Message from the PRINCIPAL

Principal Message

Term One has been a term of “adapting”, where we have focused on all the activities associated with a return to onsite learning. I congratulate all of our students and staff as they have navigated isolations and covid diagnoses. We have all worked together throughout the term as a community to do our best.

Our Celebration Music Concert showcased the power of collaboration and it was certainly a treat to hear our music students sing together under the guidance of our inspirational choral director Dermot Tutty. If you have not yet watched it, it remains available on our streaming platform.

Junior camp and the SHAW program enabled students to focus on key skills of teamwork and problem solving as well as hearing from some inspirational speakers. We have included some detailed reports and photos in this newsletter.

This year the Dance team were thrilled to open up our classes for parents to come and watch students in the studio. This opportunity gave families a real insight into the variety of classes and rigour of our program. 

In this newsletter we have included information outlining planned performances and exhibitions for the year and you will see there are many opportunities to see, both onsite and online, the work our students do. As a school we love seeing parents visit and attend performances, I would encourage you to share performance opportunities with the wider community so more people can enjoy what our students do.

Our Theatre Arts Year 12 students perform this week at the Lawler Theatre. Little Boxes is their devised musical theatre piece. Under the direction of Ross Hannaford and Nick Hedger, students were asked to work outside of their comfort zone, for many of them their first time singing and dancing in public. Congratulations to them for showing courage and embracing this opportunity. 

On Friday we will end the term with a full school assembly run by our captains. This is always a highlight where we bring our school together and share with each other the power of the arts and the positivity of our VCASS culture.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition of VCASS news.

Keep well. 

Hilary

Assistant Principal Message

As Term One draws to a conclusion I would like to highlight some of the achievements of the term.  Getting back into the post 2020/2021 swing cannot be overstated.  As a community we have done this remarkably well.  Students have quickly settled into routines of warming up for classes, preparing for performances as well as adjusting to working back on-site full time. All the while being prepared for the inevitable interruptions. 

One of the notable highlights of the past two years has been the introduction of VCASS Presents. Having the ability to stream performances is brilliant and will continue to serve us well in the coming year. This term we have streamed the Welcome Concert, the first Lunchtime Concert and the Theatre Arts show Little Boxes. In Term 2 we will welcome audiences back on site as well as continuing with our streaming. 

I wish everyone a restful term break and look forward to welcoming you back in Term 2. 

Careers 

This year I have taken on the role of Career Pathways and VTAC coordinator as well as continuing my role as VCAA examinations coordinator.  I am available to help students organise special provisions for all their VCE examinations commencing with the GAT on Wednesday 7th September.  This includes Special Exam Arrangements (SEA) and Derived Exam Score (DES) applications. Applications for SEA provisions for any Unit 3/4 subjects must be submitted, via email, by Friday 1st April to ndemasi@vcass.vic.edu.au.

I can also provide assistance with career planning and setting up a VTAC account for all Year 12 students. This includes providing information about ATAR profiles, prerequisites required and any additional tests or entry requirements to their preferred courses.  Later on in the year, I can help with (Special Entry Access Scheme) SEAS applications for tertiary entry in 2023. Each week I place the latest Careers Newsletter on Compass for Year 12 students to find additional information about university and TAFE courses and some important dates to diarise.

For Year 9–11 students I can help with course selection to ensure that the prerequisites have been selected once the subject selection process commences in Term Three.

Please do not hesitate to contact me via email or telephone if you have any questions.

Library

Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge encourages students to read a set number of books over the year and record their efforts online. Since the Challenge first began in 2005, more than 3 million students have read nearly 51 million books. VCASS Year 7 and 8 students have participated in the Challenge since 2017.

The school Library staff, together with English teachers, encourage and support students with reading for the Challenge. It is also helpful for parents to encourage their children to read at home.

Each year many of our students meet the target of reading 15 books. Books can be own choice and selected from recommended book lists. The VCASS Leviston library has many of the recommended books. See them in ebook and audiobook format on our Wheelers platform and see print copies in our library catalogue: Year 7-8 Challenge books and the Year 9-10 books.

Explore the VCASS library electronic resources and catalogue with your child.

See Gale reference ebooks, online newspapers, National Theatre performances, Current Issues resources and more. 

Finding the library home page is easy. Ask your child to login to their VCASS google account, and navigate to Access-it via the Google grid.