PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

It’s hard to believe term 3 is drawing to a close. We have achieved so much and have a lot to celebrate in terms of learning and engagement this term.

I have been proud of, so many things and moments, some are highlighted below; -

• We celebrated the learning success of our leaders and achievers in semester one with a presentation ceremony for our highest achieving academic learners with a lunch for them and their families.
• We currently have a group of 13 students and 3 staff in Singapore for a cultural immersion tour.
• We welcomed our 2024 new Year 7’s to our school community with our ‘welcome to our college” presentation with all families and students who will join our community in 2024.
• We celebrated Science and STEM week.
• Ramzy Barboussas completed the Kokoda track as part of the Geelong Kokoda Youth Program.
• Alumni presentations have continued, and it was terrific to welcome back to our community several alumni for the first time.
• Pathways has been a focus. During this term the individual opportunities for students and families to engage with our careers practitioners and pathways team and discuss what their goals and ambitions were for their learning and pathways. We have really enjoyed working with students and families to get excited about opportunities for further study and learning both at our college and other organisations in 2024.
• We have reflected on our well-being during “R U Ok Day”.
• Our Year 9/10 boys, senior girls finished second in the state in the AFL SSV Grand Final.
• Our Year 7 Girls and our Year 9/10 Boys Netball Teams finished runners up in the state final
• Our Senior girls’ soccer team finished runners up in the state final.
• Several of our Basketball teams have participated successfully in the SSV Champions Basketball Cup with most teams making it through to the elite 8 stage and the Finals Day on this coming Saturday 16 September.
• Our students participated in the State School Spectacular presentation at the John Cain Arena on Saturday.
• We completed our school review and now wait for our new 4-year strategic plan to be ratified by the department of education.
• We started to plan our new school gymnasium due to be completed in 2025.

So many things to celebrate, be proud of and smile about.

Learning Conversations

Our Learning conversations for students, parents and staff will take place on Thursday 14th September between 11am and 7pm and 9am – 1pm on Friday 15 September. You can book online via compass to secure an appointment. Normal timetabled classes will not be running on both these days, but Year 11 and 12 students may be required to attend to complete school assessed course work or to complete independent private study.

End of Term 3 and Commencement of Term 4 Arrangements

Term 3 draws to a close on Friday 15 September at the conclusion of the learning conversations. A reminder that there will be no scheduled or timetabled classes on Thursday or Friday – just attendance at learning conversations. Term 4 will commence on Monday 3 October for students and staff.

I encourage all our students, staff and families to take a break over the holidays, get away if you can and with the weather starting to look more like springtime and the longer days it will give us more opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. I will be completing the Kokoda track during the school holidays and taking a short, long service leave break at the beginning of term 4. Warwick Lamb and Ricki O’Shannessy (Assistant Principal’s) will be leading the community in my absence.

Take care,

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 2023

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 10 community languages:

* Amharic

* Arabic

* Dari

* Gujarati

* Mandarin

* Somali

* Sudanese

* Turkish

* Urdu

* Vietnamese.