Parent Newsletter Issue 15 2026

Leadership Profile — Term 4

This term we farewell a longstanding staff member, Kellie Catanese, who is taking up a new leadership opportunity outside the Department of Education. Kellie is highly regarded and has served the Footscray High School community as a Classroom Teacher, Student Coordinator, Leading Teacher, and, for six years, Assistant Principal of the Barkly Campus. Barkly, the campus wellbeing dog, will also be retiring alongside her. Thank you, Kellie, for your service as a teacher and leader of Footscray High School, you will be missed by the leadership team, staff, students and community. I am sure you will join me in wishing Kellie all the very best as she takes on her new challenge.

Ashley Lanfranchi will act in Kellie’s role for Term 4. Ashley is currently Leading Teacher of the Health and Physical Education faculty and is looking forward to working at our Barkly Campus as Acting Assistant Principal.

Vicki Tentzoglidis, Campus Principal of the Barkly Campus, will be taking leave in Term 4. Ashley Duggan will join Footscray High School as Acting Campus Principal of the Barkly Campus during Vicki’s absence. Ashley is an experienced educational leader who has worked across teaching, school leadership, consulting, system policy, and school performance and improvement. He currently leads the work of the Footscray Learning Precinct, through which he has developed strong relationships with the school and a deep appreciation for its students, staff and community. Ashley is looking forward to being a visible and engaged presence on the Barkly campus, supporting a positive conclusion to 2026 and a strong transition into 2027.

Elizabeth Simpson, Assistant Principal at Kinnear Campus, will be taking leave in Term 4. Josh Madden, currently Leading Teacher of Wellbeing and Engagement at Kinnear, will act as Assistant Principal during Elizabeth’s absence. Josh has a strong understanding of leading all aspects of our Senior School and will work closely with John Box, Campus Principal, to ensure the best outcomes for our senior students.

We have had a productive and successful Term 3 at Footscray High School. I wish all our students and the community a restful holiday, and I look forward to welcoming our students back for Term 4 on Monday 5 October.

Jillian English

Principal

Term 3 is always a busy one for the music department as different Instrumental Music Teachers organise soirees and VCE students get very close to their final performance assessments in October.

Recently Matt Welch ran a vocal soiree at each of our junior campuses, where each of his voice students sang solo or in a small ensemble. Both events also featured the campus junior choirs.

On Wednesday September 9, Kinnear campus was treated to a senior voice soiree, led by our senior voice teacher, Piri Jakab von Szengelice.

The strings put on a fabulous performance at their soiree with 30 minutes of ensemble music featuring our string orchestra and six singers.

In the last week of term on Monday September 14 and Tuesday September 15  there were two jam packed evenings for the VCE Performing Arts Showcase. Featuring Dance, Theatre Studies and Music students from year 12, this was a chance to see and hear the results (so far) of the year’s work in preparing for externally assessed performance exams held in October.

Not so far into term 4 will be the second Kindred Studios Bands Night on October 12 and the Spring Ensembles Concert on Wednesday October 28 featuring all of our major music ensembles. Before the ensembles concert the junior woodwind, brass and percussion students will present a soiree at Pilgrim campus on Wednesday October 21.

To celebrate the conclusion of their Local Term, students recently enjoyed a hands-on Pizza Day at the Farm, learning about the journey from paddock to plate while developing practical cooking skills. The day began with students learning how to safely build and manage a fire in the wood-fired pizza oven. They then made pizza dough from scratch, measuring ingredients, kneading the dough and learning about the role of yeast and gluten in the breadmaking process.

A key focus of the day was sustainability. Students explored the concept of food miles by investigating where their pizza ingredients came from and considering the environmental impact of transporting food. Using produce harvested from Farm, alongside locally sourced ingredients, students created their own pizzas and reflected on how their food choices can support a more sustainable (and delicious) future.

Congratulations to all our students who signed up for the Premiers’ Reading Challenge and met their reading goals! Those who completed the challenge at Kinnear were awarded their choice of sweet or savoury treat to collect from the library. The students from both junior campuses got to join in the celebrations at Barkly Library on Wednesday afternoon, where they enjoyed meeting other keen readers, engaged in reading related activities, and of course… they ate plenty of pizza!  One of the activities was BOOK-MOJI, where a series of emojis were projected on the screen, and students had to guess the book titles.

Many thanks to Hung for the terrific job he does in enthusing and encouraging our students to meet their reading goals!

All students are reminded to take advantage of all of the terrific opportunities listed on our Student Opportunities Page.

FAFF (FHS Annual Film Festival) Tickets are now on sale!

At FHS we have had the privilege to see our Media classes grow in number over the years and this year it will be included as part of the FHS Arts Expo Week celebrations!

FAFF 2026 will include variety of media products from short films and animations from Years 10 to VCE. The aim of the exhibition is to showcase the Unit 4 Media criteria to a community audience.

2026 will see the fifth year of #FAFF and we are beyond excited to celebrate the hard work and dedication of our very talented Year 12 Media cohort. We will also take a glimpse at select works from our Year 10 and 11 students. The evening has been curated to include works from varying styles and genres including; short film, animation and photography. There will also be a short intermission.

We look forward to you joining us as we show our support to the VCE Media class of 2026 as well as all prospective media kiddos!

In my day spent shadowing Cr Mayor Mohamemd Semra, I learnt the importance of local council and governance, and the team work that goes into it behind the scenes. Throughout the day, Mayor Semra informed me about the future plans of Maribyrnong Council and the roles each Councillor plays in maintaining community engagement and involvement with the Council.

We started our day at Whitten Oval, where he presented a graduation speech to the participants of Leaders Of The Pack. From there, we went into the city for MAV (Municipal Association of Victoria) where I got the chance to meet other Councillors and Mayors from all councils across Victoria. Journalist Patricia Karvelas gave a speech highlighting the true importance of council work and how the Future is Local. Mayor Mohammed also appeared on the guest panel and discussed (what he did). To wrap up the day, I got the chance to participate in a Citizenship Ceremony, where I got the chance to hand out gifts to the new citizens.

– Year 10 Zahra Zuhdi