Principal Team Report

Welcome to New Families

On behalf of staff and College Council, we welcome all our new families to Wheelers Hill Secondary College. Whether your child is joining us at Year 7 or another year level, it is so important that we do work together to ensure that your people take every opportunity to thrive and learn, not only as individuals but as part of a homegroup, a class, a cohort and a broader school community.  This means that all of us endorse and celebrate our school traditions and culture. WHSC has a built capacity of approximately seven hundred students. We are by definition and reality a small school compared to other secondary colleges in the Monash Network. We do not aspire to be a huge population; what we strive for is to deliver a quality education for the families that choose us. Like any secondary college, we offer a range of programs and co-curricular experiences that build resilience, perseverance, skills, and knowledge. We want all our students to achieve their potential. But this is not possible without your collaboration and trust. We ask that you do access your Compass emails and communicate with us if you need any support with our technology infrastructure, that you support our school policies  and  you ensure that your children do come to school ready to learn with correct equipment and uniform and positive mindset 

( we are here to help ) and that you, along with your children acknowledge that school staff also have the right to feel respected, safe and valued. 

Building Student Connectedness

As part of our commitment to activating student voice, our Library and Resources Hub and been transformed over the break into our Learning and Wellbeing Centre (LWC). It is a prototype of what our Masterplan should offer, and it would not have been possible without the generous support of our families to the Library and Building funds. We have created a space for learning as well as recreation where students can eat their lunch, play chess and other games, and access a silent learning space for study or self-regulation. Just simply we want our students to connect with each other. We have also placed key staff in the centre to engage with students: Mr Andrew Steele (who has joined our Wellbeing team), Ms Abbey Novak, our Learning Enrichment Learning Specialist, Mr David Gill, our Leading Teaching for Student Agency, Voice and Community Connectedness and our Educational Support Leader of Disability and Inclusion, Mrs Annette Paterson. Our Assistant Principal, Jeremy Woods also has a hot desk in the space. The seating booths have been a huge hit, and we are in the process of purchasing more. Our beautiful new space, within the LWC, for our reading collection is equipped with fabulous new facilities and is under the guidance of our Librarian, Ms Tracey Duff. The LWC will continue to evolve and please see the photos in this Newsletter.

Our Student Counselling Services remain in separate spaces for privacy and confidentiality. Madeleine Azhar, our Art Therapist and counsellor, however, does have a new location with renovated facilities.

Welcome to New Staff

I would also like to take this opportunity to formally welcome new staff to our College. They are already making a fantastic contribution:

• Dr Michael Lyristis: Leader of Senior School and member of the Principal Team
• Mr James Meaker: Leader of Middle School
• Ms Nancy Cardo: Art Teacher
• Ms Michelle McKinnon: Middle School Attendance Officer
• Ms Barbora Kosikova: Senior School Attendance Officer

Year Seven Transition Camp

A huge thank you to all staff and students who attended camp. It was a great opportunity for our Year Sevens and staff to connect and learn from each other. We also thank families who participated in our Meet and Greet.

Swimming Carnival

As I said in my newsfeed last week, the Carnival was just a fantastic day. A huge endorsement of the importance of such events to the learning and wellbeing of students and staff.

NAPLAN March 12 to 18 for our Year 7 and 9 Cohorts

As we all know, NAPLAN provides a snapshot of student learning at a point in time as well as a measure of learning growth between Year 7 and Year 9. The data is then triangulated against PAT M and PAT R Data (standardised tests in Numeracy and Reading) along with teaching judgements to determine how students can improve and what areas they need to improve in. We have excellent processes around the implementation of the NAPLAN tests which will begin on Wednesday, March 12. Please be mindful of these dates if you are planning appointments or holidays. If you have concerns about your child participating in the tests, can you please let the General Office know as soon as possible.

School Council

Please consider joining our College Council. Nomination forms will be posted in a Compass Newsfeed. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me through the General Office or email.

How do we know we are making a Difference?

Our core business as a secondary college is to educate children. As I said in a Compass Newsfeed, it takes all of us to do it. We need to ask ourselves as educators:

What are we teaching?

How do we know when our students are learning?

How as teachers can we improve?

We also need to ask our students:

What are you learning?

How are you going?

How do you know when you are making progress?

How can you improve?

Our shared purpose is that we all want our students and teachers to be able to answer these questions.

Attendance

I would also like to reach out to families to reiterate how important it is that students attend school every day. There will always be exceptions, but students need to be in classes. It is a legal requirement for students under the age of 17 to be in education. The more students miss attending school, the harder it is for them to break that pattern. We are here to support families to the best of our resources. Please reach out to us if you need that support.

Fern Brisbane

WHSC Principal