Koonung Secondary College Newsletter

Principals' Report  

Executive Team Report 

Mental Health Practitioner Initiative

The health and wellbeing of all of our students is an important focus at Koonung.  These times can be challenging with COVID and remote learning. The Department of Education and Training has promised funding for each primary and secondary school to employ a Mental Health Practitioner in an ongoing capacity. Mental health practitioners will complement schools' existing health and wellbeing teams.

They will work to the needs and priorities of the school, including direct student support and other early intervention services, coordinating support for students with complex needs, and contributing to whole-school approaches to mental health promotion and prevention. We have advertised the position on Recruitment Online and sincerely hope to secure a suitable candidate to commence sometime next semester.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

"It’s about improvement through collaboration – improve student outcomes by improving what we do together".  Through the Victorian Professional Learning Communities (PLC) initiative, Koonung Secondary College has been building a collaborative culture of continuous improvement in teaching and learning to improve outcomes for every student. Over Semester 1, a number of our Koonung leaders have been participating in PLC training. We are building a professional learning community (PLC) as it is a proven way for schools to increase student learning. PLC schools put student learning first. Data and evidence drive everything they do. Our PLC Teams will be working through rigorous cycles of inquiry to identify student learning needs, and plan the professional learning and classroom practices needed to meet them. Working collaboratively to continuously improve teaching and learning is at the heart of the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO). The Framework is used by Koonung to focus their efforts on key areas known to have the greatest impact on school improvement.

Learning Specialists (LS)

Our students may have seen one of our learning specialists in their classroom.  The aim of the Koonung LS Team is to create a culture of working collaboratively to continuously improve teaching and learning.  Our Koonung LS Team is supporting the learning of our teachers by:

  • modelling excellence in teaching and learning
  • providing opportunities for our colleagues to observe high-quality teaching and to reflect on these observations
  • leading purposeful, data-informed collaborative inquiry focused on improving student learning outcomes
  • modelling High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITs) and supporting other teachers to embed these strategies in their own practice.

Our Koonung LS Team comprises Nancy Fiore, Amy McLellan, Mark Anderson and Mia Poulton

Reports

Semester reports will be available at the end of Semester 1.  These reports will include a transcript of all information provided via Learning Tasks throughout Semester 1.  Please note that this information is posted on Compass by teachers as each assessment is completed, so you do not need to wait until the end of the semester to access your child’s academic results.  Included in the semester report are new learning behaviours of:

  • Active engagement with learning
  • Works collaborative and independently
  • Managing personal learning

During the semester break, many of our senior students will be spending time revising and preparing for future assessment tasks in the new semester.  I am currently working with and encouraging my Year 12 students in my class to develop productive study habits at home and in class, so that they can maximise their potential.  I, like other Koonung teachers, seek to provide my students with specific feedback so they can build on their strengths and improve weaknesses.  Our teachers make the difference and are available to show your child how to develop consistent, effective and efficient work habits. Please take time to read the report and learning task feedback with your child and focus on developing strategies with them to ensure that they can continue to improve on their academic outcomes.

University Alliances

Many of our students will have seen pre-service teachers in their classrooms throughout Semester 1.  Koonung SC has an alliance with University of Melbourne and Deakin University. We provide experienced mentors to develop our pre-service teachers into interventionist practitioners with high-level analytic skills, capable of using data to identify and address the learning needs of individuals. The alliances provides a basis for a mutually beneficial, ongoing partnership between the universities and our school community. I wish to share with you a comment from one of our pre-service teachers - "The school has a wonderfully positive sense of community, which has been amazing to be a small part of! This sense of community and the structure and logistics of the art and design classes, have resonated strongly with me, and further solidified ideas of the kind of teacher I aim to be."

 

Student Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS)

At Koonung Secondary College we value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and we are conducting this survey to find out what you think of our College.

The AtoSS is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist us to gain an understanding of your perceptions and experiences at Koonung. During Term 2, our students have been asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to our College, their learning, peer relationships, bullying and life in general. There are also some questions about student health and wellbeing. Understanding health and wellbeing needs is important to support our students to learn and thrive at the college. In our experience, young people enjoy having their say. We have been running this type of survey for a number of years and it has been invaluable in helping us understand student views. We will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your schooling experience. If you were absent when the survey was conducted, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Quinlan, before the end of Term 2.

Community of Practice (CoP)

Part of the Victorian Government's Education State vision is a Communities of Practice (CoP) approach where networks and system leaders share knowledge, experience and resources. This approach is a way of working together to achieve improved student learning outcomes. Our CoP consists of Camberwell High School, Vermont Secondary College and Koonung SC and our learning is focused on embedding formative assessment practices  within a school community. Formative assessment is a type of student assessment that occurs during the learning process. Formative assessment aims to give teachers feedback about student progress so that instructional approaches, teaching materials, and academic support can be modified accordingly and feedback can be given to the student. We look forward to working with the leaderships teams from Camberwell and Vermont.

PFA Focus Group

Seeking feedback from our community is an important part of school improvement. The leadership team wanted to gain some feedback on our current continuous assessment and reporting model. The feedback from the PFA focus group was invaluable.  Our focus questions were:

  • Continuous reporting on Compass – what does it look like from a parent’s prospective?
  • Continuous feedback on Compass - what does it look like from a parent’s prospective?
  • Progress reports - what does it look like from a parent’s prospective?
  • Semester reports what does it look like from a parent’s prospective?

Mark Quinlan 

Assistant Principal 

 

Colin Chirgwin awarded Medal of the Order of Australia

Congratulations to Colin for recognition of his work over a long period to support youth of the Manningham and Whitehorse area.

Colin was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Colin’s service in his role coordinating the Student Services team at Koonung along with his work with Anglicare and as a generous volunteer with Allambie and at the Doncaster Junior Football club was acknowledged in this prestigious award.   See the attached citation.

 

Thank you for your dedication, expertise and compassion Colin. The staff and students, and Koonung community are grateful for your contribution.

 

Marianne Lee 

Principal