Assistant Principals

Student Drop Off and Pick Up

There have been a number of near misses in the car park lately particularly at the beginning and end of the day.  In order to keep the congestion to a minimum and to ensure cars can park and leave safely we ask that parents do not use the carpark as a drop of zone for their children.

The safest places to drop students off are on Amesbury Avenue at the bottom of the College, on Saxon Avenue and Georgian Gardens both off Harold street near the school crossing and on Templeton Street heading towards Burwood hwy past the roundabout.

We thank you for your cooperation with this.

Student ID cards

Public Transport Victoria (PTV) issue a card for school students to allow them access to concession fares. Previously this has been done through a paper process where the student fills in the details and the College signs off that they are truly a College student. With the new Student ID cards, being issued soon, this will be a thing of the past. The 2019 Wantirna College ID card will have PTV logo and will be sufficient for students to use a proof of concession status. A separate PTV card will no longer be required.

Student access to the College Network

I am sure you have been told by your children that we have had some difficulties with the College Network and the internet connections. Many groups from both the College IT technicians through to Telstra and DET Technicians have been trying to solve this issue. One of the difficult parts is that it is an intermittent issue. We are hoping we are close to fixing the issue.

Many of you would have seen the Course Confirmation/Payments section on your Compass Home page. These notifications appear above the News Feed on the right hand side in a red background. They appear when there is some process to complete. Earlier this year I put one up for parents and students to sign off on the Acceptable Computer Use Agreement. Some parents and students have yet to complete this process. The College is required by the Department of Education and Training to have one of these agreements with any student who is connected to the College network, whether or not they have their own computer or a leased computer. I urge all parents to complete the agreement or contact Mr Andrew Lewis, so that we can continue to have your child connected to the College’s network.

Classrooms in hot weather

It has been a hot, hot week at school this week and even though it is heading into autumn we are likely to experience a few more hot days.   Your children are probably telling you tales of rooms with extreme temperatures and how unbearable it has been, however we believe our teachers have been working hard to accommodate student needs in relation to the weather.  

More than 50% of our classrooms are air conditioned as are many of our larger spaces.  When rooms have been reaching extreme temperatures teachers have been relocating classes to different spaces that are cooler or air conditioned.  Where this has been impossible teachers have been adapting lessons to take account of the conditions. 

There is an urban myth going around that when it reaches 100 degrees on the old scale (38 degrees) schools can send students home.  Please be aware this is not the case. The Department of Education does not allow state schools to send students home because of heat.

College Council discussed the air conditioning situation at the most recent meeting and have made a recommendation that we develop a plan and get quotes for increasing the number of air conditioned classrooms in the school. 

Run Club

You might have noticed a large number of students running the streets on Thursday morning.  This was the second meeting of our new run club.  Run Club is open to all students of any year level, experience or fitness level who are interested in training for the "Run for the Kids" fun run in early April or the  school cross country in May.  On only our second run the ability level is quite spread out, from experienced athletes to students who have never run before.  We break up into groups and go at different speeds and distances based on ability.

Special thanks to Mrs Mantzanides for organising and recruiting staff and students and thanks to Mr Rogers for supplying the free breakfast afterwards.

Literacy for Learning

As you know we have had early finishing days for students on Mondays and Wednesdays for the last two weeks.  After dismissing students at 2:45pm our teachers and education support staff have hurried down to the senior centre for a 3:00pm start to the Literacy for Learning program.

We really appreciate our committed and dedicated teachers who are keen to focus on developing their capacity as teachers even after a full day of teaching.   

Over the next 12 months you will start to hear the phrase register continuum.   Your children may ask you for assistance in helping them write further up the continuum or you may see teachers giving feedback to students about the register continuum.  This is a concept we will be building on across all areas in the curriculum.

All pieces of text fall on a continuum.  At one end of the continuum is writing that is everyday and concrete.  The tone at this end is informal, personal and novice whilst the language choices are mostly spoken, in the here and now and based around action, e.g :  Today was really hot, and we were stuffed. When we went to the Orchard there was no icy poles left and we were mad.

At the other end of the continuum is writing that is more technical and abstract, the voice is formal, impersonal and informed whilst the language choices are more generalised.  e.g The extreme temperatures today had a significant impact on student productivity.  Ice cream sales in school cafeterias were high with some schools selling out leaving students disappointed.

Different genres of writing have different purposes and audiences, each having its place on the register.  The point is to help students learn to write well across the continuum rather than just down the formal end which many students tend to favour. 

We would like to thank parents and students for

accommodating this professional learning.

Catherine Ford, Shane Kruger and

Andrew Lewis

Assistant Principals