Emerald Secondary College Newsletter

Principal's Report

Halfway through Term Two, there are a few things that students need to remember to ensure that everyone’s experience at Emerald Secondary College is a positive one, and one where each and every student achieve their potential and success. With the support of their families, remember three key essentials:

  • Uniform
  • Attendance
  • Respect

UNIFORM:

 

Regarding uniform, please see a message to our school community from Nadia Beardshaw, School Council President:

 

Following on from the school uniform news item in the last newsletter, possible options to address the comfort and warmth of students were discussed at the School Council meeting held on Wednesday 19th May. We do understand that the uniform and dress code have been contentious issues for some time. We are invested in working together with our students to find solutions so we can remove unnecessary barriers and continue on with all that is important in our students learning and growth. As with all things in life, solutions are not always as simple as they may seem on the surface. There are financial and stock factors that need to be considered however, together we will find solutions that are in the school community’s best interest.

  • Firstly, we would like to commend the student that wrote so eloquently to School Council detailing some of the issues and possible solutions. 
  • We have taken these recommendations onboard and are proposing some changes working within the constraints of our current stock, to ensure all students have options that make them feel comfortable, warm and free to move around, while maintaining school pride. 
  • These options will be presented at student and staff forums in the coming weeks to ensure these are solutions that the whole community are onboard with. 
  • The hope is to update our policies and communicate these new options as soon as possible before we delve into the winter months.

 

We remind everyone that the cooler weather is now rolling in and request that parents work with their children, so that all students have the appropriate items of uniform for the cooler weather. Our aim is for our uniform to provide students with a positive school identity, support student safety and remove many of the biases and issues that arise when students have free dress. As a college, we are a Uniform School.

 

ATTENDANCE

 

Attendance is a precursor to engagement and student connectedness to our college. Understandably, illness cannot always be avoided, but we ask our parents to support us as much as possible by scheduling any non-essential appointments and commitments outside of school hours. High attendance rates are essential for our senior students in order to pass their subjects and will also be used as qualifiers for students in other year levels to be able to access some of their extra-curricula activities.

 

RESPECT

 

Respect is a core value in DET and highly applicable in our college. It is an essential soft skill and an essential ingredient that we equip our students with so that they can move beyond school and flourish as successful, independent, and positive learners and leaders in our community. Positive, respectful relationships and conversations between students and students and between staff and students continue to be our focus. I have witnessed many occurrences of respect on a daily basis and we want to establish and provide a positive culture and climate for our students to learn and grow.

 

NAPLAN 2022 and ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL SURVEY

 

These important numeracy and literacy tests and qualitative data that the Attitudes to School Survey provides our school, is imperative in allowing our program delivery to continue to grow and be targeted.

An extraordinary amount of thought and planning has gone into the preparation of nearly 300 Year 7 and 9 students as they were all well prepared for the digital testing. NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but rather about capturing learning progress. Thank you to all the staff who coordinated, supervised, supported and made the testing period a seamless event.

 

Attitudes to School Survey

This survey is an important way to collect wellbeing and engagement information from our students and to check in on how they are travelling with their school connectedness, mental health and wellbeing, particularly after the periods of remote and flexible learning If you have any queries relating to the survey, please contact the College on 5968 5388.

James

Principal