‘Best Camp Ever’ was the overwhelming consensus following our staff and students return on Friday from their 3-day camp at Anglesea. With so many highlights, plentiful amounts of good camp food, challenge activities to test students, good company with friends, supportive staff and fun games and activities throughout the camp, the experience was one that the students will never forget! Congratulations to all staff and students involved- we are very proud of the way you conducted yourselves on the camp and very pleased to see your big smiles upon your return.
Respectful Relationships Data Findings
As you are aware, students undertake several surveys set by the Department annually to gauge the effectiveness of our programs and to offer students with voice and agency. Recently we have received our college Respectful Relationships survey data, and I am pleased to share with you the fantastic findings. In comparison to the state, Newcomb Secondary College students rated higher against the state average in almost every measure. Of particular note was the extremely positive measures of our males. The survey findings showed our male students rating well above the state average in-
What it means to have a respectful relationship
Confidence and capabilities in relationships
Challenging traditional gender roles
Dispelling myths about family violence
Consent
A further pleasing finding of the data was the response parity between our males, females, and self-described students. The data showed that all students viewed the questions in a consistent manner and their responses were of equal measure. For instance, in the section on What it means to have a respectful relationship, our students rated ‘two people have an equal say’, ‘you trust each other’, ‘you listen to each other’ and ‘you compromise’ all significantly above the state average and of equal rating across the board from our female, male and self-described student groups.
As a school we can be proud of this data set. It highlights the success of our respectful relationship programs and curriculum and the value for which our staff and students place on this very important area. As a community we should be proud of our students and can trust that our students will grow into learned, considerate, mature, and respectful participants in all relationships they enter and in turn responsible upstanding community members.
Building Programs
We are starting to see the construction program take shape at both Newcomb Secondary College and the Victorian Sailing School (Newcomb Secondary College's second campus) on the Geelong Waterfront. As this article is being written, the framework has been constructed for our new shed (see pictures below) and the concrete work on all levels of the Sailing School has also been completed. The favourable weather has seen both projects run ahead of schedule and with minimal issues which is pleasing to see. In June, the new Basketball Courts will begin their construction as too will the college perimeter fence line. The lockers will be installed during the Term holidays. At the Sailing school, construction will start on the internal areas and external walls- we can’t wait to take possession of these fantastic new facilities for our students and our community.
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.
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.
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 understanding adolescence - for families.
Young people undergo many different changes as they go through adolescence and increasingly take on adult roles and responsibilities.
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.
Year 9 & 10 Textiles students went to the National Wool Museum to learn about a process called needle felting and created their own Murnong daisies from felting sheep’s wool. The daisies were a great source of nutrition for the Wadawurrung people but were almost wiped out with the introduction of sheep, because they love them too.
On the 14th of May the 2024 Intermediate Concert Band which is made up of Year 8 students went on a trip to the Belmont Community Health Center for our first out of school performance. I’m very proud of how well the band represented Newcomb Secondary College. The band performed very well and left the audience asking when we will be coming back! The songs we played were Woodpecker Convention, Squonk Blues, Curious Cobbler, Moonlight Bliss, The Fire's Fury, Star Wars (in honour of Star Wars Day on May the 4th), Blue Sky Rock, Blizzard Blues and Cango Caves. Afterwards the lovely people at Barwon Health served us some really good food and lollies to thank us for our performance. On behalf of the band thank you to Mr Crowther, Ms Baker-Goldsmith and Mrs Bourke for organising this great performance opportunity for the band, we had a lot of fun.
Brodie Cardigan 73 ( Intermediate Concert Band Captain)
While our Year 7 students were going to be on camp during the Year 7 netball tournament, our girls had the opportunity to participate in the Year 8 netball tournament, on Tuesday, May 21st.
Playing against North Geelong, Bannockburn and Surf Coast in a consolation final, the girls had a successful day out. Our best score and most competitive game of the three was our first one, against North Geelong, with the girls just going down 2 – 8 goals.
Despite playing in a higher-level competition, never having played together as group (apart from our two trainings) and having a few players who had never played competitively before, the girls all did a wonderful job!
Thank you to Tracey Whittaker and Riley Cameron (Year 11) for assisting on the day and encouraging the girls throughout the day.
Mrs. Stoneley
Year 9 Student Support
Indonesian & English Teacher
Newcomb Secondary College
Excellent Tournament Fun!
The netball was really fun even though we lost all 3 games! We went up against North Geelong, Bannockburn and Surf Coast. They were all hard teams to play up against but we still had fun and tried our best. I really enjoyed our time there and Ms Stoneley was a really good coach.
It may have rained on the day but there were plenty of rainbows and smiles on the faces of our students who came to celebrate IDAHOBIT Day with lunchtime activities in the Learning Resource Centre. Internationally celebrated on May 17th every year, IDAHOBIT Day aims to raise awareness of inclusion and standing out against LGBTQIA+ discrimination. Students made their own badges using the Newcomb Secondary College badge maker with Ms Rusiniak and Ms Dewar or used the big badgemaking equipment with Ms Naomi Ford from Newcomb Library who made a special visit! Other students made bookmarks with Ms Allinson, Ms Davis and Miss Marshall and enjoyed the festival feeling. Students heartily enjoyed the colourful fairy bread and bowls of rainbow lollies too! We are a welcoming school and celebrate diversity in our midst every day!
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.
We know access to high-speed broadband is a necessity in the 21st 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. We also have Ms Naomi Ford from Newcomb Library to run the Lunchtime sessions as well this term, the students are really adoring the opportunity to discuss their favourite Manga reads and to vote on some new Manga titles for the school library!
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 7 students, students in Ms Wray's Year 9/10 Creative Writing elective unit and some keen Senior Year 10 and 11 students will experience the 6 shortlisted books in the 2 categories, consider the official judging criteria and cast their votes for which books they believe should win.
Each group will record their thoughts on each book in special booklets, 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)!
