College Principal Message 

Hello everyone,

Another winter of being locked in our houses has passed, but sadly, we are still locked in our houses. I am sorry for students who must feel their whole lives have been derailed. A year is such a long time when you are young.

Wellbeing sessions and Year 12

However, when I met with the Delahey student leaders (online of course), they showed great resilience, being able to project into the future and most admirably, show care and consideration for others. They suggested that even though time pressure in VCE classes is high, it would be worthwhile including wellbeing sessions to give students an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings and gain support. We reinstated these sessions across the college thanks to Michael Gruis and the wellbeing team when the lockdown was extended but initially did not run them at Delahey, this has since changed.

We discussed the Consideration of 

Educational Disadvantage (CED) forms they will need to write. I encouraged them to support each other to make sure they emphasise their disadvantage. 

They also raised the concern that many of them do not have access to printers at home which is impeding their study. We are now offering students doing Units 3 and 4 subjects to make a booking so they can come in and print study requisites. Our Year 12 teachers will be spending considerable time filling in CED forms for all students for Unit 3 and Unit 4 separately, in addition to trying to get through unchanged VCE study designs in remote. I would like to acknowledge their amazing fortitude in their quest to enable our year 12s to have the best outcomes they can.

Sticking with Year 12s, the GAT date has been revised to take place on October 5, first Tuesday back next term. 

Vaccines for Year 12 Students

Judy Scarfe has negotiated for Kings Park Medical Centre, who run our Doctors In Secondary Schools clinic, to run Year 12 specific vaccination sessions in addition to the state-run hubs. This and the hubs are also open to any Year 11 students doing a year 12 subject. VCAA has sent a comprehensive list of rules and safety precautions about running the GAT. The key message we need to get to families and students is that, while the GAT is important and worth taking seriously, it is more important to stay home if students are experiencing any covid symptoms.

Meeting with student leaders is providing stimulus for us to relook at a number of things like how best to provide feedback on tasks to guide improvement and how best to communicate Student Bulletin items.

Student Led Presentations (SLP)

I want to congratulate staff, students and families for the amazing attendance at our Student Led Presentations. Our booking rate was 96% which is a huge increase on previous years. It is wonderful to see the change we can affect when we work collectively with strong leadership and support. I am anticipating a similar change in the number of teachers providing due dates on any tasks they set. We understand families want to support their children to be successful, which is much easier when they know what tasks are due and when.

NAPLAN results came out recently. They were a pleasant surprise in that they did not fall away as feared, in fact we made some modest gains in some target areas eg more students in the top two bands in reading and numeracy. Results have been posted to families as well as the Certificates of Achievement, along with a letter of congratulations, to Year 9 students who showed substantial growth since Year 7. It will be wonderful to re-present them at an assembly if and when we are able to hold such events.

Curriculum Day

Our half curriculum day last week was most successful. Teaching staff spent the time becoming familiar with the new Strategic Plan and suggesting priority areas on which to start. Meanwhile the Principal Team is already developing strategies to improve attendance, sketching out our Teaching and Learning Framework as well as a Social and Emotional Learning Framework.

New Appointments

We are very excited with the appointments made to recent Leading Teacher and Learning Specialist roles. Most have come from within, which is a credit to the Campus Principals who have nurtured our emerging leaders. We are also extremely lucky to have filled our Psychologist and Mental Health Practitioner vacancies. Many other schools are unable to fill them and ours are of excellent calibre.

Student Numbers

Some years ago, a population bubble moved through the school, as it leaves us, the reducing numbers will impact on funding. Part of our response to this will require us to condense some Home Groups at our junior campuses. Please understand that this is being done in order to maximise our curriculum offerings sustainably.

Building Project

We are continuing to press our case to redirect any surplus funds from the Delahey building project to redevelop the administration area of Kings Park campus.

Appreciation

On your behalf, I would like to sincerely thank all our teachers and support staff for their persistent and difficult work in maintaining educational and service continuity for our beautiful students. And thank you, families and carers for your support of your children's education in remote.

Pip Griffiths

College Principal