Acting Principal's Report 

Unit 3 and 4 Exams

 Unit 3 and 4 exams have progressed extremely well for our students, with the final exams being held next Tuesday. I would like to congratulate all of the students involved, for the way they have managed this year.

Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) students will receive their results on Wednesday 30 December 2020. The release of student results is usually a very busy time for the Senior School and Careers team, as they support our students to understand what the results mean for their next steps into the workforce and tertiary education. This year the release of results falls in the school holidays. However, the Senior School team has a plan in place to provide the opportunity for students to discuss their results and pathway options, either face-to-face or by remote connection.

Last Step: changes to operations

The Victorian Government announced that Victoria moved to the Last Step of the roadmap for reopening from 11:59 pm, Sunday 22 November 2020. As a result of the changes announced, some important updates have been made to school operations.

Limitations on who can visit school premises no longer apply from the Last Step. This means that parents and carers are welcome back on site. If you do need to speak to a staff member, please call ahead to make an appointment. To support contract tracing, we are required to keep a record of all staff, students and visitors who attend on-site for more than 15 minutes. Masks are required to be worn when indoors.

Graduation ceremonies can take place with parents on site

Face-to-face year level assemblies and graduations can occur at full capacity if they are exclusively attended by students and staff only. Whilst parents and carers can attend on-site, there are total venue caps which limit our ability to run these events as we normally would. We will continue with our plans to live stream the Year 12 Valedictory assembly and the Middle School presentation evening.

Updated use of face masks

1. Face masks must continue to be worn indoors by people aged 12 years and over unless an exemption applies.
2. Face masks are not required outdoors except where physical distancing of 1.5 metres cannot be maintained.

This means that secondary school students and school staff should wear a face mask while indoors at schools and while travelling on public transport. Many staff members and students continue to wear masks when outside. We fully support and respect those members of our community who choose to do so.

Orientation Day and Year 7 2021

We are fortunate that changes to the recent operations guide now allow for our incoming Year 7 students to attend on-site. We are looking forward to not only meeting our incoming Year 7 students but also meeting families who are new to the College. Under normal circumstances we would hold an information night prior to Orientation Day however, this will be replaced with a Virtual Information Session. Early in 2021, we will send out invitations to our Year 7 Family Social Evening. As part of the Victorian Government Schools Connected Communities priority for 2021, we will be reintroducing our Parent/Carer class representative initiative to foster connections between families which will build relationships and bring our community together.

End of Year arrangements

Ms Gina Carroll posted a newsfeed to families regarding the end of year arrangements. As you would be aware from a previous communication, the Department of Education has provided schools with a number of directives and shifts to priorities. This has resulted in modifications to the delivery of curriculum and end of year reports. The end of semester reports will include a summary of each subject with grades for key tasks and Maths and English will report on Victorian Curriculum levels. There will be no comments on the end of semester reports. Feedback on individual tasks is available under ‘Learning Tasks’ on COMPASS.

We have altered our usual end of year program to make the most of every minute of teaching and learning time available to us and want you to know:

1. Classes for Year 7, 8 & 9 students continue as normal until Wednesday 16th December
2. Year 10 & 11 finish on December 4th on completion of VCE/VCAL ‘Headstart’
3. December 17 is a Curriculum Day to plan for 2021. Reports are available on COMPASS.

Principal Appointment

I feel very privileged to have been appointed to the substantive Principal role at Doncaster Secondary College. The application and selection process has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on not only my own personal journey but that of our school. I am committed to creating a learning community which enables all students to achieve their potential and become confident, effective learners who contribute productively to society. A significant amount of work is being undertaken by the School Improvement Team and Leadership Team to ensure that we are well-positioned to achieve our goals as we move into 2021 and beyond. Thank you to everyone for your support throughout this year and for all of the lovely messages. It means so much to me to have your support and I look forward to being able to work with you into the future.

Glenn Morris

Acting Principal