From the Principal's desk

Hello to all our community members.

I am pleased that this issue has a banner with the leaders from Hendy Campus. This gives me not only the opportunity to honour this group of outstanding young people who will be campus role models for all other students, but also offers the introduction of Ms Melissa Maccora as the newly appointed Acting Campus Principal of Hendy Campus. 

Mr Bennetts has taken leave to act as Principal of Forrest Primary school and we wish him well. 

Melissa has stepped into Campus Principal having been Assistant Principal at Wexford Campus and College Years 3 to 6 Coordinator. She will be a tremendous asset to the Campus community of students, families and staff as well as the College's executive team. Kate Sykes who has been a very influential educator at Tallis Campus successfully applied to move into Mel's role as Assistant Principal at Wexford. 

New Pages of Interest

This issue has a couple of new pages. One a story about our VCE Outdoor Education students and their challenges. 

Check out Facing the Challenges

The other is an introduction to the changes ahead in Senior Education Certificates. It is well worth a read if you are a current secondary school aged student or family.

Please Read the page Senior Secondary Certificate Reform

This issue also has a special page for Refugee Week. In what is an amazing plan for celebration of our Unity - our refugee and multicultural support staff  have developed a Unity Dance to be undertaken across all campuses this week. The final production will be celebrated in our communities. 

Remote Learning 4.0

Well once again our entire school community can be extremely proud of the way we moved into remote learning for the fourth time. We are very happy to be back on deck, but we , parents, students and staff, really should be proud of  our ability take on board the the protocols and processes to move to remote with less stress than previously we felt.

Again, well done to everyone for the commitment to ensuring this lockdown was as positive an experience as possible for all of our students. 

OPEN MORNING 

On the Tuesday 25 May we welcomed our 2022 prospective Prep families onto our P-8 campuses for an introduction and tour of their chosen campus for 2022. The children experienced life as a Prep in the classroom with various play tasks alongside our current Preps. A ‘Tea and Talk’ was held after the tour giving families a chance to ask questions of campus principals and prep staff.

I’d like to thank all campus staff involved in welcoming our new families and making them feel at home.

GITTC Trade Open Day

With Education Week as the backdrop, the GITTC held an Open Day on Wednesday 26 May where visiting and current GITTC students had the opportunity to network with apprenticeship agencies and trade suppliers connected to our Trade Centre. 

The Open Day, which was organised by the trade centre staff team, positioned the centre in such a positive light and allowed visitors to hear firsthand of some the wonderful learning experiences available at the GITTC. 

All staff involved in the day should be very proud of how they were able to present this unique learning facility to the wider community.

Year 4 Camp

Before Lockdown our Year 4 students had a terrific experience at Staughton Vale Outdoor Education Camp.

These one-night camps are a great way to introduce students to all the fun of a school camp and the staff who accompanied our students ensured there certainly was plenty of fun to be had. 

We really are very lucky to have our campsite and it was great to see our students using these facilities so positively and exploring the natural wonders around them. 

Extended School Day

The Term 3 Extended School Day Program sign up opened on Tuesday 15 June for Years 3 to 10 students. Information on all Term 3 programs can be found at 

Blue Edge Action

Just before lockdown our Blue Edge program hosted Tom from Vicpol Air Wing who gave an insight on how the Airwing operates and some of the challenges they confront on a daily basis. Our whole college and community were blown away (literally!) to experience a once in a lifetime close-up of the police chopper hovering above us before it went into its daily activities. The students have been privileged with so many great opportunities provided by the Vic Police.  

Please read the programs page for more on this great initiative including a special mention in the Victoria Police online Magazine.

Three Way Conference Data

We were very satisfied with the parent turn out to our recent three-way conferences and have provided some data below relating to the percentage of families attended from each year level. Whilst we obviously always strive for 100% attendance, we understand this is not always possible and should celebrate the terrific attendance thus far to support the improvement of this important aspect of the learning process.

Data collected

We collected data on parents attending Conferences and I would like to urge parents and carers of secondary aged students to consider the importance of talking about your child's education and goals in these important years.   Across Campuses P-2 Classes had 86% of families attend compared to 30% in one of the senior year levels.  We would encourage families to continue to see the relevance of Conferences all the way through the continuum to Year 12.

Student Reports.

Alongside Conferences are the semester reports which are shared through COMPASS. The SEMESTER 1 report provides you with detailed information on the progress that your child has made in their learning program and we hope that you have the opportunity to take time to read through this report with your child.

Northern Bay College promotes a positive partnership between home and school and we firmly believe that students perform best and achieve greater learning outcomes when families and the school work together to achieve these common goals. With this in mind we encourage parents and carers to support their child to reflect on the progress and comments shared in their report and discuss with their child some goals and targets for their next semester of learning.

Also connected to this important connection between home and school is the combined effort to increase students attendance across all Year levels. Hopefully all families would be aware that improving attendance for all students is a major focus for our school. To bring into context how important daily attendance is the following scenario is very telling.

A student who misses only 1 day per month of their schooling will still miss close to one full year of schooling by the time they finish Year 12.

This compounding effect of absence is what makes every day so important. Again we truly appreciate the efforts of all families in supporting the important message when it comes to attendance – Every Day Counts!!

As always your child’s teachers and Campus are always available to support and as such I encourage you to keep in contact with these key people. This could include touching base to ask questions related to this report or for further support and advice regarding your child’s learning progress.

 On behalf of all staff at Northern Bay College I thank all parents and carers for their ongoing support and look forward to this positive working relationship continuing.

In closing may I take the opportunity to wish every member of our community a safe and enjoyable mid year break and looking forward to returning to campus on Monday 12 July.

Regards

Scott Diamond

College Principal