Principal's Report

Term Two 2022

All students are active participants in a learning culture that promotes academic excellence and personal development through a diversity of challenging experiences.  

VISION

“Working together, learning together” – Working together to enable all students to achieve their potential and become confident, effective learners who contribute productively to society.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Doncaster Secondary College acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our school is situated, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elder's past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any and all Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. We value the ongoing contribution to the cultural heritage that the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people provide to our school as well as the city of Manningham. We recognise that this land was never ceded and there is no treaty, and we commit to efforts towards reconciliation as a school community. We at Doncaster Secondary College are inclusive of individuals from all backgrounds including the LGBTQIA+, culturally and linguistically diverse as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Principal Team Report

After two years of a global pandemic which impacted on all areas of our life, our nation still continues to be affected as we transition and re-engage with the community. This was particularly challenging in term 1, 2022 where COVID-19 infections led to staff shortages and interruptions to the learning program for students who were in isolation. 

With the easing of health measures which were in place during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the community is seeing a resurgence of influenza and other illnesses, on top of COVID-19 infections, which is placing pressure on workplaces, the health system and our schools. I am incredibly grateful that we have been able to draw upon our pool of CRTs and Education Support Personnel who have stepped in to ensure that our children continue to access both our curricular and co-curricular programs. 

Whilst I will discuss the importance of promoting positive attendance and reducing absences later in this article, I ask that our families ensure that children stay home when showing visible signs of illness. When we notice that students are unwell, we will request that they attend the health centre where contact will be made with home to come and collect your child.

Building Connectedness and Strengthening our Community

Students who find their own voice in supportive schools are more likely to develop a confident voice, a capacity to act in the world and a willingness to lead others. Student engagement is enhanced when students feel able to exert influence and participate more fully in the classroom, school and community.

Voice, agency and leadership represent different aspects of student empowerment. Each aspect relies on a student's belief that they are both supported and empowered, in ways that help them to develop their knowledge, skills and dispositions in the classroom, school and community. This requires a deliberate, planned and coherent approach to embedding voice, agency and leadership within a positive climate for learning. 

- Education State Ambition: Pride and confidence in our schools

Our student leaders have been gaining momentum and are contributing enormously to the culture of connectedness within our school community. Today they aligned the free dress day with Careers Week with proceedings from the Gold Coin donation going to the Smith Family charity. This charity provides school supplies, uniforms and covers fees for those who are less fortunate. 

Our student leaders are acutely aware of the importance of education and the connection with building the knowledge and skills required to provide all young people with access to future opportunities. Our Senior VCAL students are also demonstrating leadership in this area, and have recently established a partnership with The Good Box who are a not for profit organisation that supply boxes containing essential items to individuals who are homeless. This work is a continuation of their learning program where they undertook a tour in the city with the Salvation Army to understand the complexities of issues surrounding homelessness. 

I was fortunate to attend a moving ANZAC Dawn Service at the Doncaster RSL with student leadership team members Elina and Jordan. In a solemn and reflective ceremony, Elina sang the National Anthem and laid a wreath with Jordan to honour the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their tomorrow for our today. Elina and music teacher Wendy Howes also represented our College at the Doncaster Sharks ANZAC Round. Elina once again sang the National Anthem with such grace, which you can watch here: 

https://youtube.com/.../UgkxLiCLmq5fhtazfNAD6_PBAxTmgB-sl48A 

All students have the opportunity to benefit from our increased focus on Sport and the Performing Arts. These two areas are key components of our social engagement program, with participation in these opportunities continuing to increase. It has been outstanding to see our students engaging in these activities both at school and in the local community. 

Our Music Camp will be leaving on Monday and returning on Wednesday. It provides another opportunity to build connectedness between peers and with staff. I know that it will be an invaluable learning opportunity which will support our students to prepare for the upcoming Winter Concert where we look forward to enjoying the student performances with our families. 

Our student leaders have also been active in leading initiatives which acknowledges and celebrates the diversity of backgrounds and experiences in our school community. We are fortunate to have a diverse school community, which adds to the richness of our experience and mirrors the world in which we live. This diversity includes, but is not limited to gender, sexuality, race, religion, socio-economic status, and abilities. It is important that all members of our community feel respected and safe regardless of these factors. I am grateful to my staff for supporting our students with the organisation and implementation of activities aligned with this focus. Activities and events include but are not limited to, Persian New Year, World Autism Awareness Day, Harmony Week, Art of Culture Photography Competition, and IDAHOBIT day. A program of events celebrating our diversity and providing opportunities for all members of our community to engage with is continually being developed. This will include Reconciliation Week (next week), Men's Health Week etc. I am also grateful to members of our parent and carer community who have provided input in this area.

School Strategic Plan (SSP) and Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) updates

This year is the first year of our School Strategic Plan. All Victorian Government Schools are using the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes to focus their improvement efforts on practices that have the greatest impact on student learning and wellbeing outcomes. While learning has long been an established outcome of schooling, the importance of wellbeing has been elevated, both as an enabler of learning outcomes and as an outcome in its own right. Doncaster Secondary College has aligned key improvement strategies, actions, and resources to the achievement of both our learning and wellbeing goals:

• Learning: To maximise learning growth for all students
• Wellbeing: To develop learners who are self-aware, respectful of diversity and navigate social relationships

All members of our Leadership team have presented their work and action plans to the School Improvement Team (SIT). The SIT meets three times per term and forms an integral part of the leadership structure at Doncaster Secondary College. Members include teaching staff, education support personnel, principal team, and students. The members are playing a crucial role in developing, overseeing, and evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the Annual Implementation Plan.

Various measures are used to monitor our progress and achievement of our school goals. Three measures which are relevant to our performance are National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS), and Attendance. 

The NAPLAN is standardised national testing that provides information on how students are progressing and performing in the key areas of literacy and numeracy. It is also used to make improvements in how students are taught. NAPLAN tests skills that are developed over time through the school curriculum, in four key areas:

• reading
• writing
• language conventions (spelling, punctuation, and grammar)
• numeracy.

Every student needs these skills to progress through school and succeed with future work and study. The Doncaster Secondary College School Strategic Plan (SSP) will use NAPLAN data to measure the achievement of our goal of maximising student growth and achievement in literacy and numeracy. 

This year all schools transitioned to NAPLAN Online testing. Whilst some schools have been undertaking online testing since 2018, this was the first year this was implemented at Doncaster Secondary College. Congratulations to all of our Year 7 and 9 students for bringing your best NAPLAN testing, and to our staff for supporting students to engage with testing via the online platform.

The Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS) is a significant student voice tool which is used to improve student engagement, wellbeing, and quality instruction. It provides insight into our students’ educational experience. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer and family relationships, resilience, bullying, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general. This year, the AtoSS will be conducted at our school over the period May 25 to June 8. 

In our experience, young people enjoy having their say and it has been invaluable in helping us understand student views. We then use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve students’ schooling experience. 

Please refer to the Compass Newsfeed for parents which provides further information on the survey. Doncaster Secondary College is also running our own internal survey titled 'Student feedback on teaching and learning'. We have used the results to identify areas of strength and areas for growth as identified by our students. The information is helping guide planning for teacher peer observations and coaching with our Learning Specialists. It is a key component of building teacher capacity to plan for and meet students at their point of need. 

Absenteeism

As schools transition back to onsite learning, the Department of Education and Training (DET) continues to focus on re-engagement of students. One of our key initiatives in this area is ‘Promoting Attendance and Reducing Absenteeism’. I understand that increases in illness will impact this across the state however, when this is exacerbated by unexplained absences, it has a significant effect on learning over time. From an early age, if children are taught that they need to 'show up' for school and make a commitment, this positive mentality aids academic and career success and brings benefits in adulthood. 

Research shows that every day of absence made a difference, and this was particularly true for unauthorised absences. The effect of one day of absence was relatively small but added up quickly as more and more days were missed. The effect of missing days is accumulative, impacting achievement in the year in which the days were missed, as well as future years.  Research identifies that this is such an important initiative as high absenteeism impacts lifelong outcomes including:

• poor academic achievements including lower levels of achievement on literacy and numeracy 
• reduced opportunities for students to learn and access educational resources e.g. programs, teachers who impact on students’ academic attainment 
• early school leaving 
• leaving school with fewer qualifications 
• unemployment and long-term unemployment 
• labour force status 
• increased likelihood of poverty 

Any child with more than 3 days of absence in a term is ‘at-risk’ of chronic absenteeism. Going to school every day is the single most important part of your teenager’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind. At Doncaster Secondary College, we know that ‘Every Day Counts’.

You can review your child’s attendance via their Compass Profile> ‘attendance’ tab.

1. Focus on the ‘Term Summary: Days not present’ section.
2. If your child has missed 3- 5 days in a school term, your child is at risk of chronic absenteeism and is likely not meeting the required 90% attendance for each subject.
3. 90% attendance is a prerequisite for students to receive a ‘readiness to progress’ into Senior School VCE/VCE-VM in 2023.

To support the school to record your child’s absences accurately and provide appropriate support, you must:

1. Use the Parent/Carer Portal on Compass to register the reason for your child's absence.
2. Provide a medical certificate or certificate of attendance, when your child is away from school.
3. Inform the school in advance if you will be away for 3 or more days, and complete and return an Absence Learning Plan.
4. Support your child to complete and submit the classwork they are missing during this time.

In instances of concern, we will also:

1. Create an Attendance Improvement Plan with your child
2. Review their progress and seek to host a Student Support Group meeting, where appropriate.
3. Make referrals to assist you with support outside of school.

Doncaster Secondary College has been invited to participate in Community of Practice (CoP) to support improved student attendance and engagement. Positive Climate for Learning and Community leaders, Mr. Tyran Dennis (Year 8), Ms. Lisa Chiuchiarelli (Year 9) and Mr. Daniel Campbell (Year 11) will represent the Doncaster Secondary College mini-schools in the CoP, as part of the ‘Attendance Project’. DET are compiling attendance improvement resources and practice guidance for schools. We will be collaborating with other schools to share good practice and successes in relation to attendance, as well as identifying any gaps in resources that will benefit schools. 

Proposed Victorian Government Schools Agreement

The Department of Education and Training has reached in-principle agreement with the unions, as bargaining representatives of employees in the Victorian Teaching Service, on the terms of a proposed enterprise agreement (Proposed Agreement) to replace the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) 2017. Doncaster Secondary College employees to be covered by the Proposed Agreement have been given the opportunity to vote to approve or not approve the Proposed Agreement. If approved by a majority of employees to be covered by the Proposed Agreement in the employee ballot, the Department will make an application to have the Proposed Agreement approved by the Fair Work Commission under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). 

The Proposed Agreement will impact our planning for 2023 which is already underway. I will continue to update school council on the developments. 

Further information can be found via https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/industrial-agreements/overview.

Senior Secondary Reforms

Victoria is moving to a new integrated senior secondary certificate that will bring together our two senior secondary certificates, the VCE and Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). This will give all students the learning opportunities to develop the skills and capabilities needed to succeed in further education, work, and life.

From 2023, enrolment options for Year 11 and 12 students will include:

• the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Vocational Major
• the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC).

A fully integrated VCE will be implemented from 2025. For more information on the certificates please visit the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority website. Our DSC Senior School team is collaborating with network schools and DET to ensure that we are prepared for the implementation of this program in 2023. 

Glenn Morris

Principal