From the Principal
Welcome back to our amazing GEC community to what is another challenging term. I cannot thank our staff, students and parents enough for the amazing way you are managing – I am so proud of all of you and very grateful.
Welcome to our new librarian Ms Clare Murayama who joined GEC at the beginning of Term 3.
To our Year 7 – 10 families, thank you for the great work that went into making our first week of remote learning such a great success. We appreciate how students and parents managed to overcome some of the minor hurdles that arose last week. Please find the Remote Learning Handbook attached again for your reference.
By now all student should have joined a Google Classroom for each subject. If there is any subject students are missing, they should contact their Year Level Coordinator who will provide them with the code.
Last Friday, all students and staff attending on site wore their favourite hat or beanie. We encouraged all students at home to join in the fun too.
Course Counselling is underway. Last week Year 10 students began meeting with course counsellors and this week Year 9 students will start this process during Year 9 Program. Completing this process in a remote environment has posed some challenges. As such we thank students for their patience as we move to an online platform through XUNO. Subject information to help students inform their choices are found on ‘padlets’ on google classroom for 9 and 10 year levels. The VCE information presentation held on the 22nd July has been recorded and can be found on XUNO under ‘News’.
We have adapted our behaviour for learning practices at the college for those students attending on-site during this environment. We would appreciate support from parents/carers in reinforcing these expectations with your child to keep our college safe. In bold and italics are the changes for this period of time.
Do your best to:
- Make learning your focus
- Be punctual and prepared
- Listen respectfully and speak respectfully
- Follow teachers’ instructions
- Follow hygiene rules
Allow others to do their best:
- Work co-operatively with students and teachers
- Behave responsibly and safely, including hand hygiene practices (after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing)
Always act respectfully:
- Respect the rights of others
- Respect personal property
- Respect the school environment
- Respect social distancing where possible (avoid activities where contact is possible)
An immediate exit from the classroom will occur if there is a significant behaviour issue. These include;
- Repeatedly refusing to follow a teacher’s instructions, including walking away from a teacher when being spoken to be a staff member
- Violence of any kind
- Out of uniform without pass or if it cannot be rectified immediately i.e. removal of jewellery, non-uniform jumper / jacket
- Damage to property
- Anti-social behaviour such as swearing, spitting, graffiti, vandalism, abusive language
- Refusing to follow hygiene rules including wearing a mask or social distancing expectations
- Persistent infringement of classroom rules after Warning 1 to Warning 2 have been followed
Specific non-negotiable behaviours we are enforcing in corridors and around the school include;
- No students in the corridors before school and during recess and lunch
- No mobile phones to be on the grounds other than in the locker
- Speaking respectfully to all members of the school community
- All litter to be placed in the rubbish bin
- Crossing the road in a safe and responsible manner
- Following staff instructions
- No pushing in queues in the canteen
- No eating in the corridors or classrooms
- Borrowing or sharing other people’s equipment is not permitted
- No coughing or sneezing into hands. This should be done into your arm.
- Use hand hygiene practices before and after eating, before and after using equipment using the toilet or coughing/sneezing/blowing your nose
- Wearing a mask at all times other than to put food or drink into your mouth
If you have any questions or concerns at anytime, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for the incredible work you are doing to support your children and our college.
Sheereen Kindler - Principal
Nick Hamer-Smith - Assistant Principal
Aaron Petersen - Assistant Principal