message from the principal
Welcome to 2018 at BSC
and to the first edition of
The Brunswick Star
for the year.
We look forward to sharing student, staff and community successes with you throughout the year
2018 marks an exciting year for Brunswick Secondary College. We will see the completion of our major building works, we will conduct our School Review which will guide our Strategic Plan for the period of 2019-2022 and we welcome two new Assistant Principals.
The new APs will lead work in the portfolio areas of Teaching & Learning and Climate for Learning. These portfolios are part of the framework that the Department of Education and Training uses. These areas will direct focused effort on key areas that are known to have the greatest impact on school improvement.
Samantha Milbourn (Assistant Principal – Teaching and Learning)and Claudia Johnson (Assistant Principal – Climate for Learning) introduce themselves to you later in this issue. I hope that in the near future you have the opportunity to meet and converse with them about the work they will lead at Brunswick Secondary College.
Students
All year levels have started the year really well: there is a very productive and positive feel around the school.
We look forward to welcoming Year 7 and other new families at the Welcome Evening event (Tuesday, February 20) and our Senior School families are invited to the Success Integrated information session (Wednesday, February 21) this week. We encourage all families to participate in events so that together we can build strong working relationships. Commitment to this approach will help support every student at the school to achieve success.
Alumni 2017
We wish our alumni students of the Class of 2017 all the best as they embark on further study, work or travel. We are delighted with the outcomes for this group of students who were justly rewarded for their efforts last year and who achieved so highly. They are excellent role models for our current students and we hope that they remain connected to BSC through the Alumni Association and/or by visiting and attending school events where they will always be welcome.
If you, or someone you know, would like to register with the BSC Alumni Association, just submit the details here.
2018 Co-Curricular Program
Our full range of Co-Curricular Programs for 2018 are published and started last week. All students are encouraged to participate in at least one activity. The breadth of opportunities is again wide and I thank the supervising teachers for their commitment to this ongoing and successful program.
Click here to access the 2018 Co-Curricular Handbook for more details about the program.
A list and schedule of current clubs and activities can be viewed and/or downloaded from the handbook.
Professional Practice Days
This year every teacher in a Victorian Government School is entitled to one professional practice day per term for full time teachers (pro-rata for part-time employees), where they are released from their scheduled duties to focus on the improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning. Brunswick Secondary College teachers have nominated their professional practice day for semester one, with a spread of teachers across each day. These professional practice days allow teachers the opportunity to plan together or to assess work together.
2018 Building Project
Our building works are progressing well in spite of some unavoidable technical delays. At this stage, we are tracking to have H Block (Food classrooms and Canteen), D Block (Performing Arts theatre and Instrumental Music classrooms), D Block South (General Purpose Classrooms) and the refurbished hockey field all ready for usein Term 2. The retractable seating for the theatre is scheduled to be fitted starting February 26.
I thank students and staff for their cooperation during this phase of building works which has them without the use of the hockey field Term 1. We continue to use the gym at lunchtime and recess so that as much recreation space is available to students as possible. Additionally, the staff car park is being used at lunch and recess times for small ball games eg handball.
International Guest
We have the honour of having been asked to host renowned Canadian educator Dr Mary Jean Gallagher this Friday afternoon.
Representatives from Hume Central College and Roxburgh Secondary College will be joining us in a privileged opportunity to present work with a literacy focus to Dr Gallagher. Brunswick Secondary College staff will present our work in the Multi-literacies in Secondary School Science project which is a collaboration with Australian Catholic University, Roxburgh College, Penola College and Caroline Chisholm College. We will share more on this project and Dr Gallagher’s visit in our next newsletter.