Student Wellbeing

As we head towards the middle of term 2 and the days seem to be getting shorter as we move closer to the darkness of winter, it is an opportunity to acknowledge the many things that have been happening in the first part of 2025...

Athletics Carnival

While I am sure in other parts of the Marian this will be a focus, I would like to mention the importance of days such as this when we talk about building community and team spirit.

It is important for all members of our community to feel connected and days such as this allow us to build on COMMUNITY.

It was fantastic to see so many students working to get points for their house and then towards the end the enthusiasm that we saw for the HOUSE tug-of-war demonstrates that we have many highly competitive people in our midst.

We look forward to our Reflection Day on Friday 30th May that will allow us another opportunity to build our community spirit and this time with a faith and spiritual lens.

Work of the Student Representative Council

Over the first part of term 2, the Student Representative Council have reviewed events such as the Athletics Carnival and are now working with year levels on both the Bullying and Harassment and Student Digital Citizenship Policies. 

All our school policies are in the process of being reviewed and it is important to gain student perspective as we work to finalise these very important documents that are key components of our policies and procedures.

Sudanese and Burmese Information Evenings

On Thursday 22nd May we held our first Sudanese and Burmese Information Evenings for 2025.

It was very pleasing to see many new parents at the gathering who now have students in Year 7 and who are very keen to work in partnership with the school to enhance their child’s wellbeing and learning.

We held the evening from 3.30pm to 5.00 pm but our families suggested that perhaps a starting time of 4.00 may be a better option moving forward. This information we will take on board for second semester.

Reminders for our Community

Uniform Reminders for Term 2

A reminder to our families that in term 2 students should be wearing their winter uniform. This includes the following:

• School pants and white shirt with our school tie or
• Winter skirt and white shirt with our school tie
• With the winter skirt long white socks or blue tights can be worn
• The school tie is compulsory
• School jumper can also be part of the uniform and
• School blazers are compulsory and should be the most outer garment to and from school.

A reminder about grooming expectations:

• Nose piercings need to have a plug during the school day
• Only one pair of earrings should be in each ear
• False eyelashes or nails are not permitted

Attendance Reminders

A reminder to all our families of the obligation to inform us of any student absence and to explain that absence. Sadly, for our Student Receptionist on many occasions when we begin to follow up absences at the beginning of the day, many families do not contact the school to explain the absence.

It is a legal obligation from parents to explain student absences. Students should also bring to school Doctor’s Certificates if they have them to explain their absence or a written note from home for years 7-10.

For VCE a Doctor’s Certificate is an expectation to explain absences. Over the course of the term many students may have brought home an Attendance Follow up sheet from their homeroom teacher asking them to explain absences. These need to be returned to homeroom teachers. 

However, our preference would be for these not to be sent home as parents have explained all the absences on the day that they occur.

We thank all our families who support our processes.

Lateness Concerns

We have noticed over the course of the first part of the year, that an increasing number of students are coming late during period 1. Sometimes this lateness is due to our school buses being caught in traffic and we recognise and understand this. However, the students we are referring to are students who do not travel on school buses but are just late. This impacts student attendance and at VCE has an impact on expectations of 90% for each unit.

As we move towards the middle part of the year, we will begin analysing this data and following up with students who are consistently late and try to address the reasons why.

For many of our senior students they would not be consistently late for work, so we are unsure as to why it is okay to be late for school.

Final thought:

As we head towards the end of the Easter season and we have witnessed the appointment of a new POPE who offers us both HOPE and LIGHT for the future and we balance this with the darkness that winter brings, may we remember that there is light at the end of that darkness for us all….

In the meantime, take care of yourself and do something that nourishes your own wellbeing and self-care.