PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear parents and carers,

We are approaching the halfway point of the school year and I can’t believe how quickly the year has gone.  As we move into the second half of the year, planning is underway for 2020.  For our current students who will be in year 8 -12 in 2020, the process for subject selection and transition into the next year will remain as it has in the past. Parents will receive information in the coming weeks. We commence with year 11 and 12 and then the processes for years 8 - 10 will occur.   As the year progresses we will have opportunities to celebrate Footscray City College. I have established a group who will plan community events.  We will keep you informed through the newsletter and Compass.

Environmental Science Centre 

Congratulations to Jak Dunstan, his team and the students for winning the Community Leadership School of the Year (Secondary) in the Resource Smart Awards 2019.  This award is sponsored by Sustainability Victoria.   The Environmental Science Centre and the teachers who run programs there do a wonderful job of providing our students with excellent learning experiences that will provide great foundations for their future.    

Footscray Learning Precinct Secondary School 

The first Footscray Learning Precinct Secondary School Advisory Council was held on Wednesday 26th June at the Barkly St Campus. Deciding on the name, uniform and branding of school are decisions utmost in the minds of the Advisory Council.  We will inform parents of the details when they become available.  

Chef's Dinner

The Chef's Dinner was a wonderful success with over 100 guests in attendance.  It was great to see that Maria Bawden was able to attend and enjoy the night with all the other staff who attended.  Thank you to the Friends of Footscray City who handed out their small grant awards.  What a wonderful idea to enable student and teacher initiatives to flourish in our school.  I was particularly taken with the student application for more bike racks around the school.  It is great that we can encourage healthy lifestyles by students riding to school.   

Annual Report 

We held our Annual Report evening on Tuesday 25th June between 5.30 and 6.15 pm.  Our school data shows how well the school is going in all areas.  Our VCE results are excellent, student wellbeing is good in the areas of connectedness and attitudes towards bullying and our Naplan data shows the students doing well. A small but enthusiastic group of parents attended along with the school council representatives.  Parents were pleased to hear from Frank Vetere the Executive Principal regarding the progress of the Footscray Learning Precinct Secondary School plans for 2020.  

STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Maths 

On Friday 7th June I took part in a school leaders’ day at Scienceworks presented by staff from Questacon, the National Science Museum.  It was a very informative day and took us through a process of developing STEAM goal setting and growth to support the setting of team or whole school goals to set meaningful strategic goals as part of the school improvement process.  STEAM is a focus of the Footscray Learning Precinct so it is important that teachers are exposed to professional learning to drive the implementation.  Two teachers participated in a 2 day program with Questacon as well.  In term 3 the Footscray Learning Precinct (FCC, Footscray City Primary School and Footscray Primary) will be working one day a week with Simon Taylor from VU on developing a precinct approach to STEAM.  It will be a great opportunity for some year 7 students supported by a group of students from year 9 to work on solving community based problems using STEAM.  I am sure you will see more of this in next term’s newsletters.  

Angelique den Brinker  - Acting Principal