From the Principal Team

Last week our staff participated in a wonderful Professional Learning day led by Eric Agyeman.

Eric is passionate about young people and their future. He is a professional speaker and youth mentor. Last year he presented to various year levels and to the Leadership Team. We are delighted that Eric will host a parent information evening on 21st March at 6pm.

The Professional Learning related to Goal 2 of our Annual Implementation Plan:

Enhance wellbeing to support engagement and respectful relationships.

KIS 2a. Strengthen positive peer relationships

KIS2b: Embed social and emotional learning for all students

KIS2c: Promote relationships between staff and students that strengthen connectedness and engagement across the College

Our focus is to:

Build a sense of belonging to GEC for all students.
Create a classroom and school environment that promotes safety, trust and respect through a range of curriculum and co-curricular programs.

Key take aways from Eric included:

"Never doubt that a SMALL GROUP of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
“Every young person is one caring adult away from success.”
“In every confused, disengaged & disrespectful teen lies great potential for a bright future!”
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
“Becoming the caring and heart centred educator.”

It has been wonderful to see our students engaged deeply in their learning and in a range of activities. Some of the highlights include:

The Swimming Carnival was a wonderful Whole School event. We have many students participating in the Beachside swimming event this week.
Year 8 students participated in a Talk Money program.
Students participated in a range of interschool team sports.
Our variety of lunch time and after school clubs and activities continues to grow and I encourage all students to get involved. Activities include - Robotics Club, Badminton, Chess Club, Rainbow Retreat, UJEB, Anime Club, Crochet Club, French Club, Book Club, numerous activities in the library, Instrumental music ensembles and various Year 12 subject study groups.
All Year 9 students are participating in the Morrisby Testing and interviews as part of their careers education.
Year 7 camp was wonderful with our students engaging a range of experiences and making new friends.
Our Breakfast Club runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8.00 – 8.30am in Room 2.

We will soon be celebrating International Women’s Day, Cultural Diversity Week, Harmony Day and Francophonie Day and Neurodiversity Celebration Week.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week (18th - 24th March) is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. It aims to transform how neurodivergent individuals are perceived and supported by providing schools, universities, and organisations with the opportunity to recognise the many talents and advantages of being neurodivergent, while creating more inclusive and equitable cultures that celebrate differences and empower every individual. Please see the following link for resources for parents. https://www.neurodiversityweek.com/

I hope to see families that are able to, to sign up for the Mother's day classic - a wonderful community event - see details further in the newsletter.

Celebrating Our Students Past and Present

Max Witwicki - GROW Glen Eira program is a gardening/horticulture program to support youth to enhance their employment and social skills.

We are delighted to share Max’s success in completing the program. Max is now working in his chosen field at the City of Stonnington.

Congratulations Max.

Max’s Journey at KHG – Kevin Heinze GROW

Top Arts

Congratulations to Ellie Dabos (class of 2023), whose art work has been accepted for the National Gallery Victoria Top Arts 2024.

Top Class

Congratulations to Ariana Mijares and Poppy Burrage who have been selected to perform their VCE Dance solos at Top Class Dance 2024 at Melbourne Recital Centre.

Antoine Hobbs - Film Maker

The Association of French Teachers in Victoria developed an educational kit 'Never Forget' based on the story of Ester Wise, a French Holocaust survivor who lives in Carnegie. Antoine Hobbs, GEC Alumni, created a 20-minute documentary of her life. Celine Fompudie, our Languages Learning Area Leader, contributed to the writing of the kit.

I was delighted to be able to attend the launch of this wonderful resource which is free to everyone.

School Council Elections

I am delighted to announce our School Council for 2024.

Parent representatives: Issy Arieli, Fiona Murrie and Kate Branford join Lance Voges.

Staff representatives: Marc Lewandowski and Nick Hamer-Smith join Gabrielle Darvell and Loveena Narayanen.

Student representative: Asher Greenblat

I thank all the retiring councilors for their superb work over the past year(s): Stephen Loyer, Paul McNeill, Mael Gaudy, Zahra Hnatko, Colin Schnier and Aaron Petersen.

The work of our councilors is very much valued.

NAPLAN

For parents/carers of students in Years 7 & 9, please be aware that your child will shortly be sitting Literacy and Numeracy tests of the National Assessment Program. This is a series of four assessments covering skills taught as part of the Victorian Curriculum.

Assessments will take place in school under exam conditions.

NAPLAN testing dates:

Writing: Wednesday 13th March
Reading: Thursday 14th March
Conventions of Language: Friday 15th March
Numeracy: Monday 18th March

Please avoid absences during the above dates to avoid the need for catch-up sessions.

Please also ensure that all students bring the following:

Fully charged laptop: Students are required to bring their device and ensure the battery is full charged. All testing is done electronically using a locked-down browser. Additional devices are limited and will be made available on the day.
Headphones: For the Conventions of Language assessment on Friday 15th March.
Novel: To read if finishing early.

A letter further outlining arrangements will shortly be sent out. In the meantime, general information can also be accessed from the 2024 NAPLAN Information for Parents and Carers sheet. Translations are also available on this link: NAPLAN – For Parents and Carers.

Homework

By now students should be in the routine of completing set or self directed homework tasks to further develop and consolidate their independent learning skills by completing homework tasks.

Students should record homework in their planner. Parents and carers are encouraged to review the planner weekly with their child and discuss the tasks set.

Homework is an important part of reinforcing the concepts that are introduced in class. It also plays a significant role in building work ethic, self-discipline and responsibility.

Teachers are encouraged to exercise their discretion in assigning tasks that are appropriate for their students. Homework assigned across subjects will be coordinated by teachers to avoid unreasonable workloads for students. If at any time your child is feeling overwhelmed, please reach out to the classroom teacher.

Click on this link to see our Homework Policy. If you have any questions of concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the classroom teacher, year level coordinator or myself.

Homework Help runs in the library Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the library 3.30pm – 4.30pm.

Google Class Room Summaries for Parents and Carers

Providing parents and carers with easy to access information about their child’s learning remains an ongoing priority for the college. All parents and carers have received an invitation to receive email summaries of their child’s Google Classrooms activity. Those who elect to receive email summaries can opt out at any time. Once registered, you will receive summaries for all of their classes.

Google Classroom is one way that students receive information from their teachers. As such it is important to know the following:

Summaries for each class will look different from one another.
Teachers will continue to have autonomy about the frequency and structure of their Google Classroom posts.
Parents cannot join a Google Classroom. Parents can only receive the email summaries.
Parents cannot view or comment within any classroom.

You can choose to receive either daily or weekly summaries. Email summaries may include the following information:

Class activities - Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.
Upcoming work - Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails).
Missing work - Work not turned through Google Classroom.

With these summaries you can:

Have reflective conversations at home about your child’s school work.
Support your child to use their planner to develop their organisation and time management skills.
Support your child to complete tasks by the due date.

Finally

We are always looking for ways to involve our parents in our community. Please contact me if you have ideas of how you would like to be involved. Our Parents and Friends group is an excellent way to meet other families and I encourage you to join.
Lockers: All students are required to have a lock for their lockers. Combination locks are available at the General Office ($15). Any lockers without locks will not be available for student use. I ask for parent support in providing a lock for their son or daughter.
Lost property: We already have a growing mountain of unnamed lost property including jumpers, jackets and shoes. I ask parents and carers to ensure all items of clothing and books are named so that they can be returned to students.

Should you have questions, positive feedback or concerns at any time do not hesitate to contact me at school, I am always happy to speak with you.

Sheereen Kindler

Principal

PAT Testing for Year 7 – 10 students

In the coming weeks, all of our Year 7 to 10 students will sit a Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) for both English (Reading) and Mathematics. PAT testing replaces On Demand testing, which the College ran prior to this year.

PAT tests are a commonly used tool by many schools to help gauge levels of student achievement, understanding, and growth.

The Progressive Achievement approach emphasises that:

the evidence obtained through assessment should infer where a student is in their learning
this evidence should inform the next steps in teaching and learning
students’ subsequent learning growth should be monitored using assessment instruments aligned to the same scale.

The Progressive Achievement approach provides reliable measures that enable a variety of interpretations about achievement and progress such as:

what students achieving specific levels of progression are likely to know, understand and be able to do
how much students have improved over time and what skills, knowledge and abilities they have been able to develop
how a student’s level of achievement compares with other students.

Students are not required to complete any specific preparation for these tests. They will be completed online, so it is important that students have a fully charged laptop on the day of their test. Students will be advised by their English and Maths teachers when these tests will run.

Test results will be available to inform parent teacher interviews, which are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 26th March.

We plan to run these tests twice per year (Term 1 and Term 3) to allow us to measure and report student growth and help gauge the effectiveness of our curricular programs.

Mark Oudshoorn

Assistant Principal

Mobile Phones

Thank you to all parents and students for their support of the mobile phone policy.

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours. At Glen Eira students put them in their lockers.

The department is requiring all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced from the start of the 2024 school year.

The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state.

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions.

By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause.

We ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.

Further information

Exceptions: For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact Nick Ford if you would like to discuss this.

Emergencies: In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.

School mobile phone policy: A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available on our website.

Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones.

They cannot be used for payment at the school canteen as per the Department of Education policy. Students will need cash or a card for purchases. We also have a range of items available in the Wellbeing Centre that we can give students for lunch.

If you have further questions, please contact myself or Sheereen Kindler.

Nick Hamer-Smith

Acting Principal