Clyde North Campus News

Welcome back! It’s Term 3 already!!! For those that do not know me my name is Peter Brannan and I am currently Acting Head of the Clyde North Campus in Julie Banda’s absence promotion to Acting Principal for the first five weeks of Term 3. Many of you will know that I have been the Pastoral Care Leader on the Clyde North for the previous 4 years. This role will be ably filled by Mr John O’Sullivan. As Mr O’Sullivan is the Glowrey House Leader, we have been lucky enough that Mr Ehsan Islami has agreed to fill the Glowrey House Leader role for the first five weeks of Term 3. 

When a student first enrols in the College, they must attend an Enrolment Interview where they are introduced to our St Peter’s ROCKS. The C in our ROCKS stands for Collaboration and the Enrolment Interview is the first instance where the College is working in Collaboration with the student and their family in supporting the young person’s transition to our College. 

With Semester 1 Reports now available to all parents, it is important that we again revisit our collaborative practice to ensure we are achieving the goals that we have for our children. This week in our Pastoral Period, every student will review the goals they set in Semester 1 and discuss their Semester 1 performance with their Learning Advisor. Together, they will reset their Goals for Semester 2 and develop strategies to achieve these. From a parent perspective, it is important that you discuss these Goals with your child and think how you can support them in achieving these. The achievement of Goals serves as a great motivator to persist and achieve more. It is therefore incumbent upon us all to work together as the benefits for all stakeholders are immense.

Often we think of this working partnership as only supporting the Academic development of students. However, the College continues support to students in their personal development outside of the traditional four walls of the classroom through our continued work with the Cybersafety Project. For those that do not know, the Cybersafety Project run webinars for parents and their children to help educate them on appropriate and safe behaviours in the cyber world. The Cybersafety Project have previously given seminars at the College, however, parents can access a number of their Webinars by clicking on the following link: https://cybersafetyproject.com.au/webinars

The next Webinar is on Wednesday, 26th of July at 7.30pm and will focus upon Gaming. I think all parents would agree that the accessibility to devices where games can be played is far greater than in previous generations. Therefore, our awareness of the dangers that overuse bring to young people is important for us all to understand and mitigate against.

The start of a Term also allows us to reset some of our physical practices here at school. This term we have reintroduced classroom exit and entry routines to all of our junior classes (Yr 7 and 8). Essentially, students will only exit and enter via external doors. At the beginning of each class, they must line up outside the classroom before being invited into the room to stand behind their chair before exchanging a greeting with their teacher.  Why is this a big deal? Research tells us that students learn and perform better when the environment is predictable and settled. A simple routine supports this environment. 

At home, there are several routines parents already enforce to varying degrees e.g. sleep and study routines, device usage etc. What we know is that young people benefit from a consistency in the messages around these routines. They should understand the benefits of sticking to them and the consequences of breaking the routine so that they can make informed choices. Here at school, not only do we have the physical routines, we also encourage consistency in messaging in relation to our School Wide Expectations (ROCKS). Our teachers will consistently use language to address behaviours (both positive and negative) in relation to Respect, Organisation, Collaboration, Kindness and Safety with the student’s best interests always at the forefront.

The start of the Term is therefore an opportunity to reflect on how we can work together (Collaborate) to ensure we are supporting our children in achieving their goals as well as the goals we set for them.  If there are any concerns that you may have, or if there is anything you feel the College can do to support your Child’s learning further, then I strongly encourage you to reach out to your Child’s Learning Advisor or House Leader first and foremost.  Keeping an eye on your Child’s SPACE page for Due Work and Assessment Tasks will serve to motivate your Child to submit these on time. As a parent you are welcome to contact your Child’s teachers for clarification should you not understand any of the work your Child needs to be working on. The more contact that parents have with the College and its processes, the greater the relationship that is formed and therefore, the greater the consistency in message that your Child receives. 

Speaking of parent contact, a terrific opportunity for our Year 12 parents to discuss their Child’s progress is upcoming on Thursday 27th of July. Parents will shortly receive an Operoo with details on how to book an interview time with your Child’s teachers. For some, this will be the last time you visit the College before Graduation….

We look forward to seeing you all then!

Peter Brannan

Acting Deputy Principal - Head of Clyde North Campus