The Rowville Times

PRINCIPAL MESSAGE

A message from the Principal 

The news about COVID-19 is not only unavoidable but also changing on a daily basis.  Rowville Secondary College will always work to ensure that our community is a healthy, safe one. Our goal is to help contain the spread of the virus to members of our community as best we can. Therefore, in line with departmental guidelines, the school is taking a series of actions.

 

The following Rowville Secondary College events have been postponed or cancelled:

  • Open Nights
  • School Tours
  • Program Information Nights
  • RIA Play
  • RSC Production Rehearsals
  • Solo Nights
  • All extra -curricular and inter school sport competitions
  • All excursions including KIOSC
  • RSA Holiday Camps
  • VCE Media Top Screen and NGV
  • RIA Junior Visual Arts Excursion
  • Woodwind Excursion - Multicultural & Women in Sports Awards
  • Student vs Police Basketball Game
  • Bullying Whole School Activity on Friday 20th p.5

Events, excursions and camps for Term 2 will be assessed at a later date based on the most up-to-date advice.

 

Latest News

Please see the statement from Victoria’s Chief Health Officer about school closures – it has been published on our website. In the event of school closure, teachers have been asked to prepare for virtual learning. Teachers are aware of VCAA advice about how to best support senior school students in managing learning and assessments.

 

It has been an interesting and unusual week at all schools across Victoria as we grapple with the implications of school finishing early for the term one holidays. There are frequent updates from the Department of Education, however, I thought I would relay to you the main messages  we have received and some of the actions taken:

  • Students are officially on holiday from Tuesday 24th April.
  • Students are still expected to complete any holiday work set by their classroom teacher. This is particularly important for VCE students.
  • Staff are not on holiday until the normal scheduled term break-Monday 30th March. Staff are required to use the next four days to plan for a transition to remote learning.
  • Tuesday the 14th April is a student free day.
  • It is anticipated that Victorian government schools will transition to remote learning from Wednesday 15th April.
  • All VCE SACs planned for this week have been postponed.
  • During ConnectEd on Monday we ensured that all students were able to access the lesson plans on Compass and send and receive emails. We also familiarised them with using Microsoft Teams and Class Notebooks, which many teachers plan to use to deliver a meaningful and engaging curriculum.

 

Online Learning

Our focus as a school at this moment is to support our community, as best we can, to stay well and healthy and to prepare a high quality and differentiated curriculum that students will be able to fully engage with from home.

 

We have developed a “How to Guide for students” which you can download here.  Go to Compass \ School Resources \ Preparation for Transition to Remote Learning\ User guide for students.

 

We will continue to closely monitor Department of Education advice and guidelines and will communicate any changes or new information as soon as possible via Compass and on our website. Thank you for your support and understanding during this difficult time.

Thank you to all of the kind and thoughtful parents, carers and guardians who have expressed their gratitude for the work and commitment of Rowville Secondary College Staff. Your recognition of their efforts means a tremendous amount to them during these very difficult times!

 

Ms. Julie Kennedy

College Principal