Principal's Message

Dear Families,

As we come to the end of another year, I take this opportunity to thank you for the overwhelming support you have provided both your children and our staff throughout 2022. Education is a partnership and with your continuing support and regular feedback as the most important adults in your children's lives, we, together as partners will continue to work together to ensure your children, our students reach their individual best.

Our students have all now completed their exams and are preparing for the end of the year. It’s a time of great excitement for our Year 12 VCE students as they nervously await their results. We trust that their hard work and dedication to their studies brings them the academic rewards that they deserve. Whilst our students are preparing for the end of the year, we are preparing for the beginning of 2023. We are looking forward to meeting our incoming Year 7 students on Orientation Day and welcoming them to VUSC. It’s an exciting opportunity for them to get a taste of life in secondary school before they commence in 2023.

Bell Times 2023

Bell Times for 2023 have changed - please see below:

Periods have been reduced from 72 minutes to 69 minutes. We have introduced a three-minute change over time between periods where there is no break, to allow staff and students to get to class on time.

VUSC Graduation and Presentation Night

After two years of lockdown VUSC is pleased and excited to celebrate our 2022 Graduation and Presentation Evening on Wednesday 14th December.

On this night, our Year 12 students will graduate and students from both the Junior and Senior Campuses will receive awards and scholarships for outstanding efforts and achievements throughout the year. We are looking forward to seeing you there. I congratulate all the students on their fantastic efforts this year and wish our Year 12 students every success in their future endeavours. Tickets are free and are available from each campus office.

Where: Lakeside Banquet & Convention Centre – The Wellington Room

Address: 65 Melton Highway Taylors Lakes 3038

When: Wednesday 14th December

Families are asked to be seated by 6.45pm ready for a 7pm start.

Current Years 7—11 Students

Students in Years 7—11 are currently attending their Step Up program which aims to ensure they are prepared for their next level of schooling. Students have participated in a range of activities this term including reflection on their exam results and feedback, their learning and general progress. This targeted reflection is important to the development of their learning goals for 2023.

Towards the end of term, Year 7 - 9 students will enjoy three days of excursions from Wednesday 14th December. Full details of the three-day program will be published on Compass in the next week or two, with parent consent and payment required.

Yearbooks

The 2022 Yearbook will be available in December and provided to the Year 12 students at the Graduation and Presentation Evening. Students from Years 7 – 11 will be able to purchase a copy from the general office at either the Junior or Senior Campus, or collect their copy if parents have paid already. A post will be published on Compass when the yearbooks have arrived.

Year 7 Orientation Day

Orientation Day for next year’s Year 7 students will be on Tuesday December 13th. This is always an exciting time for the new students and us. We are delighted that our enrolment numbers increase each year and next year is no exception. This is a great endorsement of the quality program and teaching we offer here at VUSC. We look forward to welcoming the new students and their families and I would like to thank the community for the faith you show you have in our college.

Congratulations

A huge congratulations to the following students for their amazing achievements in Rugby League this term:

Two VUSC boys have made the Melbourne Storm Hurricanes Developmental Squad: Elijah Po Ching + Lockyer-Azile Foliola. This is a massive achievement as only 10 boys in each age group in Victoria are selected. Our own Mr Adam is the Head Coach of the Melbourne Storm Junior Academy (Hurricanes)
VRL U/19’s Train On Squad – Jonathan Luafalealo, DeeCee Norriss–Morehu, Philip Masalosalo
VRL U/16’s & U/17’s Train On Squad – Denzo Atileo, Elijah Po Ching, Lockyer-Azile Foliola, Lawrence Raponi, Lorenzo Fifita, Harvey Savage.

Congratulations also to the following Year 9 students who received certificates recently for outstanding results in NAPLAN:

Joey Tran, Anna Ha, Nicki Nguyen, Inaya Daryani, Ryan Pierce and David Lekha, pictured here with Ms Koo, Ms Vass and Mr Leyland:

Well done to all these students for modelling our College values of Aspire to Achieve, Respect Ourselves and Others and Strengthen the Community!

Staffing 2023 – Valuing Staff and Building Capacity

This term, the planning and preparations for the 2023 school year are well underway. We have commenced the development of our staffing plan for next year. The key driver of this plan is having an accurate figure regarding our student enrolments for next year. Thank you to those parents who have taken the opportunity to inform the school that their children will not be attending VUSC next year.

Several staffing positions have been advertised and filled for 2023. Victoria University Secondary College is now a destination school for quality applicants. With regards to workforce planning, the overall goal is to retain, develop and attract quality people to the school. With an increase in student numbers, I have recruited staff to the school from diverse academic fields with specialist area expertise such as Chinese, EAL, English, Accounting, Numeracy and Science. Over 500 applicants have been screened over the past month. Newly appointed staff will be introduced to the community in the first newsletter of 2023 and to students at the first School Assembly of 2023.

School Wide Positive Behaviour

VUSC has a School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework in place. The purpose of this is to highlight and reward positive behaviours rather than have a constant focus on sanctions and negative reinforcement. The school will continue to impose sanctions (detentions, suspensions) for unacceptable conduct, but will use the School Wide Positive Behaviour approach to continue to build a culture of positive thinking and reinforcement.

School Strategic Plan 2021 – 2024

2023 will again be a busy year for us as we continue our focus on implementing our Strategic Plan with the key goal being Improving Student Learning Growth. While our enrolments continue to grow (next year we will have around 1150 students) we will continue to promote our successes and achievements to the wider community so that we remain the school of choice in the area.

Our school’s Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2024 sets out our strategic goals, priorities and targets. The three major goals of the Strategic Plan are:

Improve the learning growth and achievement of every student:

Identify and target the learning needs of all students.
Review, monitor and embed the school-wide instructional model.
Enhance the capacity of teachers to implement evidence-based teaching and learning strategies.

2. Empower all students to become confident and self-reliant learners:

Enhance student voice, agency and leadership across the school.
Review and monitor the attendance policy.

3. Improve the wellbeing of all students:

Further enhance the Positive Behaviour Support Model.
Review and monitor the college student wellbeing framework.

The goals of the Strategic Plan will inform the level of our work as a unified school community.

Tutoring Initiative Program

The tutoring initiative program will continue in 2023 to support those students whose NAPLAN results are below National Minimum Standard.

To ensure every school can participate effectively in the program, each school, irrespective of size, primary, secondary or specialist, or level of disadvantage, will receive a base level of funding to engage tutor support, with additional loadings reflecting levels of both enrolments and disadvantage. VUSC has been given a budget from the government to fund this program again for 2023. We are currently planning and recruiting for this program.

And finally

I would like to thank our amazing staff, students and families for a fantastic year. Everyone has worked extremely hard to provide the very best education and support to our students and help them achieve their goals. Congratulations to our students who have achieved so much this year, in their own personal journeys, their educational progress and their career pathways. I look forward to working with you all again in the New Year.

I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of our College Board throughout 2022 and the contributions of our amazing parent, student and community members. This year, the Board included five excellent student representatives, and this has provided even greater diversity and strength of voice to the school’s governance. I would like to thank the Board for all their support and commitment to the continued growth and development of the college.

On behalf of all the staff and College Board at VUSC, I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. We look forward to welcoming you back in 2023.

Elaine Hazim

College Principal

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Child Safety at VUSC

Victoria University Secondary College is committed to providing a child safe and child friendly environment, where students are safe and feel safe.

Our child safety and wellbeing policies outline the measures and strategies we have in place to support, promote and maintain the safety and wellbeing of our students:

Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Child Safety Code of Conduct
Child Safe Standards Risk Register
Child safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedure

All of our policies are available on our school website here. As valuable partners in promoting and maintaining child safety and wellbeing at VUSC, we welcome and encourage your feedback.