PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you enjoy reading this edition of our monthly newsletter. There are some wonderful stories emerging from our College.

Student Attitude to School Survey.

Each year, the Department of Education asks students to complete the annual ‘Attitude to School Survey’. This is an anonymous survey all students in Years 7 to 12 complete where they get to share their thoughts and feeling about a number of important aspects of their schooling. There are twenty ‘factors’ the Department of Education monitor and compare to both ‘similar schools’ and all schools in the state.

This year’s results are in and they are fantastic! Our students are reporting positive endorsement of their experiences at our College that are the highest they have been for many years, reaching pre-COVID high points and in many domains, exceeding those previous highs. This is a spectacular jump in positive endorsement from our students and a reflection of their support for the changes we have actioned at the College over the last 12 months.

Despite these strong results, we will always to listen to feedback from our students and plan for continuous improvement by making on balance decisions about how we can best support our young people to ‘Embrace challenge, achieve excellence’ in all aspects of College life!

The Age ‘Schools That Excel’.

It’s rare that a school makes the front page of a major newspaper for a positive story, but that was recently the case for Surf Coast Secondary College!

Each year The Age newspaper recognises ‘schools that excel’. This year SCSC was recognised as the winner for rural/regional government school for our continuous improvement in VCE results.

Last year our College average VCE study score was 29 for the second year in a row. We have seen year-on-year improvements since 2016 when the average was 25. Adding to this our percentage of study scores above 40 was 3.9 in 2023, up from 1.7 in 2016. In 2023, four of our students achieved ATARs of 90+.

Our VCE growth took-off a few years ago and is the result of some new initiatives including after school tutoring by VCE teachers, expanded practice exams, expert guest lecturers including a former chief examiner for English, study skills sessions and enhanced literacy focus in all VCE subjects.

Our senior teaching team will continue to work to support Surf Coast students to achieve the highest VCE results of which they are capable.

High Classroom Behavioural Expectations.

Last week we held a whole school assembly which had two foci - sharing some great news about the achievements of our students (more on that in other newsletter items) and also revisiting a few of our classroom protocols that will help us to continue working with our students to maximise their learning in an environment that is respectful and supportive.

A few basic guidelines that we expect of our young people in class and that were shared at the assembly are:

No phones (this is a statewide rule)
No headphones, AirPods or similar
No food
No soft drink, energy drinks, caffeinated drinks (water only)
No mis-use of device (gaming, YouTube, social media, etc.)
No leaving class (including ‘brain breaks’)

As much as possible, we try to refrain from lists of ‘no’s’ and ‘don’ts’ and prefer to use affirming language. However, for the sake of clarity and to make our expectations very clear we have reminded students of these expectations and requested that they take a mature approach to conversations with teachers should they breach these protocols.

We ask that parents please support us as needed if we are required to manage these situations with our young people. Our goal is to create a calm and orderly learning environment and to help students learn to develop behaviours that will serve them well in post secondary education and work environments.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy the rest of our Newsletter.

Take care,

Shane Elevato

Acting Principal