From the Principal

SCHOOL VALUES

Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Learning. 

Staff, students and parents are encouraged to ensure we all operate and conduct our business at school according to these core values that were established by various members of our school community for the school community throughout the school review process in 2019.

Key focus areas for Donald High School in 2024

As part of our Annual Implementation Plan, and as part of the findings from our school review this year, our school has identified a number of key priorities we will be focussing on in 2024. These include:

1. Striving for improvements in Literacy and Numeracy with a particular focus on Reading and Writing.
2. Re-focussing our teaching staff to teach according to our Donald High School Instructional Model and re-focussing classroom behavioural and learning expectations.
3. Using data to inform our teaching and learning for improved student outcomes with a focus on teaching students to their point of need.
4. Using student voice as a source of feedback inside and outside the classroom with a view to improving student engagement and connectedness; and
5. Striving for improvements in student mental health and wellbeing, and engagement and connectedness at school through specialist programs and support.

There is also an expectation of all students to ensure they continue to grow and develop as learners, and for staff to continue to strive for improvement in themselves and the students.

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE REPORT AND PROGRESS FROM AIP GOALS

Much of my work over the last few weeks has been determining how our school has performed according to the goals set in our Annual Implementation Plan for this year. According to our recently released School Performance Report, we have seen a 13.3% relative growth improvement in our Year 7 -> 9 Naplan Reading results with 56% of students in Year 9 in the Strong or Exceeding performance area for Naplan Reading. In the Numeracy domain, we have seen a 38.8% relative growth improvement in our Year 7 -> 9 Naplan Numeracy results with 71% of students in Year 9 in the Strong or Exceeding performance area for Naplan Numeracy. For our school’s Learning Performance on our School Performance Report, our school has been rated as Improving, whilst we have been rated as Medium for our school’s Wellbeing Performance. Our Overall Performance on our 2024 School Performance Report, has been rated as Medium, and we are 1 of 12 similar schools out of 31 similar schools in the area that have been rated as a Medium Performance School in a ranking system from High -> Improving -> Medium -> Developing. We have continually focussed on the School’s Instructional Model for Teaching through our Professional Learning Meetings throughout this year and have re-focussed our classroom behavioural and learning expectations with staff to pass onto the students. There has also been some consistent sharing of student data for staff to utilise to be able to teach students at their point of need. We have continually provided specialist programs and support in the wellbeing space throughout the year to assist students with their mental health and wellbeing and engagement and connectedness at school. An area of continual improvement at present is to enable more students to have a voice inside and outside of the classroom with a view to improving student engagement and connectedness.

STAFFING UPDATE

Please note that we have appointed a new Education Support Staff Member. Daniel Pettifer has been appointed to work at our school for the remainder of this year and will be looking to continue in this role in 2025. Daniel has experience working with students with learning difficulties through his recent work at Wedderburn College and is able to develop strong working relationships with students and staff. We welcome Daniel to our school and wish him well in his new role. 

We have also re-contracted Mr. Geoff Rigby as our Instrumental Music Teacher for 2025. Mr. Rigby has been an integral part of our school for a long time as a past teacher and school leader, and more recently as our Instrumental Music Teacher teaching many students the art of music on a variety of instruments and singing as part of the school band. Much of the fruits of Mr. Rigby’s work is on display each year in the annual Music Festival and Battle of the Bands that the students enjoy being a part of. Mr. Rigby also plays a key role in maintaining staff morale around the school with initiatives like the Monday soup days, Friday morning teas and the annual footy tipping competition staff can get involved in. Welcome back for another year Mr. Rigby!! 

We have also advertised for a new Science and Biology Teacher with Mrs. Samantha Beckham leaving and for a new English & Humanities Teacher with Mr. Chris Poole recently informing me he will be leaving at the end of the year. We are currently in the process of trying to appoint some suitable candidates in both teaching areas.

SCHOOL TV

Please note that our school community now has access to a website called SchoolTV.

This website provides all members of our school community with a wide range of information and resources both in text and video form as well as asks people to complete surveys on a variety of topics on Mental Health and Wellbeing. It is a website that is used as a preventative measure to educate all people on the various topics and is a fantastic resource I recommend people access whether you are a parent, teacher or student.

The topics are conveniently arranged into a number of series. Topics feature interviews with leading youth wellbeing experts and researchers from around the world offering hours of relevant and practical information. Additionally, each topic includes a compilation of related resources from key organisations providing a comprehensive stream of content. Resources include informative fact sheets, articles, apps, books, podcasts, websites, and other videos - all related to a single topic, in one place for easy access!!

The website is found at donaldhs.vic.schooltv.me

Some of the most recent special reports on the SchoolTV website include: Eating Anxiety, Healthy Study Habits, The Cost of Living Crisis, Navigating AI Relationships, and Confidence & Motivation.

ENERGY BREAKTHROUGH CHALLENGE

It was fantastic to hear all the wonderful stories about how well the group of Year 8 – 10 boys acquitted themselves on the weekend of Friday 22nd November -> Sunday 24th November at the Energy Breakthrough 24-hour race. All the students performed well in very hot and trying conditions and our school finished 6th in our open male’s category and 20th out of 97 schools overall. Only much larger private schools with more students to select from, older aged students and possibly higher budgets to use performed better. A great effort by all involved!! Thank you to all the staff and parents that attended on the weekend to support the team and to all the sponsors for their generous support to help make this event happen and to ensure its success. A massive thank you to Mrs. Karen Medlyn for her leadership, passion, drive and persistence with this program over the last 6 – 9 months. Mrs. Medlyn has been an inspiration to everyone involved and much of the success is attributed to her work!!

ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL 

Can parents and students please take note of the graphic below. Last year we had too many of our students missing over 15 days of school (some students over 20 days). Some students this year have already had over 20 unexplained absences (half or full days). Everyone should be prioritising education and learning for all our students. The more time students spend at school, the greater the outcomes for their learning. All Year 7 – 12 students are expected to be at school for the whole day on a ‘normal’ school day. The only exceptions are for illness, medical appointments, or a family bereavement. Parents are encouraged to adhere to these guidelines for their child’s attendance.

I am available to talk to people at the school to assist you with any enquiries if required and can be contacted to make an appointment or have a discussion on Ph. (03) 5497 1205.

Paul Aikman.