by Rosina Fotia, Principal

On Monday May 2, I was honoured to welcome the daughter of the founding Principal of the school (Barrie Johnson) and the founding Vice Principal (John Fisher) to the school. Christine presented the school with a painting given to her father on his retirement. It was an honour to meet them both. They had many stories to share and enjoyed walking through the school and the inspection of new facilities.

Learning Focus

As Semester 2 begins to draw to a close, staff are busily completing Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) in each of their subjects. Students are expected to complete at least one CAT per subject per term. Results from these tasks will be reflected in the semester reports.

NAPLAN

From May 10-20 students in Years 7 and 9 completed their online NAPLAN testing. The National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a full cohort assessment of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 that tests the fundamental disciplines of literacy and numeracy. Data from these tests is used by schools to inform planning and development of units of work designed to meet the learning needs of cohorts and individual students.

Curriculum Day

Wednesday May 25 was a scheduled curriculum day at the College. Staff completed their first day of Berry Street training on this day. The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students' self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement. This was the first of four days of training that staff will undertake over the next two years.

Work Experience and Careers Week

Year 10 students Work Experience is a crucial part of the pathways journey for young people. It provides students with exposure to work environments and employer expectations, an opportunity to explore possible career options, as well as an increased sense of maturity, independence and self-confidence. Well done to all the Year 10 students who participated in this valuable experience. During this time, Year 9 students also took the time to explore future pathways; they researched and presented a variety of career options to their peers with the ultimate goal of expanding their understanding of the range of options they have as they move towards post-secondary careers. Well done to the Middle School staff for their efforts in organising this week of activities.

Student Opinion Survey

The Student Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS) is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist your child’s school to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer and family relationships, resilience, bullying, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity and life in general. In our experience, young people enjoy having their say. This survey has been in use for nearly 20 years and it has been invaluable in helping schools understand student views. The College uses the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve each student’s schooling experience. This year, the AtoSS will be conducted between May 23 – June 3.

Athletics Day

Perfect weather greeted students and staff at the annual College Athletics Carnival this month. Student participation rates were at an all-time high and the sunny weather meant that many records were challenged and broken. Congratulations to all who participated and special mention to Yarra House for their clean sweep of all carnival events this year...again!

Building Works

Stage 2 building works are progressing well with the deadline for completion being August 5. Stage 3 works commenced on May 19. The initial part of this works will see E-Wing (Technology) gutted and rebuilt before B-Wing (Science) is demolished before being rebuilt.

Some Parent Reminders

Event deadlines

At this time of the year it is important to remind parents of the need to adhere to event payment deadlines. These deadlines are key to the smooth organisation the school and are set so that planning around buses, replacement staff and equipment can be completed in a timely manner. As such, late payments for events cannot be accepted by the school.

Students leaving early from school

A reminder of the early leavers process at the College:

• Parents/guardians who need to collect their child from school early for any reason during the school day are asked to send a written note with their child, to be brought to the school office before school on the day of early departure. The student will be issued with an early leavers pass to show their teacher when it is time for them to leave.
• The student then signs out at the front office before leaving the school premises.

We understand that situations may sometimes arise during the day, and in this instance, parents are asked to phone the school well in advance of the leaving time to arrange this, before coming to pick up their child. It is often not practical or convenient for the office staff to locate a student at short-notice and in a timely manner without prior notification.

(Please Note: Where at all possible, it is preferred that any appointments are scheduled outside of school hours).

It’s Not OK to be Away!

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

• important skills and knowledge to help them learn
• social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and teamwork

Children who attend school every day and complete Year 12 have:

• better health
• better job opportunities
• higher income across their lives

There is no safe number of days for missing school. Each day a student misses puts them behind.