Principal's Report

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

School Council – welcome to our 2023 members

At the AGM held on Monday 27th March, we welcomed the new and returning members to our School Council. Members of school council contribute to the strategic and financial direction of our college and play a pivotal role in ensuring Maffra Secondary College is a positive learning community where all individuals are accepted, inspired, and empowered to succeed.

Our School Council comprises of the following members:

• Executive officer (Principal) – Jennifer Roep
• Council President (parent rep) – Peter Neaves who has children in Year 8 and 12
• Vice President (parent rep) – Marisa Huts who has a child in Year 8
• Convenor of Finance (parent rep) – Kristy Phillips who has a child in Year 8
• Daniel Shugg (parent rep) - child in Year 8
• Natalie Bedggood (parent rep) - children in Year 8 and 10
• Koby Shingles (parent and rep) –
• Vanessa Noble (parent rep) - child in Year 10
• Meagan Webster (student rep) – Year 11
• Jamieson Barton (student rep) – Year 10
• Derek Harms (community rep) – child finished in Year 12, 2022
• Carol Caffrey (staff rep)
• Chery Evans (staff rep)
• Marie Clark (staff rep)

On behalf of the school community, I would like to thank outgoing councillors Hans Simon, Donna Francis, and Baxter Mather for their valuable contributions to school council in 2022.

We still have one remaining community member position available. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me at the college early in Term 2.

Student free days in Term 2

As we finish term 1, just a reminder of the student free days that will occur in Term 2. Please put these in your calendar:

• Monday 24th April – All staff will be participating in a professional development day with Sale College and Yarram Secondary College focusing on Differentiation and the use of an Explicit Instructional Model. The following day is ANZAC Day, and all students return to school on Wednesday 26th April.
• Friday 9th June – Teaching staff will be using this day as their Semester 1 Professional Practice Day.

Update on toilets

We thank our wonderful, community minded students who have shown they are committed to upholding our school values and keeping our school safe and clean for all.  Over the last couple of weeks, we put in measures to improve the use of our toilet facilities to ensure they were being used for the appropriate reasons and to reduce the amount of rubbish and damage that we were seeing. The measures included an increase in staff supervision around the toilets at recess and lunch time and the closure of the Middle Years and F-Wing toilets during class time. Students have still been able to access toilets during class time however they are required to sign in. We have been surprised by the significant number of students that are using the toilets at this time and as a result of this, we will continue to monitor this until we see a significant decrease in the number of students leaving class during important learning time.

I have asked students to ensure they use the toilets at recess and lunchtime, so they do not need to leave class and miss out on learning time. I have also asked staff to refrain from letting students leave class in the first part of lessons after recess and lunch, as well as the last part of the lesson prior to recess, lunch time and the end of the day, unless it is absolutely necessary.

We thank all students and families for your support with this matter, and as always, we welcome feedback and input from our school community.

Upper quadrangle re-development

One of the major projects we are looking to undertake in the coming year is the re-development of our upper quadrangle. 

In March we had a Landscape Architect come out to the school to look at the project. During the meeting and walk around, we discussed ideas and feedback from staff and students outlining what we would like the space to include. We also discussed the redevelopment of the F-wing toilet block. The meeting was very productive and through this process we will also look to develop a masterplan for the schools’ grounds so over time we can continue to beautify and improve our facilities and grounds for the school community.

I will provide regular updates as we go through the design process and once this is finalised, we will then begin organising trades to undertake the work which I envisage could extend to 2024. The environment committee, which is a sub-committee of school council will play a significant role in this. As mentioned earlier in the newsletter, we still have one community member position available so if you have a background or strong interest in this area, please contact the school.

Therapy/Wellbeing Dog

Towards the end of last year, as a school we started to discuss what the benefits would be for our students if we were to look at the inclusion of a therapy/wellbeing dog. We are aware that several of our feeder primary schools have a therapy/wellbeing dog, and the impact has been very positive on their young people and has supported the social and emotional needs of their students, under the guidance and supervision of their handler and other school staff.

We are currently in the process of working with a registered organisation to purchase, train and integrate a therapy/wellbeing dog into our school community early next term. The recognised benefits from working or visiting with a therapy/wellbeing dog include:

• reduced stress and anxiety, including decreased learner anxiety behaviours
• improved physical and emotional wellbeing 
• improved self-esteem, empathy, and interpersonal skills 
• improved relationship building and ability to pick up on social cues
• improved attendance (for disengaged students or students at risk of disengaging).

Examples of activities that students may engage in with the therapy/wellbeing dog include:

• petting and/or hugging the dog
• speaking and reading to the dog
• giving the dog commands that the dog is trained to respond to
• walking the dog

We are purchasing a low-allergen therapy/wellbeing dog. Upon introduction of the therapy/wellbeing dog, we will take care to avoid, where possible, contact between the therapy/wellbeing dog and students, staff, and visitors where the school is aware they have allergies to dogs.

Staff, students, and visitors are requested to notify the school of any health or safety concerns about the therapy/wellbeing dog. We are committed to consulting with students and parent(s)/carer(s) in relation to any such health or safety concerns so that appropriate arrangements can be made on a case-by-case basis.

Early next term we will consult and get our student cohort to come up with a name for our new member of staff 😊. Until then, here is a photo of the therapy/wellbeing dog – she is a Groodle and will be 8 weeks old at the end of the month.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Easter break and we look forward to seeing all students back onsite on Wednesday 26th April.

Ms Jennifer Roep

Principal