Westall Secondary College Newsletter

Assistant Principal's Report 

Assistant Principal

- Mrs. Sue Simadri

Semester One Awards Assembly

On Thursday 27th June, we will be recognising students across the school who have been nominated for an Academic or a Personal Best award. We look forward to welcoming families to our celebration of student achievement, which will commence at 10am.

End of Semester

We are rapidly approaching the end of the first semester of 2019! Teachers are busy finalising assessments and are beginning to enter data into student reports.

 

Semester reports will be available to parents, on Compass, in the second week of Term 3.

 

Please be aware that parents will need to go into Compass to see specific comments that teachers have made on the Common Assessment Tasks or SACs/Learning Tasks completed by students during the semester, as the reports will include just the grades for these assessed tasks.

Compass

Parents can view Reports and upcoming events/excursions that are occurring at the College by visiting the Compass Portal.

 

Please remember to log on regularly to check your child’s attendance, the latest news, and use Compass to contact teachers if needed. All parents should have their Parent Compass Login details. If you do not have these details, please contact the College on 9546 3233 and we can email or re-post this for you.

Course and subject selection for 2020

The end of Semester 1 is also the beginning of the course and subject selection process for the following year. This is an important time for students to make key decisions regarding elective choices, VCE/VCAL, and subjects in the VCE program. Students must engage in researching future pathways that are of interest, so that they can make informed choices. The school will provide various forms of support, such as, the Careers Expo that occurred last month, subject information sessions provided by Heads of Learning Areas, course information sessions and workshops, and course approval interviews. We trust that students will make the most of these sessions and take responsibility to ensure that they are well prepared for the interviews in early August.

 

A date for your calendar is the Course Information Night for parents/guardians on Tuesday, 23rd July, commencing at 6:30pm. On this night, we will also have a couple of computer vendors displaying their wares at a BYOD Fair. The college will be hosting this as an opportunity to support students and families with making decisions around suitable devices for school. 

Winter uniform

Families are reminded that all students should be in full winter uniform. School ties must be worn and students are encouraged to wear plain white t-shirts under the school shirt for added warmth. Head scarfs, if worn, must be plain navy blue or white. Neck scarves must also be navy blue; black scarves will be confiscated. Thank you to all families for your continued support of the college uniform policy.

 

To assist families who cannot get to the uniform shop, students can purchase navy blue tights and ties at the general office, for $15 and $20 respectively.

 

The Sustainable Schoolshop option is also available to families to purchase second-hand uniform at discounted prices:

www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au 

Windows 7 End of Support Date is Approaching

Microsoft is officially ending support and security updates for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.

 

Microsoft advises after next January, "technical assistance and automatic updates that help protect your PC will no longer be made available for the product. Microsoft strongly recommends that you move to Windows 10 sometime before January 2020 to avoid a situation where you need service or support that is no longer available."

 

The operating system will still function, but it will be vulnerable to any security threats found after the end of extended support date.

 

To ensure the school is protected from any potential unpatched security vulnerabilities that Windows 7 might have after Jan 2020, DET has advised schools to ensure no Windows 7 device are used on the school network after that date. 

 

HOW TO MOVE ON FROM WINDOWS 7

If you're currently running a Windows 7 computer, we recommend upgrading to a new computer by the end of the year. This is the preferred pathway because:

  • It lowers the risk for hardware compatibility issues by trying to migrate the same computer from Windows 7 to 10.
  • Ensures you have a new warranty for your hardware.
  • Better performance.