PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Less than 4 weeks to go! There’s no escaping that the end of the year is a time for celebration, and it’s such a great opportunity to reflect on achievements and distance travelled. It’s a perfect time to inject more joy and light-heartedness into the learning process, to experiment and allow kids to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in lots of different ways, and to recognise and appreciate the good things that have happened along the way. The last 2 weeks have certainly been filled with lots of “good’.

Year 12 Graduation

We joined as a community last Thursday evening to celebrate the class of 2023 at their Year 12 Graduation. It was a lovely occasion for all Year 12’s and their families to celebrate the completion of their secondary education journey and to hear from the very inspiring guest speaker Mel Veljan from the class of 2015. What a privilege it was to proudly farewell my first ever group of Year 7’s I have journeyed with, through to Year 12. I would personally like to congratulate each and every one of our class of 2023, for putting things in place and prioritising their learning, to give themselves the best chance of achieving their desired future, whatever that may look like for you moving forward. No matter what their pathway journey has been, a VCE journey, a VCAL or VET journey, they are all valued and celebrated by our college forever as the class of 2023.

Wonderful News

Congratulations to Finnbar Maley, a member of our year 12 class of 2022 for this week being rookie drafted to the North Melbourne Football Club. Finnbar started AFL late after a successful junior basketball career and we thank Brendan McCartney and the SSP AFL program for their wonderful support of Finnbar last year as he made the change to focus on AFL. Finnbar was a great example of an individualised learning program in Year 12 completing VCE subjects, a School Based apprenticeship, and the AFL program as he juggled his learning with changing sporting careers and work. We are extremely proud of him and looking forward to following his journey as an AFL Footballer and his continued studies with his Psychology degree.

Year 10 and 11 Exams

Year 10 and 11 exams have been progressing well this week and I would like to congratulate all students for their preparation and participation in these exams. The exams are a wonderful way of supporting our students prepare for our VCE exams and our students have certainly showed great diligence with their preparation and willingness to develop good routines.

USA Basketball Tour

Last Sunday, 22 very excited students, staff and parents set off on an adventure of a lifetime travelling around the USA playing against US High Schools in basketball. The pageantry of this special day in the USA has blown our students away. They have also been lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving Day this morning in Chicago. Follow their progress on our schools FB page. They return on December 9.

Annual Awards Evening and Art, Technology and Design Exhibition

I invite all students, parents and carers to our annual Awards Evening and Art, Technology and Design Exhibition at GMHBA stadium on Thursday 14 December. The evening starts at 6pm with some light refreshments to be enjoyed whilst taking in the exhibition followed by our Awards Evening commencing at 6.30pm. I will look forward to celebrating a wonderful year of learning and achievements with you all.

Dealing with distressing online content in these times of uncertainty

With the tragic and distressing events unfolding in the Middle East, Australia's independent regulator for online safety, eSafety, has issued guidance to help parents and carers support their children in dealing with distressing online content.

The eSafety website has resources for parents and carers about online safety. These include information on extra precautions you can take to protect your children from seeing disturbing content online. 

eSafety encourage parents and carers supporting young people who may be more vulnerable to check in with them.

If they are presenting with signs of distress, support is available through external services including:

headspace: 1800 650 890

Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636

Parents may wish also to contact the school to seek support from the College Wellbeing Team.

Please speak to your relevant Learning Community Leader if you would like more information about a wellbeing referral. 

Mobile Phone Policy

The Department of Education has asked schools to remind their communities of the State-wide ban of mobile phones during school days.

All College community member should be aware that the Department of Education mandated a policy that establishes from Term 1 2020:

• students who bring mobiles phones to school must have them switched off and securely stored during school hours
• the school must provide secure storage for mobile phones that are brought to school.

Exceptions to the policy may be applied if certain conditions are met including medical reasons.

Schools have been required to develop a local mobile phone policy, as we have done from the commencement of 2020, that must include how this ministerial policy will be implemented. Schools will manage non-compliance in accordance with their existing student engagement policies.

This policy is a state-wide mandate. We are being directed to implement this.

It would seem, however, to be a timely reminder to all staff, students and parents and we would ask for the support of all parents in assisting us to implement this policy.

I raise this issue once again, as it appears that we have several students who are finding it difficult or choosing not to comply with this state-wide mandate. We will keep working with our entire student cohort to ensure that we are consistently and equitably communicating and enforcing this policy and would be appreciative if this messaging could be reinforced at home.

Fiona Taylor, Principal

Child Safety at WHC

Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse.

Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.

Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website or contact the school for a copy. 

1.       Commitment to Child Safety

2.       Child Safety Policy

3.       Child Safety Code of Conduct

4.       Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Annual privacy policy reminder for 2023

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.(found on the college's webpage)

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in 10 community languages:

* Amharic

* Arabic

* Dari

* Gujarati

* Mandarin

* Somali

* Sudanese

* Turkish

* Urdu

* Vietnamese.