Assistant Principal Report 

Assistant Principal - Mrs. Sue Simadri

Office 365 'Opt-out' form

Our school will shortly move to using Office 365 for Education, which provides students and teachers with access to online services such as email, calendar, online document storage (for school work), sharing, etc. It includes Microsoft Office apps, such as, Powerpoint, Excel, Word, etc.

 

To enable students to sign-on and access these online services as part of our schools teaching and learning program, Microsoft require access to your child’s unique Department of Education & Training username, first and last name, year level and school.

 

As a parent, you have the option to refuse to have our school provide this information to Microsoft, and opt-out from having your child use Office 365 for Education. If this is the case, your child will not have access to the online services at school and alternate arrangements for allocating work will be made. If you do not wish for your child to use Office 365, the reply slip MUST be signed and returned by 31st August; if we do not receive an ‘opt-out’ reply slip, it will be assumed that you do not have any objections, and your child will be provided access to the Office 365 online services. Please refer to the attached document for additional details. If you have any questions, please contact the school IT office on 9546 3233.

Year 7-10 Parent Teacher Interviews

The Year 7-10 Parent-Teacher Interviews are scheduled for Tuesday 18th September from 3pm to 6pm. The interviews provide an important opportunity for you and your child to discuss his/her progress, and to build communication between parents and the College. It is expected that students accompany their parents to the interviews and participate in the discussion of their progress and areas for improvement. Bookings can be made on Compass. Parents can access the online booking system via the parent portal using your Compass Username and Password. Bookings will be 6 minutes in duration. The booking portal will open in Week 8. For assistance with bookings, please contact the office on 9546 3233.

The online booking form also has an option for selecting an interpreter. If you need an interpreter in a language that's not listed on the online booking form, please have your child speak to their coordinator about the language required, and an interpreter will be organised for you.

To thank you for taking the time to come to the school and meet with your child’s teachers, we have organised for a mobile coffee cart from 3:30-6:00pm on Tuesday, 18th September. Each family will be able to get a free coffee/tea/hot chocolate when you present your booking sheet with signatures from at least 3 teachers that you have seen at the PT event. Alternatively, families can collect a Allocation of Rooms for Parent Teacher Interview sheet from the front office prior to your first interview session, and have teachers sign on the sheet, and take this to the coffee cart to get your free coffee/tea/hot chocolate.

 

 All interviews will be conducted in the ALC area of the school; coffee cart will be set up outside the ALC.

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Westall on Tuesday 18th September!

Leaving school grounds

It is an expectation that all students remain on school grounds for the entire school day. Your child’s safety is our responsibility during school hours; our duty of care responsibilities are compromised when students take themselves off school grounds, to go home, to run an errand, to go to the nearby shops, without permission. If there is a valid reason for a student to leave school, he/she must obtain permission from their Year Level Coordinator.

 

Senior students with study periods are expected to report to the Senior Centre and to use the time for study/homework; they do not have permission to leave school to get food, to go home, to run an errand, etc.

Feeling sick?

If students are feeling unwell during the school day, they must go to the front office. Office staff are trained in first aid – they will make an assessment of the student’s condition and decide if they need to go home, and will call you, as the parent/guardian, to come and collect the student. Again, duty of care responsibilities require for the school to know where students are during each period, on any school day. Students cannot simply leave the school because they are feeling ill or have a headache; this is recorded as an ‘unapproved’ absence! When school process is followed, the absence will be registered as ‘approved due to illness’. This is the process that students must follow. If your child calls you directly and asks that you to come and collect them, please refer them to speak to their Year Level Coordinator first.

Navy stockings and school ties

Families who cannot get to the uniform shop, or are having difficulty finding these items to buy, will now be able to purchase navy stockings and school ties from the general office. Stockings - $12 and ties - $20. Students who are regularly attending school without these items of uniform, will be required to purchase them. Cash and credit card payments will be accepted. We hope that this will offer families with the convenience of quickly and easily replacing lost/damaged stockings and ties.

Sleep is important for learning!

Research suggests that sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally, and therefore, cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information. In the attached article below, Michael Grose elaborates on the importance for healthy sleep for optimal learning and memory function, and offers some sleep tips for teenagers. This is especially important at this time for our Year 12 students as they prepare for their upcoming external examinations.