Our Year 11 and 12 students completing Unit 3 and 4 exams have been an inspiration – some students will still have exams this week. They have been focused and worked purposefully to achieve their goals.

If your child is a school leaver, the schoolies celebrations can be an exciting milestone in their lives. However, this shouldn’t come at the expense of impacting your child’s health and safety, or causing problems for the communities where they decide to celebrate.

We encourage you to speak to your child about the importance of keeping safe and healthy at schoolies. Information about staying safe at schoolies can be found at Partying safely at schoolies — Better Health Channel.

You can also follow the Good Times Great Breaks Victoria Facebook page, which provides information on what wellbeing support is available in the main schoolies destinations of Rye, Surf Coast, Lorne, Torquay and Phillip Island.

Smoke Free Schools

Parents, carers, schools, and community all play an important role in protecting children and young people from, and educating them about, the harmful effects smoking and vaping.

Research from the Royal Children’s Hospital shows many parents and carers are not aware of the harmful effects or how their views about smoking and vaping can impact the likelihood of a young person taking up smoking or vaping.

The Department of Education has developed resources to help you learn more about the health risks of smoking and vaping, and some suggestions about how to talk to children and young people about vaping, and where to get support. To access the resources, go to https://www.vic.gov.au/smoking-and-vaping-advice-parents

You can also view this video on smoking and vaping from experts at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne for health advice and tips for starting a conversation with young people.

Should you require any support for your child, please contact the Wellbeing Team.

Scholarships

There are a number of scholarships available for students. For information about scholarships offered at Glen Eira College please go to the Scholarships page under Community on our website. The closing date for applications for 2025 scholarships is Friday 22nd November 2024.

The Department of Education also has a number of scholarships are available for students who complete Grade 4 to Year 11 in 2024, and for students enrolled in Year 12 in 2024 who plan to do tertiary studies in 2025.

Applicants for these scholarships will be evaluated on their:

participation in school activities
community involvement
academic achievement.

Scholarships are either one-off payments or cover the duration of the student’s course or annual study.

Many of these scholarships have specific eligibility criteria, so please refer to individual applications for more information. Applications are now open, and close on Saturday 1 February 2025. For information on how to apply, refer to Student scholarships. https://www.vic.gov.au/student-scholarships

Transition

We will commence our 2025 timetable on Monday 2nd December. Students going into Years 11 and 12 in 2025 will have one week of transition classes. They will receive documents relating to each subject and the expectations and also preparation that should be completed prior to returning next year.

Students going into Years 8 – 10 in 2025 will have two weeks of transition classes, concluding on Friday 13th December.

Victorian All Schools Track & Field Championships

Seven athletes from Glen Eira College recently competed over two weekends at the Victorian All Schools Track & Field Championships, held at Lakeside Stadium. The GEC team took part in 15 events across the program, striving for personal bests and a chance to represent Victoria at the Australian All Schools Track & Field Championships in Queensland from December 6th to 8th, 2024.

Senior student Seif El Shorbagy excelled in the field events, earning 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in shot put, javelin, and discus, respectively, marking his final state competition before graduating Year 12.

Liam Mischel in Year 12 also competed in his final state competition before graduating, and placed 3rd in the 1500m final.

Kane Hijlkema secured a spot in the top 10 of the fiercely competitive 3000m event and placed 9th in the U17 1500m final.

Para athletes Will Short and Angus Murrie both set new Australian U20 Men’s 800m records in their categories. Will earned silver in both the 800m and 1500m, while Angus took bronze in the 800m.

Samantha Fardell and Austin Voges showed great determination in their respective 200m races despite challenging conditions and strong opposition, with Samantha achieving an impressive 7th place finish in the U15 200m final and Austin delivering a personal best in his event.

The youngest team member, Lucas Hijlkema, delivered an outstanding performance, bringing home a gold medal in the U15 pole vault, securing a strong 2nd place in high jump, and achieving a commendable 9th place finish in the U15 javelin event.

Finally

I will be taking long service leave in term 1 2025. I am delighted to announce that Nick Hamer–Smith will be Acting Principal during this time.

If you have any wonderings, positive feedback, stories to share or concerns, please do not hesitate to call me at the school to talk or arrange a time to meet.

Sheereen Kindler

Principal

SWPBS

We have successfully applied to the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) program for 2025. SWPBS is an internationally recognised framework with an extensive evidence base that is shown to improve behavioural, wellbeing, and academic outcomes for children and young people.

Students and staff benefit from:

increased respectful and positive behaviour
increased time focused on instruction
improved social-emotional wellbeing
positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
create safe, orderly and respectful school-wide environments.

During our Curriculum Day on Monday 4th November, staff spent a day engaging with the framework, including developing core beliefs about student behaviour and learning about Tier 1 universal strategies to help create a positive and engaging classroom environment. Attached are some photos of our staff reflecting on the success of the day in our Indigenous Garden.

The work we do as a College within the SWPBS framework will be a major focus for us over the coming years. Many schools across Victoria, both primary and secondary, have adopted this framework and we are excited about the benefits it can bring to Glen Eira College.

Mark Oudshoorn

Assistant Principal

Diwali Celebrations at GEC

Students from the Building our Community and Identity (BOCI) made a beautiful Rangoli in front of the General Office entrance and the Food Tech room entrance to celebrate Diwali.

They also made paper Diyas during lunch time.

The Rangoli represents the happiness, positivity and liveliness of a household, and is intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good luck and is drawn and filled with colourful Rangoli powder in front of main entrances of homes, offices and buildings.

Loveena Narayanen

Assistant Principal

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