PH: 8560 6079

Email: dohertys.creek.p9.co@education.vic.gov.au

.co@education.vic.gov.au

2026 TERM DATES

Term 1 - 29th January to 2nd April

Term 2 - 20th April to 26th June

Term 3- 13th July to 18th September

Term 4 - 5th October to 18th December

2026 Curruculum Days

Term 1

1st Curriculum Day- Tuesday 27th Jan

2nd Curriculum Day- Wednesday 28th Jan

Term 2

3rd Curriculum Day- Monday 21st April (1st day Term 2)

Term 3

4th Curriculum day - Friday 14th August

Term 4

5th Curriculum day - Monday 2nd November (Professional Practice Day)

2026 End of Term Finish Times

Term 1 - 2nd April (1pm finish)

Term 2 - 26th June (1pm finish)

Term 3 - 18th September (1pm finish)

Term 4 -18th December (12.30pm finish)

Just a friendly reminder that the School Council has established parent discussion forums where parents can seek help from fellow parents and reach out directly to current School Council members to address concerns. Your child's teacher, Lead teacher or Principal team are always happy to talk with you and we encourage you to raise concerns with them in the first instance, however if you feel uncomfortable raising any issues directly with the school, the School Council is more than happy to raise them on your behalf. We eagerly anticipate your participation in our parent discussion forums.

Telegram link: https://t.me/+_FytB6CZoDNiMmI1

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/595226818708636

Child Safety at Dohertys Creek P-9 College

Our child safety framework (Child Safety – Dohertys Creek P-9 College) explains how we support and maintain child safety and wellbeing at Dohertys Creek P-9 College. It includes our:

Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Child Safety Reporting and Responding Obligations Procedures, and
Child Safety Code of Conduct, which outlines acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for all staff and volunteers at our school.

Our students and families are important partners in providing a child safe environment. These regular newsletter reminders are one of the ways we ensure our school community is aware of:

our commitment to child safety, and
how to provide feedback or raise child safety concerns.

If you have any concerns about child safety at any time, please contact South Western Regional Office of the Department of Education and Training on 1300 338 691. Any child safety complaints or concerns are treated seriously. For more information about our school’s complaints process, see our Complaints Policy (Policies – Dohertys Creek P-9 College).

We also welcome your ideas on ways we can improve our approach to child safety and wellbeing. If you have any suggestions or comments please contact a member of our Administration team on 85606079 who will put you in contact with a member of our Principal Team.

COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS & NOTIFICATIONS

Please note it is imperative you use compass as all school communications are sent through this platform. It's a good idea to get into the habit of checking your notifications in compass each morning. This will ensure you do not miss anything. For assistance with navigating the Compass app, refer to our dedicated Compass page later in this newsletter.

Discover how to get the most from your Compass Parent Portal

This FAQ will answer any questions you might have about how Compass works and guide you to getting the most from your Parent Portal.

https://www.compass.education/support/parent-faq

Uniform - Buy, Swap, Sell

Dohertys Creek College BSS uniform page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/247480763606501/?ref=share

Lost Property:

We always aim to return what we can but often when items are unnamed, they are added and remain to the ever increasing lost property pile.

We hope to reunite as many items as possible with their rightful owners. If you think your child may have misplaced anything at the school, please take a moment to look through the wooden create located in the library entrance.

Please LABEL your children's belongings!

We have an enormous amount of lost property that was not labelled. Please make sure that all of your child’s uniform is labelled with their FULL NAME, as well as their lunch boxes, drink bottles etc, so that we can ensure that the lost hats, jackets, jumpers are returned to their rightful owners.

If you have already labelled these items, it is also a good idea to check that they are still legible, as a lot of them have faded or smudged in the wash, making it difficult to identify them.

Accident Insurance

REMINDER – the Department (which includes our school) does not have accident insurance. Items of personal property that are lost, stolen or damaged at school is not the responsibility of Dohertys Creek P-9 College or the Department. Staff and students are reminded not to bring items of value to school. Our Personal Property policy can be viewed on our website (Policies – Dohertys Creek P-9 College)

Privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy (click here), describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education] safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education], please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

Amharic
Arabic
Chinese
Dari
Gujarati
Mandarin
Somali
Sudanese
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese

Acknowledgement of Country