Welcome back to Greensborough College for 2019. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new students and their families, in particular our Year 7 students. We have had a very smooth start to the school year.

To start the year off, I met with each year level and presented to them the College’s new vision and values. In the December Greensborough Focus, I presented these to the community so I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate those messages in this newsletter.

This year we have reintroduced the College Planner for each student. The planner is to be taken to every class. It contains key information about the school, including the College’s vision, values and expectations. Students are expected to use the planner during the day to record assessment tasks, due dates and homework. Parents and carers are welcome to discuss the use of the planner with their children.

We are also focusing on recognising and acknowledging positive behaviour by recording house points on students’ COMPASS chronicle. The term 1 focus is on behaviours that demonstrate courage. This strategy is part of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Framework that we are implementing.

This week all students gathered for the first time in 2019 at our whole school assembly. The assembly was conducted by the student leaders and highlighted the College focus for term 1. We also had the privilege of listening to our 2018 College Dux, Jamie Rodda, who shared her story as a Greensborough College student. Her message to the students centred on following your passions and working hard to achieve your goals. Jamie will start at University in second semester after taking an overseas trip with her family. We wish Jamie all the very best in her future endeavours. The transcript of Jamie’s speech is in this newsletter.

New Staff

Welcome back for another year to Kathleen Fogarty, who will take on the Junior Assistant Coordinator role, and to Nick Heading.

We also welcome the following new staff members, who have joined our team this year.

Andrew Ericksen Media/English

Paige Hodgson Maths/Science

Judith Walsh Business Manager

Sharon Shaw Business Manager

Joshua Nelson Integration Aide

Cindi Carr Integration Aide

Luma Saqqa Integration term

Child Safe Standards

Our commitment to child safety

Greensborough College is committed to child safety. As a community, we want children and young people to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children and young people, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children and young people. There is zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures. We meet our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

You will find the following policies on our website, http://greensc.vic.edu.au/ and I encourage parents/carers to become familiar with them.

Child Safety Policy
Child Safe Code of Conduct Policy
Child Safe Standards Duty of Care Policy
Visitors Policy

With these policies come new procedures. We ask families to support the College and our child safety practices by doing the following:

When visiting the College, all parents, carers and visitors to the College are required to report to Administration (Nepean Street entry) and to sign in and out. The Visitors Policy explains this procedure further.
When dropping off students, parents/carers are required to do this outside the school grounds on the street kerb. Please do not drop off in the school car parks as this may cause a traffic and safety issue.

Parents and Friends Association

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Parents and Friends Association for their tireless work over the summer holidays organising the second hand book sales, stocktaking and selling the second hand uniforms and weeding the gardens around the Administration Building. The school community appreciates your commitment and service. Thank You!

Speech by Jamie Rodda

Good morning everyone,

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jamie and I was lucky enough to receive the title of the DUX of Greensborough College for 2018. I would just like to start by thanking the school, all of my teachers and anyone who was involved in my year 12 experience for pushing me to succeed and providing me with endless support and belief, I would not be standing here today if it wasn’t for all those who believed in me and told me I would be able to come this far, I am more grateful than anyone can know.

I’m here today to speak to you all about my experience at the school, but not from the typical academic standpoint where I encourage you all to work as hard as I did and tell you how I achieved success. Although these attributes are important within a school environment, I’m here to talk to you all about the importance of personal belief and how truly important it is to trust yourself, pursue your interests and waver away from the idea surrounding the true significance of an ATAR score.

Although I often didn’t find the academic side of school difficult, I struggled with my own personal identity in the beginning of year 12. It is like entering a foreign land following your recent transition from mere teenage hood, now having to worry about the daunting oncomings such as choosing a university course and somehow having this obligation to know in some form what you want to do after you leave high school. For me this presented great personal conflict, I often felt lost at the thought of my future and felt this responsibility to do well and succeed and secure myself this amazing ATAR score. I felt the pressure of having to decide then and there where my future was headed, some intellectual career path such as medicine or law. The first piece of advice I can offer all of you heading into year 12 and those currently studying in it, is to not feel as though your future can be decided for you based on the subjects you choose at school or how you are made to feel about your career. During year 12 I chose subjects that all got scaled down, all were considered easier and none were even remotely applicable to becoming a doctor or a lawyer, yet I was happy during year 12 as I was able to pursue my interests. Do not fall into the trap of believing that you must do what are considered smart subjects to achieve a high ATAR score. I was able to achieve success because I trusted myself and what I was passionate in, and although I did work extremely hard, having a fundamental interest in the subject you are studying is the underlying key to performing well in school. Throughout my year 12, my friends would often tell me that I believed I could be the DUX, and I always told them no because of this belief that the subjects I chose could not carry me far enough. I now understand, and encourage all of you to share this understanding, that following your interests is far more important than simply abiding by the predetermined beliefs regarding how harder subjects will in fact boost your ATAR score.

Secondly, I want you all to know that an ATAR score is not the be all and end all. It does not define your identity, it does not prove your worth and does not define your capabilities. An exam in a room for 3 hours on any given day does not determine where you are able to go in life, nor does it immediately govern your career path. After receiving my ATAR, I felt this amazing sense of relief in that all my dedication, hard work and commitment had paid off, yet I also felt this sense of guilt and obligation toward choosing a prestigious course merely because my ATAR dictated I do so. I felt as though I had endless possibility, yet also felt restricted in that I must choose something that leads to a high paying job or that leads to respected accreditation. I am however, happy to tell you all that I have accepted my first preference at Latrobe University studying a double degree of arts and health sciences, a course that required a minimum 50 ATAR to be accepted. Just because I achieved a good score did not then mean that I had to stray away from my interests and pursue an extremely intellectual career path. The main message I want to impart on you today is to not let the pressure of year 12 and beyond cause y

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