Message from our 

Campus Principal

We have had a busy few weeks across Morwell Campus and it’s great to see our students rising to the occasion.

Learning Behaviour Updates

Recently, you will have found your child’s Learning Behaviour Update on Compass.  For those of you with a child in Year 7 or a new child to the school seeing them for the first time, the LBUs are indicative of the behaviours that support learning.  They do not measure learning progress or capability.  For this reason, it is an expectation for all students to achieve between 3.0 and 4.0 which is indicative of a general “Good” to “Excellent” rating on all behaviours.  To support your thinking and expectations as a parent, a child receiving “Satisfactory” for a behaviour is scraping through with the minimum effort on that behaviour.  

On average, as a campus, our students scored the highest they have in the last five years.  This is a fantastic effort and shows that the time is right to increase the learning expectations on our students; that they are ready for the next challenge.  Of course, our nature as a school is to always ensure that we are meeting every student at their point of need and we will always continue to support those students who require extra and who are struggling to engage properly.  If you are noting that your child has had some difficulty, please take the time to contact their Team Leader and have a discussion about what the next action is.

It was fantastic last week to recognise our most focused students in a school assembly.  All students receiving a 4.0 score received their certificate and were recognised in front of their peers, and then rewarded with a pizza lunch.  

Student Leadership

Also recognised in our most recent assembly were our student leaders.  They have their first meeting very soon and will begin work towards their first event – a casual dress fundraiser – on the last day of term.  The drive to be involved in student leadership this year has been stronger than ever, with many students missing out on formal opportunities.  We are very proud of all the students who put their hand up and particularly of those who were successful in the process and recognised yesterday.  There is more to come from our student leaders as the year goes on.

I’ve also been thrilled to see the number of Morwell Campus students, and often young students, who have volunteered themselves as student representatives to School Council.  This is an adult forum and so for students to put their hand up is commendable.  This is particularly so because it has been an entirely independent decision – the school has not encouraged them to do so.  

NAPLAN

At the time of writing, NAPLAN is getting underway and I know our students will put their best foot forward.  This can be a daunting time for students, with four high-stakes assessments to complete over 8 school days.  As a school, we do our best to make students comfortable and help them to understand that their best is good enough.  They are not judged against each other.  We use NAPLAN as an assessment that tells us how whole cohorts are travelling and where we may need to make adjustments in curriculum to meet the needs of the broader group.  It also gives us another data point to identify where individual students might need intervention or extension to meet their needs.  

Parent Teacher Conversations

Very soon, Parent Teacher Conversation bookings will open to parents on Compass.  I strongly encourage all parents to take the opportunity to meet with their child’s teachers.  I also encourage you to bring your child along and allow them to be accountable for the feedback that enables them to develop further, and to be openly commended for the things that they are doing to meet their needs already.  Parent Teacher Conversations are on the last two days of term – Wednesday, 1st April in the evening and Thursday, 2nd April during the day.  There are no classes on Thursday, 2nd April to facilitate this.

If you need assistance with accessing Compass, please contact our office staff.  

Mr Dan Swallow

Morwell Campus Principal