From the Assistant Principal
Welcome
Welcome back to the final (and busiest) term for 2018; and a very warm welcome to the three new students to the Secondary School. With lots of exciting things happening over the next few weeks, please keep an eye on the newsletter and Compass calendars for details.
MYP/DP information evening - all welcome!
MYP - coordinator John Collins will present a general overview of the IB Middle Years Programme, covering the key tenets including concept-based teaching and learning and the Personal Project.
DP - hosted by Lenny Robinson-McCarthy, this session will give you an overview of the IB Diploma Programme for 2019/20 including subjects available, structure and pathways.
At the end of both sessions there will be an opportunity to ask questions and mingle with teachers. We do hope you can join us.
Attendance and signing out
Full attendance at Preshil is a basic expectation for all students.
The correlation between attendance and school success is irrefutable and signs of irregular or intermittent attendance are often the signal for more significant issues that require follow-up and communication between home and school.
Even in those small number of individual cases where a part-time program has been agreed to, based on the advice and supervision of medical professionals, full attendance during the times agreed to is an expectation.
Please support us to ensure that your daughter or son fulfils this requirement, and let us know immediately when students encounter some difficulty which prevents attendance.
Parents who are unable to sign their child out at the office are now able to have their son or daughter sign themselves out, for a valid reason they may have to leave school early such as a medial appointment or significant family commitment.
Parents must still provide permission for this to occur, preferably by email well in advance, but may also contact the office and provide this permission to Judy or Jan.
Good luck Year 12s
This is the last year our senior students sit the VCE at Preshil. They are a wonderful cohort and we are very proud of them. We wish them all the best in their exams. School facilities and teacher support will be available to them throughout the examination period.
Seeing Eye Dogs Australia (SEDA)
Over the next six months, Preshil and SEDA are working together in their Puppy Caring Program.
We warmly welcome Thelma to Preshil where she will be learning basic obedience, socialisation and social manners before moving towards full-time training with SEDA.
Thelma is a working dog and will have an important job to undertake when she is older as she will be the ‘eyes’ for people who are blind or have low vision. Our role is to help her become a relaxed, well socialised and confident working dog. As part of her training, Thelma can’t receive pats whilst wearing her blue puppy coat, or while she is sleeping. However, during Thelma’s play-time, when her training coat is not on she welcomes lots of pats and cuddles.
If you would like to learn more about the important work of SEDA please visit seda.visionaustralia.org
NAPLAN
In May this year students in Years 7 and 9 undertook NAPLAN tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. If your child was involved in this testing you will have received in the mail a Parent Report prepared by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). If you have not received this please contact me.
Further information about this testing can be obtained from visiting
https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/naplan/parentpamphlet/naplan2018ISR/NAPLAN2018ISRparentbrochure.pdf
Natalie Jensen
Assistant Principal K -12