ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT

Assistant Principals

Paul Dawson and Bradley Headlam

Brad Smallman and Sarah Bridges

Important dates

2022 School Captains 

The College takes great pride in announcing the 2022 school captains. 

All applicants are to be congratulated on the quality of their applications, interviews and speeches. It proved to be a very rewarding, yet challenging, task for Mr Milsome, Ms Bridges and Mr Dawson.

Congratulations to the 2022 Captains: 

School Captains

Darcy Szakiel and Martin Salazar

Culture/Community Captain 

Ae Tablay Htoo

Arts Captain 

Leah Perin – Symons

Sports Captain 

Patrick Sager

Academic Captain 

Molly D’Elia

We wish our 2021 Captains well in their transition to the next phase of their lives and know they will benefit from their leadership experiences. The new Captaincy Team have already started their tenure as they led the Remembrance Day acknowledgement. As a school community we are sure they will lead 2022 with pride, embracing and modelling our school values.

Uniform

It is pleasing to see that the majority of the students are wearing the uniform professionally and are taking this positive approach and attitude into their classes. All students are to be in full school uniform until the end of the year and we would appreciate the support of parents in this area. If you require financial support with the school uniform, please do not hesitate to let us know.

BE BOLD BE HEARD

Four students, Ms Cropp and Ms Eales participated in an online collaboration session with students from all other schools in the region. Here, they started to review actions and plan to make a difference to student voice, agency and engagement for Middle Years girls in class, the College and the wider community. Some of the initiatives highlighted by the students in preparation for the Be Bold Be Heard Girl’s Forum in 2022 included:

• Playing a few fun warm-up style games at the beginning to help get to know each other such as: charades, tug of war, Jenga, board games, build a tower, just dance, kahoot, bingo, walk with two.
• Guest speakers and suggestions included: someone from Headspace, a Paralympian, an Olympian, Tones and I, Julia Gillard and women from workforces that were less represented. 
• Students suggested we could send in questions ahead of time to the speakers so they arrive prepared and keep the session flowing quickly.
• Students would like more time to share and discuss ideas with each other as they felt they all had so much to share and not enough time to share it.
• Some structured discussions were suggested so they don’t get off track.
• Students would like some time to look at their existing action plans as a starting point.
• Keeping action plans small (3 goals) was important.
• Students would like to share and get feedback on their plans from the rest of the group at the end of the day.
• Follow up forum so students can report back on how they have been going with their action plans.
• 100% of students who completed the survey wanted it to stay at GMHBA
• 50% voted for the self-defence session again.

The Be Bold Be Heard Girl’s Forum will be held in Term 1 in 2022 and students in Years 8, 9 and 10 who are actively involved in organising the forum and improving our student engagement, voice and agency will be invited to attend with 15 other regional schools.

CLOSE CONTACT ARRANGEMENTS

Now that the Government has opened up Victoria there is going to be, from time to time, a case in our community. This has occurred in recent weeks at NGSC and through effective management, communication and parent support we have been able to continue to keep the school open. For those of you who have yet to experience this NGSC will follow the Department protocols as follows:

When a positive case is identified:

• All parents and students will be notified by email and sms through Compass
• If it occurs during class time, parents will also receive a phone call where we will need to know:
  • Vaccination status
• Students will be ushered to get their belongings and asked to wait out the front of the main office.
• Students are then expected to be tested immediately
• They then go into 14 days isolation from the date of Close Contact for unvaccinated students or 7 days for vaccinated students
• Students need to provide evidence of a negative test on the last day before returning to school.
  • 13th day from close contact date
  • 6th day from close contact date
• Parents are encouraged to communicate test outcomes and vaccination status with Sub Schools.
• Students and teachers are to liaise via Google Classroom (not Google Meet) to maintain work continuity and email as required.
• Attendance will be amended to show present in Remote/Independent Learning.

FAQ

Q)        If we find out a week after a close contact, get a negative test and my child is vaccinated are we permitted to return to school?

A)        Yes, provided the test result is presented to the Sub School

Q)        If my child has been sent home due to having symptoms how long do they have to isolate for?

A)        Provided they have not been in close contact with a positive case they can return to school once they present a negative test result to their Sub School

Q)        My child was at a friend’s house on the weekend and the friend was asked to isolate and get tested. My child thinks they tested positive and is now a close contact. Does this mean they need to get tested and isolate for two weeks?

A)        Good question! Close contacts at school will be communicated immediately by the school. In the event there is a positive case, and it is determined that you child was a close contact, then you will be notified and told to isolate. In this example the friend has only been asked to isolate and hence is not yet positive. Therefore, your child is not considered a close contact.

Q)        If I, as a parent, have been told that I am a close contact do all my children have to isolate?

A)        No, this is not a requirement, but continue to watch for symptoms

SCREEN TIME IS NOT DOWNTIME

Managing mobile phone use at home can pose some challenges for parents, particularly, as most of us did not experience this when we were growing up. Immediate access to social media is an enormous issue faced by our children and without our own experiences to draw from it can pose some difficult scenarios. A common misunderstanding is that it is good for downtime. This is incorrect as the brain is highly stimulated through the visual representations, repeated notifications and also the complex thinking patterns in interpreting various messages through social media. Therefore, using such smart devices prior to going to bed can have a significant impact on sleeping. Therefore, making the next day more challenging. As a parent it is important to consider a plan for appropriate use in the household. Fortunately, there is an abundance of advice on-line (Google it outside of family time). Some of the tips to consider:

1. Conversations around what time is appropriate -organise and publish this
2. Discussion about what apps or programs are appropriate and put restrictions in place
3. Turn on apps that measure usage
4. Be in the same space to be available for concerns or questions that might arise and for immediate support
5. Leave the devices out of the bedrooms, including to charge up (alarm clocks are cheaper anyway)
6. Factor in family time and homework time before tech time
7. Ensure that technology is not used inside the last hour before going to bed
8. Have discussions on what it is being used for, if no real response, then no real need to use it!