Principal Report

I’d like to welcome all of those families that have joined us as Year 7 parents, or who have children joining us in other year groups. What I believe you will come to learn in a short space of time is that Woodmans Hill is a special place: we are a growing school that sits at the heart of its community and that is relentless in its desire to improve and deliver the best educational experiences for our students.

What I also believe our parents and carers will find is that, at Woodmans Hill Secondary College, we value the close bond that we have with our community as it is based on a shared set of values. These values of respect, determination and the pursuit of personal excellence are the foundations that we build our school culture on. If we are able to support our students in the pursuit of these values, then we can work together with our families to produce young men and women who can leave our school in Year 12 and make a mark on the world - who can make a difference in the lives of others.

As principal, I have reflected at length as to how these values translate into what we do, on a day-today basis, in our school. For us, our values support the pursuit of;

high achievement
high levels of engagement
growth for all
equity for all

Our students only get one shot at education and we have to design opportunities for them to taste success so that they can develop their skills, knowledge and capacity in a range of situations.

Our Annual Improvement Plan has been designed with those four principles at its heart. We are aiming high in terms of excellence as we want our students to be able to compete for jobs, for TAFE and university places and for apprenticeships so they get to live a life of opportunities. We want what every parent or carer I have ever interacted with wants for their child: for them to be happy and fulfilled.

The Year 12 Retreat brought this sharply into focus for me.

The senior team of Tegan Crosby, Rebecca Dawes, Jaswinder Kaur and Steve Sirrals took VCAL and VCE students to Campaspe Downs Adventure Camp in Kyneton and had the theme of ‘potential’ at the core of their work. Throughout their camp, students were encouraged to see the good in each other and communicate this to one another. They were challenged to push themselves and to not only recognise their potential but to realise it over the next 10 months. Of course, there will be falls along the way but we have set up a structure to help each child up, to dust themselves down and to give it another red-hot go. I am so excited by what our senior students will achieve this year and their positive influence throughout the college is very much present in all that they do. It is important that they match their high hopes with hard work in the coming months.

Spending time in classrooms allows me to get a real sense of how much our students value their school. At Woodmans Hill, our students don’t fake interest and our teachers know that engagement comes from carefully designed lessons that make learning relevant. The school we want to be is one where students want to get involved in every aspect of our life and are proud to wear our uniform. Our new PE & Sport Leader, Jason Hekkema, is really making a difference in terms of the opportunities for participation that he and his team are providing for our students. Our Science and Art Academies are going from strength to strength - as is our increased participation in STEM projects run by Federation University. And our Performing Arts calendar is incredibly exciting as Libby Fowkes and her team look to showcase the incredible talent that our students have. We also have strong student leadership who want to make a difference in their school and our wider community. At Woodmans Hill, there are so many opportunities for your son or daughter to be part of something bigger: please encourage them to get involved.

We owe it to our families to provide high level learning experiences for their sons and daughters and accurate and targeted feedback is integral to this work. Students tell us that they want to get better, but often don’t know how. This is why in 2020 we are committed to providing live and continuous feedback throughout the year. Traditionally, schools have relied on reports coming out twice a year, but this will not help students make the growth that we want them to. School reports can often seem like adopting the rear view mirror perspective: only seeing what’s already gone and having little power to change things. We need to be better than that if we are to achieve good growth for all students. Assessment and feedback will be key to our work this year.

We know that the most important aspect of learning is that you get to grow and this is true in all aspects of your child’s learning. In 2020, we have a teaching and learning focus on ‘Respectful Relationships’ because our parents tell us that they want the needs of the whole child catered for. We can be a school of high academic achievement as well as developing confident and caring young men and women. The person you are and the interactions you have with others is of equal importance as any assessment you might take. We will be running information sessions to explain our reporting systems and what parents and carers can do to support their child. Please keep a lookout on Compass for further details.

And at the time of writing, we are about to welcome back our final group of Year 7's from their camp at Port Fairy. The Year 7 camp is seen very much as a ‘rites-of-passage’ for our students and it provides an opportunity for students to cement friendships, make new friends and gain a deeper understanding of what it is to be a Woodmans Hill student. With record numbers in our Year 7 cohort, there are more opportunities to make connections for our newest students and the early signs indicate that we have a year group who are quick to learn and adopt our values and are willing to meet our high standards. School camps provide a unique opportunity for staff and students to get to know each other and to step outside their comfort zone. I’d like to thank the staff for making this happen as it is a memory that I know our students will cherish when they look back at their time with us. We are committed to running more camps: almost every day when I am on duty a student will ask me ‘when will my year group have a camp?’ We want to provide as many contexts for our students to learn in and out of the classroom as we can and our leadership teams are working hard to develop a coherent program.

Key to all of this work is that all students, regardless of any factor, are treated equally and treat each other with equal respect. Every child has the right to learn; every child has the right to grow; and every child has the right to be the best version of themselves that they can be. We need to work together as a community to take away any barrier to success so that an education at Woodmans Hill becomes the springboard to greater things.

It’s going to be a great year!

Stephan Fields

Personal Accident Insurance and Ambulance Cover

Parents and Guardians are reminded that the Department does not provide personal accident insurance or ambulance cover for students.

Parents and guardians of students, who do not have student accident insurance/ambulance cover, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other transport costs. Please note that if First Aid trained staff at Woodmans Hill believe an ambulance to be necessary they will ring for one immediately. Parents and Guardians are not consulted prior to this decision being made.

Student accident insurance/ambulance cover policies are available from some commercial insurers.

Private property brought to school by students, staff or visitors is not insured and the Department does not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage.

CSEF - Camp, Sport & Excursion Fund

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) will provide payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions.

Families holding a valid means-tested health care or pension card or are temporary foster parents are eligible to apply. $125 per year is paid for eligible primary school students, with $225 per year paid for eligible secondary school students.

Payments are made directly to the school and are put into the student account.

CSEF applications are open. Parents or legal guardians are required to submit a new CSEF application form each year.

Please contact Jenny at the office for a CSEF form to apply as soon as possible.

Cooking up a storm