Principal's Report 

“When one door closes another one opens. But often we look so long and so regretfully at the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened before us.”  

- Helen Keller 

We can reflect on the start of 2021 by recognising that schools are equally adaptive to the changing world. Our students and staff made a seamless transition from on-site learning, to remote learning, back to on-site. The optimism that was demonstrated during challenging and unpredictable circumstances was fantastic. It is important that we use language that helps our students understand these changes. The door to what once was 'normal' has closed but instead of looking back with regret, should we not look forward with curiosity and guide our children through all the doors that are now open before them?

Face Masks

Please support the college by ensuring students leave home with a mask each morning.  It is useful to have a spare mask in their bag. We are finding that many students are dropping them on their way to school or during school breaks, however a large number are still arriving at school without a mask. It is not sustainable for the school to hand out over 200 disposable masks per day. Let’s work on this together as a community. A reminder of the directions:

As per the directions of the Victorian Chief Health Officer from 11:59pm, Wednesday 17 February 2021:

•            School staff when not teaching and secondary school students aged 12 or older,                   must wear a face mask at school, unless an exception applies: 

•            in all indoor spaces. 

•            in all outdoor spaces when 1.5metre physical distance cannot be maintained.

Tutor Learning Initiative

We will be inviting students in the coming weeks to be involved in the Tutor Learning Initiative. The Tutor Learning Initiative is designed to support students whose learning has been disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are using a range of data sources to identify students who would benefit from this support. This is for students needing learning catch-up as well as extension.  

We know that the remote learning experience was different for every student. While some students thrived, some students may not have engaged as fully with remote learning. For most of our students, regular high-quality teaching in 2021 will be enough to help them progress to the expected level of learning. Some students will benefit from additional intensive learning support in 2021. 

As you may be aware, in response to this, the Victorian Government is investing $250 million in the Tutor Learning Initiative to enable schools across Victoria to engage around 4,100 teachers as tutors in 2021, to support students who need extra assistance with their learning. Schools will determine how this initiative is best implemented for their students and will ensure that students will get this support in a way that minimises disruptions to other learning or school activities.

By engaging additional teachers to support children with intensive learning, classroom teachers will have greater capacity to ensure that all other students’ achievement, engagement and wellbeing needs are met, so that all students receive the support they need in 2021.

2021 School Council Election

We will be mailing home ballots for parent representatives this week. The ballots can be sent back to school in the envelope provided. Please note that all ballots must be received by 4pm March 3.  If  using the post to return the ballot, it must arrive by the closing date to be valid. We will also be holding a student election this week. Unfortunately, the Ministerial Order does not permit the voting to be electronic. The parent candidates are:

Thank you to all the parents and students who continue to support our school.

Welcome New Staff Members

We have completed the last of our recruitment processes for 2021 teachers and education support staff.  We would like to have you join us in welcoming the following new team members: 

• Alana Durham- Healthy Lifestyles and Our World
• Jim Hooper- Communicate and Relate and Our World
• Robert Hastings- Classroom Support