From the Principal

By Dr Peter Miller

The theme of “Landscapes of Change” recurs in this edition of Ad Astra. This comes from the Reggio Emilia-inspired approach in Campbell House which informs other aspects of teaching and learning here at The Geelong College, beyond the early years of schooling. It is a simple fact that the world changes and the landscapes we engage are dynamic.

A challenge for us today is to understand the factors bringing about change in terms of both the type and the pace. Some changes are natural, others are precipitated by deliberate action, while others are unintended or even accidental. Planned change is better than chaos in our human world.

The Geelong College has continued to operate as a school for more than 150 years because it has adapted to change and, in many cases, led change. It is reasonable to expect that College will change over time in response to the context in which it operates, as well as playing a role in shaping that same landscape. To guide the evolution of College, rather than rely on chance or undesirable influences of change, we embarked on a plan that’s enacted and reviewed. This guidance comes from the strategic plan, Towards 2025: We reach for the stars, which was initially formulated in 2017 and presented to the College community in 2018. It continues to be an important document informing the framework, guiding actions and direction in the College’s evolution. Supported by the strategic plan, five areas have been identified for strengthening in the next two years. These areas were identified through a process of formal and informal feedback from students, parents, staff and College community members. In addition to the Capital Master Plan addressing the development of buildings and facilities, these five areas relate to professional and educative features of the College. They are: • Learning Culture – maintaining and seeking even higher academic achievement and aspirations for students and staff. We seek to improve access to feedback on student progress and achievement as we build an even stronger learning culture. We will be encouraging students to do things that are difficult. A sense of a challenge ahead of achievement and success will feature in our conversations. This has always been a feature of College but we are seeking to make it a little more visible. Our aspiration is to have a courageous learning culture maintained by staff and students, with parental and wider community involvement;

Dr Peter Miller welcomes parents to the annual Year 7 Dinner.