Principal's Report
Evan MILLER
Principal
School Review
Our School Review began last week, and we are excited for the remaining days of the review which will help shape the direction of our wonderful school over the next four years. The school review is made up of 4 days including validation day, two fieldwork days and the final day of the review.
Last Wednesday our school review panel consisting of Peter Fotheringham (School Reviewer), Glenn Morris (Doncaster SC Principal and our challenge partner), Andy Jones (ex-Principal, CEO of Huddle Learning Systems and our challenge partner), Eva McMaster (our Senior Education Improvement Leader), Ashwin Bindu (School Council President) and myself, Leigh Hunter and Ros Patti (Principal Team), undertook the validation day reviewing our progess over the last 4 years and identifying the terms of reference for the fieldwork days.
On Monday 29th April and Thursday 2nd May next week we will be undertaking the fieldwork days which consist of classroom observations and student, parent and staff forums to gather further evidence of our achievements and areas for further development. The final day will allow the review panel to identify school goals for the next four years based on the evidence we have gathered, and our new Strategic Plan will be written based on these goals. We will continue to update our school community on the review progress and outcome once we have our final report.
Year 7 Camp
Monday to Wednesday this week saw our new Year 7 cohort travel to Somers to attend our Year 7 camp. It was fantastic to see our students getting so actively involved in all of the activities on offer to them. Over the 3 days our students participated in initiative games, t-shirt printing, pizza making, stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and raft-making. They also had a trivia night on Monday and a disco on Tuesday and our students had an amazing time continuing to build upon the strong relationships they have built over their first 12 weeks of school at Highvale. A big thank you goes out to Amanda Naidoo (Year 7 Coordinator), Natalie Valentine (Head of Junior School/Year 7 Coordinator) and all the staff who attended camp to support our students in having such a great time.
Cyber Safety Project - Wednesday 1st May
On Wednesday 1st May we have the team from the Cyber Safety Project coming to the school to give presentation to our Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 students. The Cyber Safety Project’s mission is to provide whole communities with future skills, lifelong habits and self-regulation when using digital technologies for work, life and play. To create safer communities their educational programs and proactive teaching strategies engage the whole community to learn how to participate safely and responsibly in a digital world.
As a support for parents, we have signed up to their online parent webinar series and links to the series can be found in our newsletter here -
https://newsletters.naavi.com/issue/JErnlQM/edit/Jm73bL5
Their next webinar is on April 30th so please follow the links in our newsletter to make sure you don't miss out.
Curriculum Day - Wednesday 8th May
Wednesday 8th May is our next student free day. We have the Australian Childhood Foundation coming to deliver professional learning for our staff called Making SPACE for Learning, understanding how to best support students who have experienced trauma and to help us develop a college wide positive language framework that we will implement with staff, students and our entire community.