From the Principal 2023

Need to Know

I would like to congratulate all students who brought in a book for our Fiji book drive.   St Helena is able to send over 1100 books to support the literacy of children and young adults in Fiji.   

 

We are also thrilled to bring back our interstate and international opportunities for our students.  We have had huge interest in the Year 11 Central Australia trip, the Queensland band tour and  the 2024 Italy tour.   Plans are underway for a Performing Arts tour potentially in 2025, and a Year 10 Ski trip later this year.  Information regarding the ski trip can be found on a separate page to this bulletin. 

 

School photos

School photos have arrived and will be distributed through classes next week for Years 7, 8, 10 and 12.  Unfortunately there were some typos in the class compilations for Years 9 and 11 necessitating a reprint.  These will be sent to us as soon as possible and distributed.

 

School Review

Our school review is complete!  This review is conducted by an external reviewer and a panel consisting of the principal, reviewer, school council president, regional school improvment leader and two external principals.  It has been an opportunity to celebrate the many good things happening in our school, and also look at what we can "tweak" (in the words of the reviewer) to be even better.  Our School Review report will be on our website from the middle of next week if you are interested to read it.  www.sthelena.vic.edu.au 

 

New Shade Sails

All government schools were given a grant to purchase shade sails during Covid to encourage teaching and learning outdoors.   Due to huge demand on supply, ours have only just been installed!  However, they will provide much needed shade during warmer weather and enable our students to relax in the Agora on sunny days.  

 

Reconciliation Week 

This week we celebrated Reconciliation Week.  Our Koorie Club spoke to students about indigenous experiences and we were very proud to replace our standard logo this week with fabulous indigenous artwork developed by Koorie Club member Rachel Aden.   Our Koorie Club students have also designed new indigenous sports tops which we have been able to purchase with locally raised funds from our St Helena cook book.  Thank you to all who purchased the book, and who contributed recipes.  

Sport @ St Helena 

A couple of weeks ago 40 St Helena students competed in the Vic School Sport orienteering at Westerfolds park. This year was the first time our school competed at this event and lots of students were keen to be a part of this event. Whilst some students had some orienteering experience in the past for majority of the students this was the first time, they competed in an event like this. All the courses varied from age group to age group with the year 7’s and 8’s completing a 3km course with 12 markers all the way up to the year 11’s and 12’s completing a 5km course.

 

Above all we are extremely proud of our students for competing on the day and we are looking forward to be a part of this event again. Exceptional job to our Junior Team who finished 3rd overall. 

 

Cameron Blom 

Concern re student shoplifting

We have had a few complaints from local shopping centres about students in uniform shoplifting.   My advice to the retailers is to call the police.   If students are stealing in school uniform, there will also be school consequences.   I am sure this is a very small minority of students, but  you may wish to discuss this with your child as I sent the message to all senior students this week.  

 

I received this message from Coles in Eltham this week:

 

I am writing to inform you of my concern regarding students from St Helena Secondary and possible theft from Coles. I have noticed the same group of students come into the Centre daily and straight into Coles whereby they exit without paying each time. I have CCTV footage of items being pulled out from underneath jumpers. I also have CCTV of one student picking up and walking out with one of our ‘ Wet Floor Signs’. 

 

I am asking if you could please inform your students (I am assuming these would be senior students) that Eltham Village Centre Management and Coles Management are aware of the possible theft taking place, we have CCTV of this group and if this continues to occur,  the footage will be handed over to Eltham Police. 

 

I would like to give the students the opportunity to correct this behaviour before we take further action.. 

 

New Compass authentication process 

With this latest feature update, users have the option to sign in with their mobile number instead of a password. When users click on “Sign in with mobile number” they will be prompted to enter their username and mobile number, if the mobile number matches their Compass account they will get sent a one-time passcode which they enter in the next screen to log into the app.

 

Users also have the option to login with a one-time passcode using their email address by clicking “I want to use my email address”.

 

On every sign-in users will be sent a new one-time code. 

 

What this means for our app users:

  • Easier and simpler passwordless login 
  • Increased security and protection of student data
  • Reduced need to contact Support with login enquiries
  • Improved parent experience with the Compass app

For further information go to:  Blog | Compass

 

 

For the past few weeks, the mobile app for Compass has not been showing task submission or comments/results. We logged this with Compass some weeks ago and been waiting to hear back from them. Happily, this issue has now been resolved; parents and caregivers should be able to view results via their phone or device.