped. Guided by both their teachers and zoo educators, students were able to connect new English vocabulary to real-life observations – a powerful way to bring learning to life.
In addition, the students took part in an engaging excursion to Scienceworks, where they explored interactive exhibits, experimented with simple machines, and participated in scientific demonstrations. These excursions provided not only educational enrichment but also opportunities to practise communication, teamwork, and critical thinking in authentic settings.
This term, we are also celebrating a major milestone: eight students will be graduating from the ELC. These students have completed our 20-week intensive English program, and we are extremely proud of the dedication and progress they have shown throughout their time with us. Their growth in both language and confidence is a credit to their effort and resilience.
We look forward to seeing what these students achieve next as they transition into mainstream classes, and we commend all ELC students and staff for a successful and inspiring term.
This week, our school proudly hosted the Year 10-12 celebration assemblies, marking a special occasion to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our senior students. It was an uplifting event that highlighted the hard work, dedication, and talents demonstrated across all areas of school life.
Students from Years 10 through 12 were acknowledged not only for their academic success but also for their contributions to sports, the arts, leadership, and extracurricular activities. The assemblies provided a wonderful opportunity for staff, students, and families to come together and applaud the many accomplishments that make our school community so vibrant and inspiring.
We are immensely proud of each student’s efforts and achievements, and these assemblies serve as a reminder of the diverse talents and commitment that our students bring to school every day. Congratulations to all award recipients — your dedication and passion are truly commendable, and we look forward to seeing what you will accomplish next.
There have been a few very successful student music performances in recent weeks. The centenary celebrations at Barkly Campus on Sunday June 22 featured the Barkly Community Band. This ensemble of year 7-10 students, led by two of our Instrumental Music Teachers Mark Gusman and Marc Matthews has been working solidly on a small bracket of songs and instrumentals, and demonstrated some impressive skills.
Later that week, the Pilgrim Music classroom was the venue for a number of years 7-9 voice students to present their songs to a small and encouraging audience. Helping them prepare and directing the proceedings was our voice teacher, Rachel Sztanski. Also featured were two year 12 piano soloists taking the opportunity of a little match practice.
Finally, as I write, preparations are being made for the woodwind and brass soiree on Thursday, July 3, at the Barkly music room. About twenty of our junior woodwind and brass players will be presenting music in small groups, followed by some light refreshments.
On Thursday, the 26th June, the Year 9 Photography students visited The Museum of Australian Photography.
Here they were given a talk in the gallery space by The Education Officer and were able to engage in discussion about both the artworks viewed and various facets of how an art gallery runs, including learning about curatorial component of running a contemporary gallery.
Students had the opportunity to participate in highly engaging and creative practical activities in both the gallery space and in the outdoor sculpture garden.
This was a fantastic experience for our Year 9 students to develop a better understanding of contemporary Photography and The Museum of Australian Photography. Students came away with lots of creative inspiration for their own Photography practice.
To celebrate Refugee Week 2025, we celebrated with a talk at the Kinnear Campus by local Councilman, Mohamed Semra, in line with the theme for the week: Finding Freedom: Diversity in Community. The theme is all about focusing on diversity in the community to emphasise the vital role the community plays in all our lives, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, language, disability, sexuality and age.
Councilman Semra spoke about his experience as a refugee and his resilience as he overcame a variety of significant struggles. His talk was met with high praise from our students, with one taking the time to message Mohamed himself, saying “that was the most engaged my school has ever been when someone has visited, great speech, super inspiring!!”
We are looking forward to welcoming Councilman Semra back to the Barkly and Pilgrim Campus later this year!
We want to congratulate 18 of our current Western Chances Scholarship Recipients who were able to get their scholarship renewed. The 18 participants, who range from Year 8 to 12 students, will be sharing in $16,900. It is amazing to see the hardwork of our students pay off!
Western Chances is a scholarship program based in Melbourne’s west and provides students with the chance to fulfil their potential and overcome barriers to success by providing scholarships, opportunity programs and ongoing support. Our scholarships support talented and motivated students who may not otherwise have an opportunity to pursue their educational dreams.
Western Chances provides scholarships of up to $1000 a year for Secondary School Students and once a recipient, they are eligible for a renewal of their scholarship every year whilst engaged in an education pathway. Over the next 8 weeks, our Wellbeing and Student Management Teams will be looking at nominating 12 students from Year 7-12 who will be able to take advantage of this incredible program!
Our senior history teacher Alice is commencing maternity leave at the end of this term. Alice has been teaching at Kinnear campus since 2018 and hundreds of students have benefited from her knowledge and expertise.
Year 12 student Wilma wrote a message on behalf of her class: “Congratulations and thank you, Alice, for being such an amazing teacher! We all appreciate your effort, honest feedback and all the work you do to ensure we do our best! We didn’t get to complete the course with you, but thank you for getting us this far.”
Good luck also to our much valued junior Humanities teacher Jimmy Kilpatrick, who is leaving for a senior position at a new school. Jimmy will be missed by 7C and 8C!
The following topics will be done in Term 3. Some classes may have already started, due to the current long term:
Year 7 – Introduction to History, Ancient Australia. The major assessment is a class test on Aboriginal nations and cultures.
Year 8 – Historical Concepts and Skills, Medieval England. The major assessment is a creative project.
Year 9 – continuing with Australian History from the colonisation to Federation. The major assessment is a formal history essay.
Year 10 History – the single semester compulsory history unit will begin with a study of World War II, and a visit to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum at the start of August. The first major assessment is a source analysis, where students are given visual and written material to analyse and comment on.
Over the last term Years 7 & 8 have been doing Geography. Year 7 student Minah, from Michelle’s class at Barkly, wrote a summary: “This term we have been learning about geography and water in the world. We learnt about water shortages and water population around the world. We did a project about this by choosing a country and researching about the chosen country’s water supply.”
Year 9s have been learning about the impact of the 1800s Industrial Revolution. Teacher Sean led the design of a new assessment that aimed to build writing skills used in VCE Humanities subjects. Students incorporated evidence into different aspects of the topic. Year 9 teachers reported that there have been some really impressive pieces of writing, and below shows the beautiful work from Arthur’s class, written by Anna and Momo.
Year 10s and 11s had exam revision and exams in the middle of term. Well done to all who worked hard to do their very best. In the Year 11 Ancient History classes, students took a breather last week to have a Pschent design competition. The Pschent is the ‘double crown’ worn by Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Petra, Warwick and Charlotte were judged by our neutral arbiter Assistant Principal Liz as having the most accurate paper model.
We also finished our first successful semester of compulsory Year 10 History, delivered by Todd, Claire and Alice. Well done to the following students who attained outstanding results in their exam: Fred C, An D, Alexandra B, Lola S, Klara S, Arlo S-T, Dani G, Ollie W, Flynn B, Aster W and Teagan M.
You may have seen updates on the Pilgrim Futsal Pitch on our Social Media pages this week. Easy Turf has been hard at work installing a 3m high fence and laying down an incredible surface, ensuring the area is ready next term. We know everyone at Pilgrim is extremely excited to play their first match. You can catch day by day updates below: