Dear Parents, Carers, and Students,

I wanted to welcome everyone back to Term 4. This is a vibrant and exciting term, where we celebrate the rich learning outcomes of our students and celebrate personal excellence across the College, with school performance evenings, awards events and the Valedictory evening. I encourage our community to participate in all these events, taking time to reflect on the determination, persistence and energy that students and staff have put into 2024, allowing our college to reach new heights of personal and school achievement.

Year 12 Examinations

This week our Year 12 VCE Tertiary Pathways students commenced their final examinations. For many this is a high stakes moment as they strive to achieve their best Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), and hopefully allowing them access their university degree of choice.

Our staff have reflected on how hard this group has worked and they are confident that student results will reflect this hard work. Performance at VCE level is determined by a range of factors, of utmost important is the preparation and hard work of every student. I would like to wish every student the best of luck with their exams, they should be confident that they have done the work required to achieve the outcome they need.

Year 12 Careers Pathways

Our Careers team has worked closely with students as they have navigated their way through the college, assisting them to identify their individual pathway to success. We are focused on creating pathways for every aspiration and the breadth of pathway preference in 2024 is exciting to see. Showing that our 7-12 careers program is opening many students up to new pathway choices, including things like, aviation (commercial pilot), biomedical sciences, dietetics, occupational therapy, mechanical engineering, sport and event management, marine sciences, forensic psychology, law, and engineering aerospace to name a few. This is a wonderful reflection of the work of our careers team and the pathways to success and student attributes teachers have implemented across the careers curriculum.

Year 10 and 11 Exams

Our Year 10 and 11 students are finishing final assessments and preparation for their own examination period. This is wonderful time for students to try different strategies and techniques for studying, using cue cards, the pomodoro technique, mind maps and creating module books. One of the best ways to improve performance is completing practice exams and seeking teacher feedback on performance, this helps to consolidate understanding and address misconceptions. I know that many of our students will use this time productively to build a solid understanding of what works for them in their achievement of personal best.

Achievements

Our debating team comprising of Caitlin Amery, Jack Boyle and Sophia Butrev won through to the Semi finals where they competed against Melbourne Grammar. Our students have represented our College with pride and are to be congratulated on their hard work dedication and outstanding success in this program. Debating is an opportunity to build public speaking skills, which is fast becoming one of the most sought after employability skills. Congratulation to Caitlin, Jack and Sophia on their skills development and performance, we are very proud of you.

Expressing Gratitude

Gratitude is more than just saying thank you; it’s about recognising the moments, people, and experiences that shape our year. As our year nears completion, I challenge everyone to consider what they are grateful for and take some time to express their gratitude. Personally, I wanted to share my gratitude for the communities trust, commitment and support. I am regularly reminded through parents and carers of the good will, and determination to see young people succeed, and I am truly grateful for these wonderful experiences, as they motivate me to continue to improve journey.

Attendance Matters

As a College we are working hard to change current perceptions and beliefs about student attendance. Every Day Matters when it comes to learning and student connection to school. When a student misses a day of school it impacts the sequencing of knowledge and skills. If they miss multiple days or consecutive days these challenges are compounded. I ask every parent and carers to discuss getting to school on time and avoiding absences with their student. This provides the best platform for students to learn, achieve and perform at their personal best.

College values

We continue to embed our College values within our curriculum and all that we do, our students have started to build their understanding of these values and I would like to share their insights with you. EMC has 5 school values that make up the acronym R.E.A.C.H.

Respect
Empowerment
Aspiration
Courage
Honesty

Values are the beliefs that guide and motivate our attitudes and actions. They create a shared belief about how we behave as a community.

Respect

Respect is when we accept someone as they are and for who they are.

That means accepting them even when they are different from us in some way or differ from us in opinion. Being respectful means, you care enough to think about how you impact others. At EMC, we respect ourselves, others, and our environment

Empowerment

Empowerment is when we recognise and celebrate our own and other’s potential.

It means valuing our abilities, goals and learning. When we are empowered, we feel appreciated, supported, and motivated. We also feel a sense of control and like we have a purpose.

Aspiration

Is about having a culture of high expectations and high achievement.

We adopt a growth mindset and believe we and others can do well and achieve their best.

Courage

Courage is about being brave and seeing failures as opportunities to learn and improve.

It is about accepting challenges and embracing new opportunities.

Honesty

Honesty is about being truthful in all your actions, words, and decisions.

It is about doing what is right, even when it is hard. Honestly is about owning our actions and behaviours and trying to do better when we make a mistake.

School Wide Positive Behaviours and Compass

Our implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour framework continues to be a priority improvement strategy in term 4. This strategy is informed by our vision and values and sees a strong focus on respectful relationships across our College. Imbedded in this work are the student focused policies, including, behaviour expectations, mobile phone, uniform and smoking and vaping. Parental and carer support is pivotal in ensuring that student attend school with positive predispositions to the College expectations and policies. I ask that you familiarise yourself with these policies and support the consistent adherence to these policies. We are striving to create an environment which is focused on student learning, through orderly and safe behaviours.

Our communication around student behaviour has changed in term 4 and we are now informing parents via compass as to both positive student behaviours and behaviours of concern, and if a relocation and threshold conversation has taken place. We encourage you to check your students compass profile daily and celebrate the successes and address any concerns that may arise. Compass is a wonderful tool to keep parents and carers informed on student learning, attendance, upcoming events and general information. If you have misplaced your compass login details please don’t hesitate to contact the college to have this information shared with you.

College Recognition

This week Assistant Principal Ian Price, presented at the Victorian conference on “Building growth cultures” in schools. The event hosted 260 School leaders from across Australia. Ian was able to share the Colleges' journey to develop a teacher culture focused on improvement of practice. He spoke about the preconditions required, and the steps and strategies that he has implemented. This was a wonderful opportunity to recognise Ian’s and the school’s commitment to supporting all teachers to improve their practice.

Our staff survey results are in line with the improved NAPLAN and Attitudes to School survey data and reflect our aspiration to see every child experience personal excellence. We know that student learning is greatly influenced by teacher practice, and we have invested heavily in teacher training over the past 3 years and our data reflects this journey. Following is a short sample of our data improvement when compared to other schools.

Parent Survey Results

	2023	2024
Community Engagement	64%	68%
Involvement	58%	63%
School Communication	72%	80%
Teacher Communication	61% (27%)	59%
Connection and Progression	74%	76%
Positive transitions	69%	73%
Student Connectedness	78%	78%
Safety	70%	76%
Managing Bullying	69%	74%
Not Exp Bullying	68%	72%
Promoting positive Behaviour	63%	77%
Respect Diversity	76%	79%
School Ethos and Environment	64%	73%
School improvement	54%	75%
General satisfaction	73%	75%
Physical Environment	69%	69%
School pride and Confidence	69%	72%
Student Cognitive Engagement	63%	69%
Effective teaching	59%	63%
High Expectations	71%	80%
Stimulating Learning Environment	68%	66%
Student motivation and support	57%	64%
Student Development	67%	72%
Confidence and Resiliency	65%	80%
Student Agency and voice	68%	63%

*Please note: On Monday 4th November all teaching staff will be undertaking a Professional Practice Day as provided by the Department of Education. There will be no formal classes running this day and students are not required on site.

VCE Examinations scheduled for this day will run as planned with staff onsite for students.

Take care and kind regards,

Dean King

Principal.

Vocational Major