We hope that you have been enjoying our social media blitz. We have been trying to share snippets of daily life here at school in our classrooms.

Inclusion Steering Committee

We are convening a DCC Inclusion Steering Committee to bring together the various stakeholders within the school so we can look at inclusion at the school holistically. We want to strategically plan for 2025 about how we can best be inclusive for all of our students and build strong connections to school. We will bring together our allied health team, the Marrung Champion, the mental health practitioner, the Community Liaison Officer, cultural mentors, the disability inclusion team and the staff rainbow alliance as a start in order to define what inclusion means at DCC. We will also examine the results of the Attitudes to School Survey which the students in Years 4- 9 completed last term, to analyse how the students feel about school in order to plan for their needs. We will also be consulting the student leaders to assist as part of this process.

After drop off for the recent Year 2 sleepover, we asked parents to fill in a survey to give us feedback about what we could do to be more culturally inclusive and we will be taking this feedback to the group as well.

We will keep in touch about our ideas moving forward. You are always welcome to send your feedback through to the school email address.

Contact with Teachers

As parents, it is easy to become emotional about your child’s feelings, behaviour and particular situations that they become involved in. It can be hard to see other perspectives when your child is unhappy or in pain.

Part of the school experience is making mistakes, taking accountability, accepting consequences and starting again, developing their social skills, learning how to resolve conflict, approaching others to play; understanding the feelings of others; learning to regulate feelings, and negotiate; a myriad of lessons and experiences.

For teachers, it is our job to help students with that learning. But we are teachers, not parents. You have an understanding and knowledge of your child, and we have another perspective of them from observing them in the school environment. But we also have a different point of view- one of an educator. It is important that we work together so the students grow confident and reach their potential.

With this in mind, I remind parents to treat our staff with respect. Being yelled at or spoken to rudely is not behaviour our staff should have to face in their workplace. Just like you shouldn’t in yours. They also have specific work hours and are not expected to respond to families out of hours. We will endeavour to contact families within 48 hours to either answer an email or return a phone call.

It can take time to investigate particular incidents at school; sometimes several days depending on what events are occurring, the staff available, student absence to name a few of the considerations. Please stay in contact with us, but remain patient as we follow up on specific concerns.

For those families who meet and work together with us to solve issues; we thank you. We have the same desired outcome- happy, safe students who are learning.

Curriculum Day

On Friday, 23rd, the primary staff had a day of professional learning around developing strong units of inquiry that ignite curiosity and encourage authentic learning. The secondary team explored safe and orderly learning environments and spent time analysing student data. The ES staff participated in professional learning as well around student learning needs.

Respectful Relationships Curriculum

Over the last two terms, we have opened our classrooms for parents to come and see the Respectful Relationships curriculum in practice. Respectful Relationships promotes respect and gender equality and helps students learn how to build healthy relationships. It prepares students to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building resilience and confidence.

Schools involved in the Respectful Relationships initiative are building a culture of respect and gender equality, by looking at their practices and policies to drive meaningful change.

The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence recommended Respectful Relationships be introduced to all government schools (Recommendation 189). Evidence presented to the commission showed that family violence is the most pervasive form of violence perpetrated against women in Victoria.

Year 2 Sleepover

Last month, our Year 2 students had their sleepover. It was held over two nights to enable the whole cohort to participate. The students came back to school and participated in a variety of activities including a disco and biscuit decorating. It was wonderful to see the students playing with their peers and enjoying a huge slumber party. They supported each other well.

Chinese Delegation

We had a group of educators from China visit us last week. They came to observe inclusion in our classrooms. They were impressed by the strategies used to cater for all children in the classrooms and the number of other programs in place to support students including the work of the allied health and engagement teams.

Workforce Planning

We are currently workforce planning for 2025; collating how many students we will have; the no of classes and buildings that are needed. We have begun advertising for 2025 teachers and preparing timetables. This is a time-consuming process, but we are excited to be making plans for 2025. If you know of anyone who is needing to enrol, please ask them to do it ASAP as we need to know numbers ot be able to plan accurately.

Planning Holidays

Just another reminder to all families that if you are planning a holiday over the summer break; please ensure that your children are back at school as soon as possible. It is important for students to be able to start their year with the rest of their peers, learning the new routines, revising prior knowledge and making new relationships. When students start back late at school, this can hinder a smooth transition to school. It is also important to note that if students are not back and attending school by the 28th of February, the school receives no funding for them whether they are enrolled or not. This can make quite an impact on the number of teachers and programs that the school can offer.

It is also important to note that NAPLAN occurs early in the year and students will miss out on important preparation time if they are not here at school.

Celebrations of Learning

Please keep an eye out for the Celebration of Learning dates and times which will be released very soon. The students love sharing their learning with their families.

Inclement Weather/ Attendance

Please ensure that bad weather is not a reason that your child doesn’t come to school. We need our students here every day if they are to learn confidently and reach their potential.

Congratulations to the 46% of students who have had less than 10 days absence this year.

31% of students have had 10-19.5 days off this year and this equates to 444 students; 12% (171 students) have had 20-29.5 days absent and 9% (123 student) have had more than 30days off so far this year. This number of students with high absence is problematic; affects student learning and achievement and also impacts their abilities to make strong relationships and develop their social skills.

We are committed to our students being at school; please let us know if there are barriers for your child attending school so we can work with you to support your child.

Fingers crossed the weather starts to get warmer and the days longer. Enjoy the rest of the term.

Acknowledgement of Country