NGSC Newsletter

ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT

Paul Dawson, Bradley Headlam &  Julie Andrews

Assistant Principals

Bus travel

Families are reminded of the expectations of positive and responsible behaviour that the bus companies/drivers and the North Geelong Secondary College school community have for students who are travelling on buses.

  The NGSC School Wide Positive Behaviours describe how students act when in the community.

  • We show respect to everyone, including outside of school.
  • We have respect for ourselves and those around us.
  • We exemplify our values in the community.
  • We use initiative to seek help when needed.
  • We aspire to lead and assist others.
  • We accept different views and opinions.
  • We interact in a positive and inclusive manner with all students, staff and parents.
  • We acknowledge and respect the cultures and beliefs of all members of the school community.

As students are waiting for buses and travelling on buses they need to be mindful of how they are representing themselves, their families and North Geelong Secondary College, ensuring that all passengers on a bus have a safe, comfortable journey. Quiet and respectful voices, sensible and careful behaviour are expected. 

Please read the following information from PTV (Public transport Victoria). 

 

2021 Student Bus Pass fares

Student pass fares remain unchanged for the 2021 calendar year: Geelong yearly pass is $353; Geelong half-yearly pass is $177.  

 

Prepay Buses

To support safer bus journeys and current operations, cash transactions were permanently removed from myki-enabled buses. So that parents and students can ensure they continue to travel with a valid ticket, this list includes the alternatives available to cash payment on buses.

  • Online at ptv.vic.gov.au/myki
  • New PTV app
  • Auto top up
  • Myki retailers
  • Quick top up machines
  • Myki machines
  • Ticket offices including train stations and PTV Hubs

Pre-paying your fare helps to reduce travel time for passengers as well as increasing the reliability of services. 

PTV reminds students to touch on and off every time they use their myki on public transport, even if they had  a myki pass or Student Pass. This sends a positive message to the broader travelling public and the touch on/off data is used to plan the level and frequency of services for this school. For instance, if you are concerned about the crowded bus but only a few people touch on with their myki card then the data says that the bus is not crowded. 

The NGSC photo ID cards include the PTV logo which therefore can be used as a student concession travel card. A separate student concession card for travel is not required.  

School Photos - catch up day March 9

Any student that did not have their portrait photo taken on the fist photo day will be photographed on Tuesday, 9 March. Please ensure that the full school uniform is worn for the photograph. If your child has PE on Tuesday they are to bring the PE uniform with them to change for PE class and wear the full uniform for the photo.

Family/sibling photos that were not taken on the first photo day will also be included in the schedule. 

The Year 12 group photo will be taken at 8:45 am on this day.  

The photographers will be onsite until 11:00 am. 

International Women’s Day - March 8

Even though International Women's Day is a well-known moment in most countries, it's often helpful to still set some context. 

International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The day has occurred for well over a century, with the first​ ​IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Prior to this the​ Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom's Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women's equality. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.

The colours used to represent International Women’s Day are: White - purity, Green - hope, Purple - justice and dignity. 

This year’s theme is: Choose to Challenge

A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change. So let's all choose to challenge. How will you help forge a gender equal world? Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality. 

Source - https://www.internationalwomensday.com

On Thursday, 4 March, the Geelong Soroptimist International Club hosted their annual IWD breakfast at Capri Receptions in Geelong West. Soroptimist Geelong provides a scholarship (bursary) to two senior female NGSC students each year. North Geelong School College School Captains, the current scholarship recipients, Mr Aaron Milosome and Mrs Julie Andrews attended the breakfast. The current North Geelong Secondary College scholarship recipients, Moo Ko Say Tu and Baseera Nazari, spoke to the assembled group of approximately 120 people. Julie Spec from the City of Greater Geelong was the guest speaker and she spoke about her role in gender equality and what the Council is doing to work towards gender equality. 

NGSC School Captains and Bursary recipients Moo Ko Say Tu and Baseera Nazari with Julie Spec COGG, guest speaker for the IWD Soroptimist Breakfast.

Information Evening/Open Night (Thursday, 11 March)

North Geelong Secondary College is hosting its Information Evening for primary aged students and their families on 11 March. COVID safe practices require that all families are to register via the QR code on arrival, physical distancing and density limits apply and sanitiser will be readily available. 

A presentation will take place in an outdoor space for all those present. It will be followed by talks about specialised areas; Select Entry Academic Learners (SEAL), ACE/STAR intervention and Excellence in Sport (EIS). Small groups will be taken on school tours supported by NGSC students. Staff will be located in various rooms to answer specific questions about subjects and programs while Principals and Leading Teachers will be roaming to answer other questions.

If you would like a school tour please contact Stan Koullas, Transition and Pathways Leading Teacher, to arrange an appointment.

Year 7 camp

In a few weeks the Year 7 students will head to Burnside Camp in Anglesea for three days of adventure activities and social time with new friends and staff. Please ensure that permission slips, medical information and payments are made. 

Contact the Year 7 Student Management Team if you have concerns or questions about the camp experience. 

Year 9 Careers

All Year 9 students are about to head into an immersive program to investigate their inner talents and interests in the form of several activities to begin shaping their career pathways. It all starts on Friday, 5 March, where they partake in the following activities:

  • Careers and Morrisby introduction
  • Drums workshop
  • Wellbeing workshop
  • Respectful relationships
  • Team building
  • Goal setting
  • Y Lead presentation

Then in week 8 of school all students will complete an immersive survey to explore their capabilities further. This is called the Morrisby survey and is analysed by careers experts who return to school to pass on the outcomes for all individual students. This is a Statewide program and really informative and useful for students.

SRC day

The Home Group Captains have been elected for 2021.  On Thursday, 4 March, they participated in an SRC planning day. They participated in leadership development activities and linked in with the Year 12 Captains of the four different areas of Cultural, Academic, Sport and Performing Arts to meet as a group.  Further information on this day will be provided in the next Newsletter.

See below a visual representation of how the teams have been organised.  The executive will meet to discuss whole school initiatives or contentious issues from the areas.

These groups are now in the process of actioning ideas.  Students need to ensure that they approach their relevant Year Level or Home Group Captains if they have concerns, new initiatives or would like to know how ideas are progressing.

The captains of the different areas and Home Groups will be announced in future Newsletters along with some of the exciting new initiatives they are developing.

Parent/Teacher Conferences (30 March)

With fingers crossed we are hoping to provide onsite parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday, 30 March, 11:30 am to 6:30 pm to parents and carers. Bookings for conferences are made using compass. Please ensure that you have a login and password that takes you into the compass dashboard so that you can access the online booking system. 

If you require an interpreter for your conference please contact Mrs Vera Dudas via the NGSC Administration Office on 5240 5800.

If you require more support to access compass please contact the school on 5240 5800.

At NGSC we provide two conference days per year, one in Term 1 and the other in Term 3 just prior to the subject/course counselling period. Face to face conferences supplement the information contained in the progress reports that occur every four weeks and the end of semester reports. 

Compass Homepage

There were some recent queries about the Compass Homepage  and some confusion about SACs for students.

What is a SAC? This is an assessment in class conducted by a VCE teacher for a Unit 1-4 subject. The assessments of these are used to inform an overall score for any VCE class. 

The Compass Homepage provides an outline of everything pertinent to the student including events in the day. There is also a Compass Calendar tab that shows schedules and events for the day, week or month.

It was noted that all SACs were appearing on both the Compass Homepage and Calendars for all students in year 10-12. We have included SAC assessment times to support planning, organisation and preparation for such activities. This has led to some confusion for parents who have been keeping up to date with their child’s assessments. For example there may have been 3 SACs listed on one day. This may have caused undue stress in some households however each assessment is in fact for a specific group/class of students, not the entire year level. Unfortunately we are unable to communicate this information specifically to an individual's timetable. From now on SACs will not be posted on the Compass Homepage, however it will be accessible from the Compass Calendar to prevent any further confusion.

Good Friday, 2 April 

For those planning a regional getaway during the next school holidays, please be reminded that the last day of school is Thursday, 1 April. School will finish at 1:30 pm on Thursday, 1 April and hence, period 5 will be cancelled on this day.