College Newsletter

Principal's Report

Welcome to Term Four

All students are active participants in a learning culture that promotes academic excellence and personal development through a diversity of challenging experiences.  

 

VISION

“Working together, learning together” – Working together to enable all students to achieve their potential and become confident, effective learners who contribute productively to society.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Doncaster Secondary College acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our school is situated, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elder's past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any and all Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. We value the ongoing contribution to the cultural heritage that the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people provide to our school as well as the city of Manningham. We recognise that this land was never ceded and there is no treaty, and we commit to efforts towards reconciliation as a school community. We at Doncaster Secondary College are inclusive of individuals from all backgrounds including the LGBTQIA+, culturally and linguistically diverse as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

World Teacher’s Day

Every day, Victorian teachers are shaping the future and making a profound difference to young lives. This year, Victorian schools will have the opportunity to celebrate teachers and their achievements on World Teachers’ Day, held on Friday 29 October in Australia. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) established World Teachers’ Day in 1994 to recognise the role of teachers in society. This year, the day is an opportunity for staff, students and the wider school community to recognise how teaching has extended beyond the classroom in maintaining connections through remote learning. 

 

Thank you to all teachers and staff working at Doncaster Secondary College for the contribution you are making to our school and the wider community.

Commencement of full-time onsite learning

Thank you for your efforts in Term 4 to help support the transition to onsite schooling. We are very excited to share that, following the vaccination targets in Victoria, the staged return to onsite learning is being brought forward, with all onsite schooling to commence full time from Monday 1st November.

 

All metropolitan Melbourne students and school levels will return to onsite learning from Monday 1 November unless you are a Primary Close Contact, symptomatic or a Positive COVID case. 

 

The earlier return of students to full-time onsite learning is great news for our school community and families. From Monday 1 November, a range of school activities will be able to take place so schools reflect the new community settings. This means that from Monday 1 November camps, interschool sport, excursions, school assemblies, music, singing and performances will be able to take place (in line with the community settings and vaccination requirements).

 

From Monday 1 November, face masks will no longer be required outdoors by teachers or secondary school students but will remain an important part of our classrooms, and in the community. 

 

Schools have taken a number of steps to support onsite learning, including staff vaccination, mask wearing, increased ventilation in classrooms, and physical distancing for staff and students. Schools will be encouraging students to remain safe and practice good COVIDSafe behaviours for the remainder of Term 4.

End of Year Celebrations

The period of end-of-year exams and celebrations marks an important milestone for students and school communities, supporting positive transitions to the next stage of education and life. As happened last year, in preparation for end-of-year celebrations we will be adaptive and find ways to mark these occasions safely. All schools will be able to recommence a range of activities, consistent with community settings and school vaccination requirements. 

 

This means that from Monday 1 November schools will be able to:

  • hold graduations and other assemblies consistent with community density limits.
  • travel across Victoria for camps and excursions.
  • resume interschool activities such as sport and debating.
  • deliver the full range of curriculum programs, including music and performing arts.
  • conduct transition programs for Grade 6 students transitioning to Year 7 in 2022.

Further information on these activities will be communicated at a later date.

Best wishes to our VCE Unit 3 and 4 and Senior VCAL Students

Well done and best wishes to our Senior VCAL and VCE Unit 3 and 4 students as they move through the final phase of their assessments. Whilst the language oral, some written language exams and music performance exams began some time ago, the majority of students sat their first exam on Wednesday. 

 

From many accounts, students sitting the exam have expressed that they were as prepared as they could have been. This is a credit to the work that they have put in throughout the year and the strong partnerships students have forged with their teachers. 

 

I would also like to express my congratulations to our outstanding VCAL students who have also endured a very challenging year. It has been great to see you continue to access your teachers as you finalise your assessments. I am very proud of the way you have persisted and worked with your teachers to complete your assessments and meet the competencies of the program. Conversations I have had with the Senior VCAL students have highlighted just how valuable this program has been for building the skills, knowledge and confidence required to take the next steps beyond Doncaster Secondary College.

Responding to a Positive COVID-19 Case

We have operationalised the College’s response to positive COVID cases. We have learnt a great deal over the past week and have been pleased with the response of our community in keeping themselves and each other safe. Preventative protective measures have been pivotal in keeping positive cases extremely low in our community, but in case we have to respond again, you can expect the following:

 

An SMS will be sent to parents/carers of students who are primary close contacts (PCC).

  • This requires an immediate response from you to authorise us to dismiss your child or to inform us you will immediately pick up your child.

A link will then be sent to a Microsoft Form. We require that parents/carers complete the survey with urgency. 

  • Answering the survey will allow parents/carers and the College to determine your child’s level of risk. If your child is deemed a ‘moderate risk’, isolation for 7 days is required, with a negative test result required on Day 6. If your child is deemed a ‘high risk’, isolation is required for 14 days with a negative test on Day 13. Any person who has had cumulative contact of 2 hours or more with a positive case during the infectious period and has not been wearing a mask/wearing a mask properly and/or is not fully vaccinated on the day of exposure is deemed ‘high risk’. Please note: this is an overview of the process and we will ensure that PCCs receive specific dates and information.

A negative result must be returned to the College via uploading a screenshot of the text message to Compass when adding an attendance note as well as notifying your child's sub-school. Your child will then be permitted to return onsite. Please be patient and understanding whilst the process is further refined.

  • Teaching and learning arrangements will be determined on a case-by-case basis but all students unable to learn from school should refer to their Compass lesson plans for each lesson of instruction.

Thank you again for all your support and we very much look forward to welcoming our students back to onsite learning full time.

 

 

Glenn Morris

Principal