ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT

Paul Dawson, Bradley Headlam &  Julie Andrews

Assistant Principals

Smooth start

It has been so good to be able to see the smiles of the students, albeit for 5 days (before masking up again). All students have started with enthusiasm and approached the school year with positivity even with going back to wearing a mask. The challenges of getting around to all students to communicate processes, organise lockers, rooms, timetables, classrooms, etc has gone without too much difficulty and is due to the flexibility of the students. Thanks to all students and parents for such a fantastic start to the school year. Thank you to the Year Level teams for their encouragement and patience as students settle into the school year. 

Year 7 Chromebook information

On the afternoon of Monday, 1 February, the Year 7 students and families enjoyed a sausage sizzle and some time to meet and chat with staff prior to hearing from the Principal, Nick Adamou, and then receiving their chromebooks. 

 

Lauren Edmunds introduced the Year 7 Student Management Team and Julie Andrews (Assistant Principal) spoke about the requirement for students and families to read the NGSC Digital User Agreement provided on enrolment (also available on the NGSC website). This agreement outlines the online services that are provided at NGSC and the expectations for using the device and online services safely and with respect. 

The Geelong Project Survey (19 Feb)

North Geelong College is participating in The Geelong Project (TGP) in 2021.  TGP’s focus is to minimise youth homelessness and prevent young people from leaving school early, encouraging them to improve their engagement with school. TGP is unique to Geelong and is now being used interstate and internationally. It is being recognised as the best way to tackle the problem of youth homelessness long term.

 

TGP believes that working early (early intervention) with young people and their families is the best way to solve problems before they become too large.

 

Early Intervention Response Worker’s from Barwon Child, Youth & Family (BCYF) will be placed at North Geelong College. They will provide support to assist students to stay at home and remain connected to school.

 

Students are asked to complete the Australian Index of Adolescent Development (AIAD) survey. The survey asks questions about students’ current circumstances at school, their health and wellbeing, family, friends and the community. Through the survey, students with high risk factors will be identified so that TGP can offer support.

 

North Geelong College and TGP hope that parents and the community will get behind this effort to provide improved support to students in Geelong schools.

In FOCUS: Compass and communication with school 

After a year of online education we feel that as a school community we have extended our capacity to communicate more broadly with parents. Having open lines of communication is a vital part of our process in educating young people. Sometimes technology can be a barrier, but fortunately Compass Student Management software provides easy avenues to communicate between parents/students and teachers. The following are instructions for parents as to how they might communicate with teachers:

Year 8 and 10 immunisations - next week, 09/02/2021

Next Tuesday, 9 February, the immunising team from Barwon Health will visit NGSC to administer the second dose of Gardasil vaccine to the current Year 8 students and the meningococcal vaccine to the Year 10 students. Families have been provided with the relevant consent cards through compass and directly from the Sub Schools last year and again this year. If you believe that you have missed out on returning the consent card please contact the relevant Sub School. 

 

Students who are to be vaccinated may wear their PE uniform on that day as it makes accessing the upper arm easier for the nurses. 

Expectations - Student Planner

All students received the 2021 Student Planner this week. We hope that they like the new design as a team of Middle School students from last year contributed to the planner’s layout and features. Students are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the school content in the first section of the planner. This section for students includes the school map, expected behaviour and code of conduct, extra electronic devices and mobile phones at school, the student agreement for safely and respectfully using a learning device, uniform, library use, and the School Wide Positive Behaviour matrix. 

 

This information and other important policies are available on the NGSC website.

https://ngsc.vic.edu.au/         > About us > Policies and Reports >Policies

Term 1 Camps

The Year 12 camp is scheduled for Week 4, 15 - 17 February. The Year 7 camps are scheduled for week 8. Please ensure that all payments and required contact and medical information are provided in a timely manner to the school.

Please contact the relevant sub school if you have questions about either camp experience.  

School Photo day parent details

School Photo Day is 24 February.

 

The details of the upcoming school photo day appear in the “Other School News” section of this newsletter and will also be sent through compass. Arthur Reed Photos do not use envelopes for ordering photographs anymore; photos are to be ordered online after they are available to view. 

Attendance

Both VCE and VCAL students at North Geelong Secondary College are studying  qualifications recognised within the Australian Quality Framework.

 

Each VCE Unit involves 50 hours of scheduled classroom instruction and in addition it is expected that students will undertake up to 50 hours of self-directed learning for each unit.

 

Each of the three VCAL certificate award levels (foundation, intermediate and senior) has a nominal duration of 1000 hours. This includes VET and other certificates and workplace learning.

 

To support students to achieve their academic learning goals students are expected to achieve an 80% attendance level . This includes VET. This is to allow students to engage in learning and demonstrate satisfactory completion of outcomes.

 

Students who do not meet the expected 80% attendance level, as determined by Compass at Week 4 and Week 8 of each term,  will not receive a progress report and will be deemed as not successfully meeting outcomes. Students will be expected to attend a meeting with a member of the Senior Sub School Team to discuss supportive strategies. If the attendance continues to be below 80% students will not successfully pass the unit. Students will be provided with the opportunity to appeal the decision.

 

(School approved activities are included in attendance.)