IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Parents/Guardians and Visitors On-site
A few reminders for our families:
- Parents and carers are asked not to attend on-site unless you have a prearranged meeting with a staff member or are collecting your unwell child from sickbay.
- Please inform the College Acting Principal (Tamy Stubley) immediately if anyone in your family has come into close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, so that she can advise what precautions need to be taken.
- Hygiene is extremely important. Students are encouraged to regularly wash their hands, asked to respect social distancing and regularly use hand sanitiser which will be available in all learning spaces.
- Students need to bring their own refillable drink bottle. Drink fountains will not be in use but bottles can be filled at the tap outside.
- Students are required to wear a face mask whilst on-site.
- We ask parents to please not congregate in the car park or anywhere else on-site due to the current social distancing restrictions.
Q - If my child is awaiting COVID-19 test results and not showing symptoms, can I send them to school?
A - No. Anyone who gets tested must return home immediately after the test and remain in self-isolation until they receive their results.
Q - If a family member is awaiting COVID-19 test results, does my child need to stay at home and isolate?
A - No. If your child is not showing symptoms they are to attend school (unless the parent/guardian has provided approval for them to stay home).
Q - If a family member receives a positive COVID-19 test result, does my child need to stay home if they aren't showing symptoms?
A - Your child is not to attend school and they are required to get tested and stay at home.
Q - What if I need to drop off important enrolment documents, or my child forgets their lunch, and I need to get it to them?
A – You can leave their lunch or any documents in the tubs on the table in the foyer outside of the Administration Office. Before dropping it off, please call (03) 5261 6633 and let us know so we can make sure it gets to your child in time.
Q – What if I receive a call from the Administration Office to collect my unwell child, am I allowed in the Administration Office to sign them out?
A – When you are at the front door of the office, please call (03) 5261 6633 and let us know you are here. A member of our Administration Team will walk your child out to you and we can sign them out on Compass – so you don’t need to do anything at all! Please note that if you are unable to collect your child in a reasonable time-frame, or you can’t answer our call, we will call your listed emergency contacts. Unwell students are not permitted to stay onsite and we appreciate your understanding and support in this matter. Please also note that unwell students are not permitted to attend school.
Q – What if I have a pre-arranged meeting with a teacher on-site?
A – You are able to come to the counter in the office and see our receptionist Kelly. Let her know which teacher you had an appointment with and she can have that staff member meet you.
Please feel free to call our Administration Office between 8:00am - 4:00pm on (03) 5261 6633 if you have any questions or concerns.
College Tours
We have recently received the below information from the Department of Education in regards to school tours.
"Schools must not conduct on-site school tours for prospective students and their families at this time. Exemptions can be considered at a local level to support essential educational planning and decision-making for students with disability or highly complex needs". Thank you for your understanding during these challenging times.
-Administration Team
Family Split Billing Arrangements
A reminder that all parents of students at the College are liable for the payment of their child’s essential education item charges. Any agreement/arrangement between parents of students at the College regarding the liability for payments is separate from the College. Please note: the College has no role in facilitating such agreements/arrangements. It is not for the College to become involved in the allocation of financial responsibility between parents. The primary parent (Parent A on the enrolment form) will be invoiced and it is the responsibility of both parents to come to an arrangement to settle their child’s account.
-Finance Team
Victorian Curriculum And Assessment Authority
Over the past month, the Victorian Curriculum And Assessment Authority (VCAA) has made several major adjustments to the delivery of VCE and VCE VET studies to support schools and students to engage with learning and assessment, both within the classroom and remotely. These changes, which reduced the assessment demands on students, were crucial to enable a fair, valid and reliable assessment to be made for this year’s VCE students. Special consideration for VCAL students will be communicated shortly.
At the same time, we recognise that some students enrolled in VCE and VCE VET scored studies have experienced particularly difficult circumstances this year as a result of both coronavirus (COVID-19) and/or bush fires. This includes health and wellbeing challenges, financial stress, extra home responsibilities and family stresses.
To ensure fairness for all students, Consideration of Educational Disadvantage (CED) will be considered for all students. The school will use documented evidence about the student’s achievement when undertaking the CED process, with the normal VCAA processes ensuring fairness within and between schools. The VCAA will consider the submitted information, including the student’s General Achievement Test (GAT) results, so that each student’s final VCE and VCE VET study results are fair and reliable.
As in previous years, students can still apply for a Derived Examination Score (DES) if they are prevented from sitting one or more VCE examinations, for example because of illness. In addition, students applying for tertiary places in 2021 should submit a Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS) application to the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC), if they have been severely impacted by factors including COVID-19 or bush fires.
The VCAA is a statutory authority established under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. All personal information collected by the VCAA is handled in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and, where applicable, the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
If you have questions about this process, please contact me.
-Kathryn O'Neill
Assistant Principal
Parent Opinion Survey
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 12th October to Friday 13th November.
The survey was sent to parents/guardians via Compass on Monday 12 October.
The survey only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek. Please contact the Administration Team if you require further information.
Welcome to the SCSC Family Zac!
Wellbeing Leader Zac Hopper has been welcomed with elbow bumps and foot taps.
I moved to Torquay in 2017 and have been loving the lifestyle Torquay brings living with my fiancé, Elise and our two border collies, George and Winnie. I love finding time to surf, play golf and be involved with the Torquay Tigers.
I have been working at Grovedale Primary School since the start of the year whilst completing my studies in Criminology and Psychology (I actually finish my double degree today and will be starting my journey towards completing my Masters of Psychology either in 2021 or 2022).
It's been a long time goal of mine to find myself in a high school and knowing the great reputation of Surf Coast Secondary College was an opportunity I am very grateful for and look forward to being a part of the community and being a support in the journey of our students' lives.
-Zac Hopper
Wellbeing Leader
Tech Support
As I reflect on a year where we have placed a lot of value in developing content and resources for learning on Canvas, I am aware of the amount of content that there actually is on there. I wanted to take a minute and look through the structure of a course from the perspective of a parent/observer in Canvas as a means of supporting you in navigating the work expectations, resources and communication content. This information will be generalised as some courses have leveraged the system in subtly different ways, it will still be of support as deviations should be clearly communicated.
The video can be found at this link - Click here
Page where all posts will be stored - Click here
To access Canvas - Click here
-Shaun Miller.
Digital Learning Specialist
2020 College Yearbook
We are in the process of putting together our 2020 College yearbook.
Despite the remote learning periods throughout the year, we have seen some fantastic work produced by our students, and our yearbook is something to commemorate and celebrate the year that was. Yearbook orders opened at the beginning of Term 4 (05 October) and will close on Friday, 06 November 2020. Yearbooks are $12.95 per book, payable via EFTPOS over the phone, BPAY or direct deposit.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR 2020 YEARBOOK.
We are estimating they will be ready for distribution to families in the last week of Term 4. If you are unable to collect your order this year, these can be collected in Term 1 2021. Please note that we are unable to post orders. If you have any questions please call (03) 5261 6633 or email surf.coast.sc@education.vic.gov.au.