Maintenance / Groundskeeper

Location: Melbourne | Western Metropolitan

Job type: Full time / From 02/12/2024 - 19/12/2025

Organisation: Schools (Government)

**Salary**: Salary not specified

Occupation: Economics

Reference: 1442238

**Location Profile**:
Altona College is a Prep to Year 12 school situated in the local government area of Hobsons Bay, located approximately 15km west of the Melbourne CBD. Altona consists of a mixture of low-density housing to the south of the suburb, with mixed industry in the north. Altona is well resourced with recreational facilities, strong transport links and a strong hospitality culture. A key attraction to the area is Altona Beach and its refurbished pier located at one of only two swimming beaches in the western suburbs (the other being Williamstown Beach).

In 2023, enrolments continued to increase, but were managed carefully in compliance with a compulsory Enrolment Management Plan. By the end of the school year, a total of 704 enrolments across Prep-12 were confirmed for the commencement of the 2024 school year. Despite having a relatively small school zone and proximity to larger established secondary schools, Altona College has continued to receive significant interest for enrolment. The primary school is one of four located within the suburbs of Altona and Seaholme and as such enrolments are greater in the secondary than primary years. Having recently completed two stages of Capital Works, community confidence continues to grow in our capacity to deliver a breadth of well-resourced programs. The Altona Early Years Hub is co-located onsite ensuring a smooth transition for students attending Kindergarten programs at that venue. An extensive prep transition program ensures students are carefully inducted into the school environment and are familiar with staff and students prior to commencement.

Primary students access specialist programs in Music, Physical Education, Mandarin and Art. The learning areas of Science, Humanities (History, Geography, Economics, Civics and Citizenship), Health, Design and Technology are taught through an inquiry approach. Further, primary students have access to secondary school resources and facilities, particularly in STEM and the arts. Access to optional instrumental lessons continues to be popular, as does access to before and after school care, STEM Club and Code Club.

Secondary students access the full breadth of the Victorian Curriculum in specialist classes across years 7-9 before transitioning into a personalised program based on extensive careers education. The college also delivered a high ability class in Years 7 to 9 with places filled by students within the designated enrolment zone. The College has successfully implemented the new Victorian Certificate of Education including the Vocational Major. Additional resources including VETiS (Vocational Education and Training in Schools) and HeadStart have supported students to access vocational pathways where the traditional ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) based pathway does not meet their needs. Beyond the classroom, secondary students participated in programs such as Wyn-speak and network debating competitions where the college achievements were celebrated. Strong performances in sports (particularly Volleyball) were a positive reward for the growing levels of engagement, commitment and pride that characterise Altona College students and staff.

**The over-arching goal of our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan is to ensure the growth of every student across the school. In line with the 2023 Annual Implementation Plan, the clear focus for 2023 was to strengthen learning outcomes in reading and numeracy across the school. Additionally, staff extended their efforts to restore social capital and respectful relationships post Covid-19. School improvement work focused on building the capacity of staff to better assess, plan for and monitor the learning and wellbeing of every student. With the addition of new learning specialists, considerable work was undertaken to ensure new systems and processes were aligned with Disability Inclusion Reforms. Teacher learning also focused on improving the quality of differentiation for students both above and below the expected level of achievement.**:
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**Both learning and wellbeing outcomes are strong and improving in most areas. NAPLAN data continues to show positive trends particularly in years 5 and 9, noting that smaller primary cohorts do contribute to volatility in the year-to-year data. Despite this, additional tutoring and support resources were deployed in the latter half of 2023 to support students with lower-than expected performance and should result in improvement moving forward. Numeracy was an area of improvement in 2023 and continues to be a focus for ongoing, long-term improvement.**:
**Student survey data suggests our students regularly experience a culture of high expectations in safe, orderly classrooms where teachers actively advocate and diffe