Principal's Report

From the Principal

Our College Newsletter this week witnesses us emerging from yet another lockdown period in Melbourne, as we all do our best to support each other and move forward in this unwelcomed environment created by the current level of COVID-related restrictions.

I remain firmly proud that all members of our College community have risen admirably to meet the challenges of these times. Well done to our students who have yet again embraced their remote learning program with resilience and application – all the while understanding that such an environment is not the preferred option of anyone. I once again acknowledge the commitment of our teaching staff who are working in difficult circumstances to ensure that our remote learning program continues to meet the needs of our students. Our educational support staff have continued to ensure that the service provision for the College community has not been severely interrupted. How we best teach, how we best learn, how we best balance these competing needs within the greater context of student wellbeing and growth, is a continual challenge that we may not always be getting right. A bit like many of the major twists and turns we have experienced over the past eighteen months, there is no definitive rulebook on how to meet and overcome these challenges, however, it does appear that if, as a collective, we remain united, connected, supportive and responsive, we will be getting more things right than wrong. We just have to keep on trying to be our best versions of ourselves, no matter how difficult, in order to obtain the best and safest outcomes. Let’s keep on staying the course – together.

Pathway for the remainder of the term:

We welcomed back our Year 11 and 12 students on campus last Friday. Remote learning continued this week for our students in Years 7 to 10 and we were delighted to welcome them back to their on-site learning today. 

The return of our Year 11 students last week enabled us to commence the Year 11 VCE Unit 1 examination program on Monday – they will now run until Friday 18 June.

It has been disappointing this week that we have not been able to have our Year 10 students who are undertaking an accelerated program on-site at school to participate in their Unit 1 VCE exams, however, the Department of Education have specifically stipulated that no Year 10 students were allowed on-site this week, unless they were actually undertaking a Unit 3/4 VCE subject.

We will compensate for that by setting aside a time in the Year 10 exam period, whereby those students will sit these exams and not be penalised or disadvantaged by that circumstance.

As a result of this lockdown, and by virtue of the fact that the lock-down was extended, we have had to reschedule quite a few aspects of our planned College program for the remainder of the Term.

Following the Queen’s Birthday holiday, next week, week 9 of the term, will be normal classes for our Year 12s and our Years 7-10. (exams continue for Year 11).

In the following week, week 10 of the term, our Year 10 students will undertake their exams from Monday 21 -Thursday 24 June. 

Our Year 9 students will have their Maths and English exams on Thursday 24 June.

This has meant that the last day of term- Friday 25 June will be a pupil free Assessment & Reporting Day , re-scheduled from Friday 18 June, the week before, that we had originally planned for.

As a result of this whole-scale rescheduling, instead of publishing our Cycle 3 reports on the last day of the term, we will now publish those reports on Monday of week 3 of Term 3.

Finally, the GAT – General Achievement Test that was supposed to have been conducted on Wednesday 9 June, has been postponed until a date yet to be announced.

As we continue to support our students reconnecting with the College, our focus will be on ensuring their safety and wellbeing.  In order to so, our crucial messages to our College community remain consistent with the best advice of our Education Department and medical experts;

Our key messages;

1. The most important action school communities can take to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), is to ensure that any unwell staff, children and young people remain at home.
2. With the ongoing risk of transmission of the virus, staff or students most at risk of severe illness should individually assess appropriateness for onsite attendance at this time with support from their medical practitioner.
3. As a major risk element of transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the school environment is between adults, it is important that visitors to school grounds are limited to those delivering or supporting essential school services and operations.

Can I once more take this opportunity to further reinforce the following essential school operational matters that will remain in place until further notice:

• All unwell staff and students must stay home.
• Visitors to school grounds will be limited to those delivering or supporting essential school services and operations (e.g. student health and wellbeing services, specialist curriculum programs, maintenance workers).
• Additional staff, including parent volunteers, are discouraged from attending school at this time.
• East Doncaster Secondary College’s preferred methods of communication with parents is via our Compass learning management system or by ringing the College General Office (98422244). We ask that any parents/carers wishing to discuss any matters with a staff member to first use the options of either a phone call or email. If a face-to face meeting is needed, it must meet the physical distancing requirements of 1.5m between adults.
• All interschool activities that involve onsite attendance by students from other schools e.g. interschool sports or debating will either take place virtually or will be cancelled.
• Excursions, incursions and other non-essential large gatherings will be postponed.

Student Wellbeing Support

There is little doubt that this period of time has yet again been extremely challenging for many of our students. Our staff are very aware of this and will do all they can to identify students in distress and support student wellbeing and learning. Parents and students are encouraged to reach out to our Wellbeing team, Year Level Coordinators and subject teachers for support and advice during this time. An email to the College communicating your concerns would be encouraged if any parent or student wished to do so.

For all our students and families of our College community, I would like to once again share with you a resource that was distributed by the Department of Education in an on-line conference on Wellbeing last year. In order to stimulate some thought and discussion on this matter, please see below for a simple but relevant graphic presentation on this matter;

Reporting and Assessment Day – Friday 25 June

As briefly mentioned above, I would ask that students and parents please note that Friday 25 June will be a pupil-free day as our teachers are given the opportunity of completing learning task and examination corrections and commencing their Cycle 3 reports.

The day had originally been scheduled for Friday 18 June, however, the re-scheduling of the senior school exam program has meant that this date has also needed to be adjusted.

It is firmly acknowledged that pupil-free days in either the last or first week of terms are not viewed as an ideal fit. We have not had one in this space at EDSC for well over 20 years (if ever). It is certainly not envisaged that we continue with this practice and timeline in future years.

Parents and Friends Association

Although it has been very challenging to maintain momentum and connection in the past few weeks, I wanted to pay a special tribute to the wonderful members of our Parents and Friends Association for their ongoing support and willingness to offer positive ideas and involvement in many areas of our College life.

I hope that all readers have been noting the information on the PFA page of our College Newsletter and would strongly recommend that you have a look at their dedicated space in this edition of our Newsletter to get an indication of their contributions.

Thanks, yet again, to our PFA!

John Roberts

Principal

College Philosophy

At East Doncaster Secondary College we have a strong tradition of academic excellence and we aim to promote and sustain a reflective learning culture. We want students to experience a sense of achievement and growth in their academic, personal, social and emotional development. We have high expectations of our students’ commitment to being mutually supportive and striving for success as learners. We are proudly multicultural with a student population from 43 nationalities including a number of International Students. 68% of our students speak a language other than English at home.

A student’s life at school is full of opportunities, being rich and varied with a range of co-curricular activities in music, sport, productions, debating, clubs as well as camps and international experiences for the educational and personal development of students. Our students are vibrant, energetic, and talented young people. There are many student leadership opportunities and we aim to continue to increase student access to decision-making and self-determination as learners.

We endeavour to create a "Culture of Curiosity" with goals of ensuring learning improvement for every student – every student, every period, every day.

Our school’s purpose is to develop passionate learners who are critical thinkers with the confidence and capability to engage in the global community.

Care and Compassion, Curiosity, Excellence, Fairness, Resilience, Respect and Teamwork are the core values that underpin the culture of our school as we embrace the challenges of 21st Century learning.

We aim to sustain a learning culture that provides every student with a sense of achievement and of being their best in their academic, personal, social and emotional development.

Privacy and Data at East Doncaster Secondary College

East Doncaster Secondary College uses a number of digital platforms to support your child’s education, such as Compass, Google Drive and Office 365. 

The College has an Information Security Policy and complies with the Department of Education and Training Privacy Policy.  Click on the below link to access these documents.