Western Heights College Newsletter

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Principal’s Newsletter Report 21/10/24

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope that your family had a great holiday break and are keen for the events and celebrations that are part of our final term of the year. For our junior year levels there are 9 more weeks of Term, while our Year 12s now commence their SWOTVAC just before undertaking their final exams or completing any assessments required for their VCE or VCE VM. Two weeks in and term is flying! 

 

Geelong Cup Public Holiday

Wednesday 23 October is a public holiday in Geelong for the Geelong Cup. There will be no classes on this day.

 

Year 12 Farewell

Yesterday we farewelled our Year 12 students with a lovely full school assembly where our student community heard from our college captains and our year 12 learning community leader Brett Bullock. Today our Year 12’s celebrate their last day of their secondary schooling with a breakfast with staff, fancy dress, and a day of fun at the Curlewis golf driving range. A big thank-you to the Year 12 staff who coordinated this day alongside the Year 12 students. On Tuesday 29 October, our students will complete their first English exam. Exams will continue until November 20 with our Year 12 Graduation evening this year being conducted on Thursday 21 November at GMHBA stadium.

 

Year 10 Celebration 

Our Year 10 student cohort on Friday evening had a chance to enjoy themselves at their formal celebration at the Rippleside Function Centre. Led by Ben Cook (Year 9/10 Sub-School Leader) and Lucas Wintels (Year 10 LCL), the students enjoyed a night of food, fun and dancing to some DJ beats. 

 

Early Commencement Program (ECP 2025)

On Monday 25 November, all students in Year 11 and 12 (and 2025 Year 10 students studying a VCE subject) will commence 1 week of early commencement program to enable the students an opportunity to obtain a head start with their 2025 learning. A timetable will be released shortly for students for this program. It is imperative that all students attend this program until its completion on Friday 29 November which will be the last day of 2024 for current Year 10 and 11 students.

 

End of Year Dates for 2024 

  • Year 12 Graduation GMHBA Stadium – Thursday 21 November
  • Last day of classes for 2024 Year 10 and 11 students – Friday 29 November
  • College Awards Evening Thursday 12 December (GMHBA Stadium)
  • 2024 Report Feedback by appointment only – Thursday 19th and Friday 20 December.

Term 4 AIP Assessments and Planning for 2024 

Term 4 will of course also see AIP self-assessments, as well as planning for 2025 AIPs.  The 2025 AIP will continue to focus on student learning. We have recently seen the release of some of our key annual data sets, including NAPLAN and the Attitudes to School Survey. These are critical inputs to our planning cycle and the leadership team will work hard to continue unpacking these. At a regional level, the focus will be on continuing our focus on supporting numeracy improvement in Geelong schools with a particular focus on reducing the disadvantage gap and looking at ways to improve the experience of schooling for many of our students through a focus on positive climates and behaviour.

 

Enjoy the next fortnight,

 

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 2024

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 nine community languages:

 

          * Amharic

          * Arabic

          * Dari

          * Gujarati

          * Mandarin

          * Somali

          * Sudanese

          * Turkish

          * Urdu

          * Vietnamese