Assistant Principals' Report

Assessment Practices: How is my child going? 

To foster a strong culture of learning growth, Doncaster Secondary College provides regular and detailed feedback to parents and students using Flagged Learning Tasks, Student-Led Conferences and Semester Reports. Feedback enables students to recognize their strengths and identify areas for improvement. Regular feedback strengthens the bridge between assessment and learning and guides our teachers to adapt their strategies to ensure students’ learning needs are met.  

In August, parents and students will engage in teacher feedback via Flagged Learning Tasks and Student-Led Conferences.

FLAGGED LEARNING TASKS

Occurring every 6 weeks, Flagged Tasks are posted on Compass and provide detailed feedback to students about specific tasks.  Parents can view the feedback and students are to engage in "Conversation" within the Compass Learning Task to respond to teacher feedback.

The next round of Flagged Tasks will be on August 20. 

Flagged Tasks remaining:

Aug 20, Oct 15, Dec 10. 

Parent Help Finding Feedback on Flagged Tasks

To see information about the tasks your child is completing, follow these steps:

Step 1

Log on to Compass and click on either the link or the tab referring to Learning Tasks, as shown below. 

Step 2

Look for the Learning Task with a red flag and a due date that has passed.  Click on the blue title of the task.

Step 3

Choose the Feedback tab.  You will see Grades, Comments and an indication of the effort applied to that task.

Tip

Do you want to see all tasks of a particular subject together?  Click on the Group by Code tab.  You can also sort by Due Date, simply click on the Status tab.

TERM 3 STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES

Parents and students are invited to join teachers in Student-led Conferences on Thursday 26th August.

This Conference will be run remotely through MS teams. Every student is very familiar with this and teachers will call your child at the time of your booking.

Bookings open on Compass at 9am on August 18th and close at 9pm on August 23rd.

Please note that you can only make one booking per teacher per student for the first 4 days of bookings, to allow fair access for all families. This restriction will be eased on the weekend.

It is recommended that you check flagged learning tasks and make the Conference booking while in discussion with your child, so they are aware of the schedule and can lead the conference. Once all bookings have been made, please provide the schedule to your child.

How does it work remotely?

Teachers will call the student on MS teams at the time booked on Compass. Please be patient, teachers will be doing their best to keep to a very tight schedule.

Student and parents must be ready to answer MS Teams on time and have the students “2021 My Learning Portfolio” Powerpoint and “My Personal Learning Goals” worksheet saved to their desktop AND uploaded to the Compass learning task with the same name.

The meeting will be terminated by the teacher after 8 minutes as they must meet the next family immediately. Students should have planned for an 8 minute meeting and be ready to finish in time. If families require further discussion this can be arranged independently with the teacher though email.

There will be no classes on August 26th. Students from Year 7 to 12 are expected to attend online conferences with their parents/carers. Teachers will contact your child through MS Teams at the time you book on Compass.

Do you need an Interpreter?

You can book Chinese and Persian interpreters when you make teacher bookings on Compass. If other interpreters are required, please contact the college. 

Please make your booking as early as possible to allow us time to organise an interpreter. Teachers have the power to make bookings for students; however, students need to let teachers know their request.

Information about the Student-led conferences is provided in Mandarin in the following attachment.

Information about the process and Compass booking instructions have been provided in Persian in the attachments following.

Persian families can view the following video which covers the process for parents of booking a Parent Teacher Conference:

Booking Parent Teacher Conference

Thank you for all the cooperation in this matter, and we look forward to seeing families remotely on August 26th.  

SEMESTER REPORTS

The end of semester reports are a summary of each subject with Victorian Curriculum levels and grades for key tasks.  The next set of semester reports will be published on Compass on December 15th. 

Semester reports are found in the link "View Academic Reports" on Compass.

There will be no comments on end of semester reports. You will see comments in Flagged Learning Tasks.

Gary Rule

Assistant Principal

"I think you're on mute, again."

Hello DSC families. 

We find ourselves on the “Not So” Merry-go-Round of another extended lockdown. I think this one has caught us by surprise as we had almost settled into something resembling “the old” routine. Slammed back to the health guidelines of wearing masks outside, limited family and friend interaction and no school, has certainly become harder to handle this time around. 

I have just received a piece of inspiration that I would like to share with you. As I am not at the cutting edge of podcasts, or any social media, there will be many of you aware of this article from the New York Post on “Languishing”.  If you have not seen it, then I recommend it as an excellent read, hoping that it supports you to understand self and others. 

I believe that “languishing” is one of the things I’m experiencing personally and certainly witness it in those around me. It is like a “holding pattern” and the article helps to identify this state and offer ways to get your “Flow” back and moving toward “Thriving”. 

If not for you, think about the impact on those around you and how the concepts might help them when you reach out and you must reach out. There are so many ways to get your flow back; get outside, try a new recipe, find or extend your creative self.

If you are like me and have a limited threshold for reading, push all the way through to 4 pages as it is worth the time and concentration required. (Click the link above or on the picture to read). I urge you to find a spark, inspire someone, cook something, do something 

outside your routine, get off that couch and make those around you happier.

Belinda McGee

Assistant Principal