Assistant Principals

Eleni Stathatos

Welcome to Term 2 and especially we welcome the safe return of students and staff from the following camps and tours: World Tour, Nepal, Duke of Ed camp. We hope that the holidays have provided some rest and that everyone is ready to do their best in all curricular and co –curricular programs. It is certainly a busy term!

 

Anzac Day Assembly

It was a beautiful morning when we came together as a school on the quadrangle to commemorate this important occasion in our nation’s history. Below is the speech I delivered to the school community.

Today, as a school, we are gathered here to honour all Australians who have served our country in times of war and conflict, in particular the original Anzacs who landed on the shores of Gallipoli over 100 years ago, on 25 April 1915. The unimaginable hardships faced by these courageous young men and the ultimate sacrifice of their lives commands our respect and our appreciation of the freedom, lifestyle and country we have today. Those of us who have only known peace in this country, who have only experienced freedom in this country, who only see a bright future ahead in this country, know that we have this through the willingness of others to sacrifice the most precious thing they have – their lives. This morning we pause from our busy lifestyles to give thanks to all the original ANZACs and the men and women who have followed in subsequent wars and conflicts who have put their lives at risk and in many cases paid the ultimate price. In this assembly, you will hear the stories of the ANZACs and through your careful listening of the stories, continue to uphold the tradition of respectful silence and reflection that is owed to our predecessors for the gift of this great county with the freedom, opportunity and life we enjoy every day. I will now pass the microphone to Alice and Mitch.

Everyone involved in the organisation and presentation is to be congratulated. Congratulations too are extended to everyone involved in a successful Mental Health Carnival  last term. The weather again was glorious and the spirit of the college community was positive and celebratory.

At the end of last term, the Leader newspaper highlighted the leadership skills and aspirations of school captains across regions and Ringwood Secondary College’s Mitch Hart and Alice D’Arcy were featured. Their powerful message is an example of the proactive and positive approach to all they do at school and beyond. Congratulations Mitch and Alice. You are fantastic ambassadors for the college and terrific role models for our aspirant student leaders.

 

Parent Teacher Student Conferences were fully patronised and provided the opportunity for meaningful discussions to support the learning of our students. Most importantly, our positive learning behaviours are the catalyst for the  discussions and are a supportive reference point for student knowledge and understanding at this stage of the year. Mid- year reports will be published at the end of this term.

The NAPLAN testing period commences soon and at a recent staff meeting, staff read a sample NAPLAN non- fiction text and responded to the questions that a Year 9 student would experience. It was a great awareness exercise for staff and ties nicely to our Student Literacy Initiative focus which aims to support effective student reading.

All the best to students and staff at the Generations for Jazz festival in Mt Gambia. What an amazing performance opportunity this is for our students.

 

Eleni Stathatos

Assistant Principal

Mr Simkin

Welcome back to what promises to be an exciting term, with a number of curriculum focussed and extra-curricular activities occurring across the year levels. As the Acting Assistant Principal working with the Junior, Middle and Senior school, I’m looking forward to sharing in some of the fantastic experiences the students will have this term.

 

Last term, Year 7’s completed Elevate sessions, looking to establish effective revision and study habits, that will help to set them up for success over the course of the rest of this year and beyond. They also embraced the opportunity to spend a period in the last week of term trying the many activities on offer as part of the Mental Health Day and finished their first term as a whole group with their celebration day. This term Year 8’s will undertake Elevate sessions for the first time, which will build on the skills they developed in similar sessions last year.

 

Year 7 and Year 9 will complete NAPLAN online during Weeks 4 and 5. Students will complete the assessments using either their iPad or laptop and the information gained from the testing provides valuable information to the school and families about the progress students are making with their learning. The majority of students had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the online format by completing a practice test on their devices late last term or early this term.

 

During Week 2 of this term, Year 9 students displayed their personal projects, which was the culmination of their Term 1 work in InterGREAT, at the Personal Project Showcase. The showcase was extremely well attended, and parents, family, friends and teachers all enjoyed seeing the great work undertaken by these students.

 

Year 10 students have a busy term ahead, with many students participating in the Melbourne Eastern Traffic Education Centre excursions in Weeks 4 and 5, which complements the work they are currently undertaking in their Health classes focussed on the risks associated with inexperienced drivers and the campaigns that aim to reduce road fatalities. In Week 8 they will complete their mid-year exams, in a very similar format to those experienced by our VCE students at the end of the year. This should provide students with valuable experience in completing assessments under VCAA examination conditions before they end the term with the Central Australia Trip and/or Work Experience.

 

Senior students have been busy with study in preparing for assessments that will occur this term, as they move towards the end of their Unit 1 and Unit 3 subjects. Hopefully students used the holidays to not only revise content covered during Term 1 but also to relax and recharge prior to the term ahead. Year 11 students have the opportunity to develop their study skills further, at the Study skills day on May 8th, which will include guest speakers and workshops throughout the day.

 

As always, we welcome parents involvement in their child’s learning and parents are encouraged to contact their child’s classroom teacher or House Coordinator if they have any questions or concerns about their child’s progress at school.

 

ATTENDANCE

Parents are asked to ensure they notify the school either by phone, Compass message or email as soon as possible on the day of a child’s absence. If an absence is planned (eg. Medical Appointment) or is for an extended period of time, we ask that you please notify the school in advance.

 

UNIFORM

Students are required to wear the Winter Uniform from Week 3 of this term. The full details of the Student Uniform and Dress Code are available on the school’s website but the key elements for the change to Winter Uniform are:

  • Winter skirt should be worn instead of the summer dress. The white blouse can be worn with the winter skirt
  • Black tights or white socks may be worn with the winter skirt. If wearing socks with tights these socks should be black.
  • A tie needs to be worn with either the short or long sleeved white shirt

A reminder, that if a student needs to wear any items that are not part of the school uniform an out of uniform pass can be issued by House Coordinators once a note from parents/guardians has been received by the House Coordinators. Please note that passes will only be issued on a short-term basis and will not be issued for hooded jumpers.

 

I look forward to working with our Junior, Middle and Senior school students, parents and coordination teams during the term ahead.

Kyle Simkin

Acting Assistant Principal

Maria Allison

Welcome back to term 2!  I hope that you enjoyed the Easter holidays and had a great time with family and friends.

Moving forward to the assessment and reporting time of the academic year involves students consolidating their learning and to focus on tasks using a positive mindset. Through improved time management and organisational skills, students should work towards building their strengths and reflect in a timely manner on their performance.

 

ANZAC Day Ceremony

On Wednesday, last week, the College community paid homage to our fallen war heroes with our College leaders reciting poems and traditional readings in a solemn and respectful manner. Our Ringwood Secondary College students held their heads high and delivered their poems and musical recitals to honour our past history outlining the perseverance of our fallen heroes and returned servicemen.

 

Positive Education updates:

PESA (Positive Education Association of Schools)

 

The annual PESA conference brings together the best positive educators in the world to deliver their knowledge and is a key component for ongoing professional learning. During the last school holidays Kati Recinos and myself were fortunate to attend the three day PESA conference in Queensland.

 

Key networking opportunities arose from associating with like-minded people from Australia and around the world, linked through a variety of mechanisms such master classes and workshops.  These connections were invaluable and allowed us as educators to build upon existing resources, understand current academic research and trends, as well as learn new strategies to broaden and build our positive education program.

One particular highlight of the conference was the showcasing of the Maroondah ‘Plus 10 Schools’ Positive Education Project (a network of 27 schools in Maroondah). Several teachers represented our region, alongside colleagues from The University of Melbourne’s Institute of Positive Education and Geelong Grammar School, to support Anthony Raitman’s (DET NEVR Area Executive Director) keynote presentation about the Maroondah Plus 10 Schools project.

 

Strengths Based Parenting

Next Wednesday evening, May 7th, several RSC staff will be attending a one hour talk on Strengths Based Parenting to be delivered Lea Waters PhD at Karralyka Theatre. Lea is a university professor, published author, psychologist, internationally-celebrated speaker and one of the world’s leading experts on Positive Education, and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching. At this session, Lea helps parents steer themselves away from negativity and criticism by offering a scientifically proven strength-based approach to parenting.  

Meaningful May

Although this month’s wellbeing focus is: Mindfulness I thought I would include a calendar for Meaningful May. You can also view via this link: https://www.actionforhappiness.org/calendars

The information below is sourced from the Kids Matter website, a wonderful resource that provides interesting and helpful information. www.kidsmatter.com.au

Mindfulness is a whole body-mind state of awareness that involves ‘tuning in’ to the present moment, with openness and curiosity, instead of ‘tuning out’ from experience. Mindfulness is a state of being fully awake to life – being aware and undistracted in the present moment. It is about focusing attention on the present, rather than thinking about the past or worrying about the future- which is often our brain’s default mode.

Mindful awareness is something that we all possess and that can be strengthened through practice. Mindfulness can be developed through formal sitting meditation practices, or through informal everyday mindfulness activities that use the senses to anchor the attention: such as mindful walking, listening to music, eating or conversation. Mindfulness is a clinically proven tool to support wellbeing and mental health by reducing stress and allowing life to be experienced more fully.

 

Why practise being mindful?

The way we interact with our kids has a huge impact on the way they think about themselves and their levels of personal resilience.

The benefits of mindfulness with children

  • Research shows that mindfulness training increases connectivity in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is linked to improved attention, memory processing and decision making abilities.
  • Mindfulness training involves tuning in to internal and external experiences with curiosity resulting in increased self-awareness, social awareness, and self-confidence.
  • Mindfulness training increases children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions, especially difficult emotions such as fear and anger, through breathing and other grounding techniques.
  • Mindfulness has been shown to improve empathy or the ability to understand what another person is thinking or feeling, which improves children’s awareness of others and helps them to build positive relationships.

Mindfulness for Parents

The best thing parents can do to help their children become more mindful is to commit to some regular mindfulness practises themselves! The more present and mindful you are with your children, the more happy, mindful and resilient they will be. Mindfulness training can assist parents to remain in the present moment and engage more fully when interacting with their children. Research shows that parents and carers who practice being mindful around their children contribute to improving their child’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

  • Mindful time: Dedicate a window of time each week to mindfully connect with your child or children. Turn off all other distractions such as TV, and put your mobile away and on silent. Try to give them your full attention during this time and if your mind wanders off to all the things you should be doing, that’s fine – that’s just what minds do! Use your child as an anchor to come back to every time your mind wanders away.
  • Mindful dinnertime: Create a time for your family to appreciate and savour their food at the start of a meal by spending the first few minutes of dinner in silence, just eating and enjoying the food. It’s a surprisingly nice activity to do with the whole family, and done regularly, can become a lovely ritual.

 

Smiling Mind is another resource worthwhile accessing that provides usable ‘apps’ for mindfulness.

www.smilingmind.com.au