1 May 2020
Dear Students, Parents and Carers
We have all made it through to the end of the third week of Flexible and Remote Learning. Congratulations to our school community on another successful week of teaching and learning, albeit from a distance. It is so important that we all try to remain calm and positive to support our children/students through this challenging time. If students or parents are experiencing difficulty or just want to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to call the college office, (57441751) and your call will be directed to the appropriate staff member.
Working together with our families
Positive comments of support for our teachers have continued to come from appreciative families, the teachers are very appreciative of these comments, thank you. The teachers have also been very complimentary of parents supporting their child/ren in the home and have been grateful of that support to help them do their job. Please remember if you need support don’t hesitate to contact your child/s teacher/s during business hours. Importantly, parents are not expected to be the teacher in the home.
Term 2 Learning
To clarify, there is discussion in the media around school resuming in Victoria, the clear message coming down from the Premier remains that for Term 2 students will be learning at home. Students who can learn at home must learn from home. If this Victorian Government directive changes in any way I will immediately inform our community.
Our 2020 Year 12 students and families
I would like to acknowledge our Year 12 students this week who are working hard at home and some in small numbers at school. This is obviously a really difficult time for all of you and we understand that you didn’t want to spend your last year of schooling having to social distance from everyone. We empathise with all of you and understand that so far we haven’t been able to have a formal, you may not have been able to celebrate your 18th Birthday with friends or have had to put your licence test on hold. All of this can’t be easy for you, but things will get better, keep up your work and spend this time where possible on your school work.
If you are in Year 12, we are very confident that you will be able to sit your 2020 exams. This will likely happen in December 2020, at the earliest. For those looking to go on to tertiary study in 2021, institutions across the country are committed to ensuring entrance will be open and available and will delay their 2021 start date.
If you are undertaking VCAL, the college will be able to offer alternative assessments to workplace learning. If you are enrolled in a VET unit with a mandatory work placement, you will need to defer your mandatory work placement until it can be conducted. This may affect the timing of the award of your certificate.
The Victorian Government also announced the following adjustments to the delivery of the VCE:
- The General Achievement Test (GAT) will move from June to October or November 2020.
- End-of-year exams will be postponed until at least December 2020.
- School-based assessment tasks will be reduced where possible to relieve some pressure on students as they move to remote and flexible learning arrangements.
VCAL students will have more time to complete their courses and this will be consistent with the revised dates for the VCE.
If you are a VCE/VCAL/VET student or parent of a student and you have any concerns please don’t hesitate to contact the college on 57441751
Kind Regards
Damien Keel
College Principal
