From the Principal

Athletics Carnival

Dressed proudly in their House colours, staff and students enjoyed our annual Athletics Carnival at the Coburg Harriers Athletics Track last Wednesday. A day of spirited competition was had in near perfect conditions. A big thank you to all staff for ensuring the day ran smoothly, but in particular to our PE Staff and sport coordinator, Jack O’Shea. I have to confess to feeling a little left out – for the first time in my career I cannot show allegiance to any one House, due to the impartiality required of the Principal.

Congratulations to the winning House for taking home the trophy.

Working with our State and Federal Government

On Tuesday 13 March we had a brief visit from Ged Kearney, the now successful, Labour Federal Member for Batman. We were able to provide her with a tour of the school, and in particular, the gym and sporting facilities. We presented the business case for a Joint Use Agreement with the Darebin Council for the redevelopment of the gymnasium to increase our provision of sporting facilities for the school and community. She was suitably unimpressed by the current provision, given the size of the school, and suitably impressed by our capacity to adapt and provide the best possible experience for students, given the facilities.  Thank you to Megan Young for her clear messaging throughout the visit. We were joined by a number of the Year 12 student leaders who spoke eloquently and with pride about the features of the school that make it unique.

I also had the pleasure of dining with Hon. James Merlino, last week and took the opportunity to speak with him about the Masterplan development and our hopes for funding in the May Budget.

In both instances, it was not possible for any commitments to be made, however it is important for us to continue to make our case.

Student Mobile Phone Use

Many of families will have noticed an increased awareness about teenagers’ use of mobile phones in the media, and that some schools have banned them. I am not in favour of a blanket ban, and I certainly don’t want us to go down the line of ending up in constant conflict with students trying to ‘police’ such a policy. What I do advocate for is the use of phones as appropriate learning tools and for us as educators to provide the consistent expectations and scaffolds to ensure students are developing the skills to use their phones in productive (and not debilitating) ways. First and foremost, we should be acting as role models with the use of our phones.

Parents who are seeking ways to help students manage their mobile phone use, may wish to check out some of the applications that allow you to ‘budget’ the amount of time spent on social media, and still allow for use of the phone functions. I cannot vouch for any of these recommendations and encourage parents to conduct their own research; these may act as a starting point:

• Offtime (iOS, Android)
• Moment (iOS)
• BreakFree (iOS, Android)
• Flipd (iOS, Android)
• AppDetox (Android)
• Stay on Task (Android)

Victorian Global Learning Awards

The Victorian Global Learning Awards are scheduled to occur on 14 June 2018. We are delighted to announce that we are finalists in two categories:

• Excellence in Global Learning Award – for cumulative work in the international arena including: our successful International Student Program, our involvement in the Victorian Young Leaders to China program, hosting Chinese school staff delegations through RMIT, for being the first government school to deliver VCE offshore, and for our sister schools relationships.
• Year 12 Arts Achievement (Visual Arts) Award – for the work of Ai-Ai Eos Ku

 Members of our school community have been interviewed and filmed as part of the final entry. 

International Women’s Day (Week)!

I was truly impressed by both the small and significant ways the students (and staff) found to celebrate and raise the profile of women, to mark International Women’s Day. A special thank you is extended to Kirby Mackrill for her work in leading the celebrations, in conjunction with many of the Year 12 Student Leaders. 

We introduced a new award for inspirational women in our community – the IWD – Fiona Richardson Award. This year we presented it to Jane Lange for her pioneering work in AFLW. Congratulations, Jane.

Alumni – Class of 1955 Lunch

On Wednesday 14 March I joined Kate Morris and Kate Challis for lunch at the annual Class of ’55 luncheon. It was great to hear and see the relationship Kate Morris has with the Alumni, and I hope to quickly establish the same. I enjoyed hearing the stories of times gone by, and about the interesting and variously successful lives of those who have gone before. I also had the pleasure to meet former principal (and school Historian) Gary Israel. I eagerly anticipate learning more about our heritage over the coming months and years.

Photograph:

Back - left to right

Tony Shallcross, Jan Treadwell, Andy Treadwell, Kevin Maguire, Arthur Coombs, Gary Israel, Peter Tsitas, Bill Newell

Front – left to right

Norma Shallcross, Nada Cunningham, Lyla Maguire, Kate Morris, Sue, Ken Cunningham

Data Day – the Third of our Four Professional Learning Days for the Year

As you know government schools are allocated four pupil free professional learning days for the year. We successfully utilised two of the four on the first two days of the year, setting ourselves up for the best possible start with students. We strategically use the third day early in the year (this year on Friday 9 March) to give staff the time to examine and reflect on student data sets. The purpose of day was for staff to develop a deep understanding of their students and their learning needs, so that they are more able to meet them.

I had the pleasure of delivering a keynote address on formative assessment and we provided opportunities for staff to learn techniques from each other. The feedback from staff  was extremely positive. See the article in this newsletter for a report of the day.