Principal's Report
Dear Families,
Welcome to our Winter newsletter. It is hard to believe that we are almost three quarters of the way through our school year. As we approach the end of the term, we have a great deal to be proud of and some amazing academic and social events that have enriched the educational lives of students. If you don’t already, make sure that you follow our social media accounts.
2024 - 2028 School Review:
Thank you to all families, students and staff who participated in our whole school review in term 2. The review celebrated the many successful milestones achieved by Edgars Creek Secondary College in our foundation years, and set the direction for continued success in the areas of Learning and Teaching, Positive Climate for Learning, and Student Health and Wellbeing as we move into our next phase of our school journey.
The outcome of the review identified the importance of continuing our very positive improvement in the following areas over the next four years:
- Optimise learning achievement and growth for all students
- Strengthen the positive culture and climate for learning for all students
- Enhance student wellbeing outcomes
Leaders, Teachers and Student Representative Council members have already started discussing what is going to be important to achieve in these areas, and setting goals and targets to ensure that we meet these outcomes.
NAPLAN Results
Our 2024 student NAPLAN results position our students positively in the education arena. It is clear from this year's year 9 positive growth indicators that our students live up to the school value of "Embrace Learning", evident by our students' improvement results between years 7 and 9. Congratulations to all students in year 7 and 9 for their dedication to their learning, and to our teachers who are relentless in their focus on student achievement improvement.
Seussical Junior - The Musical
I am incredibly proud to announce that as this newsletter goes to press, that our very talented performing and visual arts students and staff are busy putting the final touches to our inaugural musical production. I had the chance to see the students during a full rehearsal and I was blown away by the professionalism, talent, and performance by our students both on stage and at a technical level. Make a point of booking your family in to see this amazing production!
ECSC Promotes Continual Staff Professional Growth
Professional Learning and growth is an important part of a teacher's life here at ECSC. Our teachers engage weekly in rigorous Professional Learning Community groups where they tackle a challenge of practice within learning and teaching, and engage in an inquiry cycle where they implement an idea and track its outcome on student engagement and overall learning. In term 2, the focus was on providing students improved 'opportunities to respond' to activities, questions, and tasks in class as part of the scaffolded learning phase of a lesson. Our teachers presented their work to their peers, discussing the positive outcomes noticed, and the next steps in their inquiry cycle.
Congratulations Sam Ritter…
As a school, we value our staff and their professional learning and development, and the positive impacts this has on student outcomes and school improvement. We are proud to share that Samuel Ritter recently completed Create: Middle Leaders at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.
This program equips educators with the confidence and skills to influence and lead improvement in classroom and educational practices in their school. Through completion of this program, Sam has built a greater understanding of what good leadership looks like, and has learned about emerging research in teaching, learning and leadership. Additionally, the program has helped Sam to build further capacity to lead school improvement, and to develop strategies that help create impact.
For those in our community who have yet to come across Sam, he is one of our Sub School leaders in the Senior School, responsible for our year 11 program. We look forward to working with Sam to implement the knowledge and skills from the program to continue to support student outcomes and wellbeing.
Adam Smith
College Principal