PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Principals Newsletter Report 25/2/2022
With Term 1 steaming ahead, it is pleasing to report that our start to the school year has been a successful one. Our students seem happy (with their smiling eyes underneath masked faces), engaged with their learning and embracing all the obstacles and changes our current climate is presenting us. For some families, I have no doubt, that the last few months have felt like a ‘rolling isolating at home quarantining period” as different family members, one by one are affected by COVID. We are embracing the adjustment period for some students and staff as we again acclimatise to consistent and onsite learning. The fortnightly sub-school assemblies and whole school assemblies are enabling us to celebrate our community and shared values regularly led by our student leaders. Our focus on our core values - community, integrity, and courage, with the sharing and modelling of what this means as a Western Heights College person, will be part of our core work throughout this year. This is work that we are so excited to unpack as we continue to grow as a school community and fully understand our College’s purpose.
Year 7 2023 Year 7 Information and Open Night
This year's Information and Open Night will take place between 6:00-8:00pm on Wednesday, 2nd March 2022. The night will include a formal welcome and presentation about WHC and the learning/curriculum programs available (including the new Accelerate Program for High Ability Students and the Specialist Sports Program - AFL/Basketball/Netball and in 2023 Soccer for the first time).
Guided tours of the facilities and grounds will also be provided - offering plenty of opportunity for prospective students, parents, and carers to ask questions and understand the Year 7 2023 enrolment timelines and process.
We look forward to welcoming all guests to our Information and Open Evening to discover more about our WHC college community.
Uniform Expectations
We have noticed a huge improvement in uniform this year and wanted to thank the community for their support. Our college looks fabulous as our transition period to our new uniform is complete for the commencement of the 2022 school year. We do sometimes receive feedback about our focus on the uniform and want to reassure our families that our care for students is paramount and our care for their learning growth is our focus. We can and do hold that as a focus at the same time as upholding the high expectations for uniform that our community expects from us.
Our uniform is inclusive, comfortable, gender neutral and looks great. It can be layered for warmth and has fabric choices for students that aren’t itchy and suits every student’s individual’s needs. The other great thing about our uniform is that when it is pieced together (academic or sport) based on student comfort and needs, it essentially looks the same no matter how it is pieced together.
The sports uniform is recommended to be worn on sport and physical education days as our facilities for changing at school are not easily accessed over at our Quamby facility. Sport and PE could be timetabled up to 3 days per week for students in Year 7-10 and every day for students in the specialist sports program. Our everyday academic uniform is recommended for non-sport days and is often required for excursions, representative activities such as public speaking, school visits, forums, Anzac Day services etc.
I am looking forward to our students continuing to wear our uniform with pride in 2022, Please see the images of our uniform and acceptable footwear later in this newsletter.
If you need some support in obtaining school uniform items, please do not hesitate to contact Jenny Eastwood in our college well-being team by phoning 5277 1177. She will support any family in need of financial help to obtain pieces of uniform.
Staff Professional Learning Day – Pupil Free Day (Tuesday 15th March)
This year our school staff will continue their professional learning with the Berry St Education Model. Tuesday 15 March will be a pupil free day for all students in Year 7-12. Students are encouraged to use this day to catch up on any outstanding learning tasks or complete some independent study.
The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students, meet their learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth, and academic achievement. Our pedagogical strategies incorporate trauma-informed teaching, positive education, and wellbeing practices.
The implementation of this model over the next 2 years will enable our college to continually improve and meet the diverse needs of our student community.
School Photos 2022
Student School Photos will be taken on Tuesday 1 March and a catch-up school photo opportunity for students absent on Tuesday, will occur on Thursday 3 March. Information has previously been distributed to parents and carers on compass but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Tami O’Hare (Assistant Principal) at the school on 5277 117.
Tutor Learning Initiative
Once again in 2022, we are fortunate to have been allocated several tutors to support students in Literacy and Numeracy. This support is in recognition of the effects of remote learning in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid and the impact on identified students and their learning growth.
Students have been selected based on their learning data from 2021. The tutoring in most cases has commenced this week or next.
Learning data from 2021 indicated that students involved in the program showed increased learning growth, so we look forward to improved learning for the students involved this year. Students involved in this program will receive a letter home explaining the initiative.
If you have any questions about the program, please contact your child’s Learning Community Leader.
COVID Safe Key Changes
Several changes were announced Tuesday morning to pandemic orders and public health recommendations effective 11:59pm Friday 25 February 2022.
Masks
Effective 11:59pm Friday 25 February 2022, masks will only be required indoors in the following circumstances, unless an exemption applies:
· People on public transport, in taxis and rideshare, on planes, and indoors at an airport
· People working or visiting hospitals, and indoor areas at care facilities
· Workers in hospitality, retail and the court system
· Workers at justice and correctional facilities
· Students in year 3 or above at primary school, and workers at early childhood centres and primary schools (masks can be removed in secondary school including at Western Heights College)
People working indoors at an event with more than 30,000 people attending
In special circumstances, such as if you have COVID-19 or are a close contact and you’re leaving home
Again, I ask families to remind their children about the importance of them adopting the COVID safe behaviours at school, as well as on their way to and from school. By doing this we hope to continue to keep the number of cases onsite very low and prevent any spread of the virus.
We hope that our families remain well, and we look forward to sharing information about the reduction in measures that will hopefully continue over the coming months
Swimming Sports
It was great to see our students supporting the first major school event on our college calendar - our annual Swimming conducted last Friday. In many ways, it was just great that we were able to conduct the day and offer our students the opportunity to socially connect and once again perform in the sporting arena.
The tone of the day was impressively set by our senior students who arrived in various forms of imaginative free dress and in visible support with their house colours proudly on display. From this stage on, the carnival was a colourful, engaging, participative event for all of our students and was matched by the competitive nature of the events within the pool.
Congratulation to Vines (Green) – the winning House team of the Carnival in a very competitive leader board!
We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, take care and keep smiling!
Child Safety at WHC
Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse.
Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.
Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website or contact the school for a copy.
1. Commitment to Child Safety
2. Child Safety Policy
3. Child Safety Code of Conduct
4. Child Protection Policy and Procedures
Annual privacy policy reminder for 2022
Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.(found on the colleges webpage)
Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in nine community languages:
* Amharic
* Arabic
* Dari
* Gujarati
* Mandarin
* Somali
* Sudanese
* Turkish
* Urdu
* Vietnamese.
