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On Thursday 28 May, our VET Cookery students will roll up their sleeves alongside Head Chef Josh Murphy of Harley and Rose for a one-of-a-kind Chef’s Dinner. Dishes will showcase produce harvested straight from the Footscray High School farm — paddock to plate in the truest sense.
For our budding chefs, the chance to work shoulder-to-shoulder with a celebrated local chef is a fantastic experience. Josh’s deep love of seasonal, locally grown ingredients make him the perfect mentor for the night, and his generosity in sharing his craft with our students.
A huge thank you to Josh and the Harley and Rose team for their talent and support. The dinner is officially sold out — what an extraordinary show of community spirit. It promises to be unforgettable!
This week, our VCE Theatre Studies students took on a real challenge, staging George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It is a demanding text, and they have approached it with maturity, focus, and a clear understanding of what the story is asking of them.
Over the past weeks, students have developed their characters, worked hard on the technical demands of the performance, and built a production that is genuinely their own. The themes of Animal Farm are not easy ones, and our students have handled them with care and intelligence.
A VCE performance is no small undertaking. It takes commitment, teamwork, and the courage to put your work in front of an audience. Our students have done all of that and done it well. Congratulations to everyone involved.
This Saturday 16 May marks Education Support Staff Appreciation Day — a moment to pause and recognise the remarkable people who keep Footscray High School the warm, inclusive, and well-functioning community every single day.
Our ES staff work across all three campuses in a huge range of vital roles: supporting students with additional learning needs, keeping our administration running, looking after our buildings and grounds, and offering the wellbeing care that so many of our students rely on.
To our remarkable ES team — thank you for everything you do for our school.
A warm welcome back to our 2026 Alumni Tutors, who have returned to FHS to support our senior students across a range of VCE subjects. These former FHS students know exactly
what it takes to succeed at school — and they have generously chosen to come back and pass on what they learned.
There is something uniquely powerful about being mentored by someone who has just made the journey themselves. Alongside subject knowledge, our alumni bring honest, practical insight: how to manage study loads, how to keep calm before exams, and how to back yourself when the pressure rises.
We thank our tutors for their generosity and faith in this community. We wish everyone involved a wonderful and productive term.
Jillian English
Principal
Maxine spoke about her life and the development of her memoir, The Hate Race. She shared lots of terrific and practical tips that the students could incorporate into their own writing projects, including an upcoming assessment. Thank you so much to Maxine for taking the time to support and inspire our students.
In Week 4, as a part of Area of Study 2: Crafting Text about Celebration, the EAL students in Year 11 were engaged in an activity involving a celebration of diversity through a cultural food event. Each student was invited to bring along a dish which is traditionally prepared in their culture.
It had been an amazing day, as students brought various kinds of dishes, including spring rolls, fried chicken, chicken adobo, lamingtons, frog-in-the-pond, dumplings, and many others.
The event was so helpful not only for developing students’ skills of reflective and descriptive writing, but also for fostering cultural awareness, creating the connection between students from different backgrounds, and instilling pride in their culture.We extend a huge thank‑you to Nicole De Garis and Lara Stockdale for their incredible support in helping our students organise this special celebration, showcasing traditional foods from our diverse school community.
Students in Years 7 and 8 have completed their 2026 Career Action Plan and created their MyFuture account. These activities help students build self-knowledge about their interests, strengths, and values. They begin to see how these connect to future study and work pathways.
A Career Action Plan is a living document that helps students set and achieve goals. Students update it each year as they grow, explore new ideas, and refine their ambitions. This plan encourages them to identify their strengths, interests, and concrete actions for now and the future. The myfuture career profile builds on this by offering guided activities and tailored occupation suggestions, helping students see clear pathways towards their aspirations.
Any car trip with your child can be a great time to start a relaxed conversation about the future. They cannot get out until the car stops. These conversations help you learn more about your child’s aspirations and show your support, strengthening your relationship while making future planning easier for them.
You might ask: “What did you put in your career action plan?” “Have you thought about what you might like to do when you’re older? Did you complete all of the myfuture career profile questions?” These small check-ins help your child connect classroom learning to real life, boost their confidence, and provide reassurance that their efforts are valued.
Parents and carers are the career experts in their children’s lives. You have the wisdom to look back and connect the dots between the events, opportunities, and challenges that shaped your own education, work, and life. Sharing these stories helps young people see that career journeys are rarely straight lines. It is normal to explore, change, and keep learning along the way.
We also had the wonderful students from the English Language Centre join the mainstream students. All the students were amazing and displayed great skills and more importantly great sportsmanship. We won a few and lost a few, but all had an amazing fun day retesting our school, being competitive and making new friends. Everyone displayed huge improvements over the day both in our single and doubles games, well done everyone.
The boys made it to the semi final going down 1-0 to Buckley Park who went on to win the day. Shout-out to Frankie R who joined the boys and showed them right up with her stunning skills and power through the midfield.
We are lucky to have six of our high achiever 2026 graduates returning to help out our senior school students with their learning strategies. The VCE Tutoring program has been running for the last few years at FHS and we are so pleased to see our students across ages working together.Where: Tutoring Sessions are located in the Kinnear Library & VCE Centre,
When: Every Monday and Wednesday afternoons
Time: 3:30PM-4:30PM