College Principal Message 

Dear Families and Carers,

It is very pleasing to note that we have recovered from the recent snap lockdown and students can continue to enjoy the multiple benefits of actually being in classes and mixing with their peers.  Teachers and school staff more broadly are also happier as we are really people, people. 

School Council

In College Council news, we are delighted to welcome a new Council President; congratulations to Mandy El Ali.  Mandy is a very long term supporter of the college, being an alumnus of Kings Park High School.  Our other parent representatives are; Renee Pavlovic, Julie Young, Vera Mijakoski, Tanya Neenan and Michael Ellis.  Our student representatives are serving their second year this year and are Thai Luong and Yashmeen Sidhu.  We also have a new Community member; Kate Tangas from RMIT. This makes for a wonderfully broad representation from families, the community and students. Thank you to all who give generously of their time to support the college.

Delahey Renovations

Our local state member of parliament, Natalie Hutchins will open our newly reroofed and refurbished buildings at Delahey on April 23.  You may remember that it was thanks to Natalie that Copperfield received the funding required to repair the chronically leaking roofs in the first place, so it is only fitting that we welcome her to mark the wonderful progress that has been made.

Student Celebrations

We also have many student related celebrations to note, the main one being the belated Awards evening for our 2020 graduates run in the gym at Delahey on March 9, which was the same day Luke from Year 11 was presented with his Marrung scholarship at a splendid function at the Windsor Hotel in the city.   There are only 30 scholarships awarded state wide, so well done Luke. 

Luke  with Uncle Lionel  (General Manager, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association), Aunty Vera Briggs (Life Member of VAEAI) and Steve Dimopoulos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier

School Captains

We have two new College Captains, Jessie  and Arieta  who have been working with our Community Engagement Leader on the many family events we run in Term 1. Jessie is our first captain from our VCAL cohort and is an excellent singer; both students are to be congratulated on their commitment to the college and their leadership.

Curriculum Day                                                        We ran a very successful curriculum day on March 12 where all staff were involved in the Pre Review Self Evaluation (PRSE) and then elected to undertake professional learning, mainly from their peers, related to current school initiatives.  During the PRSE sessions staff examined the college from a range of perspectives, including the perspective of students, families and DET by reflecting on the data and information we have from each of those groups. Thank you to the families who responded to the survey we put on Compass in the weeks leading up to the 12th. The insights we gained will feed into the college’s next Strategic Plan which will be developed by the end of Semester 1.  Having said that, the reviewers may request some further consultation with families for validation.

Discovery Evening

Our Community Engagement Leading Teacher, Lina Nicolas was busy organising our Discovery Evenings which took place on March 25.  She is trying a new marketing campaign through Facebook as well as the more traditional avenues.  We are engaging a photographer to update our stock images and because it is probably our major self-promotion event it could probably be supported by more corporate looking props.

Tutor Learning Initiative

The Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) is progressing with varying degrees of success.  Initially we adopted the model where students withdraw from class for half periods to seek the assistance they need. We have had some movement with some students withdrawing and others going in as they find what suits them.  Families of students who are tutored should be able to read their child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) on the Insight’s tab on their Compass page. We are now in the position to bring in more tutors and we are adding another model of assistance whereby tutors will assist students in their classes.  We will start by asking teachers to identify their top students who might benefit from some individualised extension work and asking tutors to support that. If you have any questions regarding the tutoring program please contact your child’s Campus Principal.

Parent Student Teacher Conferences

The college has decided to modify how we run Parent Student Teacher conferences this year.  We have noticed that families prefer to come after work so we have extended the time teachers are available until 8:00pm, we are also adding some extra time slots for junior campuses on the last day of term.  This, along with some other modification of teachers’ hours of attendance mean that staff will be allocated the day before Melbourne Cup Day as a Time In Lieu day.  So no students will be at school on Monday November 1.  This was approved by College Council on March 22.

Pip Griffiths

College Principal