Principal's Message
Hello and welcome to week 8.
Let me introduce you to the day of a secondary principal who is working remotely.
Like many of you, I have lost my daily pattern a little – up at the usual time for days that I am on site and a sneaky lay in on the days that I am working from home.
Opening up the laptop or the desk top begins the day and the email run begins! The phone rings none stop and the communication begins back and forth without any 'real faces', except for the days that I am on site. The days that I am on site I do enjoy seeing faces and chatting with the students and the small number of staff on site. We have been averaging around 4 or 5 students each day.
I am a little worried that my neighbours think 'I’m a bit nuts', because as I talk on the phone I walk laps of the street (walking and talking to yourself for hours may be the first sign of madness).
One of the real pleasures that remote learning has enabled is being able to 'drop into' classes. I can do this quickly and easily – in and out and then off to the next class. I must admit that dropping into Year 12 Chemistry leaves me very confused!
Yesterday, I worked all day with the Assistant Principal group and we focused on 'All things 2022'. This was an outstanding day, and whilst we all were tired by the end of the day and 'the brain had certainly been drained' – the high quality work and strategic focus on our future priorities and planning for success was fabulous!
This time of year is also when we get back a lot of the data and information from NAPLAN, and the 3 surveys from students, staff and parents. Our NAPLAN results became available on Tuesday. I have spent a huge number of hours unpicking these results to see where we have grown and where we have not. As part of the meeting with the Assistant Principals, we spent much time working through the details and individual student results, to try and reflect on classroom delivery, quality of programs and setting goals for the future work.
In short , my first reaction to the NAPLAN results was a little disappointing, because I am greedy about wanting significant improvement at all times. But, when patient and reflective, we have 'steadied the ship' and definitely stopped what was a very declining slide. We had small rises in holding those students who are in the top 2 bands in reading, writing and numeracy PLUS we have reduced the number of children who have made low growth across the two years. So pleased with the work done and the improvements made – now back on the greedy train and looking for a way to really lift again!
Every Year 7 and Year 9 student has an Individual NAPLAN report . These reports will be posted out to families shortly.
Lastly – just to be really clear.
The message from DET regarding Remote Learning and returning to Face to Face school is:
- All Victorian Schools will work remotely for the rest of Term 3.
- This is regardless of what restrictions are eased next week for regional areas.
- If anything changes – I will certainly let you know asap!
Thanks for listening and I hope to see all of our students on day 1, Term 4 – fingers crossed! 🤞
Trudie Nagle
Principal
