PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

This is our first newsletter opportunity to welcome our families who are new to Footscray City, as well as welcoming back those who are entering into another year with us.

Overall it has been a very smooth start to the year, especially with our many young Year 7 students seeming to settle in beautifully. 

In addition to our highest intake of Year 7 students to date, with eleven classes, we have a considerable number of new staff to welcome on board also, with 19 new teachers and 4 support staff. They are:

Sue Hansen (Art)                                                              Pru Mann(Psychology/Humanities)                                

Mary Hatzis (English/Humanities)                            Ariel Halperin (English/Humanities)

Adrian Panckhurst (English/Humanities)              Adam Rajkovic (English/Humanities)

Piri Jakab (English/Humanities)                               Anne Langdon (Literacy/Special Needs) 

Maria Chrisant (Humanities)                                      Alice Boronovskis (Humanities)                             

Carly Clement  (Psychology/Humanities)             Sahara Bartlett-Matthews (Japanese/EAL)

Atish Singh (Maths/Science)                                       Scott McDowell (Maths/Science)

Michael Kim (Maths/Science)                                     Tom Patton (Maths/Science)

Matthew Weekes (Maths/Drama)                               Victor Rajewski (IT/Maths)

Rena Ding (IT/Maths)

Our support staff members include:

Daniel Mulholland (Integration Aide)                      John Wilson (Integration Aide)

Meg Macfarlane (Library Technician)                       Louise Ridley (Office Administration)

Student Management & Learning Support Teams

This year also sees a re-organisation of student management teams where we move from two sub-schools (Years 10 - 12 and Years 7-9) to three with Years 7 - 8, Years 9 - 10 and Years 11 - 12. 

The three teams managing the sub-schools are:

Year 11 – 12 Sub-school                                                         Year 9 - 10 Sub-school

Vicki Tentzoglidis (Assistant Principal)                               Stephanie Campbell (Assistant Principal)         

Elizabeth Simpson (Head of Sub-School)                          Dora Tsoukas (Head of Sub-school)                       

Will Marshall (Yr 12 Coordinator)                                           Aaron Boyle (Year 10 Coordinator)

Steph Van Den Hoff (Yr 11 Coordinator)                             Malcolm Fretz (Year 9 Coordinator)

Year 7 – 8 Sub-school

Rob McLeod (Assistant Principal)

Maria Chrisant (Yr 8 Coordinator)

Gretel Edwards (Yr 7 Coordinator)

Ryan McGhie (Yr 7 Coordinator)

There are two main reasons for these changes, with the first being the significant increase in our student numbers in recent years. The other reason relates to the college's aim to strive to optimise the learning growth of every student. The student management teams with reduced year levels to manage, will take on new responsibilities to help support students in their learning. They will play a leading role in monitoring students' progress and will put interventions in place to support students when necessary. Of course, working in partnership with parents will be crucial in supporting our students to achieve their best.

Introduction of Student Academic Progress Panels (SAPP)

One of the strategies to more proactively monitor the learning progress of our students, is the introduction of Student Academic Progress Panels, and the student management teams will lead and support this initiative.

Students will mainly be referred to these panels on the basis of end of term progress reports and semester reports from terms 1 to 3. With the progress reports, students will be selected for the panel process if they have a Medium to Low rating for Effort and Submission of work, and Level of Performance will also be considered for these students. Parents will be requested to attend the panel meeting with the student.

The aim of the panels is to develop strategies with the student and parent /s to support the student to lift their level of progress and achievement. Our first trial of this new process will commence this term.

Progress Report Day - Parent Teacher Interviews -  Wednesday 28 March

Our first parent teacher interviews will take place on the last Wednesday of term, 28 March, and as usual parents will be able to make interview appointments with teachers via Compass.

Our first SAPP meetings will take place in the two weeks prior to the Progress Report Day once teachers have completed their reports. Parents will be aware if your child is required to attend one of these panel meetings as you will be invited to attend, as well.

What's been happening at FCC?

Much has happened in the first five weeks of our school year, and there have been some exciting opportunities for many of our students.

There has been the science-based trip to NASA in Florida, and although NASA in itself would be a remarkable experience, an added bonus was our students witnessing an historical moment in space history at the Kennedy Space Center, with the lift-off of the Falcon 9 Space X rocket launching Elon Musk's Tesla convertible into  space.

But, back to Victoria - our Year 8s went off to the Lake Dewar Camp near Bacchus Marsh which was reportedly a lot of fun and a resounding success.

Clubs have started with a huge interest from our students, especially our younger ones. 

Our Year 7 - 9 students had the House Swimming Sports, with plenty of red, blue, green and yellow colours  to be seen on the day. Victory went to the green team. Congratulations to the students of the House of Cooper.

Our newly elected SRC is off to an early start and congratulations to those students who were elected, and it is commendable that they - and the other students who nominated - are prepared to take on the responsibility of representing our student voice in the college.

Congratulations to our three Year 12 Theatre Studies students from 2017 who were short-listed for the VCE Season of Excellence - a high accolade for Reuben Cumming, Darcy Smith and Eliza Lucid. Reuben and Darcy were in the final selection.

Congratulations and thank you also to eight of our high achieving  VCE students from last year who attended an assembly of our current Year 11 and 12 students. They were Samuel Neuman-Kleinberg, Jamie Hoang, Tia Altschauger, Vincent Victory, James Madsen-Smith, Reuben Cummings, Ari Boyd and Andre Arellano. The purpose of the assembly was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to celebrate and acknowledge the effort and achievements of our students who were ranked in the top 20% of the state, so certificates were awarded and the Dux trophy was presented to Samuel Neumann-Kleinberg - a  further congratulations to Samuel. Unfortunately quite a number of our other achievers in the top 20% were unable to attend because of travel, work or other prior commitments.

The second purpose of the assembly was for our Year 12 students from last year to provide their insights into how to succeed in this challenging final year. Each spoke briefly with invaluable advice that was well received by a very attentive audience. Undisputedly, the same messages resonate much more when delivered by peers rather than principals, coordinators, teachers or parents - which also made this assembly a particularly special one.

Open Evening Thursday 22 March 4.00 pm - 7.00 pm

Rather than our annual Open Day in term one, this year we have decided to showcase our school to the community with an Open Evening on Thursday 22 March.  Publicity for the event will be distributed to all of our main feeder primary schools, and we would be appreciative if you could pass this information on if you know any families who may be interested, particularly families with children in Grades 5 or 6.

Please enjoy reading more about our students and recent events in our newsletter, and we look forward to seeing you at our first parent teacher interviews of the year on the 28 March.

Maria Bawden - Principal