Welcome back to Term Three!

It has been such a joy to take on the role of Acting Principal over the last couple of weeks. We have had a busy but successful start to Term Three. Teachers have reported how settled their students have returned. Thank you to all families who are getting their children to school by 8.40. School starts at 8.40. Classroom doors open at 8.30. Getting to school on time is important for all children to enter the classroom and engage in morning routines and quiet reading. These routines are crucial to supporting students to feel ready to learn. It also allows for teachers to start teaching without the interruptions of students coming into the class after 8.40.

First Day Back of Term 3 - Assembly

Our first day back began with a whole school assembly. Assembly started with Year One student, Vega Netyam, reciting 1E’s acknowledgement of Country in front of over 1300 students! Vega was able to model many dispositions including willingness and bravery. This was met with the whole school clapping Vega on her efforts, a clear acknowledgement of her willingness and bravery.

Our assembly focused on building an understanding of two dispositions, perseverance and self motivation. Our students will continue to explore these traits during the term in further assemblies and within classrooms. I would love for families to continue discussions around perseverance and self motivation. Ideas could include, when have you shown this disposition, why and what was the outcome. Another idea could be making a family commitment to showing these dispositions in certain situations for example, setting a goal to run a certain time around the block, setting a goal to read for 20 minutes a day, five days a week. You may also like to create mantras together that you can use when faced with a difficult task and/or trying to achieve a personal goal. The following websites have some great ideas and information for families around perseverance and self motivation https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/5-ways-to-practice-perseverance-as-a-family

https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/mom-mother/eight-ways-to-encourage-self-motivation-in-your-child/

Athletics Carnival

The Year Three to Eight students participated in our school’s Athletics Carnivals. Congratulations to all of the students and staff for supporting the running of very successful days. A big thank you to the physical education department, Neville, Ash and MJ for organising this event.

Staffing Update

Welcome to new staff members, Kirsten who is teaching 2C, Chhaya who has joined our Art team and Ying who has joined the Secondary Maths/Technology team. We also welcomed back Ellie, who is teaching 6B two days a week. Tim Boylan, who joined us in Term Two has taken on the remaining three days in 6B. Last but not least, welcome back to Sharnie who is teaching 5C.

We are continuing to advertise jobs for this year and we have begun to recruit for next year. It would be great for our community to start spreading the word about our wonderful school, encouraging any teacher friends/acquaintances or educational support workers to apply for positions at our amazing school. We will continue to advertise the positions on our Facebook page so that families can share.

Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences

Thank you to all of the families who booked in for Student/Parent/Teacher conferences. These conferences are scheduled after Semester One reports are sent out to families. Semester One reports give families an understanding of how much their child has grown, areas of achievement and areas to continue to develop. As you know, these reports are complemented by Ongoing Reports which are released every five weeks.

Prep Enrolments 2024

Prep enrolments for next year are due July 28th. If you have a child or know someone who has a child who will be enrolling at our school next year, please jump onto our website for information on how to enrol. Students within our zone are eligible to enrol at our school. Our school zone is available on findmyschool.vic.gov.au which hosts the most up-to-date information on school zones in Victoria. Students residing within our school zone are guaranteed a place at our school, which is determined on the basis of your permanent residential address. Enrolling your child by the July 28th date will support us to recruit in a timely manner to fill any vacant positions.

Traffic Working Party

The safety of our children and the wider community is our top priority. I am putting together a traffic working party to support proactive ways to educate and support road safety around our school. The traffic party will meet on a regular basis (to be determined, an indication of regularity would be once a month/twice a term). The working party is looking for people to join who are willing to be proactive in this space. If you are interested, please email me at malinda.vaughan@education.vic.gov.au

Changes to NAPLAN reporting

Every year across the country, students in year three, five, seven and nine sit the NAPLAN (The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) assessment. As per the Compass post on Wednesday 12th July, families will notice changes to NAPLAN reporting. These are changes being introduced nationally by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation but the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels:

These are:

exceeding
strong
developing
needs additional support.

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that details student achievement against new proficiency levels.

Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child.

Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning.

As ever, you are welcome to speak with your child’s teacher with any questions about these changes.

We are planting trees and need your help!!!

Earlier in the year Dohertys Creek College were invited to participate in the More Trees for a Cooler. Greener West Program in Schools.

Conrad (our Facilities Manager) has been busy coordinating our planting day with Environment Education Victoria. He has spent time deciding on the tree species to be planted and their planting locations with consideration given to how these trees will benefit our school community over the coming years.

Over the coming weeks, mulch will be delivered and the sites prepared by Conrad with the help of Andre (our grounds and maintenance officer) and some of our amazing DCC students.

Our tree planting session will be held in the evening of Thursday the 12th of October and we are inviting our students to come along with an adult family member on the night to help. More information on how you can register for the evening will be sent out in the weeks prior to the 12th of October however mark this date on your calendar and keep it free!

Looking forward to seeing you all and your greenthumbs on the night.

We’ve expanded CCTV coverage at our school

Over the school holiday period we had the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system at our school expanded to include the Balam Balam and Marram areas.

Our school has an obligation to ensure the school environment is safe and secure, and fulfil our duty of care to students, staff and visitors. The CCTV system will continue to assist our school to fulfil these obligations and to prevent and manage other inappropriate behaviour on school grounds. The expanded CCTV system will also provide enhanced capability to protect our school’s assets against vandalism and theft.

We have followed Department of Education policy requirements for the design, installation, management and use of the CCTV systems. This policy is available at: CCTV in Schools – Installation and Management.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate contact Tami-Jo, Malinda, Jess or Brianna (our Principal Team) on 8560 6079 or by email at Dohertys.creek.p9.co@education.vic.gov.au

Are you intending to change schools next year?

It's sad to see any of our amazing students leave us but we understand that family circumstances change. If you are leaving us at the end of this year but have not yet informed us, can you please do so ASAP by emailing dohertys.creek.p9.co@education.vic.gov.au We will need to know the school that your child is moving to as this will assist us in supporting you with the transition to your child's new school.

Acknowledgement of Country