Principal's Report
Welcome to 2019 at Brentwood!
Welcome to the first newsletter of 2019 and what is shaping up to be a very exciting year for our school community. In particular, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of our new families from Years 7 – 12. I am confident that you will find Brentwood to be an excellent school that supports students in achieving their best as a learner and as a person.
In addition, I would like to congratulate our students who returned from international camps during the holiday break. On December 21, Ms. Bruns, Mr. Franklin and Ms. Holmes returned home with 24 wonderful students who had an experience of a lifetime in Germany as part of a cultural exchange and tour. I would like to acknowledge the teachers for giving up their time both in preparation for the camp, but also during it.
On January 25, our G’Day USA students also returned home after spending a few weeks in the United States of America. As with the German camp, this was an experience that the students will never forget. I would like to also acknowledge the dedication and effort from Mr. Batalha and Ms. Antoniuk for leading this trip during their summer holiday period.
The Year Ahead
In 2018, as a school community, we reviewed the school’s organisation structure and investigated how we could operate more effectively to support our students’ growth as learners and people in 2019 and beyond. This resulted in some key changes at the school. Two of which, came into full effect on the first day of this year.
The Brentwood House System:
All students and their families are now members of one of four Houses. Each house is broadly responsible for the management of all 400 students in their House. This will further enhance the relationship between staff, students and parents whilst creating another way for students to connect positively with the school. Each House is led by a Head of House who leads a team of House Leaders allocated to each year level. As previously communicated the Heads of House are:
- Blue – Mr Joel Batalha
- Green – Mr Phil Van Ginneken
- Red – Ms Vee Anrep
- Yellow – Mr Chad Abersteiner
The colours of the houses were determined by a student survey in 2018 and all students have been reallocated to these new houses. In 2019 the whole school community will have an opportunity to create history at Brentwood by being involved in creating an identity for the four Houses (i.e. name, mascot and logo). Further information will be coming out regarding this later this term and I encourage all of our students, staff and parents to start thinking about appropriate names for the Brentwood Houses.
The House System has had a positive start this year, with the creation of a House Hub in the centre of the school and the first Swimming Carnival for the new Houses on Tuesday, February 5. There was lots of ‘House spirit’ on display already with staff and students connecting with their Houses.
2019 Timetable:
The second significant improvement for 2019 has been the introduction of a four-period day over a ten-day timetable. A lot of planning in 2018 has resulted in a very smooth introduction of this. Initial feedback has been that the school is more ‘calmer’ with less student movement across the day, teachers reporting their classes being less ‘rushed’ with more time for students to engage in their learning and practice their skills. However, it has also required some adjustments for everyone this year. I would like to highlight the following feedback:
- Students should all bring a drink bottle filled with water to each class as the recess is later in the day now.
- The school day begins at 8.50am sharp. Therefore, to ensure students arrive to class on time they should be at school by 8.40am. Any student who is not in class by 8.50am must sign in at the House Hub. All students are expected to arrive at school on time and be ready to learn with the correct equipment.
- Students should ensure they eat breakfast so that they are not hungry during the longer morning session.
Whole School Values Expectations
With the introduction of the House System, all staff and the 2018 Student Voice Team were involved in developing four whole school expectations that support our school values. These expectations are important as they are explicit in what it means to be a member of the Brentwood community and provides all members a reminder of acceptable behaviours. All teachers and students have discussed these expectations at assemblies and in class during the first week. I would encourage all of our families to also discuss these at home too. They can be downloaded below.
Digital Learning
2019 is also the second year of our transition to becoming a 1 to 1 laptop/tablet learning environment. This means that approximately 1100 of our students have their own laptop/tablet computer with an active stylus. More than 30 of our teaching staff also have the same devices and this number will increase as the year unfolds. Whilst having the devices available is the first key step to using them as effective learning tools, our teachers will all be participating in a structured professional learning program this year that will help them begin reviewing and re-developing the curriculum to take advantage of the benefits of this technology in the classroom. We are looking forward to keeping the community informed of our journey in effectively integrating technology into the learning program at the school.
Communicating with Brentwood
As a large secondary school of over 1600 students and 150 staff, effective communication can be challenging at times. However, it is very important for all members of our school community to be actively engaged in the school. Therefore, it is important that all members of our community are familiar with the following documents:
I would like to emphasise to our parents and students the importance of using Compass to communicate with the school for everyday purposes. All relevant and important information is located here and it is the easiest way to make payments, provide absence approvals, communicate with teachers and more. The following guide will provide parents with more information on how to use Compass.
The school also has an active Facebook page that I would invite all community members to join. The Facebook page is used for celebrating student achievements, sharing information about College Events to the wider school community and increase engagement with the local community. Please follow us on facebook by clicking here.
Congratulations
Finally, I would like to acknowledge all staff and students who have had a wonderful start to the school year. The students quickly settled into class and engaged in learning. It is important to ensure the school year starts in an organised and orderly fashion. With a new timetable and house system this made the task slightly more complicated, however, this was overcome with staff and students working together to quickly adjust to the structures.
In particular our Year 12 students and staff whose first day was at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne participating in the Year 12 camp. The students had three very full days hearing from guest speakers, goal setting and planning for their final year of secondary schooling. I would also like to congratulate everyone for their participation at the Swimming Carnival. This was a very positive day and a great introduction to our new houses. Thank you to Ms Kim Nash for ensuring this event was a success.
John Ballagh, Principal