Absence support

The importance of attendance for students has been well publicised. At NGSC we have high expectations for attendance where we want the students at school so they can learn. The value added to a young person’s mental health and wellbeing is significant when engaged with a school community. Recently we sent out communications to parents of students whose attendance for 2024 was below 40%. The objective was to start a conversation with families to get their child attending more often and to support families to overcome challenges faced with getting to school or engaging with the school community. The letter might have presented its own challenges, but we appreciate parents contacting the school to set up a meeting to best support students in attending more frequently.

Figure 1: A diagram showing the number of high school years missed when attending at a certain percentage.

The meetings being held with families are best outlined in the chart (below) which highlights the avenues of support that NGSC explore.

BE BOLD BE HEARD FORUM 3

Our students took part in the third Be Bold Be Heard girls' forum for 2024. This was held at Lara Secondary College, successfully led by their students. Again, our students were actively involved in the day, dancing up a storm at the start of the day then engaging in questions of guest speakers and enacting their own action plans. The guests at this forum included:
Allison Marchant (politician), Ella George (politician) and Ace Spencer (Immunology scientist).

The students then organised the next part of their work in their action teams which was finalised in the following week. All of us are greatly looking forward to the Celebration Forum where all students will share their successful outcomes with other schools and leaders in the community.

Curriculum Day

We are all probably used to the Curriculum Day perspective shared by the students…another day off! At NGSC we are really pleased to utilise these days to effectively plan and organise engaging programs for all our school community. On Thursday 29th August we explored the introduction of our new “Connect” program. Connect will replace Home Group in 2025 and, instead of being conducted daily, it will be once per week on a Thursday for 25 minutes. These classes will be highly engaging, interactive, enjoyable and targeting the student point of need. Staff were provided some professional learning in the morning of the Curriculum Day and then broke up into year level groups to best plan for the upcoming year of Connect. It was highly entertaining seeing staff coming up with their interactive activities and there was some hilarity when sharing them with staff. I think students will enjoy this new initiative.

Inclement weather

We have had some challenges with the change of seasons and weather. The winds have been significantly strong and, although we have regular checks of trees and overhanging branches the high winds can have a massive impact. To promote the safety of students we have closed the oval during periods of high winds and we have opened up the classrooms for students when needed.

Compass changes

There have been some recent changes to Compass. This will be evident to all the parents and students who use it frequently. From our point of view these have been a positive addition and enable easier use. In addition to this they have updated Newsfeed so that we can count the number of views that have been registered. This will help us in reviewing what is most important to parents. There is also an opportunity to make it more interactive which can enable emojis and feedback, which will be considered in coming weeks.

Shaving

Many boys in years 9-12 have developed facial hair. It is a school requirement that students attend school clean shaven (to revise the uniform requirements such as these, please refer to the webpage or the student diary). In the event the student has not met this requirement we will have a conversation with them about the expectation and request they return the next day meeting this requirement. Should the student continue to come to school unshaven they will be given lunchtime detention and further consequences such as after school detention. In addition to this students will be provided with shaving cream and a shaver or sent home to shave. We thank parents for supporting the communication of this expectation.

Geelong Tertiary Futures Program (GTFP)

Year 9 students are taking part in a program that engages them with the TAFE opportunities in Geelong. This involves modules in class and several visits to the campuses of the Gordon TAFE. This program has been going on for a number of years now and is very successful at showcasing the numerous opportunities for students in our region. At the last GTFP immersion experience students took part in a range of programs that were tailored to their interests. They came back from the day full of knowledge and enthusiasm for a variety of pathways and we thank the staff at the Gordon for providing these opportunities. The next TAFE day will be on Friday 13th September.