Principal's Report

Welcome to Term One

All students are active participants in a learning culture that promotes academic excellence and personal development through a diversity of challenging experiences.

VISION

“Working together, learning together” – Working together to enable all students to achieve their potential and become confident, effective learners who contribute productively to society.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Doncaster Secondary College acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our school is situated, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elder's past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any and all Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. We value the ongoing contribution to the cultural heritage that the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people provide to our school as well as the city of Manningham. We recognise that this land was never ceded and there is no treaty, and we commit to efforts towards reconciliation as a school community. We at Doncaster Secondary College are inclusive of individuals from all backgrounds including the LGBTQIA+, culturally and linguistically diverse as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS AND CONSENT

Issues of consent, sexual assault, and gender inequality are critically important. Our school in partnership with parents has an important role to play in addressing this significant social issue. We stand against gendered violence. The testimonies provided by current and former school students across the country reinforce the need to support students to build and manage safe and respectful relationships. Doncaster Secondary College is a Respectful Relationships Lead School, which means that we support other schools to implement this initiative. Respectful Relationships is a whole-school approach that supports our school to embed a culture of respect and gender equality across our entire school community.

As part of this initiative, we teach Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR). This is part of the Victorian Curriculum, and it focuses on building students’ social and emotional skills by supporting them to recognise and regulate emotions, develop empathy for others and build and manage safe and respectful relationships (including understanding consent). Our school provides sexuality education as part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum. Our school takes assault allegations very seriously and we respond to any disclosures in an appropriate and supportive manner. Any allegations are acted upon quickly by following our procedures for responding to allegations of abuse and assault. We report allegations of sexual assault to Victoria Police, and Child Protection and the Department of Education and Training as required.

As a parent or carer, if you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault and needs support, please contact 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit the website www.1800RESPECT.org.au.

Parents, carers and kin can work in partnership with schools to support young people to understand the idea of consent. I have included a link to the Conversation Menu for parents and carers of Year 7 and 8 students below.

Conversation Menu_How to talk about consent (for years 7, 8 students).pdf

It can be used to support a conversation in your home which promotes healthy relationships and helps young people develop their social and emotional capabilities.

STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES

Educational research highlights the importance of student self-assessment and reflection on the achievement of academic outcomes.

The student-led conferences on Tuesday provided an opportunity for students to showcase their learning, including their personal and social capabilities, and their critical and creative thinking skills. To prepare your child for the student-led conferences, teachers provide detailed feedback on common assessment tasks, identifying strengths and areas for improvement. The detailed written feedback that students receive from their teachers is vital, and even more important than the percentage or grade.

Our DSC lesson structure and the planned review and reflect activity builds opportunities for student self-assessment and reflection into each lesson. This allows students to build their capacity to:

identify their current knowledge and skills
articulate the strategies they will use to progress their learning
identify the next steps in their learning

Thank you to all of our families who were able to attend the student-led conferences. These opportunities continue to build the strong partnerships between home and school that our children need.

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA TOUR

After the challenges faced in 2020, it was great to be able to support our Year 12 students to participate in the Central Australia Tour. The students and staff will be travelling to Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Stuarts Well – Watarrka, Kings Canyon, Kings Creek Station and Uluru, with a range of experiences being organised at each stop. The group will spend some time in a remote Aboriginal community learning about their culture, participating in a smoking ceremony welcoming them to the country, as well as a dot painting workshop.

The aim of this tour is to provide opportunities that improve their teamwork skills, promote leadership opportunities, improve connectedness to peers and teachers, as well as improve cultural awareness. The reports that I have had from the group have indicated that they are having a wonderful experience thus far.

TERM 1 BREAK

I wish all members of our community a safe, relaxing and restful holiday period and look forward to seeing you all at the beginning of term 2.

Glenn Morris

Principal