Associate Principal, Operations Report

Child Safety

In line with new legislative requirements, The College has reviewed its Child Safety Policy and Child Safety Code of Conduct.  These can both be found on line through the school website.

As part of the policy, several staff have been identified as Child Safety Liaison Officers.  Whilst all staff are expected (and, indeed, required) to be attuned to child safety matters, those nominated are the staff most responsible for oversight of programmes or areas of the school’s operations.  For information, the nominated Child Safety Officers are:

Frances O’Brien – in the Early Learning Centre

Stephen Nelson – at the Junior School

Alex Smith – in the boarding houses

Kristen Waldron – as Deputy Principal: (Senior Years and) Well-Being

Jason Bourke – for non-teaching areas overseen by the Business Office

As Associate Principal, Operations, I am also listed and am nominated as the Senior Child Safety Liaison Officer.

The College is committed to providing a safe environment for each child.  Our policies and procedures have been thoroughly reviewed and are subject to constant review.  Please contact me or one of the other Child Safety Liaison Officers if you have any concerns.

China Trip

The trip to China which the Principal and I had recently was, I think, very positive for the school.

Whilst away, we visited the two schools with which we have an arrangement and which offer the first part of the VCE, Beijing Foreign Language School and Sanshui Foreign Language School, near Guangzhou.  At these schools, we ran presentations about the College, interviewed over 60 students (for a much smaller number of places!) and tested all these students for their learning proficiency.

We also attended the AEAS Exhibitions in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, where we displayed the school to a number of attendees.  Over thirty Australian schools were present at each exhibition and the overseas student “market” is obviously important to the nation’s GDP as well as to our school culture and enrolment figures. 

In addition, we met with several of our agents in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, ensuring they had up-to-date information about the College and, once again, interviewing students.  Two young Hong Kong boys will join us next year as a result of these interviews, once they have concluded their time at language school to ensure their English levels are sufficient to allow them to thrive here.

Three parent dinners were also held – in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.  These allow overseas parents to hear of the progress of their sons and daughters and to feel a part of the school community.  They were very positive evenings and we were able to follow up any queries parents had on our return.

We departed from Hamilton on the afternoon of Scholarship Examinations which were held here at school two Saturdays ago.  With the travelling components added in and the activities outlined above we were kept busy until our return to Melbourne late on Tuesday last week – and modern communications allowed us to keep in touch with activities back in Hamilton.  As Facebook friends of my wife will know, we each arranged for Heather and Trine to accompany us.  It certainly made our time away more pleasant and productive by having them present to share news with when we returned from our days at work (whilst they filled their time shopping and sight-seeing!).

Mr Neil MacLean