Principal's Report

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

This time last year we were returning from Remote and Flexible Learning 2.0. The landscape has certainly changed in education as we now are back from Remote and Flexible Learning 5.0 and heading into remote and flexible learning 6.0. Each time it is a challenge for staff, students and families. We are aware that some families are finding it more difficult to support or engage their children each time and we are conscious of the impact this has on families. Upon returning this time we have put in place more supports to assist students with their health and wellbeing aspect of returning. Last week we focused on rebuilding relationships, developing connections to each other and are revisiting our school expected behaviours, particularly Be kind, thoughtful and inclusive of everyone.

This week we have been running lunchtime catch up sessions each day and staff are volunteering time to support students to catch up on the work they have been unable to complete in remote and flexible learning. We have also limited homework for Year 7-10 students so they can complete unfinished learning at home. These are the tasks that you would have received a Compass notification about referred to Non-Completion of Required Learning (NCORL). At the end of next week, families will be informed if there is still outstanding leaning to be completed and we will work with you to ensure your child does not continue to stay behind. This may result in parent meetings with a focus on how we can work together to best support students that are still behind in their learning as it is likely that this may continue to occur again and students can’t continue to have gaps in their learning if they are to be successful in the future.

I would like to thank all of our students and families for doing the right thing and having face masks. The return onsite with face masks has been very pleasing with an overwhelming majority of students doing the right thing. This time though, government guidelines have stated that they must also be worn outdoors at all times, previously it was only required if you could not socially distance from others. To recognise the students that are doing that right thing at recess and lunch time, yard duty teachers will be identifying students and writing their names down on a yard duty sheet if they are wearing their face masks and each student who has their name recorded  will go into a raffle which will be held twice a week with 10 x $10 canteen vouchers up for grabs. 

Whole School Professional Learning Day – Thursday 12th August (postponed to date to be advised) and Monday 1st November

Due to still being in lockdown we have moved our PD day to Thursday 12th August                  (postponed.)This will be a  whole staff professional development day. Therefore scheduled lessons will not occur. Instead students can use this day to catch up on their learning and prepare to return to onsite learning. Our focus for the day will be on preparing for the school review. We will spend time looking at our data sets and working in teams to provide feedback on specific aspects of the College over the previous 3 years.

Following on from this we will look at holding student and parent forums to gather information and feedback from the wider school community and we are looking forward to having as many people involved in providing feedback as possible.

Having feedback from our parent/carer community as we go into our school review early in Term 4 will be extremely valuable. Very shortly all families will receive a link to the online Parent/Carer/Guardian Survey (previously known as the Parent Opinion Survey). We would be grateful if as many families as possible completed this. To acknowledge the time taken to do this online (approximately 15 minutes) we are offering a small prize for the children in each family if they come to the front office with a photo/evidence of the survey being submitted. This could be a screenshot of the last page of the survey.

We have one more whole school Professional Learning Day which will be on Monday 1st November, 2021. This is the day before the Melbourne Cup Day and was rescheduled due to the lockdown earlier this year. We will be using this day to share the outcomes of our review and begin writing our new School Strategic Plan for 2022-2025 and our 2022 Annual Implementation Plan. 

Careers Expo

On Wednesday 21st July we held our Online Careers and Information Expo. Our current Year 8, 9 and 10 students attended a presentation via video conference led by the Year Level Leaders, Ms Sue Clancy, Mr. Brett Hudson and Mrs. Marie Clark, which provided families and students with information on the course offerings for 2022, subject choices and upcoming changes to the Senior Secondary pathways in 2023.

We had over half of every year level join in for each of the sessions which was pleasing and many Domain Leaders were also there and are available for questions, along with staff in their domain, if you have any questions about any of the subjects on offer next year.

A massive amount of work went in to the planning of this evening and we were all prepared for it to be face to face at the Memorial Hall. I would like to acknowledge Mrs. Tanya McIntosh and Mrs. Marie Clark for all the behind the scenes work in the lead up to the event, communicating with industry representatives, universities, TAFEs and many other organisations who would have set up a stall at the expo. It was a shame that it needed to move online at such short notice but everyone is becoming used to adapting at such short notice.

School Review – Term 4

Every Victorian Government school is reviewed once every four years. The reviews play an important part in how the department supports school improvement. They provide schools with independent feedback, tailored to their context and needs. Principals use the review findings to work with their school community and Region to develop clear actions to move the school forward.

Our School Review will be occurring in Term 4. Our School Reviewer – Mr. Robert Stephens has a keen interest in rural schools, having recently completed his PhD based on the aspirations of rural secondary school students and has an extensive career working in the Principal Class at various different schools and then as a Regional Director. After meeting with Robert last term, I am really looking forward to his involvement in our review and the feedback he will provide based on our context. We also have 2 challenge partners who will be on our review panel. Mr Noel Creece is a current Principal who has held this position in both Primary and Secondary schools, with experience in low-mid and also high socio- economic areas. His knowledge of the learning continuum from F-12 and background in primary and secondary settings will be extremely valuable in supporting our work moving forward. Our second challenge partner is Mrs. Lynette Kerrison. She is currently the Assistant Principal at a secondary college in Gippsland. Her experience and knowledge in teaching and learning as well as literacy has seen significant improvement in student outcomes at the school she works in and her feedback will be valued as we continue to focus on improving the literacy skills for all of our students.

Our school review dates next term are:

Tuesday 12th October – Validation Day

Monday 18th October – Field Day

Friday 22nd October – Panel Day

Feedback from students, parents/carers and the community is an important part of a school review, with everyone encouraged to have their say. Later in the term we will be conducting forums for students and parents/carers to collect their feedback on a range of things such as:

• What we are doing well and should keep doing?
• How we can improve things further?
• What you would like to see our school doing well in 4 years?
• What you believe are our top three achievements over the last 3 years?

The new strategic plan will be developed based on the outcomes of the review and will be in place from 2022 – 2025.

We are also looking for more parent/carers to join our school council. If this is something that you are interested in, please contact either myself or Hans Simon (School Council President) to discuss further on 5147 1790.

Student Leadership Review

As part of our AIP this year, a review is currently underway to improve the Student Leadership systems and structures at Maffra SC. We aim to improve student voice, agency and leadership by establishing effective student leadership structures and processes in all aspects of our school. To start with, we aim to develop a more consistent approach to our student leadership application processes and improve clarity of the roles and responsibilities of our student leaders. Your participation in this survey will help us to identify the most ideal student leadership structure and processes for Maffra SC. The review party has created a short survey to collate thoughts from parents/carers, students and staff and we would value as many people as possible to complete this survey to provide us with the information needed to establish and improve our current structures:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q57XQ8R. 

The survey will close at 3:30pm on Wednesday 11th August, 2021

School for Student Leadership

Our six Year 9 students have finally left and joined the other schools from around Victoria at the School for Student Leadership – Alpine School on Sunday. Due to lockdown our students were unable to attend on the expected date last Sunday and began their SSL program online last Wednesday when all other students returned to school. A big congratulations to Ruby Wolstenholme, Meagan Webster, Kasey Svenson, Miller Stephens, Derek Brewer and Billy Johnson from Year 9. Unfortunately, there will be no parent weekend catch up, instead it will be done virtually and we await confirmation on whether we will be able to send staff up for the presentation day towards the end of the term. We hope they get so much out of this experience even though it has already been slightly adapted for them.

Ms Jennifer Roep

Principal