College Principal Message 

MAY NEWSLETTER 

I hope all families are keeping well as the flu and covid season arrives.  It is a good idea to keep testing for COVID so that you can take steps to protect those in your family and at school who are more vulnerable.  If any families need to get more RAT kits, please contact your campus office.  Students should remain at home if they test positive and have symptoms.

Unfortunately, we are experiencing more staff turnover during the year than usual – although no more than most other schools.  Currently, we have teaching vacancies: in English, Art / Technology, Italian, and Business Management.  We are also seeking applicants for four ES roles: general office admin, Lab Tech, Literacy assistant and Mental Health Practitioner.  If you know anyone qualified in these areas, please recommend us to them.  Our students are wonderful.  It may be of interest to some that there are schools that have between 9 and 20 unfilled positions, and they are rotating days of attendance for year levels where they work online.  At least we are not at that point. 

Our recent curriculum day was very valuable.  The Day Structure Working Party (DSWP) presented a report and ran an activity for all teaching staff. Following that was a series of workshops related to the proposed social and emotional well-being curriculum to support staff in the teaching of it, as well as promoting inclusion as it applies to LGBTQIA+ students and students with ASD.  Finally, staff heard from the Employee Assistance Program about the free well-being support offered to all DET staff.

The DSWP is continuing its work, and its recommendation to move to 61-minute periods over a two-week timetable from 2024 has been endorsed by Curriculum Committee.  

Staff are now working on how the new periods will be allocated to KLAs.  At all times we keep the needs of future students in mind, in a world where jobs can’t be precisely predicted and technology is constantly evolving.  In line with the DET’s new Framework for Improved Student Outcomes (FISO) where student learning is closely linked to student wellbeing, most groups are suggesting that we should increase the amount of time dedicated to Health education, in addition to the planned social and emotional wellbeing curriculum.  We are aiming to have this process finished by the end of June so any adjustments to the curriculum can be made before 2024. The online community forum run in the last week of Term 1 related to this work was attended by two parents only.  

The Pathways evening for students in years 9 and 10 on May 23 is very important for everyone, please emphasise to anyone you see who has a student in these year levels. 

Brimbank Council Project.

Late last year I applied for a grant from the Brimbank Council and recently found out the application was successful. We have a very exciting opportunity for some of our Year 9 students who will have the opportunity to develop and work on a project that is being funded to the tune of $50,000.  The aim of the project is to engage students in reflecting about their community, identifying issues they believe contribute to disengagement and possibly antisocial behaviour and then coming up with solutions and finally enacting them.  The Department of Justice along with the Brimbank Council is contributing to this project. Because of the potential time commitment for students, it was decided that it would fit well with Challenge Day and for the students involved it will replace the usual Humanities curriculum while allowing them to participate in the PE curriculum including the relevant excursions.  Having said that, it will be entirely fitting for Humanities as it’s based in social research, requires them to be involved in democratic processes and collaboration in delivering the project. Because of our multi campus status it’s possible we end up with two $25,000 projects, one per junior campus, but it depends entirely on the ideas students come up with.  An external organization called Endeavour Youth Australia will run two quite lengthy workshops with students from both campuses to take them through the process of identifying and exploring issues that affect them, developing a range of possible solutions and then voting on the project or solution that everyone will work on.  Thereafter the students and the teachers will have carriage of the project although we can get support from the council and Department of Justice people at any time.  It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity really and we are very much looking forward to seeing our students shine.

Save the date.  June 1 at 7pm at the Bowery Theatre in St Albans will see our talented students shine in the mid-year concert. Do come along.

In our recent College Council meeting, council members discussed and endorsed the college’s Annual Implementation Plan (AIP).  Families are welcome to view the document on our website and if you do want to look at it please find below a list of acronyms used in it to help you navigate the Eduspeak.

Ms Pip Griffiths

College Principal