Principal's Report

Report from Westall Secondary College

Principal 2024

Dear Westall Secondary College Community,

As we draw toward the close of another successful term, we have so much to be proud of. Our Awards assemblies were a huge success. We have recognised award winners across all subjects via sub school assemblies in Week 9 and overall winners for academic excellence and personal best at the whole school assembly last week. Beyond our award winners I want to congratulate all students on your efforts throughout Semester One. Your reports will be available on compass for you to view and review over the school holidays. I urge families to read over the reports together, celebrate what you have achieved and set goals for Semester Two. Your reports should also inform your course and subject selection for 2025 which will take place upon your return early Term 3. 

For Term 3, school ties will be trialled as an optional uniform item. Our school council have reviewed our school uniform this term with a focus on ties. 83% of students voted those ties be optional and 66% of staff voted the same. We continue to have school ties as part of our uniform, and we continue to encourage students who wish to wear the tie to do so. The only difference is that we will trial the tie being a student choice, rather than compulsory. Our uniform remains a very important part of student readiness to learn. We have been doing uniform blitzes the last few weeks and escalating consequences for noncompliance. Congratulations to all students and thank you to families for your support. Uniform compliance has been exemplary.

All Victorian Government schools have 4 student free days each year. All schools must use the first of these days the day prior to students returning in Term 1. The other 3 days can be determined with School Council. I want to thank all parents and council for our Student Free day on 12th June. Our staff worked hard throughout the day. We had 25 staff complete First Aid Training on this day. The remaining 70 staff completed a 2-hour professional learning program with Glen Pearsall in the morning. Glen has written several books about student learning and positive classroom environment. We were fortunate to secure his services and I know our staff got a lot out of the session. For the remainder of the day on 12th June, our staff worked on curriculum unit and lesson plans in subject domain teams. The intention is that we will have our 3rd Student Free day, mid to late Term 3 with our final student free day planned for late November prior to our HeadStart classes commencing early December.

Another thing all Victorian Government Schools have in common is data collection and performance reviews against a yearly Annual Implementation Plan. Our 3 big focus areas this year are developing our whole school and domain-based curriculum plans and units of work. Our new wellbeing program and brain care curriculum, especially at Years 7 and 8. The third one what we call PLC – Professional Learning communities. Staff working in teams across 2 x intensive 7-week cycles reviewing our teaching and implementation of the “Westall Way”. If you ask students about the Westall Way, they should be able to articulate these are charts on every wall in every classroom. These charts detail how we teach, our focus on student learning and wellbeing, how we promote student voice and agency though literacy and our Westall points system that rewards student efforts and student excellence. I shared more detail on all this last week at our school council meeting. It is pleasing that these strategies across the school really are making a difference. We measure the difference these things make by looking at student learning results and data. I am very proud and happy to report that the student learning targets we set each year are on track to being achieved at the halfway mark of the year.

A call out again if any parents/carers are interested in joining our school council and getting more involved, please contact the school and I will give you a call.

We handed out a smile squad pack to every student over the last week. Some more information for you here:

Smile Squad oral health packs.  

All children deserve a healthy smile, and the Smile Squad free school dental program is working hard to help make sure this happens.  

Your child(ren) will soon receive a free oral health pack to bring home. The pack contains a toothbrush, full sized toothpaste, and an oral health brochure. Please take the time to read the brochure. It’s full of helpful hints and tips to help your whole family eat well, drink well and clean well – for life. 

Standard strength toothpaste 

Smile Squad provides standard strength fluoride toothpaste that is generally used by ages six and over, unless recommended by a dental or trained health professional. 

If your child is under six, please talk to a dental or trained health professional to find out if your child might benefit from using this toothpaste. You can also choose to put the toothpaste away until they turn six or give it to someone else in your family to use. 

About Smile Squad 

Smile Squad is a Victorian Government program that provides free dental care to all Victorian government primary, secondary and specialist school students.  

We will let you know when Smile Squad will be coming to our school to provide dental examinations. Although Smile Squad is not visiting our school just yet, you can access free dental for students by calling your local community dental clinic Link Health and Community and asking for an appointment. 

Visit the Smile Squad website at: www.smilesquad.vic.gov.au to learn more.

Lastly, a message from Westall Hub:

Just a reminder to everyone that Kingston Family Support services are at Westall Hub in Room 1 on the ground floor every Thursday between 9am-1pm.

They offer free and confidential support for families with children up to 18 years.

Their services include:

• Parenting support and education
• Support with family relationships.
• Preventing social isolation
• Assistance with economic difficulties (i.e. link to financial counselling)
• Support with emotional and health issues.
• Assistance with education and employment
• Referrals to other services

Please visit Veronika or Stella at Westall Hub and find out how they can help families that may need support.

Have a safe, relaxing, and refreshing school holiday period. See you all back at school on Monday 15th July.

Until next time!!

Mr Tristan Lanarus

Principal