PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

We are halfway through Term 1 and starting to hit the groove in terms of settling into the new school year. At our recent sub-school assembly, I spoke to our students emphasising the fact that Western Heights College is an inclusive school, and it will be important over the year that we demonstrate that in everything we do. It does not matter what year level you are in, what school you were previously enrolled in or where you live, what programs you are joining, or how long you have been here at WHC. 

What does matter, is how we treat people and each other within our community. We are all part of the one community and one school, and it is our expectation that we will be treating each other with respect daily and working towards a whole-school culture of inclusion and respect for each other. 

For our school to be the best school it possibly can be, it is important that our whole community, students, staff, parents and carers, understand and closely resonate with this expectation. With our student enrolment growth, it is important that this strong sense of culture is continually talked about, expected and grown throughout this year and I will look forward to working with our school community to grow this culture and expectation throughout this year.

Year 7 2024 Information and Open Night 

This year's Information and Open Night will take place between 6-8pm on Wednesday 1 March 2023. The night will include a formal welcome and presentation about WHC and the learning/curriculum programs available (including the Accelerate Program for High Ability Students and the Specialist Sports Program - AFL/Basketball/Netball/Soccer).

Guided tours of the facilities and grounds will also be provided - offering plenty of opportunity for prospective students, parents and carers to ask questions and understand the Year 7 2024 enrolment timelines and process.

We look forward to welcoming all guests to our Information and Open Night to discover more about our WHC community.

Uniform Expectations

We have noticed a huge improvement in uniform this year and wanted to thank the community for their support. We do sometimes receive feedback about our focus on the uniform and want to reassure our families that our care for students is paramount and our care for their learning growth is our focus. We can and do hold that as a focus at the same time as upholding the high expectations for uniform that our community expects from us.

Our uniform is inclusive, comfortable, gender neutral and looks great. It can be layered for warmth and has fabric choices for students that aren’t itchy and suits every student’s individual needs. The other great thing about our uniform is that when it is pieced together (academic or sport) based on student comfort and needs, it essentially looks the same no matter how it is pieced together.

The sports uniform is recommended to be worn on sport and physical education days as our facilities for changing at school are not easily accessed over at our Quamby facility. Sport and PE could be timetabled up to 3 days per week for students in Year 7-10 and every day for students in the Specialist Sports program. Our everyday academic uniform is recommended for non-sport days and is often required for excursions and representative activities such as public speaking, school visits, forums, Anzac Day services etc.

I am looking forward to our students continuing to wear our uniform with pride in 2023.

If you need some support in obtaining school uniform items, please do not hesitate to contact Jenny Eastwood in our college wellbeing team by phoning 5277 1177. She will support any family in need of financial help to obtain pieces of uniform.

School Photos 2023

Student School Photos will be taken on Tuesday 28 Feb. Information has previously been distributed to parents and carers on Compass but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Ricki O’Shannessy (Assistant Principal) at the school on 5277 1177.

Swimming Sports

It was great to see our students supporting the first major school event on our college calendar - our annual Swimming Carnival conducted last Friday in extreme heat at the Lara Swimming Pool. In many ways, it was just great that we were able to conduct the day and offer our students the opportunity to socially connect and once again perform in the sporting arena. 

The tone of the day was impressively set by our senior students who arrived in various forms of imaginative free dress and in visible support with their house colours proudly on display. From this stage on, the carnival was a colourful, engaging, participative event for all of our students and was matched by the competitive nature of the events within the pool.

Congratulations to Minerva (Yellow) – the winning House team of the Carnival in a very competitive leaderboard!

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, take care and keep smiling.

Fiona Taylor

College Principal

Child Safety at WHC

Western Heights College is a child safe organisation committed to protecting students from all forms of abuse.

Our College has stringent protocols in place and endeavours at all times to be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards set out under Ministerial Order 870.

Our College has the following documents and policies in place to achieve compliance with the Standards. All of these documents are available for downloading on our website or contact the school for a copy. 

1.       Commitment to Child Safety

2.       Child Safety Policy

3.       Child Safety Code of Conduct

4.       Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Annual privacy policy reminder for 2023

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.(found on the college's webpage)

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents and carers on the webpage. This information is also available in 10 community languages:

* Amharic

* Arabic

* Dari

* Gujarati

* Mandarin

* Somali

* Sudanese

* Turkish

* Urdu

* Vietnamese.