Principal’s Message

Dear Parents, Students and Teachers,

I am writing with pride to express my gratitude for our great team here at Sirius College. This term our calendar was full of activities, involving the entire school. Moreover, there is still much important learning to occur in 2018. With the arrival of term 4 approaching, we aim to conclude the educational year successfully. We will be distributing interim reports which are a significant indication of your daughter’s academic progress in each of her subjects and her participation and approach to her learning. Dear parents, I want you to take a few moments to look at your daughter’s achievements so far and discuss with her strategies to meet any challenges that have been underlined in the report. In this way, she will prepare herself for continued success in Term 4.

Reports are circulated at the summation of each term; however you can chase your child’s progress day by day via SEQTA. It is a great tool to follow your child’s academic progress. You can access all assessments, marks and term reports. You do not need to wait for the school to contact you if you are proactive in this approach. If you do not have your log in details please see our secretaries; they will help you.

The end of Term 3 also means that the Year 12 students are approaching a very important stage of their life. They need to study hard for subjects with external exams as well as focus on other subjects for the completion of final SACs. In particular, I strongly advise Year 12s to attend the VCE study camp. Year 11 Unit 3 and 4 students should attend the revision sessions being held at school over the holiday, and ensure that they continue their studying at home. I know the Sirius College community will keep the Year 12s in their prayers during this time.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my article, this term has included many school activities. Our Performing Arts Department provided us with two sensation performances: The Annual Music Concert and the Inaugural Production Night. Our students and teachers spent countless hours after school, on the weekends and during the holidays preparing for the events. Their performances were amazing. I would like to thank Anna, Madeline and their team members behind the scenes for providing us a chance to enjoy these wonderful nights. I said chance because it is rare to have these kinds of performances in our secondary colleges. Our Production night was a special moment for our school and for me; we have set our sights on this kind of performance since 2013. Again, thank you to all involved.

Sirius students’ successes are always progressing. I am pleased to announce that Sara Saleh’s project “Chicken Production Systems and the Protein Levels in Eggs” and Ealaf Al Hassani’s project “Investigation of Steam Pressure Treating Australian Sugarcane Mulch” have been selected into the National BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Awards for 2019. Our students have won a major bursary award (first places) in the state STAV Science Talent research competition. Thank you very much to Mr Jamie and his team members.

Technology plays very important role in the development of children. 3D printing is magic that makes imagination come true. With this in mind, we bought a 3D printer for our school. Students designed their products in Fusion 360 animation software and made them real by printing with a 3D printer. The result was amazing. Thank you Hisu and Jamie and VCE studio art students.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge following students’ outstanding performances throughout the year which has gained them a Principal’s award. Laiba Durrani, Munise Arslan, Sara Saleh, Tasnim Thamer.

I would like to finish with a message from Steve Jobs.

“As we grow older, and hence wiser, we slowly realize that wearing a $300 or $30 watch - they both tell the same time...Whether we carry a $300 or $30 wallet/handbag - the amount of money inside is the same; Whether we drive a $150,000 car or a $30,000 car, the road and distance is the same, and we get to the same destination. Whether the house we live in is 300 or 3000 sq ft - loneliness is the same. You will realiz, your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world. Whether you fly first or economy class, if the plane goes down - you go down with it...Therefore, I hope you realize, when you have mates, buddies and old friends, brothers and sisters, who you chat with, laugh with, talk with, have sing songs with, talk about north-south-east-west or heaven and earth... That is true happiness!!”

Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so when they grow up they will know the value of things not the price.