Hi everyone and welcome to 2023. I would like to reiterate what our leaders said in the first newsletter and that it was fantastic to see all those new Year 7 faces on the first day. As well as those new to mainly Year 11 and 12. It is great to see them finishing the secondary schooling in the best school in Ballarat!

2023 sees 24 staff in the Humanities learning area. 10 of those staff are new to Humanities in 2023. Although some have taught it at previous schools. Welcome one and all.

For the first time in about 6 or 7 years I have a Year 7 class. So I will have to get all my skills out of the kitbag to welcome them to Damascus College. The class that I have is a McAuley group and they have been wonderful so far. Their enthusiasm knows no bounds. We played the name game in our first lesson and I am happy to say that just about everyone could name everybody else by the end of the lesson. That was fantastic.

In Year 7 our students are introduced to values and the Australian Identity. This fits in beautifully with their camp this week and their introduction to Damascus College. Year 8 are continuing to look at Geography and megacities. The Year 9 students are Investigating the Industrial Revolution of the 17 and 1800’s. They will go to Sovereign Hill to see how the Industrial Revolution impacted the Goldfields in such a short time. The Year 10 students should be finishing their Careers work ready for Work Experience in term 2.

At VCE we offer Legal Studies, Geography, Business Management and History. It is good to see the Business Management and History classes are at capacity at Year 11 and 12. I am sure we could have offered another class for each which would have alleviated subject selection issues. Having said that it is a great problem to have!

Anyway have a great 2023 – remember to get that diary signed.