There have been a number of excursions, sporting events and celebrations over the past few weeks. We are now starting to wind down but are keeping our expectations for the students and ourselves high.

International Women’s Day Morning Tea

I had the pleasure of escorting our two school captains Raameen and Olivia and one of our vice captains Irisa, to Sarah Connolly’s International Women’s Day morning tea where they heard influential women from the area speak.

Below are each of the thoughts of the captains after the experience:

Being the leaders and an influence of younger students, we strive to support and positively impact DCC. On the 13th of March, the female school leaders were invited to a Women’s Day - Morning Tea, which was held by Sarah Connolly MP and Natalie Hutchins MP. Throughout the morning tea, we talked with various people and experienced kind interactions and greetings with welcoming smiles.

Seeing how everyone greeted each other reminded us of the school values; Kindness and Respect. Together, we formed a greater understanding of the concept of leadership. The kind interactions reminded us of the message of “Little things make the biggest impact.” Another thing we witnessed was near the end of the morning tea experience. Sarah Connolly, Natalie Hutchins and their Women’s Advisory Committee shared their experiences of being women in the workplace, and what International Women’s Day means to them.

As a result, their speeches were packed with meaningful words and messages. There were countless meanings to be withdrawn from their heartfelt speeches. Their speeches impacted our leadership as they displayed confidence and provided multiple key points, which inspired us as leaders. As many of the women in the Women’s Advisory Committee are from diverse backgrounds, we were able to learn about their struggles and challenges of entering the workforce. This impacted our leadership by educating us that our peers and other students all come from different backgrounds, therefore it is integral to be inclusive and respectful as the representatives of DCC.

The Women’s Day Morning Tea was certainly a meaningful and memorable experience for us as leaders to learn from those who are more experienced.

Irisa

Navigating life as a woman in 2024 presents its challenges, which might surprise some, given the perceived advancements in gender equality. Despite the apparent 'privileges' afforded to women today, many industries remain predominantly male-dominated. Pursuing dreams and careers in these fields often means encountering numerous hurdles that disproportionately affect women. At a recent morning tea event hosted by Sarah Conolly, several resilient and brave women who we are lucky to have in our local community shared their personal experiences and discussed the persistent obstacles they've encountered solely because of their gender.

In our school community, we witness a wealth of young girls brimming with boundless aspirations. Some envision themselves thriving in the technology sector, while others aspire to excel in the construction and building fields. These career paths, traditionally dominated by men, highlight the prevailing gender disparities in our society. If we are to forge a future where the upcoming generation can thrive in safe and inclusive work environments, we must confront the harsh reality of inequality and unfair treatment that women endure today.

As a community that embraces women's leadership and their aspirations to effect change, these remarkable girls are often compelled to take risks. Yet, to achieve extraordinary feats, we must challenge ourselves to surpass barriers that men often avoid.

At day's end, women continue to be underestimated, underscoring the urgent need to recognize and harness the valuable contributions they bring. Achieving success demands diligence and a willingness to navigate obstacles along the journey. Fortunately, numerous women have demonstrated their resilience, determination, and courage, among them figures like Sarah Conolly, a compassionate and strategic leader who has made significant strides in her own path. As a student leader in DCC, I am confident to say that these exceptional women serve as a profound source of inspiration for me, reminding us all that despite the inevitable challenges we face, anything is achievable.

Rameen

Teamwork plays a big part in our lives especially for women. Today we are still trying to make this world equal for everyone but it is not working. So we are writing this letter today in the hope that this may change only a few people's minds. During International Women’s day we talked about how uniting as one and becoming one is stronger not only in the workplace, but everywhere we go. Women that work in a more male dominated environment or area needs to work together for the correct freedom rights, expectations, pay and workforce leave. If we all join together we will be able to change this country, world and ecosystem for everyone, maybe even start a ballot in parliament on everyone’s opinion on how women get treated. It’s not safe out here anymore, we want to make this world better for the next coming generations and young generations now so they don’t have to worry about being raped and assaulted in the street.

Olivia

NAPLAN

Our staff and students should be congratulated on the poise and focus they showed during the NAPLAN tests. The leadership team were every organised and ensured that the teachers and students were supported. The IT department mad themselves available every session to assist the students if needed. We will share the results later in the year when the results are released. It is only one form of assessment though and the teachers work hard to triangulate data and use a variety of sources to mark students against the Victorian Curriculum and to choose what to teach the students so they can all be taught at their point of need.

School Council

We want to say thank you to Yana Jayasinghe, Felicity Lee and Ibrahim Mohamed for their work on our School Council last year, particularly Yana who has been a long standing council member. Our new council moving forward comprises of:

Brianna Morelli, Mohit Gupta, Andrew Corr, Sangamesh Sajjan, Jess DeBono, Kenneth Wright, Ishita Khawase, Neha Asgar, Sukhmanjeet Singh, Malinda Vaughan, Rashmi Ranatunga, Sudeep Singh, Armandeep Singh and Advik Vaid. Kenneth Wright will be taking on the role of President, Sangamesh Sajjan, the role of Vice-President and Ishita Khawase the role of Treasurer.

We have convened as a new council and had rich discussion around a variety of topics. We discussed plans that are underway to remodel several toilet blocks, as there have been a number of issues occurring in the toilets; make them genderless; make them more open making them less able to be secluded areas where students can gather and cause mischief, vandalise, vape or bully others and being more visible means that supervision will be easier and hence make the areas safer. Toilet doors will be floor to ceiling, stronger and with different locks; the doors leading to the toilets will be transparent; the doors leading into the toilets will be removed as the toilets will no longer need to be separated. The School Council were very supportive and asked questions of our student representatives to gather more information about behaviour in the toilets and the solutions being presented.

We discussed the sponsorship of teachers from overseas and are moving forward with the sponsorship of two more teachers at an extra cost to the school. The Gifts, Benefits and Hospitality policy was shared and discussed.

The 2023 Annual Report was also presented and endorsed. It will be available soon on our website.

We also discussed some concerns brought to the council around CRTs and camps. Please see information below about how the school prioritises CRTs.

Gates

Just a reminder that we are closing our gates as close to 8.40am as we can. This is primarily for the safety of the students; classes start at 8.40am so all students who come into the school after 8.40am need to ensure that they are signed in at the office because teachers will have usually marked the roll before students arriving late get into the classroom; those going to specialist classes will have already marked the roll and left the classroom. If students are not marked on the roll, then parents will receive an SMS.

It is important that our grounds are secure once teachers and students are in the classroom and that our records are correct, so parents are not informed incorrectly that their children are not at school and we know who is at school and where they are. We ask that you drop students at school in plenty of time for them to get into the classroom. This may mean dropping older students off a street or so away form school and allowing them to walk the rest of the way so that those with younger children can drop their children at the gate.

CRT processes

The School Council thought it might be helpful to explain how the school makes decisions around where to place CRTs.

Firstly, we cover the specialist classes because during the specialist classes, teachers are released to plan; this is time they are entitled to through the DET agreement. Next, we look at the number of teachers that are away in one cohort because we split classes to ensure that they are given a consistent program by having another one of the DCC teachers who know the program and the routines of the school. We then make decisions about the age of the students and how long their teacher has been away. Daily organisation is like a chess board, every day there are a number of considerations; this includes what events or activities are occurring at school and off campus as well. We also have to be aware of what education support staff are away and how that affects the running of the school. There isn’t a one size fits all and we have to think about how to manage the school as a whole.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or any of the PCO team if you have any further questions.

Last Day of Term 1

Thusday 28th March

School finishes at 1.15pm on this day.

Please ensure you collect your child at this time or make arrangements for them to attend OSHCLUB as there is no staff member on after 1.30pm.

We wish all of you who celebrate Easter a lovely Easter weekend with your families and for all of our community a safe and happy holiday.

Acknowledgement of Country