Principal's Report
New Buildings Completed
The recent holidays saw the completion of two building projects; our new Senior School Building and the Doctors in Secondary Schools Building. Both are fantastic additions to Patterson River's facilities.
On the first day of term we were visited by the Education Minister / Deputy Premier Hon. James Merlino who opened our Doctors Building.
This was followed later in the week by a morning tea for Year 12 students & teachers to open the new Senior School Building.
The new facility for senior students includes:
- Large common room
- Kitchen
- Private study area
- Classrooms
- Coordinators office
Doctors in Secondary Schools Program
Students will soon have access to a doctor during school hours one day per week. Patterson River has teamed up with Attitcus Health in Carrum & the state government to deliver this innovative service to students as part of the Doctors in Secondary Schools Program. Training is currently underway for school staff which will be followed shortly by information that will be distributed to the school community.
We are currently working on the booking and communication systems. The State Government has provided information regarding consent and confidentiality for students and parents (see below).
Attitudes to School Survey Results
All students at Patterson River were involved in completing online surveys about their schooling towards the end of last term. These surveys are conducted by all government schools each year. Whilst comparison results are not yet available to other schools, the initial results are pleasing. In particular there has been a big improvement in the Year 8 results, with no comparable difference to Year 7 or 9 students. Traditionally, our Year 8 have been poor compared to other levels, particularly in relation to teacher/student relationships and school connectedness. We believe that this improvement is due to timetable changes made this year that has resulted in each Year 8 form having a mentor teacher and their own 'home' room. Previously, Year 8 students had less continuity of teachers and often had different classrooms every lesson.
Other pleasing results included 80% of students reporting a non-experience of bullying at secondary school.
Course Counselling
Students in Years 9-11 have been involved in course counselling in recent weeks. Patterson River prides itself on the level of effort that teachers place towards assisting students and families with this difficult process. Each student has been appointed with a course counsellor for the term who will assist with making subject selections for the following year that will match each student's individual pathway.
I remind parents that they are welcome to contact their child's course counsellor, level coordinator or pathways coordinator (Amy Joseph) to seek further assistance where required.
Tell us What You Think - Parent Opinion Survey 2017
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is completed by a group of randomly selected parents at each school.
It is designed to assist our school in gaining an understanding of parents’ perception of school climate, student engagement and relationships with our parent community. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
Parents who have been randomly selected to be involved in the survey will receive an email on Monday 7th August.
I would like to thank everyone in advance who is selected and takes part in this important survey.
The survey will be conducted online by ORIMA Research Pty Ltd and only takes 15 minutes to complete. The survey can be accessed via desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile at any convenient time within the fieldwork period from Monday 7th August to Sunday 27th August.
Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous.
Sub Committee to Review Uniform
This year, our students leaders have been reviewing our current uniform and recently presented some suggested changes to school council. The School Council gave an in principle agreement to the suggested changes and has set up a sub-committee, which includes staff and student representatives to continue the work of uniform review.
Any changes to the uniform would not take effect for new students until 2019, and would include a long transition period for students with the current uniform. The changes that have been recommended by the students include:
- A school shirt to replace the current polo
- Tailored pants
- Unisex (non gender specific) uniform list
- Senior rugby top to become a PE/Sport top 7-12
- School pants for girls
- White trim collar on the summer dress
- Modifications such as zips on shorts etc.
- Adjustable waist/hips on clothes to accommodate growth.
International Student Visits
This term we have hosted two groups of international students from China. The visiting students are currently on their summer holidays from China and visiting school in Australia to develop their English skills and see whether they would like to complete future studies in Australia. It has been wonderful to see the way that our students have looked after the visitors and made friends despite language barriers.
Patterson River is currently undertaking work to become an accredited International School.
Daniel Dew
College Principal