College Newsletter

Principal's Report

Welcome to Term Three

All students are active participants in a learning culture that promotes academic excellence and personal development through a diversity of challenging experiences.  

 

VISION

“Working together, learning together” – Working together to enable all students to achieve their potential and become confident, effective learners who contribute productively to society.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Doncaster Secondary College acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our school is situated, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to elder's past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any and all Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. We value the ongoing contribution to the cultural heritage that the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people provide to our school as well as the city of Manningham. We recognise that this land was never ceded and there is no treaty, and we commit to efforts towards reconciliation as a school community. We at Doncaster Secondary College are inclusive of individuals from all backgrounds including the LGBTQIA+, culturally and linguistically diverse as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

CONGRATULATIONS TO HARRY BUI

The annual Victorian Global Learning Awards celebrate international student excellence and recognise schools and homestay families for outstanding global learning and engagement.

 

Among all applicants from government and non-government schools in Victoria, our international student Harry Bui was selected as one of the finalists for the Global Citizenship Award.

 

Sally Huang and I are pleased to announce that Harry Bui has just been announced as the winner of the Year 11 Global Citizenship Award.

It would be wonderful if you are able to express your congratulations to Harry.

 

Well done Belinda McGee, Sally Huang and the International Student team for nominating Harry for this award. It is also a credit to the work that all staff do in creating an environment for our students to achieve excellence.

REMOTE AND FLEXIBLE LEARNING

This week the Victorian Government made announcements in relation to arrangements for schools in Victoria from and including Wednesday 21 July. Based on advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer, all Victorian schools will continue with remote and flexible learning, at this stage until Tuesday 27 July. Our school will continue to provide on-site supervision for students in the following categories:

 

Children where both parents and/or carers are considered authorised workers who cannot work from home, work for an essential provider and where no other supervision arrangements can be made:

  • where there are two parents/carers, both must be authorised workers, working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision.
  • for single parents/carers, the authorised worker must be working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision.

Children experiencing vulnerability, including:

  • in out-of-home care.
  • deemed vulnerable by a government agency, funded family or family violence service, and assessed as requiring education and care outside the family home.
  • identified by a school or early childhood service as vulnerable, (including via referral from a government agency, or funded family or family violence service, homeless or youth justice service or mental health or other health service).
  • where a parent/carer indicates that a student with a disability is vulnerable because they cannot learn from home, and/or informs the school the student is vulnerable due to family stress. This may apply to students enrolled in specialist schools and students with a disability enrolled in mainstream schools.

Whilst our attendance figures have consistently been greater than 90% during the remote learning period, some students are beginning to disengage from attending their classes. Our classroom teachers, level coordinators and Wellbeing team members are doing their best to make contact with families to support students to re-engage. If you are concerned about your child’s wellbeing and engagement, please make contact with the classroom teacher or level coordinator. We are here to support you.

 

I will continue to keep you updated with information as it is made available. Thank you for your continued support.

CURRICULUM DAY

With the recent announcement by the Victorian Government that the current restrictions will remain in place for at least another 7 days, we decided to change the date of our Curriculum Day to today. The original date of the Curriculum Day was Thursday 29th July. With students due to arrive back onsite on-site on Wednesday 28th July, having a Curriculum Day the following day was deemed to not be appropriate. With the continued uncertainty, we are well and truly aware of the need to prioritise the face to face learning time. 

 

The intention of the Curriculum Day was to involve staff in the Pre-Review Self-Evaluation. This was done through a collaborative approach to evaluating academic achievement data, attitudes to school survey results, implementation of our Instructional Model, and progress in the area of student voice and agency. We have started trialing the questions for use with our student and family focus groups. The questions have been modified from the feedback and they are included below:

 

Parent/Carer Focus Group Questions:

  1. What was it that attracted you to considering DSC for your child?
  2. What does your child like best about school?
  3. Is your child provided with the appropriate level of challenge in their learning? Discuss
  4. Do teachers and students work together to discuss feedback and identify the next steps?
  5. What can the school do to further enhance teaching and learning?
  6. How does the school’s wellbeing approach cater for the needs of students?
  7. What is your understanding of the purpose of DiSCovery?
  8. If someone moved into the area and was looking for a secondary school to enrol their children, what would you tell them about Doncaster Secondary College?
  9. Any other feedback?

Student Focus Group Questions:

  1. What is it that you like best about school?
  2. How do you know what work you should be doing?
  3. Do you know what the Doncaster Secondary College Instructional Model is? Do teachers use the instructional model to plan and deliver their lessons?
  4. Is the learning challenging? (Too easy, just right, too difficult)
  5. Do teachers sit with you to discuss your progress and identify the next steps in your learning? How does this occur? Does it happen regularly?
  6. Are your thoughts about your learning valued by your teachers? How do you know?
  7. How does the school’s wellbeing approach cater for the needs of students? Do you have an adult at school that you could talk to if you had a problem?
  8. What is your understanding of the purpose of DiSCovery?
  9. If someone moved into the area and was looking to enrol in a secondary school, what would you tell them about Doncaster Secondary College?
  10. Any other feedback?

 

Whilst we will invite families to be involved in focus groups, there is an opportunity for a random sample of families to participate in providing feedback to the College via the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey. This survey is offered annually by the Department of Education and Training. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. 

 

Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. Further information will be distributed next week. The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

 

 

Glenn Morris

Principal