Assistant Principals

From Mrs Stathatos

As we come to the middle of the term, staff are completing progress reports which will be available to parents on Wednesday March 15. On the same day, parents are invited to make a time for Parent Teacher Student interviews which be held on Thursday March 30. We encourage parents to take this opportunity to meet with their child’s teacher and to have a conversation about their child’s progress at this stage of the year.

As a college we have adopted the reporting model of continuous feedback, so rather than receiving a summative comment at the end of the semester about what they have done, students receive ongoing feedback about their progress during the semester. Ongoing feedback has been recognised as one of the indicators of improving student outcomes and while last year we had a staggered approach to the new model, where some subjects opted in, this year all our subjects are involved in the continuous feedback model. To that end, the college will offer a Parent Information night about ongoing reporting in Term 2 at the behest of parents who are on the PCTA. Further information on this night will be provided in the next newsletter.

One more sleep to The Year 12 Debutante Ball! It is with great anticipation that the Year 12 Debutantes will be presented to the Principal of the College, Mr Michael Phillips and his wife Karen Phillips on Saturday night. The tireless work of the Parent Citizen Teachers Association ( PCTA)  to make this event happen is to be commended as so too is the support from the Senior School team led by Assistant Principal James Barut. Kathy Donovan, the Debutante Ball co-ordinator and Vicki Pleydell have been at rehearsals ensuring that the administration of the event is smooth. Parent helpers at every rehearsal have been so generous with their time and their baking skills have been appreciated by the horde of hungry Year 12 dancers. With the retirement of Brian Amos, our MC for 31 years, we will introduce our new MC, former student and Head Prefect Mitchell Pirera, an Honours Media students who enjoys hosting trivia events. Our dance instructors Tim and Caitlin Doyle, themselves past students of Ringwood Secondary College, have once again delivered to our students a terrific choreography to cater to the broad range of dancing skills. The excitement of everyone involved in the event was palpable at the final rehearsal at the Grand Wantirna last Sunday. As in the past, the Year 12 Debutante Ball promises to be a great night.

We will repeat the magic with two Debutante Balls at Year 11, the first on Saturday the 13th of May and the second on Sunday 21st of May. Updated information will be given to Year 11 families about these events via Compass. Once again, the involvement of the Senior school team, the PCTA, the dance instructors, the MC has been secured to ensure that students and their families have a wonderful experience. From 2018 the Debutante Ball will be a Year 11 event and will be held at The Grand Wantirna in March.

There have been a number of parent information nights over the past month and I was invited to be part of the Year 7 ACE Parents Information night hosted by the ACE co-ordinator Annette Niven. Annette outlined the Year 7 ACE program for the year and introduced core teachers to parents who presented the teaching and learning sequences in their subjects. Feedback from parents about their childrens’ experiences so far have been very positive with comments such as ‘My daughter loves the program’ and ‘My son looks forward to school every day.’ We hope that all our students have positive experiences at school and most significantly when students encounter difficulties, parents and students  know that there are support mechanisms from within the college to assist them. Our BOUNCE program is one of these mechanisms and so too is the close communication via Compass with teachers, House Co-ordinators and Wellbeing staff.

School tours bring new surprises with former students now as parents visiting the school. It is delightful to hear past students reminisce about their time at RSC and see their awe due to the capital works program.  Parents will be able to see the scope of the work around the college when they attend Parent Teacher Student interviews at the end of this term.

Mrs.Eleni Stathatos

Assistant Principal

From Mr Barut

This newsletter has a collection of fine photos taken from our Prefect Induction Ceremony.

The presence of leadership in schools, particularly student leaders, must never be underestimated or taken for granted. The ‘tone’ of a school, researchers suggest, is set by its VCE cohort, particularly those students in Year 12. Further, the impetus of leadership and becoming role models is emphasised for all our VCE students. Here at RSC, we are fortunate in having such a fine cohort of student leaders.

The Prefect Induction was indeed another momentous occasion that saw our guest speaker, Mr Richard Harslett, himself a Head Prefect in 2006, address our prefects on leadership and indeed, the path traversed by Richard himself. A speech that was very much appreciated by all who attended.

We would like to thank all the parents that attended, our delightful Year 7 audience and all the teachers that gave up their class time to be present.

Mr James Barut

Assistant Principal

From Mrs Allison

We are well into the term, reaching the half way point this week. Co curricula programs are in full operation with the ‘Chicago’ Musical Production cast announced this week, sports programs underway and all students fully settled into their classes and studies.

The wellbeing of our students is always important and several points for students and their families to consider are detailed below.

Bullying NO WAY!

The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence 2017 is March 17th. This annual day provides a focus for everyone to say Bullying No Way! To strengthen the everyday message that bullying and violence at school are not okay at any time. A strong message for students to contemplate is to treat each other with respect.

“ Do unto others as you would have them do to you”

Please ensure that you and your son/daughter revisits the College’s policies and agreements on correct usage of the Internet, school equipment, uniform and behaviour. Each student must adhere to the clear guidelines and protocols outlined on the College website.

This week’s wellbeing focus…

Wellbeing Builder: Family Teamwork   

Wellbeing Element: Relationships and Optimism    

Character Strength: Love

When students enjoy transparent, honest and caring relationships with their families, they are: 1) happy in themselves and approach what they do positively 2) in a position to make the most of family teamwork.

Families can look for what they are doing well. A great exercise for families is for its members to do the free Character Strengths Survey at www.viacharacter.org then each member will know their top strengths
and conversations can be about how they can use their strengths to achieve what they set out to. Receiving and accepting feedback from family on how they are travelling, enables students to self-assess and then set self-expectations to live by. 
Students need regular developmental, non judgemental feedback. The adolescent brain is a turbulent place, with the good decision making centre, the Pre-frontal Cortex, not completely wired up as such, while they can create emotions just like adults, they don’t yet have the capabilities to consistently control them. This often leads to any feedback to be seen by them as criticism. 
The key is to treat all of their activities equally; an over emphasis on school fires the turbulence in their brains up, discuss how they can use their individual strengths overcomes this. 


Mrs Maria Allison

Assistant Principal