Principal's Report

Welcome to 2019

I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and welcome our new staff and students to our school community over the course of the last few weeks. 

For the second year in a row, we welcomed 10 new classes of Year 7 students at our whole school assembly with our new cohort walking into a round of applause. 

In addition to the new Year 7s, we have welcomed a number of new staff into the College:

Samantha Jeacle (Assistant Principal)

Patty Lamaro (Literacy Specialist)

Emily Davison (Drama/Dance)

Tanya Wade (Drama/Media)

Leigh Newsome (Design & Technology)

Bennifer Billimoria (Wellbeing)

Tracey Delany (Learning Support)

Shireen Wills (Art/Music)

Sue Kirkpatrick (Learning Support)

Bianca Chippendale-Ravenelo (Learning Support)

I am excited about the skills and experience that our new staff bring into our learning community. 

In addition to our new staff, a number of staff within our College have moved into new roles of responsibility for 2019. A list of the key positions of responsibility can be found here:

Annual Implementation Plan

Each Victorian Government school develops an Annual Implementation Plan in order to meet their strategic goals. The plan is developed by the school leadership team then endorsed by school council and the Department of Education & Training. 

We are currently in our third year of a four year strategic plan. The school is currently making strong progress against our strategic plan and achieving sound improvements in student outcomes. The Annual Implementation Plan for 2019 is as follows:

Strategic Plan Goal 1: To develop capacity to implement the College's Teaching & Learning Instructional Model. Annual Implementation 2019 Strategies:

1. Introduce a school wide approach to reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

2. Introduce a Year 7 Maths teacher Bastow project focusing on hands-on problem solving activities to support student learning. 

3. Introduce teacher professional development in collaborative learning.

4. Run student assemblies to support their understanding of teacher approaches to Teaching & Learning (including lesson outlines, assessment practices, metacognition and learning sequences). 

Strategic Plan Goal 2: Improve the accuracy of teacher reporting judgements. 2019 Strategies:

1. Implementation of form focus groups to enable teachers to review student learning information, workshop strategies and develop goals. 

2. Complete a data analysis of all teacher judgements prior to the release of semester reports to the school community. 

Strategic Plan Goal 3: To review the current staffing structure and develop a leadership, teacher and Educational Support (ES) structure, with clear, known role descriptions, to cater for the current and future needs of the college. 2019 Strategies:

1. Documentation of all major policies, procedures and guidelines for newly established practices at the College following the 2018 restructure.

2 Development of a single document with hyperlinks to increase efficiency for staff and develop less reliance on email for communication of key documents.

Strategic Plan Goal 4: To improve student voice and school connectedness through the development and implementation of a student voice strategy across all levels of the college.

2019 Strategies:

1. Implement a school wide positive behaviour framework. 

2. Embed recent changes to student leadership, school values and the house structure. 

3. Implement the annual student surveys as a data source used in teacher performance and development plans.  

Carrum Coast Guard Patterson River Fun Run

Congratulations to the staff and students who took part in the Carrum Coast Guard's Around the River Fun Run on Sunday 24th April. With perfect conditions, close to 100 students competed in the run assisting us to win the inaugural school competition. 

Open Night

We will be hosting our annual Open Night for prospective parents on Thursday 14th March. Current parents and current families are more than welcome. 

Following a huge turn out last year that caught us by surprise, this year we will be running two presentations (7pm and 8pm). Families will have the option of completing a tour following the 7pm presentation or prior to the 8pm presentation. Either way, just turn up to the Performing Arts Centre at 7pm and we will be ready to help you out. 

Please feel free to share the details to other families who you think would like to see the great things going on here at Patterson River Secondary College. Event details:

Facility Upgrades

Over the recent holidays, the College renovated a number of classrooms. Upgrades to the facilities included:

• New chairs & tables for the Year 7 Centre

• Repaint & carpeting in M Rooms

• Resurfacing of stadium and PAC floors

• Sound proofing in music office and middle of Year 7 Centre

• Speakers for projectors in B rooms

• New projectors in F rooms and some R rooms

• ‘Sports Hub’ shipping container on the oval

• Cleaning (steam cleaning / polishing / windows)

• New plates for projectors to utilise HDMI cables

• Small number of computers in B rooms

• Shade sail / roof over Year 9 deck

• New lockers for new senior school locker bay

• Final draft of Performing Arts Centre landscape plan

Private Property & Accidents at School

The Department of Education & Training requires parents/guardians to be reminded each year that:

• they are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other transport costs; and
• parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers
• The Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Australian Representatives

Congratulations to two of our students who have been recently selected into squads to represent Australia. 

Cody Smith has been selected in the U17 Australian Softball Team and will be touring New Zealand in April. 

Cody Smith 

Rhys McKenna was recently selected in the U15 Australian Cricket Squad. 

Rhys McKenna

School Council: Representatives Wanted

We are seeking one student and six parents to join our school council for 2019-2020. Our school council meets on the third Monday of every month. Sub committees meet 5.30-6.30pm and school council 6.30-7.30pm. Every member elects to join either the student learning, finance or facilities particular sub committee. 

The next two years will be an exciting time for our College as we embarked upon extensive capital projects. Further information and nominations forms can be found in the below document. 

Year 7 Welcome Camp

This week our Year 7 students have been attending the Phillip Island camp. I have heard reports from staff and students that the camp has been a fantastic way to for our new year to get to know each other in a fun and action packed environment. 7C and 7E took out the annual tug of war competitions for their respective camps. A full report will be delivered in our next newsletter. 

Curriculum Outlines

In recent times teachers have focused on ensuring that parents and students have access to curriculum outlines and the timings for Common Assessment Tasks. There are two types of documents that are able to access to monitor and support your child's learning:

1. Term Outlines: an overview of topics and CATs for Years 7-9. 

2. Curriculum Outlines: a detailed overview of the scope and sequence for each class. These can be found by going into an individual class on Compass and opening up the 'Resources' tap. 

Overall, I have been highly impressed with the commitment and energy that everyone has approached the beginning of this year with and am excited about what we can achieve together over the course of the year. 

Mr Daniel Dew

College Principal