Action Packed Term 2

There has been a vast range of activities that have taken place so far this term. We began the month with the entire school taking part in Athletics Day, with most students taking the opportunity to dress up in their house colours and compete in events.

In the junior school, I enjoyed watching the Year 7's prepare and present their National Youth Day 'Anti-Bullying' presentations. At Year 8 students recently brought their current novel 'Searching for Grace' to life when they visited Point Nepean National Park.

Our Year 9 students have been highly engaged with their weekly excursions into Melbourne's CBD, focusing on Melbourne's history pre-federation.

Year 10 students recently broke the school record for the number of students completing work experience in the one week, with students trialing an amazing range of different careers and workplaces (thank you to all of the families who assisted to arrange placements and hosted students). Our Year 11 VCAL students have begun operating the VCAL cafe on a regular basis as part of their Industry and Enterprise class, whilst our VCE students have been finishing up their Unit 1&3 coursework and assessment tasks.

We are quickly approaching the end of semester. Year 10 & 11 semester one classes have now come to an end in preparation for the mid year exams which begin on Monday 5th June. Semester two classes begin for all year levels on the 19th June.

Senior School Development

The senior school building is now in its final weeks of construction. Senior students have been involved in the selection of furniture for the common room, with staff and students due to move into the new building early next term. The facility will be a fantastic addition to the College.

Doctors in Schools

The College recently took delivery of a new facility as part of the Doctors in Secondary Schools Program.

This program, funded by the state government, will involve a doctor visiting the school once per week for appointments with students and is due to commence during the course of next term. The government is currently in the final stages of appointing staff for the various facilities across the state. We will communicate with all members of school community about the program once a doctor is appointed.

Student Voice

On May 15, we conducted a student leadership assembly to formally recognise all of our elected leaders for 2017 and present them with their new badges. The assembly was run by our school captains, Kayla Wainwright & Tyler Foreman and ably assisted by Eunika Burger and Jaimik Chauhan.

In line with our new Strategic Plan, we have been involving students in a large range of decision making at the College this year. A recent example was when we invited student leaders to a focus group to review our current uniform. Whilst there were some differences of opinion about some items in our current uniform, students collectively felt strongly about some potential changes. The students involved now plan to consult with the wider student population prior to gathering the views of families and presenting to school council. If there are any changes to the uniform, time would be given for students to still use their current uniform. See the student leaders report for further details.

Primary School Visits

Patterson River has recently hosted visits for a number of primary school activities.

Our recent testing days for our EXCEL programs saw record numbers of primary school students trying out, with more than double the number of students trying out from last year. The College has seen a growth in interest from prospective parents and a significant increase in applications for Year 7 in 2018. I would like to thank members of our school community who speak highly of Patterson River to other members in the community.

Traffic Management

The recent arrival of cold weather has seen an increase in the number of students being driven to school. Together with our current building works, this has resulted in significant congestion and safety concerns during pick up time. We are currently in discussions with local government to look at additional parking spaces and additional drop off points. In the meantime members of our school community are encouraged to:

- Use designated car spaces only

- Do not pick up/drop off students on the roundabout

- Use the bus lane to drop off in the morning, providing that buses are not blocked or held up.

- When riding a bike, students are to wear a helmet and walk the bike across the crossing

- Parents consider driving through the car park to pick up students rather than stopping on the roundabout

National Youth Day

On the 30th May, Year 7 students took part in a range of activities for National Youth Day. As part of the Youth Day celebrations, each Year 7 class presented an anti-bullying video they had developed. The quality of all these productions were of such a high standard it was difficult for the judges to determine a winner. Each of the Year 7 forms were able to communicate a powerful message in their presentations. Whilst all of the forms created high quality presentations, the judges (Year 10 leaders) awarded the top presentation to 7C (video below). Special mentions to 7G for putting together a very informative and factual presentation along with 7E who developed an artistic and emotive message. Patterson River has a reputation for being a friendly, high performing school. The work of the Year 7s and high quality presentations gives me confidence that this culture will continue well into the future.

Proposed Edithvale/Chelsea/ Bonbeach Bus Route

The College is currently seeking feedback on a proposed new bus route to better service students from the suburbs of Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach. The proposed bus would be operated via the school and require students to purchase tickets via the office (similar to our Sandhurst Nuline bus). The proposed route would save a student one hour per day in travel if commuting by public transport from Chelsea. If you live in one of these suburbs, we would greatly appreciate if you could take the time to fill out a quick survey . We will use this information to make potential modifications to the route prior to getting quotes from bus companies.

Click here to complete survey.

Click here for further details on the proposed bus route along with all existing bus routes.

National Reconciliation Week

In April our Indigenous students participated in an Art workshop to produce a multi canvas picture depicting their heritage and cultural ties with Port Phillip Bay. The art work was completed under the guidance of local artist Kez Knight. Several of our students were at a Reconciliation Week event where their art work was presented to Central Bayside Community Health Services, to be displayed in their offices. As well as the students and artist, the event was attended by many community elders as well as local politicians including Tim Richardson.

New Reporting System

For the first time, the College will use Compass reporting this year for all year 7 - 10 subjects. Teachers have been busy setting up and using the new system which among other features will link Common Assessment Tasks to the reports. Given that we are using a new product, we have not advertised a date for the release of the reports in case we hit unexpected problems but anticipate that they will be released in the first two weeks of next term.

The College has also been trialing the ability for parents to approve excursion notices and make payments via Compass. We hope to be in a position to launch these features to all parents early next term.

Mr Daniel Dew (College Principal)

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