From the Principal
Returning to the classroom
Finally a major step in the right direction with the College reopening for on-site learning for VCE and year 7 students. Staff have returned and we look forward to our remaining year levels joining us soon. The college is well placed to support individual students upon their return and provide additional learning support where and when required.
The college, our teachers and our support staff have done extraordinary work during remote and flexible learning. The majority of our students have maintained good progress in their learning and a significant number thrived and made greater progress than would have been expected. Some students, however, often because of circumstances beyond anyone's control, did miss out on learning.
It is vital the college makes every effort to support these students throughout the remainder of 2020 and throughout 2021 to catch up, just as it is critical we continue to stretch those students that thrived. The college will investigate accessing the available government grants designed to support schools in catching students up. The Government is providing $250 million to Victorian schools to enable additional tutors to be employed to ensure every student has the support they need to catch up.
As more of our students return to on-site learning, it is essential that the health advice provided in the Operations Guide is followed by every member of our community. This is to ensure that we continue to play our part in ensuring the behaviours that we know keep our college and communities safe are followed.
VCE – GAT
I would like to congratulate our VCE students and thank Ms. Emma Farmington – Williams, Mrs. Sally Arneil and Mr. Peter Mathews on the successful delivery of the General Achievement Test (GAT) on Wednesday 7 October 2020. I received great feedback from students and it was very pleasing to see our students so excited to be back on site.
Our year 12 students have completed all their internal assessment, finalised course work and this week are engaged in practice exams in preparation for their final classes next week. The year 12s final day is on Friday 30 October.
VCE written examinations commence on Tuesday 20 October with Language examinations conducted simultaneously by students across Victoria.
The main period of VCE written examinations commences on Tuesday 10 November – with
English and English as an Additional Language (EAL) – and conclude on Tuesday 1 December.
End of year celebrations for our year 12 students are still being finalised, and these celebrations will be dependent on the health advice released by the Department of Education.
Year 7 Transition
Term 4 is a critical period for grade 6 students moving into year 7 next year. Ensuring that this transition is as successful as possible is a priority of the college. Parent Information sessions were held online last Wednesday with 140 of our families participating and hearing from the college leadership teams and receiving vital information regarding transition and expectations.
The college is waiting for further guidance from the department regarding the ability to hold onsite orientation days for students later in the year.
Student Wellbeing
October is National Mental Health Month an initiative of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia.
This October, the theme is ‘Mental Health Matters’.
It is a timely reminder for our college community to make wellbeing our key priority as students and staff return to onsite learning in Term 4.
The college will focus on raising awareness, normalising mental health and reducing the stigma to encourage more students and staff to access support.
The college plays an important role in supporting wellbeing in our community. It is all of our responsibility to look after our own health and wellbeing so as to model a culture of wellbeing for all our community
Karl Russell
Principal