Principal's Report

Parent Opinion Survey - DET

The DET parent opinion survey opens today and will remain open until Friday 8th September. Please keep an eye on your Compass emails, as the details on how to complete the survey with the login details will be out later today.

All families are invited to complete the survey and we ask that you take the time to complete the survey, so we can get a wide range of responses from all of our families. Let’s aim for a better response rate than 50%! Only one member in a family needs to complete the survey.

School Council parent survey

Thanks to the families and community members that completed the short survey school council put together. The feedback was valuable, and the responses were reviewed by the council last week. From the data, some themes were observed and will be used to help us make changes to respond to the concerns raised.

Recurring themes included a range of concerns around vaping, bullying and safety of students, concerns with areas within teaching and learning and leadership. From these concerns, a number of actions were proposed in order to work towards addressing them and will be reviewed through the teacher surveys.

A number of actions will be implemented that are aimed at reducing the opportunities for students to vape at school. This activity is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 and not allowed (like smoking, which it is equivalent to) within 4 metres of the school buildings. Consequences will be enforced for students participating in this activity.

Survey responses also indicated that leadership and communication could be improved within Mount Beauty Secondary College; two variables that go hand-in-hand. The teacher survey will focus further on this area; with a view to identify possible areas for further improvement.

Teachers leaving and the impact this might have on the school, such as subject availability was also a recurring theme, and is a concern for everyone. A similar survey to the parent survey will be conducted with the staff at the college, to capture their thoughts on what is working and any concerns they have.

Progress reports have just been completed for the first half of this term. Teachers communicating with families when students aren’t achieving academically, as expected, will be starting as needed, in the lead up to conferences which are being held in the last week of this term. I strongly encourage parents to also contact the teachers directly if they have any concerns about their child’s academic progress in any way. The Year Level Coordinators are also a good first point of contact for any concerns, academic or otherwise.

Year Level Coordinators

Year 7 – Vicky Levesque            Vicky.Levesque@education.vic.gov.au

Year 8 – Sarah Laidlaw               sarah.laidlaw@education.vic.gov.au

Year 9 – Brad Redmond             Bradley.redmond@education.vic.gov.au

Year 10 – Jenny Farrington        Jennifer.farrington@education.vic.gov.au

Year 11 – Shantelle Stimson       Shantelle.Stimson@education.vic.gov.au

Year 12 – Le-Anne McCraw        Leanne.McCraw@education.vic.gov.au