Principal's Report

DET - Infrastructure Planning and Acceleration Fund

Dear parents and carers, 

The Victorian Government is investing record funding in our schools to make Victoria the Education State and give every student access a great local school and education. 

Our school has been allocated $652,000 in 2020 to plan for an education-based infrastructure project. This planning funding will be used to develop designs to upgrade and modernise our school. This will see a significant change in the buildings at the college over the next 2 years, and will allow our schools teaching and learning program to engage closer with the expectations of our community.

We will work closely with the School Council and the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) to deliver an outcome that will benefit the entire community. 

To prepare for the upgrade, we will complete an Asset Management Plan over the next 11 weeks. The AMP is a long-term document that helps to plan for a school’s future. The plan identifies, organises and prioritises the building works required at a school – ensuring students have access to educational facilities that prepare them to thrive in the 21st century. We will be sharing updates on this and will be running some sessions to gather input from our teachers and staff, as well as parents/carers. We will also involve our students to listen to their unique and important perspective. 

We will also keep you informed through regular newsletter updates as the project progresses.

Return to School

Today we welcome back all of our students to on site learning. The Year 7 students have settled back very quickly into their routines and the entire school is very excited to see students from Years 8, 9 and 10 back on site. With this return we must remember that we are still operating under the schools Covid-19 Safety Management Plan. This means that students must follow the directions given by all staff in line with the advice communicated from the Victorian Government. 

The school leadership team is meeting regularly to review the operational processes of the school to ensure they are within the DET guidelines and advice from the Chief Health Medical Officer. 

The schools focus for Term 4 remains on the following 3 areas :

1. supporting students’ mental health and wellbeing

2. identifying those who need help catching up and extending those who have progressed

3.  preparing for successful transitions.

The school improvement team will focus on all of these priorities and work to ensure they can be addressed in a timely and effective manner in collaboration with all staff and students

The current practices in place at our school are consistent with the health advice, including enhanced cleaning in schools, frequent handwashing, wearing masks, as well as asking everyone to practice physical distancing during drop-off and pick-up times. Your children may continue feeling anxious about returning to school. Please reassure your child that it’s safe for them to be back at school and reinforce what they’ve been practicing at home around hand hygiene and coughing and sneezing. Reassure them that extensive cleaning is being carried out in schools and that the school has put into place many operational changes to assist in providing them that confidence. 

Most importantly please remember this health advice: if you or your child is unwell, please stay at home. This is vital to ensuring the effective management of the pandemic and our school environment. 

Information about how to speak to your child about coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/Pages/talkingtoyourchildaboutcoronavirus.aspx  

Visit the Department’s website for the latest information about coronavirus (COVID-19) at: 

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/Pages/coronavirus.aspx 

This week marks the last week of on-site learning for our Year 12 students, with their exams commencing on the 10th of November. This year has been tough for the class of 2020, however they have shown a resilience and determination in their focus to succeed. I have confidence that they will do very well in their exams and I wish them all the best in the coming weeks.

If there is anything the school can do to further support any family during this time please let me know at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Corey Jewell

College Principal