Principal's News
Education Minister's visit
On Wednesday the 23rd Education Minister Hon. James Merlino visited Sandringham College to launch the Mental Health Practitioners in Schools Initiative. On the day Minister Merlino took a tour of the school met with several of our students and staff. The highlight of the day was his meeting with Nelson our school Therapy Dog who impressed with his excitement and good behaviour.
The Minister was keen to talk to the students about our great school and to look at the condition of our buildings and grounds. This was a wonderful opportunity for him to understand our needs in relation to facilities and how they can best support the future learning of our students.
I thank the Minister for taking the time to visit and for launching the Mental Health Practitioners Initiative. We are lucky to have secured a school psychologist - Gulzabeen Mohammad, who will work with our well being team to support the positive mental health and learning of students.
Prime Ministers Awards for Science
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science are Australia’s most prestigious awards for outstanding achievements in scientific research, research-based innovation, and excellence in science teaching.
This year Andrew Wilkinson (Wilko) was recognised as one of three outstanding science teachers in the nation receiving a commendation for his work in Science Education. Andrew was the only science teacher from Victoria to be recognised and the only state school teacher in the secondary division.
Andrew Wilkinson is an outstanding educator and innovator. He not only inspires in the classroom, he has initiated and run the Robotics program and inspires many others through our College Primary School Outreach Programme.
Building young people of great character
Many of you might have heard about the recent controversy about a groups of students from a prestigious private school espousing hurtful statements about women on a Melbourne Tram.
At Sandringham College we are a community and we aim to work with parents/carers to develop young people of great character.
This year we have run a number of programs but have specifically engaged two external agencies to support our Year 9 students.
Our boys attended a day long session with The Man Cave, an organisation that focuses on male mental health and supporting our boys in their transition to manhood in a healthy and positive way. Parent information will be provided so that parents/carers can talk to their boys about the program and support them.
Our Year 9 girls undertook a 2 hour session with Tomorrow's Woman and participating in two self defense classes. Our students thoroughly enjoyed each program.
Respectful relationships
The best relationships are respectful ones
The Respectful Relationships whole-school approach recognises that schools are a workplace, a community hub and a place of learning. Everyone involved in our school community deserves to be respected, valued and treated equally.
We know that changes in attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and equality are lived across the school community, and when classroom learning is reinforced by what is modeled in our school community. (DET)
In 2020 we will be introducing and teaching the Respectful Relationships Curriculum through the Health and Physical Education program at years 7-9. This program aligns strongly with the Victorian Health and PE Curriculum and we feel that it is best delivered by our teachers.
We will supplement the classroom teaching with guest speakers and specialist programs such as The Man Cave and Tomorrow Woman, two programs we ran recently at Year 9.
Further information about the respectful relationships program can be found on the Department of Education and Training website.