PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Principal - Erin Wright

Acting Principal Appointed for Terms 3 and 4 of 2020

Some of you that have been into the College over the past few weeks would be aware that I have a growing bump and am due in July to welcome my second child. Therefore, I will be on maternity leave for the second half of this year. I am very glad that I get to wrap my arms around the College community and embrace you all back as we return to on-site learning this term before I head off on leave. However, I am very confident that the newly appointed Acting Principal is going to do a tremendous job of taking care of you all for the remainder of 2020.

I would like to congratulate Tamara (Tamy) Stubley on being appointed to the Acting Principal role at SCSC for the remainder of the year. Tamy is currently Campus Principal at Williamstown High on the 7-9 Bayside Campus. Tamy and I met online on Friday and will continue a handover across the rest of term. Welcome to the most wonderful school and we know that you will love your time here at SCSC and I thank you in advance for taking on this important role for our College and wider community.

Andrew Brown and Narelle Geary will also continue in their Acting Assistant Principal roles for the remainder of the year.

Tamy Stubley

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I have this opportunity to join and lead Surf Coast Secondary College in second semester this year. I am honoured and understand the privileged position of leading a school community that strives for the best possible outcomes for all its young people.  In the few interactions I have already had with staff and Erin in particular, it is abundantly clear that Surf Coast Secondary College is a unique and special place that I look forward to adding value to. 

I have been teaching in secondary schools for the past twenty two years, seventeen of them in leadership positions.  I am currently the Campus Principal at the Bayview Campus, which is the Years 7 - 9 Campus of Williamstown High School. I have been the Principal at this Campus for the past six years and without a doubt enjoy every minute of it. Now, I am excited to join the Surf Coast Secondary College community.

It is important for you to know that I am also a parent of two children, who are in grade one and grade three. I fully understand the complexities and challenges facing families every day and I look forward to working with you to ensure your children are on the path to becoming the best version of themselves.

Another opportunity to work alongside professional, experienced, innovative and committed educators is just so exciting and I look forward to building upon the successful home school partnerships with many of you during my time at the College. 

STRIVE

What a term this has been so far, and definitely a term like no other that any of us have experienced, or hope to again, in our lifetimes. Although the need to engage in remote learning as part of the government’s response to stopping the spread of COVID-19 has brought many challenges for us all, it is important to look at the ‘silver linings’ where we can. 

I am SO proud of all community members for your resilience, optimism and willingness to work together for the community. We have had minimal students being supervised on-site which indicates that our families are heeding the government’s advice and doing all that we can to stop the spread through social isolating. The few students that we have been supporting on site whose parents cannot work from home or leave their child unattended, have been wonderful and we have formed some lovely connections to them as staff and they have to each other in their time here.

Our staff have all been working so hard. They care about the young people they work with deeply. They have shown nothing but a willingness to step out of their comfort zones, learn new things and adapt their home environments so that they can still engage with their students and do their jobs as best they can. 

Our students have been engaging well with their morning mentor check-ins, submitting work and being positive about the new skills that they are learning and adapting to in this way of accessing their learning.

On Monday May 11th, the Premier announced that schools would resume a gradual return to on site learning.

Monday May 25th - all staff required back on-site and student free day to support preparation and readiness

Tuesday May 26th - Year 11 and 12 students resume, as well as Year 10 students for their Year 11 and VET classes as needed 

Tuesday June 9th - students in other year levels to resume on-site 

Detailed information about the resumption back to on-site learning have been emailed to parents and students via Compass, so please check your emails.

UNITE

Recently, we sent out feedback surveys to all students and parents in our College community. We thank you for the great response that we had, with over 430 students and 120 parent/carer surveys submitted. The College leadership team and wider staff have been using this feedback to put into place some improvements based on suggestions that have been made. 

Week 5 of term was set aside as meeting free to assist with staff prioritising calling home and making contact with parents as a measure to replace Student Led Conferences which cannot occur as yet as parents are not allowed on site.

I am so proud of the work of some staff, students and community volunteers to be spending time each Friday morning cooking food that can be distributed to families in need in our local community and through our partnership with Salvos Connect. We thank local organisations including Coles, Woolworths and Peaches for donating food through our local supermarkets as well as non-perishable items that families have been donating in locations around town. This was also featured in the Surf Coast Times which was wonderful for the College. We are proud to be able to give back to the community in this troubled time.

RESPECT 

I have been very pleased that students have been respectful and supportive of each other in remote learning and their continued responsible use of online tools and technologies. 

We have been distributing wellbeing information via Compass to families regularly and we do encourage you to continue to reach out to your child’s mentor teacher to ensure that any concerns are communicated so that we can provide support.

Whilst remote learning has provided challenges for our young people, they have proven to be very resilient and willing to adapt during the process overall. Returning to on-site learning will also pose challenges for some who may be anxious and have not been around large numbers of people in some time. Again, please let your child’s mentor teacher know in advance so that we can be in touch to put some things into place to support the transition back to being on site.

FLOURISH

The majority of our families and students are very fortunate to be able to support our young people to learn from home with internet and comfortable working environments. I would like to acknowledge the work of Acting Assistant Principal Andrew Brown who has been working with families who are in need of internet access support. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the families in our community that donated Wi-Fi dongles that you had at home but were not using so that others could benefit from them. In week 4, DET provided some additional resources which meant that all families were able to be provided with internet. We will communicate with families what equipment does need to be returned to the College and when as we resume on-site learning, but we hope that you have felt supported and well-resourced by us to assist with engagement in remote learning at this time.