Xavier Davis appointed as principal at Camperdown College after celebrating 100-year anniversary

Xavier Davis has been appointed as the school's principal after a seven-year tenure as assistant principal at Colac Secondary College.

The Leongatha-born Colac resident replaces Cherie Kilpatrick in the role and he said the move came at the right time in his career.

"It's an exciting time to come on," he said.

"We're looking at the next 100 years of the college. I know the school's been established as its own entity for about 30 years which means generations of students have already gone through it.

"All the good routines and connections between families have already been established in the primary school, but I've still got big shoes to fill.

"The people before me have setup Camperdown College as the school of choice, it's classed as an influence school which means the way the teachers work collaboratively is often seen by other schools as best practice."

Mr Davis said it was that reputation which drew him to the opportunity.

"With Camperdown College, it's about continuing to be a high-performing school in its own sense but also assisting and sharing the knowledge that's been built with other local schools as well," he said.

"It's a highly respected school which I'm really excited about seeing where we go in the next chapter.

"For me now, it's about getting to know the kids, families, staff, building trust amongst the whole group so we can take the kids on their journey."

Mr Davis - who spent four years at various primary schools including in London, Kew Primary School and Camberwell Grammar's junior campus - said he looked forward to following the students from P-12.

"In a lot of schools you only get six to seven years with their students; the exciting thing will be to see a student walk in through prep and shake their hand on their way out of year 12 to their pathway and knowing they've had a lot of guidance across their 13 years of education," he said.

Mr Davis said he equally looked forward to providing that guidance to staff.

"I've been incredibly impressed with the professionalism of the staff so far," he said.

"My work will be around supporting them with the right professional development, the right links to professional learning and giving the space for teachers to practice, experiment, fail, have another go.

"The school is in the infancy of their four-year strategic plan so the road map is already there - it's just enacting that and supporting staff to get there.

"All schools have areas they're looking to improve (on) and part of the school's future focus is bettering its numeracy.

"They're a really strong school in literacy with the Sounds Right program, their literacy results have traditionally been very strong and the staff are very confident.

"I know they've started their work on bringing numeracy up to be as strong and successful as the literacy."

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