Dear Students, Parents and Carers,

I wanted to welcome you to the 2023 school year. We are incredibly excited to welcome everyone back after a well deserved break. Our community is focused on creating an inclusive environment that supports all members of our community to realize their potential. With this in mind we have narrowed our improvement focus to two core areas, academic achievement and high expectations for learning behaviours.

Attendance Matters

As Principal I cannot emphasise enough the importance of school attendance. In 2023, The entire education system is focussed on working with students and families to ensure that student’s attendance is maximised each year.

We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. Students develop good habits by going to school every day – habits that are necessary to succeed after school, whether in the workplace or in further study. Missing school can have a big impact on students academically and socially. It can affect their test results, including Tertiary & Vocational Major pathways, and, just as importantly, it can affect their relationships with other students, and lead to social isolation. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes.

Each missed day is associated with falling behind in subject topics and assessment tasks, and lead to fewer subject choices and may impact on achievement in years 11 and 12 and post-school pathways. We would like to share some tips for attendance.

TOP ATTENDANCE TIPS FOR PARENTS

The College wants to work in partnership with parents and carers – act early if you have any concerns by contacting the College and asking for advice and support.
Remember that every day counts.
There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes and their social connectedness.
Talk positively about school and the importance of attending every day.
Open and prompt communication with the College about your child’s absences is a good idea.
Avoid making routine medical and dental appointments during the school day or planning family holidays during the term.
Seek help from the College if you are concerned about your child’s attendance and wellbeing. The College wants to work in partnership with parents to support student attendance and wellbeing.

Finally, healthy sleep routines are a great way to proactively prepare students to attendance at school. It could be worth doing a sleep hygiene check and consider if your student is getting the recommended sleep each night. The following may support a constructive conversation about sleep at home 20 Sleep Hygiene Tips and Worksheets for Kids & Teenagers (positivepsychology.com)

This term we are focusing on the College value of Respect. Building everyone’s understanding of the power of respect for self, for others and our environment is an important piece and supports our students to transition into life beyond school successfully.

As educators we are acutely aware of the importance of an orderly classroom environment and the positive impact that respect, courage and honesty can have on the learning outcomes for everyone. This year we continue to work with our community around the implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework. Within this framework we are actively working with staff and students to ensure clarity of understanding, of the EMC expectations for learning, and in doing so we are taking big steps to creating a learning culture that is respectful, kind, considerate and grateful for the opportunities school provides.

I ask that you take a moment to discuss with your student the behaviours and actions that will support them and those around them to not just succeed at school but to thrive at school and in doing so be able to access their pathway to success. Unpacking what respect looks like and sounds and feels like is a great way to help students understand the role they play in creating a successful learning environment. We all know that when you feel safe and have a strong sense of belonging that you are able to achieve so much more. Every student has a responsibility to behave in such a way that their peers are valued and treated with respect.

We are committed to the development of our community and in 2023 will continue to offer high impact learning events to all our students. These events are designed to build student understanding of respect, inclusion and diversity.

Programs that we will be running in 2023 include;

One Love Australia
PAT Cronin foundation
Blurred Minds
Sexual Health Victoria
Man Cave
Flourish Girl
Proactice Policing
Frankston Youth Service
Resilience Project
Keys Please
Fit to Drive
TRAG

In 2022, our improvement efforts were focused on the improvement of academic outcomes in the VCE, we were incredibly proud of the hard work of our students and their final outcomes - where we shifted our mean study score from 27.03 to 29.58. This is an outstanding effort and reflected the dedication of our entire community. It is important to note that students cannot achieve outstanding outcomes without the support and input from parents and carers. In 2023 I encourage you to consider how you will continue to support your student(s) as they navigate the journey of Year 12 to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

This year we continue our focus on improving academic outcomes across the College. With a continued focus on NAPLAN outcomes and Tertiary Pathways outcomes. I wanted to recognize the outstanding improvement in our Year 9 Writing results in 2022, and we hope to build on this outcome with teachers narrowing their focus on the NAPLAN writing assessment rubric and the provision of explicit feedback on student performance against these measures. Student performance on year 9 NAPLAN is an important data point that we use to assist us in ensuring that students are in the right pathway program. Having positive discussions about the NAPLAN and encouraging students to be their best is an important theme for them to carry into this assessment.

NAPLAN will be conducted in Term 1 in 2023 15-27 March. In the lead up to NAPLAN, I ask that you spend some time discussing with your student the importance of trying your best, and ensuring the results are a true reflection of their knowledge, skills and abilities. We will be running preparation activities across the next 5 weeks to ensure that students are able to maximize their performance.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to remind our community about the College policies available on the College Website. As a leadership team we can support our families and students better when we are focused on learning engagement and growth. When students’ families and carers are aware of out policies and respecting these we are able to maximise our time on improving student learning. If you are unsure about any of our policies please visit Policies (emc.vic.edu.au). Working together to ensure students understand our policies and the purpose behind them ensures that we can be focused on improving learning outcomes for students.

We are looking forward to an outstanding year of growth and success, where students are able to access their pathway of choice.

Kind regards,

Dean King

Principal

Dean King

Principal

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