Confidence, Persistence and Resilience

Term 3 hasn’t given us the smoothest of starts to our school programs for Semester 2 but what it has shown us is that our students, staff and school community have an abundant amount of confidence, persistence and resilience that are all supporting us through these trying times. After several steps in and out of remote and flexible learning our students and staff are now displaying a strong sense of confidence around remote learning and the capacity to adapt quickly to the ever changing situation within the broader community. This is never an easy feat and we must congratulate students and staff for their flexibility but also their capacity to work with each other in such a supportive and positive manner during these trying times. The levels of persistence and resilience that are being demonstrated throughout the school community are really positive signs about the culture that we have established at Epping Secondary College and our ability to support one another in challenging and changing times.

Remote & Flexible Learning: 6th – 12th August

Late yesterday afternoon the State Government announced a snap 7 day lockdown in response to the latest outbreak of Coronavirus across Victoria. This means that all of our students from Year 7-12 have transitioned back to flexible and remote learning from Friday 6th August to Thursday 12th August (inclusive). In order to ensure continuity of learning for all students the following arrangements will apply for the week ahead:

Monday 9th – Thursday 12th August

Over these four days students will return to the flexible and remote learning requirements that were in place during Lockdown 5.0, during July 2021. Students will have their lesson requirements for each day posted on XUNO by their classroom teachers.

The following learning requirements will be in place from Monday to Thursday next week:

60 minute teaching blocks are being utilised instead of 72 minutes, to allow a break and stretch between sessions. Sessions will commence at 9:00am, 10:12am, 11:48am and 1:54pm.
Year 11 and 12 students will be required to log on to a video lesson for each of their scheduled classes over the four days.
Year 7-10 students will have a blend of video classes and assigned classwork over the four days. Students will need to check XUNO daily for their instructions for each class.
All video classes will be conducted via MS Teams and this will be included in the information posted on XUNO.
Formal assessments such as CATs, SACs and SATs will not be undertaken over these four days. In the event of a longer lockdown, assessments may be introduced in a modified format.
All students are required to check in with their teacher each session to ensure their attendance for flexible and remote learning is recorded.

Students who require onsite supervision

Limited onsite support and supervision will be available for those students who are deemed vulnerable or are the children of essential workers who cannot work from home. Parents are able to register their children for this onsite supervision at https://forms.office.com/r/fCcCb7kf0q

Please note that students will be accessing the same material and learning as those students learning from home.

Student Health and Wellbeing

As a school we know that events such as the lockdown spark a range of responses from students and we want you to know that we have a team of staff here at the College to support students and their wellbeing. Any parents concerned about their son or daughter’s health and wellbeing are reminded that Year Level Coordinators are the first point of contact. Our Year Level Coordinators can then access a range of supports through the school to support students. Please use XUNO to communicate with our staff where required.

If at any stage you require further information, please do not hesitate in contacting the relevant staff member via XUNO or the office during school hours on 9401 2599.

We look forward to our students and staff returning to school as soon as possible. In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy.

Celebrating student success – Premier’s VCE Awards

I am delighted to be able to share with you the announcement from last weekend of the recipients of the Premier’s VCE Awards. These awards are given to the top performing VCE students of 2020, celebrating the outstanding achievements and efforts of these students in their final year of schooling and other challenges in 2020.

Two Epping Secondary College students from the class of 2020 joined 295 other VCE students from around the state in being recognised by the Premier for their work last year.

Congratulations are extended to Aleksandra Stojoska and Marija Veljanovska on being recognised for their achievements in Macedonian. We are all incredibly proud of how these students performed and how hard they worked to achieve these incredible results.

A thank you is also extended to our Senior Years Team, our Languages Team and Macedonian teacher, Gordana Janinska for supporting Aleksandra and Marija.

A total of 297 Victorian students received 323 awards across 90 subjects, including 297 Study Awards, 23 Top All-Round VCE High Achiever Awards and three Top International Student Awards.

A full list of the Premier’s VCE Awards recipients is available at education.vic.gov.au/vceawards

Another fantastic reason why all of us can be incredibly proud of the fact that we work and learn together as a community at Epping Secondary College.

Stay safe, stay healthy and we look forward to seeing our students, staff and school community back on site as soon as possible.

Brad Moyle

Principal

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