By Shelby Brooks
A leadership change at Pakenham Secondary College in Term 2 has seen the school community flourish in new directions.
New principal Aaron Smith took over from Ray Squires upon the longtime principal’s retirement at the end of Term 1 this year.
Mr Smith said he was proud to become principal of the school, though admitted he had big shoes to fill.
“Ray was here for a long time and did a great job,” Mr Smith said.
“I have a lot of admiration for Ray in terms of the great work and great leadership he was able to afford Pakenham Secondary.”
Since stepping in as principal at the start of Term 2, Mr Smith said he had found a strong sense of school community.
“There’s a really strong sense of community here,” he said.
“There’s a real sense of teamwork which I’m really enjoying.
“The students, parents and staff are really working together to get the best results for our students.”
Mr Smith was principal at Wheelers Hill Secondary College for six years prior to his appointment at Pakenham.
He had also served as assistant principal at Wheelers Hills, Emerald and Lilydale Secondary Colleges as well as having involvement with the sports and recreation program CEDA for a few years.
“I didn’t know too much about the Pakenham school or community at all,” Mr Smith said.
“But I thought what a great opportunity to do something different.
“I thought why not, what a great opportunity to work with a different community and I haven’t looked back.”
Since taking on the leadership of the school, Mr Smith said he was focused on furthering learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.
“As a principal of any school it’s what we’re here to do – we’re here to have a positive impact,” he said.
“Numeracy and literacy remain important areas of focus for us.
“We want to make sure we’re providing great opportunities around the pathway that is important to them be that academic or applied learning.”
Mr Smith said his teaching philosophy was centred around the students.
“We want to give our students a say in their learning because it’s about them,” he said.
“All of my decision making has the students at the centre.”
In his two terms as principal, Mr Smith said he felt the school had made many gains.
“In my short time here I get the sense that we are a school on the move,” he said.
“We’re getting a number of enquiries from prospective parents and there’s a sense that we’re opening up even more to the community.
“The buildings and grounds we’ve been able to further refurbish, our communications with our community has gone to a whole new level with the website, social media and internal platforms. I think any school needs to get on the front foot and share the positives of what we’re doing.”
Heading into 2023, Mr Smith said he wanted the school to continue to be seen as a school of choice for parents by improving and expanding programs and curriculum.
“We want to further grow our performing arts program, our co-curricular program which includes excursions and camps and our student leadership program and opportunities,” he said.
“We also want to continue to provide high quality teaching instruction. We should never stand still in that space and if there are things that we can do to further improve our practice of how we teach, then that will bring better results for our students.”
Next year, the school is providing more choice for students in Year 9 and 10.
“In the past, the timetable has been reasonably traditional in those year levels,” he said.
“We’ve freed up the timetable and given students more to chose from so that means they have more say in their learning.”
