From The Principal

Principal’s Report

As we approach the mid year break it is a time for all students to reflect on the first half of the year and the goals you should have set yourself at the beginning of the year. Initially the reflection will be, have I achieved the goal?  If yes, what worked really well? Did I make adjustments as I went as to how I approached tasks? Alternatively, did I set the bar too low?  If no to achieving the goal, Why?  Do I need to change my approach? Bar set too high/ambitious? 

So, you should now be looking to semester two and what you can do to improve. You will have received feedback from your teachers through the semester.  Are you reading this and putting the advice into practice?

Your education is a continuous journey.  No matter what vocation you see yourself doing in the future the capacity to set goals, take on board feedback and work towards your goal is something that will be a constant in your life. 

Capital Works

The builders are currently completing small tasks to complete their work.  This includes the laying of the artificial grass in the central area of the school.  Further work is still to come.  At present this is being held up within the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) as we wait for them to release the funding to complete this work.

Staffing

In my time in education I can never recall such movement of staff between schools during the school year and also the much publicised difficulty in finding replacement teachers. It is then we great satisfaction that as I write we have finally been able to appoint teachers to all vacancies we have had.  We know from observation and supported by research evidence that a key factor for learning is consistency.  This relates to a number of factors, but one is having the same teacher for a particular class not a rotation of relief teachers.

There are still some changes as staff take periods of Long Service Leave but in the main we will hopefully have a more stable teacher situation.

Mobile Phones at School

Since 2020 it has been a government directive that students were not to have their mobile phone on their person when at school.  Students were to place their mobile phone in their locker at the start of the school day and leave it there until the end of the school day. All students are provided with a locker each year and a lock when they commence at the school.  This enables the phone to be secured. 

Unfortunately, we are finding an increasing number of students having their mobile phone on them during the school day.  They are using them in class, at recess and lunchtime and there are times where this has resulted in inappropriate content being uploaded onto social media.  Please read another article in this newsletter regarding this.  It has also been noted the number of students using their mobile phone to make purchases at the canteen at recess and lunchtime.  This is also in breach of the mobile phone directive.  Students need to use the card provided by their bank for this purpose.

I ask all parents/guardians to support the school as we abide by the directive we have been given in regards to student mobile phones at school. 

Year 9 Camp

A very successful camp at Forest Edge, Neerim East with beautiful weather over the first camp.  The second camp had cooler weather but the students still had a most enjoyable time. I take this opportunity to thank the staff in particular Ms Tayla Wilson for her leadership at the camp and Mr Jamie Marks for organising and leading the program for the students who were at school.  It was so pleasing to hear all the positive comments from the permanent camp staff about our students and this was reiterated by our own staff.  My thanks also to the staff who attended to make the camp possible and the success that it was.

Communication between parents and staff via email

We now live in an era where communication is available to us 24 hours a day.  The days of writing letters and waiting for a reply and the only telephone was a landline are in the distant past.  Mobile phones and the use of email has quickened the communication process.  Now the number of social media platforms has further escalated the capacity for people to communicate quickly.  This level of instant communication has been linked to people feeling more stressed as they feel the pressure to respond immediately.

Why do I raise this? 

Because there has been an increasing expectation that teachers should be responding to emails immediately.  Yes, we value communication with parents about the progress of their son/daughter but there must be a degree of reasonable about the response timeframe.  A teacher in class may not read their emails until the end of the school day.  Therefore, a response may not be sent until late that day or even the next day.  Further, there are instances of parents sending emails outside what would be considered to be normal working hours and expecting an immediate response.  This is an unreasonable expectation.  As per our communications policy you will receive a response within 2 business days. 

In this time of quick communication we also need to remember that the content of the email should be written in a professional and courteous manner. Tone and emotive language can easily lead to misinterpretation of the intent of the email. It is easy to overlook this when forming an initial email. It is often prudent to save it as a draft and go back to it later and reread it.  You may then feel the need to edit the initial email before sending. 

It is also timely for me to remind parents to refer to the college website re the communication policy of the college.  This policy also indicates who the relevant member of staff is, to direct your communication to.

Term Break

I take this opportunity to wish all members of our school community a restful, relaxing and safe term break.  It gives us all the opportunity and time to recharge and reflect.  It also enables us to set new goals for the challenges ahead.