ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT

Paul Dawson, Bradley Headlam and

 Julie Andrews

Assistant Principals

Remote Learning #4

A quick thank you to parents, students and staff for their efforts in transitioning straight into another Remote Learning scenario. Our staff dedication to providing an online learning platform for every lesson through Google Meet and to ensure continued interaction between staff and students was outstanding. Below is a chart highlighting our attendance from one period on one of the days. Bearing in mind this does not take into account students who could not access class through technical difficulties, it is a pretty good achievement. This represents the attendance in most sessions throughout the lockdown period. (Legend: Green - Present, Yellow - Late, Orange - Not Present Explained, Red - Not Present Unexplained)

Exams, Learning Tasks, Progress Reports and ACER testing

The Progress Reports have continued to be useful in monitoring the application and effort towards subject based achievement. We have now completed a semester of these and it is important to know that all Student Managers utilise this to inform ‘point of need’ for students. Essentially, we observe their Grade Performance Average (GPA) and if it is below 2.5 and there are no other factors impacting their performance then the Student Managers work through a set of strategies to help support the students to improve their basic work habits.

As we get closer to the end of the semester, students will be completing various Learning Tasks (assessments) and exams. These will show the reward for the effort (demonstrated in Progress Report data) and how it links to great performance. Students should observe this data in Compass to reflect on what it took to reach their study goals. Student Managers will also observe this data and use it to provide feedback and encourage the same kind of reflection in their students. 

What if the GPA is high, but the results are not? This then becomes a conversation between students and staff and/or parents. The staff member can reflect on the teaching program considering if the tasks were accessible to the student or if the right kind of differentiation was applied to suit the needs of this student. 

To support this discussion we have tested all students on a General Assessment Task (GAT) this year. This highlights a student's ability in various areas of performance. We can therefore observe performance data, with GPA scores and compare against the GAT score. In other words: 

In order to support your child in this busy assessment and feedback period, you can observe Compass and click on Learning Tasks (see below) to see what work is being done. You will also see in the example below that this student has some work not submitted and has some assessments coming up. This can really be supportive in helping your child keep up to date or with recognising any further support that might be required.

Semester Reports

The Semester One Reports for 2021 will be finalised this term with the plan to publish in week 2 of term 3. Leading up to this time, all classes will be completing their final learning tasks and, for many subjects there will be an exam. All of this information is collated into the end of semester report along with the assessments against the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards (Years 7-10), or achievements of VCAL learning outcomes or the  VCE Units of Study outcomes. See the attached screenshot of the summary page of a Semester Report showing the achievement level (black dot), the growth from the last report (dotted lines) and the letter grade/rating (‘C’ indicates working at the expected level).   

In week 3 of Term 3, the second Parent Teacher Conference Day will be held for 2021 at which you can discuss the Semester 1 report with your child’s teachers. 

Families that have been following their child’s academic progress from last year will be looking for the improvements that were discussed after last year’s report or from phone calls or meetings during 2021.  

Disciplinary Consequences

North Geelong Secondary College has specific consequences concerning student lateness. Generally, these policies allow for the occasional late arrival; rare instances of excused tardiness throughout the school year are often forgiven. Students sometimes have legitimate reasons for showing up late, such as transportation problems and doctor’s appointments. These events are considered to be "excused absences."  Students are required to provide a note explaining why they are late. Students may be issued lunchtime detentions which can escalate to after school detentions if they fail to attend the lunchtime detention.

Uniform - If a student is out of uniform then they must provide a note from home and show this to their Home Group teacher who will issue a uniform pass.  This note will suffice for one day unless there are extenuating circumstances.  The school is able to support students with uniforms if families are experiencing financial hardship.  Students may also receive a lunchtime detention if they are out of uniform.

Assessment and Reporting Day (18 June)

On Friday, 18 June, there is an Assessment and Reporting Day. This is a student free day whilst staff work through their corrections and assessments. 

Semester 2 start changed to Term 3

Due to COVID and the Lockdown we have decided to extend our Semester 1 subjects to the end of this term. Therefore, Semester 2 will start day one of Term 3 instead of week ten, Term 2, as planned. This will give teachers ample time to finish assessments and provide valuable post-exam feedback in the remaining time.

Subject changes

As always, we try to ensure that students are in the right pathway for their chosen career and sometimes there is a need to change subjects. This year we are particularly full and hence subject changes are a difficult scenario with the most likely outcome being that a subject change is not possible. If your child wishes to change a subject for pathway purposes please contact the Sub School Coordinators to discuss further so that they can look into it for you.

2021 School Immunising Program

Barwon Health have asked schools to remind parents and carers that they can arrange for missed or catch up immunisations at the Barwon Health clinics as per the attached timetable. The school holidays are a good time to catch these up .

Barwon Heath will be sending sms reminders to the Year 10 families about the Meningococcal ACWY immunisations which is currently of high importance, given that there has been a recent case in Sydney. Year 7 families will also be sent an sms to remind them of catching up the first round of immunisations, as the Gardasil requires a gap of six months between doses. The second immunisation day for Year 7 students is on 26 October.