From the Principal Class
Dear Viewbank College Community,
As we move into the term 3 holidays, I want to thank you all for your support of the College and your students. We are fortunate to have great, supportive, and caring families who want the best for their students, as do we.
This is shown by the participation of parents in our student-led conferences last week, attendance at our Jazz night this week and our ongoing membership of our Friends parent groups.
We had a lot of parents provide feedback on the last online conferences, with a very divided response for onsite and online meetings (see a summary of feedback below). It is our purpose to facilitate these meetings in a way that best meets the needs of everyone.
One clear message that has come across is the difficulty for families in engaging with the messaging from the College (and we understand that at times, there can be a lot of information shared). We will be reviewing all of our platforms (Compass, Stile, Microsoft Teams and the Website) and the way we communicate with you early next year.
What appears clear from the feedback is the need to provide both onsite conferences and remote opportunities. We also recognize that further work needs to be done to familiarize families with our new learning behaviors matrix. This matrix is a tool to build agency for students in their own learning – recognizing and working on important skills to help them achieve growth and future success. Any change takes time to implement, but we believe it is a crucial step to build reflective and independent learners.
Facilities:
After a long wait, the VCE study centre will be open at the end of the holidays. We look forward to our senior students having a dedicated and fit for purpose space to study, meet with teachers and build their connections during their important last year of study.
Our toilet upgrades will begin these holidays and this will cause some disruption during term 4. Be aware that two toilet blocks (Canteen and C block toilets) will be out of use and temporary toilets will be provided. However, we are excited that this project is going ahead, and we can provide better amenities for students.
Other works happening during the holidays will be internal painting of our A and C block to brighten up our English, Languages and Humanities spaces. This is a project that will be funded by the Building Fund, so parents can see that your contributions are being used to improve the spaces for students. We really value any contributions parents can afford to make, whilst we continue to advocate to the State Government for more substantial upgrades.
Class of ’23:
The College is providing practice exam and revision classes for Year 12 students over the holidays. The year is closing very quickly for our Class of ’23 and there is full support for students, with access to Skyline revision sessions online (external provider) as well. We encourage all students to access as much they can to enhance their exam preparation.
The last day of classes for Year 12’s is October 16. In this important period of preparation, students need to ensure they maintain healthy habits. Healthy diet, exercise and sleep are critical for performance.
A recent study showed that there is a marked difference between 8 hours of sleep and 6 hours of sleep to aid memory retention and retrieval. The longer deep sleep (REM) period is associated with brain renewal and retention. Cramming late into the night will not be effective, as much of the information will not be retained in long-term memory.
Please do what you can to support your Year 12 students (and all students!) to maintain these healthy habits.
Holidays:
On behalf of the Principal team, we wish all families a safe and happy holiday. Please take this opportunity to relax and recharge – term 3 is a bit of a marathon!
We look forward to seeing you all return on October 2nd.
Sharon Grimes, Principal
Emma Ford, Assistant Principal
Rachael Smith, Assistant Principal
Anna Crosswhite, Assistant Principal
Penelope Cleghorn, Assistant Principal