Principal Report

As we move towards term 2, I want to call on our college community to support a calm and safe learning environment and work with us to continue our positive growth journey. We have started to build a clear process for working in class and it’s important for all students and staff to embed this in every class, every day. We know this can improve but it will take time to be part of our school culture. We need to teach and learn, and regularly relearn until the behavior becomes a routine and is embedded in our normal way of working. This takes work from everyone. Part of our positive growth journey includes improvement in school attendance, and we need to build our resilience and understanding about the importance of being at school every day to ensure consistency and continuity of learning. It’s hard for students to keep up if the class has moved on to the next part of a unit and they missed a key component of the unit. It’s not ok to be away.

I had the opportunity to attend the year 7 camp to Phillip Island a few weeks ago and it was great to eat dinner with the students, serve them dessert, play volleyball in the GAGA pit, and spend some time talking and getting to know everyone a bit more. Thank you to the staff who worked so hard to ensure a fantastic opportunity for our students. It was a massive undertaking and listening to exciting stories as students left to go home with families, makes it all worthwhile.

I ask families to speak with students about the way we treat school and help us find solutions to some of the issues arising again this term, with rubbish in the yard and inappropriate use of our toilets. We have identified a need for more bins in the yard, but I am always very disappointed with the state of some areas after recess and lunch, with rubbish left on the ground. Everyone must take responsibility for this, and we can and must do better together.

We continue to work with students to build on our college and community values and expectations and I ask families to support conversations about Respect in our relationships with people and our place at school, Responsibility in learning and in our actions every day, and doing our best to strive for excellence, to be our best and develop ourselves through personal growth. Excellence is different for everyone, it's individual.

Early in Term 2 we will ask for input from staff, parents/carers and students to build a new vision for our school. I hope you can be part of that voice and support the development of the future of Diamond Valley College as a school we can all continue to be proud of and connected to. Have a safe and Happy Easter break and I look forward to seeing everyone back next term, refreshed and ready to learn.