SSP NEWS

Parent-Carer Respect at Tournaments and Competitions: Guidelines for Sideline Behaviour

Parents and carers play a leading role in encouraging and supporting their children to play and stay involved in sport, in a fun and safe environment.

We love that our community come and support our College and our student-athlete’s in their sporting journey’s at WHC, and we would absolutely encourage you to still keep attending and supporting!

We know nearly all of our parent-carers show absolute respect towards our coaches and umpires on game day (regardless of sport), however it has been brought to our attention that some families have been disrespecting umpires and questioning their calls, and even going as far as yelling abuse.

At WHC and our Specialist Sport Program – we pride ourselves on our integrity, and our promotion of safety and respect towards each other, coaches, umpires, teachers and officials. 

We ask that our parent-carer community models the same behaviours and traits.

Cheer Positively:

• Support all players on the field, court or pitch.
• Reward effort, not outcomes.
• Demonstrate and role model high integrity in words and actions.

Let the Coach Coach:

• Avoid sideline coaching

• Respect the teaching and coaching space. Allow the team to meet as a team both before and after competition. Please wait until students have been ‘released’ prior to taking group or individual photo’s or discussing the game with your child.

   

Respect Officials:

• Respect the decisions of officials at all times.
• No verbal abuse.

• Accept the decision.

   

Keep Cool:

• Manage personal frustrations.
• If it’s not positive in nature, please refrain from commenting or demonstrating negative body language.
• Walk away if you need to and be a role model in emotional regulation.

The Victorian Government has a respectful parenting policy in place. We have a shared responsibility (parents, carers, teachers and coaches) to ensure a positive and safe learning environment – this learning environment still exists on the pitch, field or court (all sports). We don’t ever want to be in the position where we are required to remove parent-carers from supporting a sporting event, however, if basic respect in any of the above areas can’t be adhered to, we will unfortunately need to do so. Please don’t ever put us in this position.

We want to work together. To be respectful. To act as one team, aligned in a common goal—to work hard, communicate positively, celebrate effort, and demonstrate the values we want our children to learn both in the classroom and on the sporting field. When we do this collectively, we achieve even greater results and create even greater humans, capable of thriving in sport and life.

Soccer News:

It seems like every newsletter gives us another reason to celebrate another title, another tournament victory, and another piece of history created by our incredible Specialist Soccer Program.

It is with great pride that I can announce that Western Heights College has once again made history. For the first time, all four of our girls’ teams have qualified for the SSV State Finals. Our Year 7 and Year 8 girls had already secured their places, and now both our Intermediate and Senior Girls have earned their tickets to the finals after winning the Western Region title.  Our Specialist Soccer Program continues to set the benchmark and is undoubtedly one of the most successful school soccer programs in Victoria. When we win the Finals we will secure the title as Victoria’s best. 

Our Under-15 Boys also enjoyed a memorable campaign, travelling to Albury to compete against the best representative teams from Country New South Wales and the ACT. With only the tournament winner progressing to the final eight teams in Australia, the stakes were high. Our boys rose to the occasion in spectacular fashion, defeating Country NSW 8–0 before producing another dominant display against the ACT to secure their place in the national quarter-finals.

We also congratulate two of our senior students, Marcus Bei and Roko Mammone, who were selected to represent Victoria at the Australian School Sport Championships. Victoria celebrated a historic triumph, ending a 29-year title drought. Marcus enjoyed an outstanding tournament, scoring the winning goal in the championship final and earning selection in the Australian Schoolboys Team, an extraordinary achievement. We are immensely proud of both Marcus and Roko for representing Western Heights College and Victoria with distinction.

The excitement continues this week as our Intermediate and Senior Boys and Girls compete in the Melbourne Victory Cup. We are hopeful they can add a few more trophies to an already overflowing cabinet. The tournament also provides an outstanding opportunity for our students to showcase their abilities ahead of the A-League academy trials in September, where many will have the chance to impress professional club scouts.

Netball News

It's been a fantastic couple of weeks in the Specialist Netball Program with many students out competing in the School Sport Victoria competition and the Netball Victoria School Championships over this past fortnight. 

Last Tuesday our Intermediate and Senior Girls headed to Altona for the Western Metropolitan Region Finals. Both our Senior Girls and Intermediate Girls had some fantastic matches and performances as individuals and as a team showing great progress. Both teams finished runners up which was a great result and effort by all.

On Monday this week our intermediate boys also headed to their Western Metropolitan Region finals at Altona. Led by Australian champion and Captain Jack TePaa and SNP student athletes Zac Volkerts and new comer Junior Piranga. The netball boys combined with some of the SSP Basketball boys playing some incredible Netball and took out the final convincingly against Altona SC. 

The boys will head to the state finals on Monday  31st of August and also head off next week to the Netball Victoria School Championships finals in Knox, we wish them all the best for that event.

On Tuesday this week our intermediate teams headed to the State Netball Centre for the Netball Victoria School Championships qualifiers. The Navy team were undefeated for the day and will head to the state finals on the 2nd of September against the best teams in Victoria. The Orange Team had some great performances against some tough opposition and finished with two wins and 4 losses. Well done to all players on their performances, conduct and sportsmanship. A huge thank you to Grace Elliott and WHC alumni Maddie McCartney for umpiring on the day.

Australian champion! Congratulations to Jack Te Paa who last week along with his 15 and under Team Victoria side took out the School Sports Australia 15 and under Championships held at the State Netball Centre. Jack had an incredible week with some fantastic performances, he was also supported by the SNP Year 9 cohort who attended a day, to not only support Jack but also view a national championship of both the girls and boys competitions. Students were able to look at the differences in each state's ability, game plans and the way in which they function and operate in high performance environments which was an assessment task. A massive congratulations to Jack. 

It's full steam ahead with the Queensland tour less than a month away our students are extremely excited at the opportunity to compete in the national all schools netball championships in Coomera as well as experiencing a high performance environment throughout the week staying at the Gold Coast High Performance a similar set up that of the AIS. A reminder to parents and students on that trip that a pre departure online meeting will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday the 19th of August.

Results

Extended Sporting Absence

Attending school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day.

WHC understands that student-athletes may require absence from school for extended periods due to sporting commitments (training or competition). In this event, parent-carers must gain prior approval and provide advance notice to WHC for any extended absence (More than 3 days).

The advance notice will allow for an approved exemption (at the discretion of the Principal) from school attendance for state, national or international sporting commitments (training or competition). In short, this means it will be a school approved absence, and will not impact your child’s or the school’s attendance record/data.

Parent-Carer Responsibilities – What you need to do:

All absences of more than 3 days should be reported by parents/carers on Compass as an ‘Attendance Note’.

In the attendance note – please select Parent Choice, School Unapproved - we will adjust this at WHC as approved if the Principal deems the absence meets the state, national or international sporting commitment criteria.

In the Attendance Note, please outline:

• Dates of absence

• Reason for absence (Sport / Competition / Location)

• Attach any supporting documentation regarding the sporting event (for example: Letter from Sporting Governing body)

   

WHC will then action the following communication (automatically);

• Log on compass (discretionary – as approved absence)

• Notify

  • Principal: Fiona Taylor for approval

  • SSP Leader: Renee Lane

  • SSP LCL: Paul Rogers

  • Year Level Sub School Leader and Classroom teachers

Year 7-10 Student-Athletes

It is expected that all Year 7-10 student-athletes that are absent for an extended period of time (more than 3 days), notify WHC when representing and competing at a State, National or International level.

The SSP Learning Community Leader: Paul Rogers will help to support you in completing a Student Absence Learning Plan for your core subjects: English and Maths.

It is an expectation of WHC that during your sporting absence, you will complete the designated work within these two subject areas (either prior to leaving or by your return date). Of course, if you wish to obtain work from all subject areas, please feel free to do so.

VCE Student-Athletes

It is crucial for any student-athlete studying a Unit 1-4 subject to notify WHC of extended sporting absence (more than 3 days), where representing and competing at a State, National or International level.

If a VCE student-athlete is absent from a SAC, without an approved exemption (or medical certificate) may receive a score of zero for the SAC, which will have a significant impact on their final Study Score for the subject.

It is expected that all VCE student-athletes that are absent for an extended period of time, communicate with their teacher’s prior to the absence to ensure work completion whilst away. This is non-negotiable.

Absences which are for activities that are student/parent choice and not a recognised requirement of the sport, will not be approved and the absence may impact VCAA requirements for school attendance.

Please Note:

• It is the family and student-athletes' responsibility to notify WHC of any upcoming absence in advance.

• It is vitally important that all student-athletes regardless of age find out what work is required prior to leaving, during the event or competition (if realistic) and what to do upon their return – so that students can remain up to date and engaged in their learning.

   

Importance of Attendance:

At WHC, it is important that we are clear on our attendance standards and expectations for students in our College.

Across the state, it is expected that student attendance is above 90%

School attendance is crucial:

• Every day missed impacts academic achievements

• For social-emotional development (communication, resilience, wellbeing etc).

• For future life opportunities (further learning, employment, providing skills, knowledge and values for greater community engagement and participation)

• Improved health outcomes

• Higher income across the lifespan

Please continue to support us and your child to maintain high levels of attendance at WHC (daily) and please communicate proactively via compass; attendance note, regarding any sporting commitments that may impact your child’s attendance.

 Team Selection Process for Tournaments and Competitions

We hope that you and your child are enjoying their experience at Western Heights College in the Specialist Sports Program.

It is an exciting time for our program with over 670 students across the four pillar sports: AFL, Basketball, Netball and Soccer. However, this also creates complexities around team selection for tournaments and competitions. It is simply not possible for all student-athletes to be selected.

Please understand that although student-athletes are a part of the SSP, this does not guarantee automatic entry to any WHC interschool or representative team. Head coaches are responsible for team selection and many factors contribute to this process, including; skill, ability, team dynamics, effort, behaviour and attendance across the entire College.

If any student-athlete’s whole school attendance is below 80% = No play or Compete. This has been communicated broadly to students and families since the beginning of the year. Please support our processes to engage all student-athletes in their learning at WHC. Next year, this attendance figure will need to be above 85%. Currently our entire SSP attendance is sitting at approximately 90.2% for all sports – this is a wonderful achievement from everyone in the program – so thank you for your continued support in this space.

Regarding team selection, we know that non-selection can be difficult for parent-carers, but we thank you for your understanding and support of our program and all student-athletes, whilst we move in to a heavy phase of competition over the next three terms.

If you or your child has any concerns about selection or non-selection, we would encourage all of our student-athletes to have direct conversations with their coaches regarding feedback for improvement.

We would also like to remind our parent-carer community, that all sports have multiple coaches who support the head coach in the Team Selection process – the decision never rests solely with one person. 

Again, thank you for your continued support. We love that your child is a part of our program, and please endeavour to remember the program was established for our student-athletes to reach both their academic and athletic potentials. It is about growth in both learning and sporting pursuits, not who is or isn’t selected for a team.

SSP Leader: Renee Lane