Newsletter- Term 2 Week 5 2024

Feedback Week

Can you believe that we have hit the mid-way mark of Term 2? Where did that time go? Yes, this week is week five and it signifies our college Feedback week. Over the course of this week, teachers will be entering feedback on your students’ outcomes and growth against our college values of Learning, Respect and Working Together. The Feedback collated will then be shared with you all on Compass in the form of our Positive Learning Qualities (PLQ). The PLQ feedback will be presented in an easy-to-read graphical representation and will be repeated on four occasions across Semester 1 allowing you to observe and identify any trends in your students’ outcomes. In addition to the PLQ feedback, remember to keep up-to-date and informed of your students’ achievements via their Learning Task results on Compass. Newcomb SC staff also share observations and achievements against our Positive Futures Framework via our Positive Acknowledgements on Compass- these can occur at any time when observed so it is important that you continue to stay connected to Compass. We encourage you to have frequent discussions about with your student about their progress at school and encourage you to reach out to our awesome staff (wellbeing, learning mentors, teachers) should we be able to further inform and support you and your student.

Mobile Phone Ban in School: Newcomb Secondary College Policy strengthening.

You will have noticed that over the course of this year, I have reminded the Newcomb Secondary College community of the Department of Education’s Mobile Phone Ban in all state schools. The Newsletter articles in Term 1 (Week 5) and Term 2 (Week 2) not only highlighted the policy and research underpinning the stance, but equally offered information on exemptions and other frequently asked questions. The communication highlighted that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.

As you would be aware, the department requires all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced. The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state. This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions. By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause. We ask for the support of all our families, staff, and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.

I raise this once again to alert our community that we will be strengthening the application of our mobile phone policy at Newcomb Secondary College, starting semester two. Like other state schools, we do so to ensure that all students comply to the ban, and whilst most students are compliant with the ban, some students do require additional support or oversight to comply. This additional oversight by Newcomb Secondary College leadership and staff is distracting from the work we need to do in support of student learning and wellbeing. As such, and like many other schools, Newcomb Secondary College students will soon be asked to hand-in their mobile phones should they be visible or in use throughout the school day. We need to stress that, again like similar schools, the phones will be stored securely at the administration office and returned to the student, and/or parent, at the end of the school day. This strengthening of the policy and its application at Newcomb Secondary College will not occur until semester two, hence this information is an opportunity for the college community to prepare for the policy strengthening. We thank you for your understanding and support in this important matter and we welcome your feedback.

Victorian Sailing School

In last week’s Newsletter, I made note of the progress on our facility upgrades at Newcomb Secondary College. I can report that they continue to make good progress- students are starting to become very excited about the end product being realised very soon. Equally, I am happy to report that the Victorian Sailing School, the second campus of Newcomb Secondary College is also making great progress. The Victorian Sailing School is situated on Eastern Beach, alongside the big wheel. I am sure that you have seen the construction site and may not have appreciated that the site itself, and the construction of the building is part of our college.

The Victorian Sailing School offers a sailing program to students from all over the state of Victoria. It is a program that is conducted by Newcomb Secondary College staff. We are excited to be able to open the $12 million dollar facility in 2025, with our Royal Geelong Yacht Club and community partners, and look forward to Newcomb Secondary College and other state school students benefiting from the amazing resource for many years to come.

Have a great week!

Regards,

Scott McLeod

Principal

Newcomb Secondary College

81-85 Bellarine Highway | Newcomb 3219

T: (03) 5248 1400 | F: (03) 5248352

Creating Positive Futures

Dear parents and caregivers,

Welcome back to Term 2! 

In Term 1 of 2024, across all year levels, 64% of absences remain unexplained – something that we hope our college community can assist us with by accessing Compass and attending to your student’s absence reason.

Of the absences provided with a reason, 20% are due to Medical, 10% listed as Parent Choice (unapproved) and a combined 6% noted as Truancy, Refusal or Family Holiday.

At Newcomb Secondary College, we strive for high attendance to support your child’s learning, and social, emotional and mental wellbeing. We endeavour to work with and support all families in our community; we all want and need to do better for our students.

We can provide the best supports for students and families when absences are explained. Protecting the safety and well-being of students through the reporting and monitoring of absenteeism is the responsibility of both parents/carers and Newcomb Secondary College.

Communication is a critical component in ensuring all students can maximise their learning and engagement. If your student is struggling with attendance due to anxiety, health, truancy, refusal or another barrier, please let us know so we can work together to support your student. We understand that there are barriers preventing attendance and prioritise support for those families. There are a range of resources available to support you with helping students to re-engage and improve school attendance.

• 95% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing 10 days per year.
• 90% = 1 day per fortnight or 20 days per year.
• 85% = 30 days per year (chronically absent)
• 80% = one day per week or 40 days per year.

Research has shown that consistent student attendance at school is directly linked to better health, social and employment outcomes.

We have 30 students with perfect attendance of 100% and 130 students above 95%; a huge congratulations and thank you to these students and their families.

A few friendly reminders:

• If your student has any outstanding unexplained absences for Term 1, please access the Compass portal to view and enter reasons for these absences.
• If your student must be absent, please contact the office as soon as possible on the same day.
• Please avoid booking family holidays during the school term.
• Please aim to only keep students home if they are too unwell to attend.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your student’s attendance, or if you or your student requires any support with school refusal, please contact the school on (03) 5248 1400 or the school’s attendance officer.

The Attitudes to Schools Survey is a voluntary annual student survey offered by the Department of Education to assist schools and the department to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experiences of school. We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and will be asking your child about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer relationships, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

This year, the survey will be conducted at Newcomb Secondary on June 12 and 13.

If families do not wish for their child to participate, please decline this event. Participation in this survey is voluntary. Please confirm your intention to decline by June 10.

If families do wish for their child to participate, you do not need to action anything. If we do not receive a refusal of consent by June 10th, this will be taken as your consent for your child to participate in the 2024 Attitude to School Survey. However, as noted above the survey is voluntary and even with your consent, your child can choose to withdraw or not respond to questions at any time.

Parent information and consent letter Attitudes to Schools Survey 2024

Mr Joshua Grabowski

Assistant Principal

Newcomb Secondary College

Newcomb Secondary College is fortunate enough to have a Doctors in Schools Program running 2 days a week.

We have both a GP, and Mental Health Nurse that attend onsite to run a clinic on a Tuesday and Wednesday. This clinic is for any student in Years 7-12. The appointments are bulk billed, meaning that there is no cost to families.

Appointments can be made by either contacting the schools Wellbeing Team or calling Bellarine Community Health on 5253 0400.

Students may access this service to address any of the following:

• Physical pain or issues
• Health lifestyle (sleep, diet, nutrition, exercise)
• Mental health
• Sexual health and contraception
• Sexuality and gender identity
• Body image
• Scripts

If you would like to know more, please contact Jane Osborne in our Wellbeing Team.

Jane can either be reached by contacting the school office, or via email at jane.osborne@education.vic.gov.au

Jane Osborne

Newcomb Secondary College

Student Wellbeing & Engagement

Ph: 5248 1400 | 

E: Jane.Osborne@education.vic.gov.au

Welcome!

This health content is brought to you by Doctors in Secondary School.

Please find the selected resources from your healthcare team below. These resources offer a trusted source of relevant health information. We hope you find them helpful and informative.

This week's focus is on how to reduce stress and prepare for exams.

To help reduce stress and ensure that you're as organised as you can be, learn more about planning and looking after yourself and about staying focused in order to be as ready for the exam as you can be.

To learn more, visit the webpage by, clicking here.

For further discussions about this topic, please contact the DiSS GP and Nurse at your school.

Please remember that the information provided is not a substitute for diagnosis, treatment or medical advice by your health care professional. If you have any concerns about your health, visit your health professional or, in an emergency, call 000 (Australian residents).
Please click on the link below or scan the QR code to access the information sheets.

GoShare Healthcare (realtimehealth.com)

COGG 2024 Term 2 Regional Parenting Calendar

Soon the Cartesian Plane painted on the bitumen in the school yard will become Basketball courts. Last Wednesday became sunny during Session 3 and Group 81 had completed lots of Maths Pathway modules, I took them outside and got them to line up at the origin of the x- and y-axes. I then used a deck of Multo cards to randomly generate a series of coordinate pairs for the students to each plot in turn until they were all scattered across the positive first quadrant. They did this by first moving along the x-axis to their first number and then moving up to their y number, parallel to the y-axis. 

Once they were familiar with plotting, I got them to line up along the x-axis on a number each. On a white board I wrote and held up y = 2 and they all moved forward as a line. Then I held up y = -3 and they all moved back in a line. Then we stepped it up trying y = x, y= -x and other equations like y= 2x - 4 etc. The students discussed their positioning and helped each other, particularly for those starting on negative x-coordinates. 

We discussed what happened to the student at the y-intercept each time, and we discussed the gradient of our straight lines, particularly when we used fractions for the coefficient of x in our equations. To finish off we tried y = x² and everyone was amazed to see our larger x-coordinate students disappear into the distance, (-10)² = 100 and so on. So, we tried y = ⅕ x² and produced an impressively curved parabola. All this rich learning within just 20 minutes!

Over 2 wonderful weeks we had the pleasure of hosting some friends from our sister school in Lombok. Our school, along with Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College and Surf Coast Secondary College, welcomed the students by engaging them in exciting excursions and fun days in school. They were lucky enough to go to Melbourne up to the Eureka Skydeck and to the Victoria Markets, to Deakin Waurn Ponds Campus and to the Narana Aboriginal Cultural Centre.

At school we had them in VCD, Textiles, Wood, Food, and of course Indonesian, where they were able to create their own souvenirs and memories with our school. They made some amazing connections and friendships with our students at Newcomb, which we hope to continue growing when we head over to Lombok for our Exchange Program.

On Wednesday night we had our Farewell Evening for all of the schools and it was a huge success! To fit the theme of Australian living we hosted a classic Aussie BBQ, complete with snags in bread!

Thursday morning got a bit teary, with our families saying their goodbyes as the students headed to the airport.

Our awesome host families did a fantastic job opening their homes to our friends from Lombok and making them part of the family. We can't thank you enough!

Ms Ramsay

On Thursday the 2nd of May, 59 of our students headed to Interschool Athletics. congratulations to Bailey Thomas and Chantelle Brundall in Javelin, Dakota Harrington in the 100m and 200m, Katelin Cobb in Shot Put, Noah Jackson in the 400m, Bailey Thomas in High Jump. These are the students who came first in their events. Well done to all of the students who took time out of their day to come along and support the school, congratulations to all other students who placed or had a go in their events. Newcomb Secondary College were placed 2nd in the Senior Girls Division. Thank you for representing the school so well and we hope to see you there again next year!!

Remy Ohara (House Captain)

Last Thursday on the 9th of May our Newcomb Secondary College Senior football team went out for the day and played multiple games representing the school. On this day we represented our school amazingly and displayed great qualities such as leadership, teamwork and resilience. We ended up defeating Lara and making the semi-final. We were unfortunately defeated by Western Heights in the semi-final but nevertheless it was an amazing day! I would like to lastly thank Mr Colbert and Mr Relouw for taking us out and making such an exciting, fun experience possible for us. 

The After School Homework Club is in Room B2 every day except Thursdays. Students are welcome to attend to catch up on classwork, complete homework, receive individual tutoring or to work with classmates on a group project. They may attend for 15 minutes to sort out just one problem or they may attend right up to 5pm to accomplish a greater amount of learning. Those who attend will be awarded a positive learning chronicle (with reward token) and will be offered food. 

Mr Curnick

We’re excited to let you know that entries for the 2024 Insight Creative Writing Competition are OPEN. If we have any budding writers from Years 7–12 at our school, please enter! We’d love to see your work.

Here is a quick reminder of the guidelines Insight have made to help students get even more creative with their entries.

• All year levels have an upper limit of 1400 words. There is no minimum word limit.
• We accept other creative writing forms in addition to short stories, including poems, scripts and more.
• This year’s theme (Beauty in the unknown) is optional, giving entrants the freedom to write about anything that inspires them.

To download the submission form and view all conditions of entry, please click below.

DOWNLOAD CONDITIONS OF ENTRY AND SUBMISSION FORM

COMPETITION KEY DATES

Entries open: 18 March 2024
Entries close: 1 September 2024
Longlist announcement: 18 October 2024
Shortlist announcement: 1 November 2024
Awards ceremony: TBA

We’re looking forward to hearing about your stories soon! Good Luck!

Here are some more contact details for the Insight Team

INSIGHT PUBLICATIONS

3/350 Charman Road, Cheltenham 3192 VIC AUSTRALIA

p. +61 3 8571 4950 | m. 0413 131 842 | w. www.insightpublications.com.au

We know access to high-speed broadband is a necessity in the 21^st Century. Yet sadly many families and school students are still unable to access the internet at home and that this can place students at a significant disadvantage.

The Albanese Government is providing up to 30,000 families with free broadband for one year, as part of their plan for a better National Broadband Network (NBN). Already, 1,000 families now have home internet thanks to the School Student Broadband Initiative.

This helps ensure that students can reach their full potential, by helping them to stay connected at home so they don’t fall behind.

To check your eligibility please refer to the contact details below:

We are very fortunate to have strong links with our neighbouring Geelong Regional Library Corporation branch at Newcomb. The Children's and Youth Services Librarian, Ms Laura Farrington, joins us fortnightly to run engaging and interactive sessions promoting genres and doing related craft activities! Laura has a merry band of students who regularly come to her sessions and we invite other students to join us in the school library at 1 p.m. on the dates below! Special activities happen at Easter, Halloween and Christmas with the odd Literature Trivia game throughout the year to spice things up. 

This term we have a focus on Manga and Anime.

Manga VS Anime theme:  4 sessions this term

05/06 – Chibi Paper Craft

19/06 – Manga Trivia: Manga VS Anime

This year Newcomb Secondary College students are participating in the Children's Book Council of Australia's Shadow Judging program with 2 groups casting their votes on the best Australian books published in 2023. We are focussing on 2 categories 'Older Readers fiction' and 'Picture books' which are picture books for older readers. Our Year 7s and students in Ms Wray's Creative Writing elective unit will experience the 6 shortlisted books in the 2 categories, consider the official judging criteria and cast their votes for which books they feel should win. 

Each group will make creative responses based on their favourite shortlisted books (poems, sculptures, fanfiction for example) and we will have celebrations on the day that the votes come out from the CBCA (Term 3). We are looking forward to exhibiting the creative responses at school. Our Australian authors and illustrators are greatly supported by these annual competitions and the Students Choice awards are very important. For further information check out the Children's Book Council of Australia's Website about Shadow Judging. Students will share their creative responses and feedback about the books as they go (on this library page of the Newcomb Secondary College newsletter)!

CBCA Sun Project: Shadow Judging – Young voices welcome here