From the Principal Team
Public Transport Updates for Term 4
Term 4 brings two great changes to Public Transport for Newcomb Secondary College.
The first is a great convenience to the students who catch the Route 61 or 32 buses after school. McHarry's buslines have graciously agreed to operate a trial using the bus shelters which are inside the school boundaries to the East of the main office building.
We’re very thankful for this trial and hope that our students will gain comfort from the protection from the elements and security from being removed from the main flow of traffic along the busy Bellarine Highway.
It is very important that the curb along this stretch of driveway within the school grounds is kept clear to allow buses to complete this pickup without delay to their overall schedule. Therefore, we’d like to request that all parent and carer cars remain on the Bellarine Hwy, rather than enter the school grounds.
The bus services which will be affected are:
- Route 61 Drysdale via Clifton Springs scheduled to arrive at 3:20pm
- Route 32 Leopold scheduled to arrive at 3:25pm
If this trial proves successful, Newcomb SC will work with McHarry's buslines to make this a permanent arrangement.
The second change is a great boon to the learning opportunities for our students. With some recent changes to the bus timetables, we now have all relevant buses arriving 5 or more minutes after the end of day bell.
This will allow all students to remain in class for the duration of the day and still catch a convenient bus. Students who had previously been given an exemption from class to leave early can now benefit from the final minutes of schooling.
Parent/Carer – Teacher – Student Catch-Ups (For Years 7 – 11)
Book one!
This round of PTS Conferences will be a deviation from the normal in a few ways.
- They will be remote (using Google Meet like NSC students do with their teachers.)
- They will be earlier in the day (2:00pm – 5:00pm)
- They will focus on your child’s wellbeing, engagement, and inevitable return to school.
- We’ll be happy for you to just have 1 (We won’t stop you booking more if you insist though)
Book on Compass or by calling the school.
Interim Reports
Progress reports will be published at the end of this week to update you on how your child has been engaging and progressing in their learning so far this Semester. Whilst schooling has been disrupted by lockdowns and returns to school, learning is still a top priority and these reports, along with the online feedback on Compass for assessment tasks will inform you about how your child’s learning is going.
Last Day of Term Early Dismissal - Friday 12:30pm
As is traditional for the last day of Term 3, and in recognition of the challenging nature of this term, we are pleased to end classes at 12:30 on Friday 17th September. This includes remote learning classes, Year 12 on-site classes and on site supervision for the students attending due to vulnerability or as children of essential workers.
Term 4
COVID laughs at our attempts to plan and schedule our lives. Nevertheless, we do have plans in place for the commencement of Term 4. 2021. At this point we expect all staff and students to resume on site learning for the first day of Term 4 (Monday the 4th of October).
Keep an eye on compass as we near the end of the holidays for updates that may confirm or alter this.
Scott McLeod, Acting Principal
James Murphy, Assistant Principal
Jeremy Sinclair, Acting Assistant Principal
Take care of yourself
Ms Hunt & class 83 have been busy making a Self Care board this week. Featuring things they like to do to cheer themselves up or improve their mood. Some great ideas.
A Message from Senior Years Coordinator
Newsletter – Senior Years Update
First and foremost, a very big thank you to all of the Senior Years students, staff and parents/carers who are putting in a mountain of work in order to get learning tasks, SACs, SATs, and other forms of assessment finished prior to the end of Term 3; and for some, the end of their 2021 schooling year.
Remote Learning certainly has thrown us all some challenges but Senior Years has risen to the occasion and been actively involved in many Google Meets, online revision lectures, Kahoot Quizzes, Jamboards and so much more. It was lovely seeing people’s faces in Year Level Assemblies last week, where we took time to recognise the importance of R U OK? Day.
On Friday we were lucky enough to have Year 12s return to on-site learning and the vibe in the Language Centre was certainly enhanced with the addition of Mr Sinclair’s portable speaker, creating a disco-like feel for final years VCE & VCAL students. Fresh fruit in the morning and a pizza lunch also helped increase the mood and all left the afternoon with full tummies and a smile on their faces.
With the weather improving, it is the perfect time to get outside when you can, enjoy the sunshine on your face, fresh air in your lungs and listen to the birds. We all need to keep in mind our mental health and wellbeing while also keeping focused on the completion of tasks needed to finish up the school year.
Please look after yourselves and each other. Reach out to your friends or teachers if you need.
We look forward to seeing you all back and ready to go in term 4 – hopefully in person!
Ms Dedini
Acting Senior Years Coordinator
R U OK? Day with Staff
Staffing Updates
Staffing Updates
Farewell Glenn Hopgood. Your years of tireless and optimistic work to keep the facilities of NSC functioning are greatly appreciated. Glenn has retired as our Facilities Manager as of Friday 10th September. He will be missed by staff and students, as will his dogs who sometimes accompanied him to work around the school.
Welcome, Brendan Ryan! Brendan is joining the NSC team as our new Facilities Manager.
Welcome, Malki Saric! Not to NSC (yet) but to the world. Jordy Saric, the school Daily Organiser has taken maternity leave and was pleased to let us know of Malik’s arrival into this world. Congratulations Jordy!
Welcome back Mrs and Mr Honeywell! Whilst their leave may not have been the grand tour they were hoping for, we’re sure they enjoyed themselves. We are very happy to see them both return at the start of Term 4.
Thank you, Mai Le for doing such an outstanding job working with Mrs Honeywell’s classes throughout her leave. We hope we’ll have opportunities to work with her again soon.
From the Archives 1970s
CASUAL DRESS DAY AT NSC
1973
This is a photo that appeared in the Geelong Addy of a casual dress day where the teachers dressed in uniform and some of the kids dressed up as teachers.
Couple of notes from the picture:
Students used to think that teachers dressed in academic robes and they hadn't even seen the Harry Potter films yet.
We are pretty sure that the metre long wooden ruler is still in the school somewhere!
