From the Principal

There has been a great range of activities at the college this term - some of the highlights include:

The Swimming Carnival - a wonderful Whole School event.
Many students have represented the college in a number of inter-school team sports.
Our variety of lunch time and after school clubs and activities continue to grow. Activities include Drone Club, Rainbow Retreat, Anime Club, French Club, Book Club, Library events, Engineering Club and various Year 12 subject study groups. These are proving very popular with our students, as is the range of instrumental music opportunities including ensembles. There are also many staff coaching sports teams.
The Year 12 formal was a wonderful night – our students looked so elegant and really had a wonderful time.
Elevate Educate have presented a workshop to Year 7 students on Time Management and to Year 9 students on Study Skills.
All Year 9 students participated in a ‘Wheel Talk’ incursion for PE.
Year 9 students participated in the ‘St Kilda Beach Clean Up’ as part of the Year 9 Program.
Radio Club has begun broadcasting.
Rehearsals have begun for this year’s production, The Wizard of Oz.
Our wonderful Parents and Friends Association continue to promote our community at events such as the Multicultural Supper, which was very well attended. It was a great opportunity for parents to get to know each other.
The Year 7 information evening was a fantastic opportunity to welcome our Year 7 parents, many of whom are new to our college community.

We will soon be celebrating Cultural Diversity Week, Harmony Day and Francophonie Day. There will be an opportunity for students and staff to wear orange to celebrate Harmony Day or their national dress. There will be a range of activities at lunchtime for students.

Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022

Our Strategic Plan has been approved and is available on our website. Our goals are:

To improve literacy and numeracy across the curriculum in Years 7-10
To improve learning outcomes in VCE
To build student engagement and empower all students as learners and leaders
To enhance student connectedness and wellbeing in an inclusive school environment

Our focus is to continue to improve outcomes for each of our students, providing them with a challenging and supportive learning environment with a range of opportunities to develop their skills and talents. Improving our practices in relation to Differentiated Teaching Practice and Student Voice and Agency are major foci for 2019.

We also have a focus on improving our communication to parents and any feedback about our processes and practices on this would be welcome.

We are currently finalising our 2019 Annual Implementation Plan and will provide further information in the next newsletter.

Student Progress Reports

All students Years 7 – 12 will have received their progress reports via XUNO and hopefully you will be able to attend parent teacher interviews in the last two weeks of term. Please discuss the progress reports with your child to assist them with planning for the next term. Homework Help has resumed on Tuesday and Wednesday 3.30pm – 4.30pm in the library. All students are welcome and there are tutors available to assist.

School Council Elections

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Wednesday 20th March 2019 @ 6.30pm

Conference Room

I am delighted to announce our School Council for 2019.

Parent members: Ruth Gordon, Johnathan Lock, Kristen Skinner, Nicole Harris and Katie Karanika

Student representatives: Ashleigh Harris and Sean Kelly

Staff representatives: Jenny Sanchez, Nick Hamer-Smith, Aaron Petersen and Gabrielle Darvell

I thank all those retiring councillors for their superb work over the past year(s): Julie Staunton, Laszlo Kiss, Tracey Swiatlo, Ben Hobbs-Gordon, Charlotte Skinner and Morgan Edwards. All of the work of our councillors is valued.

We are always looking for ways to involve our parents in our community. Please contact me if you have ideas of how you would like to be involved. Our Parents and Friends group is an excellent way to meet other families and I encourage you to join.

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 15 March 2019

Glen Eira College will be celebrating the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday 15 March 2019.

The National Day of Action is an important opportunity for the whole community to reject

bullying and cyberbullying and help keep young Australians safe.

The theme for 2019 is Bullying. No Way!

All students will receive wallet cards which direct students to a fantastic online app they can utilise when in need.

Keeping our young people safe is a shared responsibility.

As parents, we know that it can be challenging to raise children today in a world where risks to safety can appear not only on the street but online. And it is not always easy to navigate when the online world can have real world physical and mental health impacts.

The Government has developed resources to empower parents (and schools) to protect

children and prepare them to be resilient, responsible and respectful adults:

www.esafety.gov.au – resources that promote online safety including tackling image-based abuse and a complaints service for young Australians who experience serious cyberbullying.
www.studentwellbeinghub.edu.au – support for students, parents and teachers to create a learning environment that promotes student wellbeing and the development of respectful relationships.

You can also visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au for education and advice for kids, parents and schools on how to combat and respond to bullying.

Student Punctuality – Learning starts at 9.00am

We have a staff member on yard duty from 8.30am every day. All students should be at school by 8.50am at the latest. This provides them with enough time to say hello to friends, put their bags away and get their books for team, periods 1 and 2. Team meeting commences at 9.00am.

Lateness can have a negative effect on the education of not only those students who are late, but also the other students in the class.

What impact does being late have on the student?

Students who are late miss a lot of instructions and information about what is happening, not to mention important learning sessions. This means that they have to catch up somehow. Students also miss out on catching up with their friends in the playground before school. Students can feel unsettled, disorganized and unhappy for the rest of the day and it can take them some time to complete and understand the work that they have missed. It’s similar to being late to see a movie and not being able to understand what’s happening because you have missed out on who the characters are and what the plot is.

How does it affect the other students in the class?

Students who are late have an unsettling effect on the rest of the class. Because not all late students arrive at once, the interruptions go on until the last student is settled. Students who are late often have things that need to be done prior to them joining the class and this causes even more disruption. Sometimes other students have to wait to get the teacher's attention and important issues can be forgotten.

Why does student lateness cause difficulties for the teacher?

The teacher has a certain amount of material and activities to cover each lesson. Also, organizational issues are usually dealt with at the beginning of the day. Teachers can become increasingly frustrated when late students continually and repeatedly interrupt their planned routines, as they have to stop teaching to deal with the issues involved.

We are all human. Cars can break down and unexpected situations can occur. We know that family morning routines are not always straightforward. If you are experiencing problems, speak to us, as we may be able to offer suggestions to help.

We are happy to accept that students will be late on the odd occasion because of unforeseen circumstances with a note from a parent or guardian. However, arriving late on a regular basis is not acceptable. Students who are late to school without a note from a parent will have to attend a lunchtime detention on the same day in Room 104. Failure to attend will result in attending a Friday after school detention.

Remember

A student who is half an hour late each day misses the equivalent of 16.6 days of learning each year.

From Stressed to Strong: Systematic Mental And Resilience Training

A parent information evening you will not want to miss.

You are invited to an informative and engaging parent information evening presented by Andrew Fuller on Wednesday 27th March at 6:45pm in the Performing Arts Centre.

Come and have a fun evening with well-known Clinical Psychologist, Andrew Fuller. Andrew’s talks are always fun and informative. Andrew’s work aims to have people create futures they can fall in love with.

Glen Eira College Performing Arts Centre

6:45pm – 8:30pm Wednesday 27th March

Tickets are $5 and can be booked via Trybooking:

https://www.trybooking.com/471051

Topics covered will include:

The active ingredients of resilience
How parents can develop these in their children
Understanding anxiety
How to stay sane in a crazy world
Neurochemistry and parenting
Parenting tricky kids
Creating happy kids
Building self-esteem and dealing with set backs

Sheereen Kindler

Principal