From the Principal Class

Dear Viewbank Community,

The College has returned to a vibrant learning community once more.

It is wonderful to have all of our students back, engaged in their learning, physically active, and enjoying the time with their peers.

We continue to be mindful of the Departments priorities, with the wellbeing of staff and students our highest priority.

You will have heard the recent announcement regarding a substantial funding commitment by the State Government (upwards of $250 million dollars across the public and private systems) towards the small group tutor initiative.

Viewbank College has received a funding allocation which will enable us to support students we identify as needing ‘catch up’ after remote learning. Students may have not engaged during remote learning for various reasons. This focus on equity is the second priority of the College. We are currently working on a structure for supporting this program in the College, and there will be more information to come.

Year 12 Final assembly, exams and Valedictory

Our Year 12 students once again need to be congratulated on the way they are conducting themselves during this final term. They celebrated with staff on their final day and were incredibly well behaved and respectful. They have now begun their exams and are demonstrating a really strong focus and commitment to achieving their best. We wish them well!

Due to Covid, preparations are well underway for our Valedictory picnic event on December 3.

We understand the disappointment this year for parents, who are unable to physically attend and celebrate their students’ achievements. We hope that streaming the event will at least provide an opportunity to be part of the formal celebrations.

I also want to congratulate our Valedictorian, Chelsea Del Romano. We look forward to hearing her speech on the evening.

College Captains for 2021

I want to congratulate our new College Captains for 2021.

Our male captain is Patrick Kennedy and our female captain is Paris Bosschieter.

Both had a clear vision for leadership and the roles they want to play in connecting students across the College by giving them a voice.

Thanks again to the amazing leadership shown by the outgoing Captains, Joel and Lily. They managed to unite the Year 12 cohort during lockdown and provide support to all year levels through their positive messaging.

Thanks to all of the students who applied to be College Captains. We had a large number of quality applicants, wanting to take on leadership in the College. Each and every one of them has been encouraged to look for other formal and informal ways to lead and represent the student body at Viewbank College. We can’t let such talent go unrecognised.

Other formal leadership roles are currently being advertised and we will announce the whole leadership team in the next newsletter.

Year 10 and 11 exams

Despite the extensive time in remote learning and reduced curriculum program, we are continuing to run exams for our Year 10 and 11 students. We believe the exam practice is invaluable and the data we will collect regarding student progress will assist us to support students as they move into a full VCE program.

These exams start next week and students have been given their timetables.

2021 College Restructure

During this past week, our acting Assistant Principal, Darren Murray posted some information to parents about our exciting new House structure and student learning program, Launch.

I encourage all parents to watch the video presentation below or on our website, outlining the rationale for the program, as well as the structure of our new vertical house system.

We are running parent Q & A sessions online next Tuesday 17th November at 6.30pm and Thursday 19th November at 7pm and look forward to meeting with parents to further outline the changes.

Parents can register here to attend one of these online sessions.

We really believe that this is a very timely change, building on the challenges thrown up by Covid 19.

We certainly welcome your feedback!

The below links are referred to in our video:

https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/

https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/future-fluencies/future-focused-learning-keynote

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/respectfulrelationships.aspx?Redirect=1

https://achieveonline.com.au/

https://peersupport.edu.au/

Year 12 Care Packs

In a joint initiative between the Platform 3095 community group and Friends of Viewbank, ‘care-packs’ were created and given to our Year 12 students on their final day.

The class of 2020 battled on well and proved to be highly resilient, but have really missed out in 2020 on so many of the great Year 12 ‘rights of passage’ and final year events that would normally happen at Viewbank College…

So we were able to tap into this initiative started by Platform 3095 in Eltham to get together a small printed bag that included things such as 2020 pens, stress ball, water bottle, small treats, key rings, self-help information and info to prepare them for Year 13 such as a Life Hacks book from Banyule Council and the School Leavers Guide booklet. An amazing personal touch included hand written letters from community members who provided unique inspirational messages to each very special Year 12 student in their packs.

A big thank you to parent Robynne Tongue who is a Year 12 parent who connected us with Platform 3095 and worked very hard to pull all the contents together. Also a big thanks to Patricia Callinan from Platform 3095 and to the Friends of Music and Friends of Performing and Visual Arts for their generous contributions.

Science Talent Search

In the last newsletter we were pleased to report on the achievements of our students who participated in the Science Talent Search.

We were able to catch up with some of the students this week to present their awards:

Remembrance Day - Wednesday 11th November

Middle Years Captains Ryder Testolin and Dior Croxford read Flanders Fields and The Ode over the speaker to the College at 11am on Wednesday 11th November.

And well done to Dawson Conceicao of Year 8 who played an excellent performance on 'The Last Post' on trumpet.