News For Parents

Welcome To Wheelers | Digital Open School

Our dedicated Open Night mini-site, "Welcome To Wheelers", is now live for future students and families! This First Class digital destination is the perfect place for prospective parents and families to learn more about our fantastic College from the safety of their own homes. We encourage our existing families to share this fantastic resource with their friends and networks, and to help show future parents how Wheelers Hill Secondary College can help their child be the best that they can be!

Literacy Lifelines | Literacy Specialist Report

THE 3 QUESTION TECHNIQUE

Let me introduce you to the 3 Question Technique. This is something I use for my own children, especially now in isolation. And it’s not related to the same three questions I ask every night before bedtime.

Have you brushed your teeth?  

Have you changed into your pyjamas?  

Have you gone to the toilet?’ 

Every night!  Every night, I say the same thing and it is STILL a surprise to them!!

 

The 3 Question Technique I am referring to, is a little different to the latter. This technique will help you with the following situation: ‘Mum, I need help! I don’t understand this, can you write it for me so I can see how to do it?" This situation is my life. This is what is real. This happens on the daily. How do I support my own children in their studies and work at the same time? How do you offer advice without revealing the answer and by doing the work for them? Because, let’s face it, this approach is quicker, and it eases the tension in the household. 

 

Enter, the 3 Question Technique. This little beauty helps our children to identify their errors but also creates actions for them. We want to offer clues to our children so they can be the detective and solve their problem on their own. 

 

What to do: (Your child must attempt the work first)

Read their first attempt and instead of identifying their errors, guide them to their error and let them find the solution. 

Put a number next to certain areas in their attempt (1, 2 and 3). 

At the bottom of the attempt, ask three questions. 

Ask your child to respond to the questions.

This allows your child to re-read their work. They start to investigate and analyse their work in more detail. They will come to their own conclusion. *ONLY 3 – If there is any more than three, you have lost your audience, and you now have a screaming child having a tantrum. 

 

I hope this will support your family through the remaining weeks at home. Please see the following link for examples of questions you can ask your child. 

For more ideas around literacy, please contact me: chan@whsc.vic.edu.au

 

Ms. Claire Hanley 

Literacy Learning Specialist 

VCE Careers Update | Careers Coordinator

Despite the challenges over the last couple of months Wheelers Hill Secondary College has continued to provide career support and guidance to students and families. It’s been wonderful to connect with the year 12 students via MS Career Teams and  support them as they not only try to navigate the online learning platform, but also continue to work through their own career planning process that will lead them to their desired pathway.  We have also been busy connecting with students and families from other year levels to provide assistance with their pathway.

 

As with face to face counselling, Career Practitioners are bound by ethics that govern the way they deliver their service and with E-Counselling, there is no exception.  Career conversations that have taken place during lock down still required notes to be taken and passed onto students, with clear boundaries set prior to the interview, a brief explanation of what would be discussed and for remote conversations, a recording of the session.

 

Considering the way we work has predominately gone ‘online’ we have been inundated with information on where students can access and participate in ‘virtual’ career events.  Many of these events were announced in several issues of the WHSC Careers Newsletter (Senior School) so I encourage students and families to tap into some of these events which are designed to assist with career planning efforts.

 

NATIONAL CAREERS WEEK

Next week, 18th-24th May, is National Careers Weeks. NCW aims to celebrate careers, career development and all those who provide career support. There have been several career activities/resources made available to the WHSC community (Yr 7-12) during NCW to encourage all to start thinking about careers.  Further ‘virtual’ career events/opportunities will be made available on Monday 18th May, so keep an eye out for them in the Year Level Bulletins.

 

To celebrate NCW we have also developed a WHSC Careers Competition – ‘Match your teacher to their past career aspiration’. The list of teachers and their possible career aspirations was distributed on 11th May via the Year Level Bulletins and clues for each teacher will be provided in the Year Level Bulletin on 18th May. The student with the most correct matches will be announced in the Year Level Bulletins on Monday 1st June and will receive a prize upon their return to school. Good Luck to all who enter!

 

Ms. Voula Jakubicki 

Careers Coodinator 

Wellbeing @ Wheelers | SchoolTV Resources

Remote Learning can present many challenges, including dealing with feelings of isolation, disconnection, and loneliness while separated from friends and teachers. Luckily, all  WHSC students, parents, and staff can access the WHSC Wellbeing Portal, which provides information on a range of issues including mindfulness, anxiety, and maintaining good mental health while Remote Learning. Access the Portal via Compass, the College website, or by clicking here.

Students and families looking for information on how to deal with the emotional impact of COVID-19 can also consult the info in the above attachment from HeadSpace.

 

Ms. Helen Charalambous

Wellbeing Coordinator

College & DET Privacy Policy

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement, found on our website.

 

For more information about privacy, see: Schools’ Privacy Policy – information for parents. This information also available in nine community languages.