Ms Kerrie Williams - Assistant Principal : Wellbeing
As we head towards the middle of term 2 and the days seem to be getting shorter as we move closer to the darkness of winter, it is an opportunity to acknowledge the many things that have been happening in the first part of of the year.
Our re-established Parent Child Safety Sub-Committee had our first meeting on Wednesday 6th May.
This Committee has been reformed this year with the focus on our Child Safeguarding processes and procedures so that our parents can add input from a parent point of view to compliment the work done in this space at the College.
The Committee commended the College's work ensuring that over the past two years all Child Safeguarding policies have been reviewed and updated to ensure compliance with the various governing bodies that oversee this aspect of the College.
The Committee are very keen to see what is happening on a day-to-day basis. They would like to focus on areas such as our Bullying and Harassment and Digital Citizenship Policy and how we approach breaches of these policies, as they reflect how we are also keeping our young people safe and protected. They would also like to speak to some students about how they feel about safety on a day-to-day basis at school.
We look forward to sharing insights into their work in further editions of the newsletter.
On Tuesday 12th May we welcomed Sarah Morgante from One Red Apple back to the College to present to our staff in our all staff meeting. Sarah's session focused on Child Safeguarding and helped staff unpack our Child Safety Code of Conduct Policy.
The policy outlines to staff acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and how our actions support the safety of the young people in our care.
Staff identified scenarios where behaviours was inappropriate and why and what we as a community can do to ensure that inappropriate behaviour in any form is not part of how we operate as a staff or community.
We have had a focus for 2026 on Child Safeguarding and working towards a culture of not just saying it is important but living in it each and every day.
This will continue to be part of our Professional Learning over the course of the year.
Our school cares about the safety and wellbeing of our students and their families. Sometimes things at home or in a relationship are not OK or families can be worried about the wellbeing of their children or young people.
The Orange Door can help you to get the support you need, quickly and easily. It is free and you don’t need a referral. They provide support for concerns with parenting, relationships, and family violence.
The Orange Door is a free intake and assessment service for:
Each Orange Door location across Victoria has their own phone number and email.
Students and their families can also visit their local Orange Door in person for support, Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm for support.
No appointment is needed.
To find your local service, see: The Orange Door – Support near you.
How schools connect with The Orange Door Our school might talk to a student and/or their family about The Orange Door.
We might encourage them to contact their local Orange Door to get advice and help if needed.
This service is here to support our families when they are the most vulnerable.
I would like to mention the importance of days such as this when we talk about building community and team spirit.
It is important for all members of our community to feel connected and days such as this allow us to build on COMMUNITY.
What a difference a week makes
It was deeply disappointing that we needed to postpone the day due to the weather. We need to identify this day at the end of 2025, and the weather was amazing in the week either side of this day but last week the weather Gods were not so kind.
We look forward to the School Executive team finding an alternative date for this event some time later in the year when the warmer weather seems to be kinder to us.
On Wednesday 3rd June we will hold our first Sudanese and Burmese Information Evenings for 2026. The evening will take place between 6.00pm and 7.30 pm.
The focus of the evening will be on Parent Engagement and what we as a school can do to support our families to ensure that our students are succeeding and flourishing in their learning and wellbeing.
With the warmer weather many of our students continue to wear their summer dresses and while this is fine if students are wearing either school pants or winter skirts, they should be also wearing the following:
A reminder about grooming expectations:
Staff have been asked to follow these concerns up and students who cannot correct their uniform concern can be removed or sent home.
A reminder to all of our families dropping off and picking up students at the beginning or end of the day that this should not take place in our bus zones or on Glengala road as it impacts on the movement of our buses. We have car parks next to St Paul's Church for these purposes. Remember that this is a shared road and we should not blocking traffic. We thank you for your support with this.
A reminder to all our families of the obligation to inform us of any student absence and to explain that absence. Sadly, for our Student Receptionist on many occasions when we begin to follow up absences at the beginning of the day, many families do not contact the school to explain the absence.
It is a legal obligation from parents to explain student absences.
Students should also bring to school Doctor’s Certificates if they have them to explain their absence or a written note from home for years 7-10.
For VCE a Doctor’s Certificate is an expectation to explain absences.
Over the course of the term many students may have brought home an Attendance Follow up sheet from their homeroom teacher asking them to explain absences. These need to be returned to homeroom teachers.
However, our preference would be for these not to be sent home as parents have explained all the absences on the day that they occur.
For students with significant unexplained absences, our Attendance Officer is now in the process of sending attendance letters home.
We thank all our families who support our processes.
We have noticed over the course of the first part of the year, that an increasing number of students are coming late during homeroom. Sometimes this lateness is due to our school buses being caught in traffic and we recognise and understand this. However, the students we are referring to are students who do not travel on school buses but are just late. This impacts on student attendance and at VCE has an impact on expectations for each unit.
As we move towards the middle part of the year, we will begin analysing this data and following up with students who are consistently late and try to address the reasons why.
For many of our senior students they would not be consistently late for work, so we are unsure as to why it is okay to be late for school.
As we head towards the middle of the year and we balance this with the darkness that winter brings, may we remember that there is light at the end of that darkness for us all….
In the meantime, take care of yourself and do something that nourishes your own wellbeing and self-care. Walking the dog, reading, cooking or just a quiet moment to think. Whatever works for you remember YOU matter.