Principal
Mr Chris Grimmer
Busy and Exciting Start to Term 3
What an incredibly busy and exciting start we’ve had this term!
Hopefully parents/carers have been able to keep up with all the action on our College Facebook Page & Compass. We have had sports teams representing our college at regional finals, our inaugural leadership camp for our Year 10 leaders was held over three days and was a huge success, our 2023 Prep Open Day was held in July, the Year 10 Snow Trip finally went ahead, after two years of cancellations due to COVID-19, many excursions and incursions have been running across the primary and secondary classes and we have our athletics carnivals, Year 9 Camp, Year 10 Work Experience and Book Week celebrations all coming up in the coming weeks. Thanks to all parents/carers who have supported these events, and a massive thanks to our wonderful staff who spend many hours planning and facilitating these extra-curricular activities for our students.
Smoking and Vaping
Parents, carers, schools, and community all play an important role in protecting children and young people from, and educating them about, the harmful effects of smoking and vaping.
Research from the Royal Children’s Hospital shows many parents and carers are not aware of the harmful effects or how their views about smoking and vaping can impact the likelihood of a young person taking up smoking or vaping.
The Department of Education and Training has collated resources to help you learn more about the health risks of smoking and vaping, and some suggestions about how to talk to your child about vaping, and where to get support.
This includes a video from experts at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne with tips for parents for starting a conversation with teenagers about vaping.
Vaping Laws – Smoking & Vaping is banned in and around schools
The Tobacco Act 1987 bans smoking or vaping on school premises or within 4 metres of any pedestrian access point to school premises. The smoking and vaping ban applies to:
- anyone present on school premises during and outside of school hours including students, teachers, and school visitors
- all activities that take place on school premises.
Smoking and vaping are also not permitted during school events and excursions held off school premises.
Health and retail laws
It is illegal for any person:
- to sell, barter or exchange any type of tobacco or e-cigarette product to a person under 18 years of age
- to possess an e-cigarette containing nicotine, unless they have a doctor’s prescription
- to smoke or vape in a motor vehicle if a person under 18 years is also present in the motor vehicle.
You can report retailers selling e-cigarette products to children to your local council.
Partnership with Corwin Australia
In recent months we have started some very important work to develop greater student voice, leadership and agency at Merbein P-10. This has led us to discuss and document what makes an effective learner at Merbein P-10 College. These learning dispositions have been documented by staff, members of school council and some of our primary students. We are currently seeking feedback from more of our younger primary students, some of our secondary students and some of our parents. That way, we hope to have a cross section of data that details what our school community considers are the most important characteristics/competencies of an effective learner. We would love to collect the thoughts of as many parents as possible, so that this information can be added to our data and help us to improve outcomes for our students. Information will be placed on Compass in the coming days as to how to contribute to this important work.
Building Project News
The framing process has started on the new Science Centre, with work on the roof starting in the coming weeks. I have included a couple of current photos of the work below for those of you who may not have seen it.
Teacher Professional Practice Day
On Friday 9th September all staff at Merbein P-10 College will be undertaking their Teacher Professional Practice day. Students do not attend school on this day.