Principal's Message

Amadeo Ferra

School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPB)

In our first term of implementing SWPB I am really pleased to see so much progress being made. The implementation team has already led a power of work behind the scenes which has included consulting with staff, student and parents about what the expectations around the school should look like. We have changed our previous behaviour model (the “B-Codes”) from an escalating punitive model, to one that is more restorative. During learning walks the principal team undertook this Wednesday morning, it was clear not only walking around, but in speaking to students, that they have noticed classrooms and the school yard to be a much calmer place. One other important strategy we have begun to implement is positive messaging to students (and often their parents as well). This term staff have taken the time to send over 1000 positive emails to acknowledge the positive behaviours they have witnessed. Research tells us that for us to change behaviours we need to make our expectations clear, then we need to positively acknowledge and sometimes reward the behaviours we want to see. They talk about a ratio of 5 positive bits of feedback to 1 negative if we are to change behaviours. We are learning from the evidence base that exists in trying to continually improve McClelland College. The work the SRC are doing this year with staff has the potential to continue to positively transform the school culture and climate so we can move from being a really good school to a great school.

Building Project finally over

It is great to see our students and staff finally using all of the newly refurbished learning spaces. The upgrade has been much needed given the age of our buildings and will ensure that the school will be in the best possible condition for the foreseeable future. I have particularly enjoyed visiting the gym when we have hosted interschool sports –something we have not had the facilities to be able to do in the past. It’s even better that we’ve won most of our games on our home turf!

The canteen issues that needed to be addressed in order for the Frankston City Council to allow us to trade appear to be almost resolved and we hope to have the canteen running for day one of Term 2. I will confirm with Compass and Facebook notifications before school resumes.

I want to acknowledge the hard work of our Property Manager Gary Hofert who has overseen the building project from the school’s perspective. There will be no break for Gary however, as he is now already working on some other refurbishment and other projects around the school which will really add to the aesthetics of the College. Thank you to School Council for their support in allocating funds to these school improvements.

Literacy Intervention Program

We have spent considerable time and resources in establishing a new system for improving students literacy levels. We know that without a strong foundation in reading and writing, students will struggle to access learning in all subject areas and this can have a profound impact on their future careers. Francis Thompson who has been working at McClelland for forty days completing a principal internship, has brought her experience in this area to creating a system that will support students from Years 7-10. She has helped us establish a really robust literacy intervention program and it will be sad to see her go when she finishes up in week two next term. The program is designed to only be short term (eg a term or less) and takes the student out of one random period in any one day so there is no significant impact on any one subject. Students can also opt not to miss a favourite subject. If your child is lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to participate in the program we hope they take full advantage of it.

I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing break.