Principal's Update 

As we now reach the half way point of the school year, it is a good time to reflect on the successes of the past 6 months. In many cases, students and schools have had to adopt to a new way of working to remain flexible during lockdowns and provide a differentiated level of support to students across the year.

As we move into the mid year school holidays, on behalf of the College - I hope that all members of our community will make the most of a well deserved break and come back refreshed and energised for what will be a busy Term 3.

REMOTE AND FLEXIBLE LEARNING

Thank you to all students and families for their work and support during the recent lockdown which mean that we have to move to Remote and Flexible Learning. 

The College certainly understands that the lockdown period can be a challenging experience for some and we have enjoyed seeing all students return to school.

It was pleasing to see so many students engaging with remote learning and obviously previous experiences have made the lockdown experiences in 2021 smoother.

COMMUITY GARDEN

Work has been continuing with local community to develop a Community Garden on school grounds. This work is currently being led by School Council, who are looking forward to further increasing the connections we have with community and follows the successful application for a grant to develop space on school grounds for a community garden.

We are now looking for any students, parents or families who may be interested in this work to join the implementation team.

STAFFING UPDATE

On behalf of the College community I would like to welcome Luke Rokich as a member of staff who will be teaching Math's. 

As a part of our ongoing commitment to delivering a quality learning program at John Fawkner College, the College has made all possible attempts to recruit high quality teaching staff for any vacant positions.

Our remaining recruitment process will fill vacancies in the area of Health and PE.

Currently, there is a significant shortage of teachers who are qualified to teach in these areas, and as a result we have a suitably qualified teacher filling this role temporarily. On behalf of the College, we apologise for the disruption this has caused.

We are working very hard and quickly to resolve this staffing issue and will be appointing new staff shortly to these roles.

Should you have any queries about this letter or any others issues please feel free to contact me directly.

UNIFORM REVIEW

As many parents and students may be aware, the SRC has made some recommendations to School Council to review the current School Uniform. These changes are in no way extensive and are mostly about the material and cut or style of the trousers available to students through our supplier.

It is important that all students continue to wear full school uniform and that any changes will likely take affect in 2022.

Based on the feedback received, the College has now sought samples of the refreshed uniform items and they are being reviewed by School Council.

SUBJECT SELECTION AND COURSE COUNSELLING

As families will already be aware - due to lockdown, the information session for this year’s Subject Selection and Course Counselling process was cancelled.

With many of the challenges to shift to remote and flexible learning, this information has now been communicated out to families via compass.

A revised 2022 Academic Handbook has now been published on the website

MID YEAR REPORTS

Teachers have begun to prepare for midyear reports for all students at the College. This is an important time for parents to reflect with their son/daughter about their successes and challenges in the first semester of 2021. These reports will be posted on Compass in the final week of Term 2 and parents will be sent notifications via Compass.

Into the future and specifically for 2022, the College will be moving away from this model of reporting into a Continuous Reporting model which will allow for more regular and targeted feedback on student learning. 

COLLEGE MASTERPLAN

The revised College Masterplan is continuing its development with Bryant Alsop Architects who in the coming weeks will be running workshops with students and staff to gain their input.

We are looking forward to being able to show you some of these designs in Term 3 and celebrating the future direction of the College. This work will hopefully be linked to upcoming State Budget announcements.