Assistant Principals' Report

Assistant Principals Newsletter Article 

Welcome to the Term 4 newsletter, we still have just over six weeks before the conclusion of Term 4. As we move into the end of year celebrations, warmer weather and tiredness we want to remind all students and families to ensure they are taking time to look after themselves. Whilst we recognise that this can become busy stressful, maintaining attendance is important, particularly to ensure that students are not falling behind in their Common Assessment Tasks and participating in the preparation sessions in the lead up to exams. There will be a range of events each mini school will host towards the end of the month to celebrate student achievement, we will make these announcements across compass and our social media pages, please keep an eye out for the key dates and tickets.  

Our wellbeing team and Positive Climate for Learning Leaders have been collaborating in recent weeks to evaluate our wellbeing programs and approach. We have begun seeking feedback from staff and in the coming weeks will invite students to participate and provide feedback on our vision and strategy for the next 4 years.  

Our new vision for wellbeing from 2025 is . . . “At DSC learning partnerships foster positive wellbeing to maximise learning growth and community connections.” 

We would like to invite families to share their feedback and experience their child may have had while engaging in our wellbeing programs and services, if you would like to know more about wellbeing vision and strategy, please email our college with Attn: Wellbeing Vision 2025 to doncaster.sc@education.vic.gov.au 

Vertical Learning Program 

Formal classes will conclude for all students on Friday 6th December, this provides time for our staff to finalise semester 2 reports and begin preparing reviewing and preparing our curriculum program for 2025. This year we will be introducing the Vertical Learning Program for all students from Year 7-10 from Monday 9th until Friday 20th December. Throughout the first week our Learning area teams will be providing an opportunity for students to focus on skills and capabilities related to this particular learning area for half of the school day and then moving to a different area for the second session. The second week will have a focus on activities based around capabilities or direct links to a Victorian curriculum skill in short 2 hr sessions.  

In the coming week we will share a Microsoft form with your child, we encourage you to indicate which of these day’s your child will attend. During the second week some activities will attract a fee to ensure your child has access to the curriculum resources. Many of the fee-based activities will have a student cap, student enrolment will base on payments made on a first in first served basis. 

Supporting Positive Behaviours online 

Parents provide an important role in guiding and influencing our young people around their use of social media, the information they consume online and the amount of time they engage in online platforms. We recognise that it can be a challenge to monitor your child’s engagement and there are times when their behaviour online is not necessarily aligned to the values you have or those of our college. Setting boundaries and understanding the supports that are available is an important part of supporting your child's positive behaviours online.  

We provide a range of opportunities for our students to formulate positive and healthy habits in the school environment and we often maximise opportunities to do this throughout Alternate Day Programs at each year level. We also support individual students and families when there are interactions of online communications that impacts our young people. 

There are a range of resources available for families, we encourage you to explore some of these resources, particularly the resources available through the eSafety Commissioner's website. There may also be some valuable activities to assist you with conversations with your child or for you to learn together about the boundaries that are important in maintaining a positive behaviour online. Follow the link below to access these resources. 

Safe Socials – For parents and carers (Secondary) | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)  

Attendance Matters 

Improving attendance is a major focus at Doncaster Secondary College throughout the school year. In the Junior School Managing Me program, we have implemented learning activities that support students to track their attendance, reflect on absences, plan for improvement and share this learning with their family. This week in both year 7 & 8 Managing Me classes students are reviewing their absences and using a traffic light approach to determine their next steps:  

GREEN: great attendance = keep going 

YELLOW: caution attendance is a concern = reflect 

RED: stop your absences are too high = check 

Students who have entered the yellow and red zones respond to some reflect and check prompts to help them consider each absence and plan next steps to improve attendance. 

As a parent do you know if your child’s attendance at school is great = GREEN zone? 

As school leaders the Principal Team and the Positive Climate for Learning and Community Engagement Leaders track student attendance throughout the year. We set attendance goals at each year level with a focus on improving attendance performance and reducing chronic attendance patterns. Chronic attendance is when a student has been absent from school for more than 20 days across the year. The attendance data below shows the proportion of students, at each year level, that have been absent from school for 18+ or more days so far this year. 

If your child has had 18 or more days absent from school this year, they are in the RED zone. It’s time to stop, these absence levels are too high. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes. It’s never too late to improve attendance, set a goal today to improve your child’s attendance. 

Child Safe Standards 

Doncaster Secondary College Child Safe Standards Policy supports to create and maintain a child safe organisation and protect students from all forms of abuse. As a Victorian school we continue to build and our existing child safe practices with the aim to strengthen our culture of child safety and protect children and young people from abuse.  

The Child Safe Standards include requirements to keep children, young people and students safe, including: 

• involvement of families and students in child safety 
• schools’ focus on safety for Aboriginal students 
• better management of child abuse risks in online environments 
• governance, systems and processes for keeping students safe. 

We provide multiple opportunities across the year to engage our School Council and staff with training and the opportunity to share practices that maintain the Child Safe Standards. This year we have identified through avenues of feedback that we need to increase our students to the exposure of the Child Safe Standards language and resources available. We encourage families who would like to provide feedback or seek further clarity by reviewing our policy page on our school website or provide feedback via email to doncaster.sc@education.vic.gov.au 

If you would like to read more about Child safe standards you can access our policy on the school website or visit the Department of Education’s Policy page Child Safe Standards: Policy | education.vic.gov.au 

Senior School – Term 4 

Year 12 students have begun their final examinations. Younger students need to be mindful of their noise levels as they move through the Senior Centre area and ensure that they are keep the space quiet and calm for year 12 students. They will appreciate this when they are in year 12! Year 12 students will have their Celebration Day and Valedictory in the coming weeks which will be another opportunity for them to reflect on their years at DSC and celebrate their achievements. On behalf of the principal team, I would like to thank our year 12 teachers who have, as always, gone above and beyond to support our students to prepare for their exams – marking practice work, running Masterclasses and engaging in conferencing. Our students are lucky to have such wonderful and dedicated teachers, as they have been lucky to have such thoughtful, funny and clever students to teach this year. All the best, year 12s! 

Senior School Presentation Evening for year 10 and 11 students is coming on November 28th and this is an excellent opportunity for our students to be acknowledged and celebrated for their hard work, academic achievement and positive attitudes. If you receive an invitation to this event, this means your child is receiving an award, so please come along to support them and take a moment to recognise them. 

Term 4 has also been a time (and will continue to be a time) for students to choose subjects for next year and continue planning their Career Pathways. Students will be notified about their subjects soon and will be able to offer feedback or raise any concerns with the Senior School, when this occurs. We work hard to give students the subjects they request, and most students will receive these. If you do not, there will always be a reason for this, but please seek understanding from the Senior School if this happens to you. Remember that Mrs McKenzie and Mrs Hull-Brown are available for Careers and subject selection support, if needed. Parents are encouraged to reach out for advice or understanding as necessary. 

Year 10 and 11 students are about to enter their end of year examinations, and these experiences and the feedback students receive is essential for preparing them for their final year/s. It is also to help them understand what they need to be focusing on, moving into next year. Students are reminded to adhere to examination rules, including that no phones or smart watches should be present in the exam room. Students and families can read more about these rules here: examination rules. 

HeadStart (a two week orientation program for 2025 VCE students) will begin after the exams and these classes are essential for preparing students for 2025. They will understand their Holiday Homework, required resources, expectations of the class and begin engaging in Unit 1/Unit 3. This is not optional – all students are expected to attend and missing these classes will impact attendance this year, and preparedness for 2025.  

Regards the Assistant Principal Team,  

Kristin, Wes & Belinda