Principal's Report
Child Safe Standards:
Our commitment to Child Safety
In the first newsletter for the year I presented Greensborough College’s commitment to Child Safety. I reiterate that message in this issue.
Greensborough College is committed to child safety. As a community, we want children and young people to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children and young people, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children and young people. There is zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures. We meet our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
You will find the following policies on our website, http://greensc.vic.edu.au/ and I encourage parents/carers to become familiar with them. We are still in the process of ratification.
- Child Safety Policy
- Child Safe Code of Conduct Policy
- Child Safe Standards Duty of Care Policy
- Visitors Policy
With these policies come new procedures. We ask families to support the College and our child safety practices by doing the following:
- When visiting the College, all parents, carers and visitors to the College are required to report to Administration (Nepean Street entry) and to sign in and out. The Visitors’ Policy explains this procedure further.
- When dropping off students, parents/carers are required to do this outside the school grounds on the street kerb. Please do not drop off in the school car parks as this may cause a traffic and safety issue.
Attendance – Every Day Counts
In the April Newsletter, I presented key research around school attendance and achievement. You will find a link, in this issue, to further information and research on the importance of attendance.
Camps and Excursions Policy and Procedures
The College’s Camps and Excursions Policy and Procedure can be located on our website. Of particular importance to students and families is the consent and payment due date for events. We ask families to give consent and make any required payment by the due date published on the COMPASS event. The published due date is important as it enables the event organiser to book venues, organise transport and catering, prepare for the specific medical needs of students attending and organise timetables for students back at school. The College is unable to take payments or consent after the due date. We ask families to support the Camps and Excursions Policy and Procedure.
Budget Announcement
Greensborough College will receive $995,000 towards the planning for the Stage 2 upgrade, which will see further enhancement of our facilities with more state-of-the-art, 21st Century teaching and learning spaces. We are very excited about the prospect of further development and we will consult the community along the way.
PFA
On behalf of the School Community I would like to thank the Parents and Friends Association who ran a BBQ, at the College, on Federal Election Day. Led by Margaret McNicol, President of the P&FA and Michelle Molinaro, President of the School Council, parents rallied to feed the masses, support the community and raise funds for our school.
Spotlight on Staff
Nicholas Heading
Nick has been successful in his application to the Inspire: Local Leaders Program run by the Bastow Institute. The Inspire program provides high potential leaders with the foundational capabilities required for school leadership. Nick is a highly suitable candidate. He has been a co-leader of the promotions team, improving our social media presence in the community and delivering presentations to local primary school students. Nick is highly skilled in information technology and he is about to start a table top game club for the students at lunchtime. We wish Nick all the best in the Inspire Program.
Simone Verbeeten
Most will know that Simone is our First Aid Officer at the College, which is a significant responsibility that she has excelled in for many years. This year Simone has taken on two new roles, Library Technician and VET/VASS Administrator. As well as these new roles, she has taken up studying a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment at Melbourne Polytechnic. This certificate will provide Simone with the necessary qualifications to expand her role as the VET administrator. We wish Simone every success with this new challenge.
Shane Maloney and Janet Andrew
Greensborough College has been allocated targeted funding for literacy and numeracy to support eligible students and to work with other teachers to build capability and deepen pedagogical expertise in literacy and numeracy. Shane is the Literacy Improvement Teacher and Janet is the Numeracy Improvement Teacher. Students in Year 10 will be the recipients of this government initiative. Both Shane and Janet will received professional learning in evidence based research on the best practices in literacy and numeracy teaching. They will work closely with small groups of students to improve student outcomes and they will be sharing their learnings with the whole teaching team. This project will be funded for three years.
Ms Pauline Barker
Principal