Greensborough Focus 

Principal's Report

February 2021

Welcome back to Greensborough College for 2021.  I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students and their families, in particular our Year 7 students. 

Following a year when we spent much of the year working and learning from home the Education Department has prioritised the following for all government schools:

  1. Learning, catch-up and extension. 
    • This targeted support will be provided to students through the Tutoring Program and the Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy program
  2. Happy, healthy and active kids
    • Lunchtime clubs and the school production are the specific strategies we will be implementing
  3. Connected students and schools
    • A new social emotional learning program called “Connect” has been introduced at Year 9 level
    • A Chaplain will be appointed in coming weeks, who will work with the wellbeing team, to provide support for students and to implement whole school programs

Our College’s other key priorities are:

  1. To improve literacy, numeracy and VCE outcomes for all students
  2. To improve student engagement and connectedness
  3. To improve student engagement in learning

Our own school priorities clearly align with the Department of Education and Training’s priorities for 2021.

 

New Staff

This year we welcomed the following new staff members to our team:

 

Harry O’Neil:  Mathematics                                                                                                 Abbey Xie: Finance/Accounts Payable                                                                                                             Jack Thornton: Classroom Support                                                                                                                   Child Safe Standards:   Our commitment to child safety 

Greensborough College is committed to child safety.  As a community, we want children and young people to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children and young people, as well as our staff and volunteers.  We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children and young people. There is zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures. We meet our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

You will find the following policies on our website, http://greensc.vic.edu.au/ and I encourage parents/carers to become familiar with them.

  • Child Safety Policy
  • Child Safe Code of Conduct Policy
  • Child Safe Standards Duty of Care Policy
  • Visitors Policy

We ask families to support the College and our child safety practices by doing the following:

  1. When visiting the College, all parents, carers and visitors to the College are required to report to Administration (Nepean Street entry) and to sign in and out. The Visitors Policy explains this procedure further. Please follow Covid-Safe guidelines as required.
  2. When dropping off students, parents/carers are required to do this outside the school grounds on the street kerb. Please do not drop off in the school car parks as this may cause a traffic and safety issue.

College Uniform     

All new students to the school are required to wear the new school uniform – both the academic and sports uniform.  All students will be wearing the new school uniform at the beginning of 2022. The slide below explains the expectations around wearing the school uniform with pride. 

Attendance

A key priority for the College is to improve the attendance rate of all students across all year levels. High levels of attendance at school equates to greater positive outcomes for students and adults in life. The slides below highlight the importance of daily attendance and that absence from school should only be for illness.

 

Greensborough College Sports Precinct and Stage 2 Building Program

The Sports Precinct will be completed by the end of term 1 with Greensborough College students having full use from the beginning of term 2.  The Sports Precinct belongs to Greensborough College and our school has full use of the facility during school hours until 4.30 pm. After hours local sporting clubs will be located on the site for the duration of the North East Link Project. The College can also have access to the sports fields for special events as required.  Watching this project unfold has been exciting and we are waiting with anticipation for it to be officially opened. 

 

The building works have commenced on the south west side of the College. We will be turning the sod very soon and then we will see three new buildings constructed by the end of the year. The Administration building will be the first building on the Nepean Street frontage. The next building will be a Science and Technology Building and the third building will be a Library and general purpose classrooms.  Following the construction, the old A, B and C wings will be demolished and the grounds landscaped. The Technology wing will have some external works completed on it as well.

 

And finally, the school will have new fences and gates that can be secured after hours. The fencing will be 1.8m high and provide safety for our students and school during the school day as well as security after hours. The community will have access to the Sports Precinct however there will be no after hours access to the school site.

 

Over the summer break we also extended the High Performance Centre installed an indoor sprint track into the facility. 

 

There will be boards erected by the Victorian School Building Authority in coming weeks with details about the build if you are interested in following up further.

 

This is a fantastic time for the school community to see the school being rebuilt as a modern state-of the-art educational environment where students can thrive and grow.

 

We can’t wait!

Pauline Barker,

Principal