Assistant Principals
School Uniform
The school holidays is a terrific time to do a quick check to make sure your child has all the necessary pieces of school uniform for term 4. If you are purchasing school shoes for your child over the term break please remember that they require plain black, leather, low heeled shoes. These may be traditional school shoes or may be shoes with a sports sole.
Parents sometimes request exemptions for school shoes in term 4 in the belief that their child's feet will grow so quickly that they will not fit the shoes in term 1 next year. It is our experience that this is a rarity. As a result we request that all parents ensure their children have the correct shoes for school for term 4. Should there be financial concerns about providing the correct shoes please get in contact with Ms Katz, the Leader of Student Wellbeing. She has access to a supply of new school shoes and can supply them for families who demonstrate need.
Rugby Jumper Update
Mr Murphy has been working with students to finalise the design of the new rugby jumper. Although there was not common agreement about the look, it is a design that most students and parents will find pleasing. We are now working through the next part of the process to have them made.
The College Uniform Shop sells all other pieces of school uniform and is open over the school holidays on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. It is also open the first Saturday of the Term from 1 - 4pm.
Student Parent Teacher Interviews
We had a great day on Wednesday meeting students and their parents to discuss student progress. As teachers, we love this day as it gives us an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge learning and to work in partnership with parents to support students.
It was great to see so many students and their parents on the day. If you felt the day was hectic and full on, you would be correct. We had 2,906 interviews, this was up 9% on the same time as last year. This equated to 581 students having interviews having interviews, an increase of 6% from last year.
One teacher, Mr Qiu, was fully booked with 54 interviews and their were 9% of teachers who had 50 or more interviews. The longest interview went for 25 minutes (luckily there was no one waiting in line) and the last teacher to finish, well after 9:20pm was Miss Hillebrand.
We are sure our teachers got home from work on Wednesday night and were too tired to talk to anyone and some were a little hoarse on Thursday morning.
Subject Selection Update
Thanks to all those families that made their elective subject payments by the due date. This process ensures that these students' requests for those subjects are prioritised at the time of putting the timetable together. If you missed out on paying by the due date, there may still be other opportunities for you child to be considered for these subjects later on in the process.
Over the term break Mr Lewis will be working on putting the timetable blocks together. This process is a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, as he works out which combinations of subjects on the timetable give the broadest range of students their preferred options. In doing this process he will first work out the year 12 blocks, to ensure that students who are part way through their VCE journey are able to continue what they have started. He will then build the other blocks around this.
The process of developing the timetable is a long one, with many, many steps along the way. If things all go to plan, in November students should know what subjects they are doing next year, teachers will know their subjects in December and we will all know when they run early in the following year.
VCE Revision and Exam Preparation
Our VCE teachers and Year 12 students do not get much of a break over the school holidays. Over the next two weeks there will a huge number of VCE revision classes being offered to students. Although these are not compulsory, we strongly recommend all students attend the sessions that relate to their subject. Teachers have put considerable time and effort into preparing a revision program that will benefit students as they work towards preparing for their exams.
Subjects that have revision sessions are: Literature, Physics, Accounting, Psychology, Biology, Visual Communication, Health, Music, Informatics, Business Management, History, Maths Methods, Specialist Maths, Further Maths, Food Studies, Chemistry, PE, Dance and Systems Technology. All revision sessions occur in the second week of term. Students and parents can find details of each on Compass.
VET Building and Construction Holiday classes
A number of VET classes continue to run over the school holidays. VET students should check with their teachers and providers about the requirements for each course.
Those students who are in VET Building and Construction at Wantirna College have been advised that their classes will continue over the term break.
Catherine Ford, Andrew Lewis and Katrina King
Assistant Principals
Thanks You Mrs King
Special thanks to Mrs Katrina King who has been in the role of Acting Assistant Principal whilst Mr Kruger is on leave. We have enjoyed working with you over the last 3 weeks.