Issue 4 01 May 2026

Welcome to term 2. We hope everyone enjoyed a restful and refreshing break and we are excited to welcome all students, families, and staff back for Term 2. This term promises to be a busy and engaging one, filled with new learning opportunities, events, and achievements.

Throughout the term, we look forward to a range of activities and excursions, including Year 9 Morrisby Interviews, Inter-school Sports, and Year 10 Careers Immersion Excursions.

We encourage families to stay connected and involved. Regular attendance, communication, and support at home all contribute greatly to student success. Thank you for your continued support—we look forward to a fantastic Term 2 together!

Timetable Changes

There is a new timetable for term 2 as well as staff changes. All students are encouraged to ensure they check their Compass daily and be prepared for classes.

ANZAC Day Service

The college’s Anzac Day Service was held on Friday 24th April. Guests included veterans from Legacy and an exceptional bugle player who played a moving rendition of the last post. Thanks to all students who modelled our college value of Respect.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

It was pleasing to see many families and students attend conferences to discuss student academic progress and growth. These discussions highlighted the importance of open communication in supporting student success. Teachers were able to share insights into each student’s achievements, areas for growth, and learning habits, while parents offered helpful perspectives from home. This collaboration allows us to better understand and support each child as an individual.

The conferences also reinforced the positive progress many students are making. It was encouraging to celebrate achievements together and to set clear, achievable goals for the term ahead.

Progress Reports

The first round of progress reports will be released via Compass at the end of week 3. Students will spend time in Connect looking at their data and engaging in meaningful celebration and goal setting.

Key Absence Code Updates (2026)

The Department of Education has refined its reporting of attendance and hence there is an expectation that we provide accurate reporting of attendance. As such we have been doing more thorough analysis of absence reasons recorded and noticed some inaccuracies. Can I please encourage parents to enter the most appropriate reason for an absence?

If you are confused by entering a reason for your child’s absence, please contact the relevant sub school and an attendance officer will provide you with appropriate guidance. We will be following up on these inaccurate entries with parents in coming weeks in the hope that we can provide the department with the right information hereafter.

Principal Collegiate Visit

North Geelong is partnering with two other Geelong schools for Principal Collegiate visits. The purpose is to seek professional feedback on a key area of development for schools. NGSC identified the key area of explicit teaching and scaffolding to cater for differing needs of students. It was highlighted that teachers are:

1. Using our Instructional Model to a high standard to engage all students and provide meaningful learning.
2. Providing meaningful homework that enables students to reaffirm their 'appropriate level of challenge' with classwork.
3. Teacher questioning and modelling was great.
4. Using our classroom management strategies to great effect, creating calm and orderly environments for students to prosper.

Be Bold, Be Heard Leadership Summit

The BBBH committee in 2025 embedded a leadership extension component to the program. The objective of this is to build the capacity of students to lead our program at different points throughout the year. This includes organisation of their own forums and the final forum. This proved greatly successful last year and we have strengthened this opportunity in 2026. As well as student leadership we have set up a BBBH staff champion training. All of this is conducted by yLead who run a number of leadership programs around Geelong.

Jessica Barrow, Abigail John and Logan Shrimpton all participated in the program and began to find strength in feeling like they are able to speak up and lead. They are looking to do that based on the importance of their goals. These are important to them and others in their schools, and they felt the strength and felt empowered to deliver what it takes. Some of the comments from students included: “You have a voice, use it!” In response to what is an action you can take to empower the people in this room? Students said, “it is when you give your opinion” another “Looking to each other and telling ourselves to go for it”.

The students were buzzing and embraced the BBBH values of Equity, Connection and Empowerment leaving all obstacles behind in their vision of anything is possible. Leadership camps, state BBBH forum and future leadership alumni opportunities well within their sights.

Schools who participated in the day included Geelong High, Lara Secondary College, Newcomb Secondary, North Geelong Secondary College, Matthew Flinders, Clonard and Bellarine Secondary College.

The Staff Champion PD was structured to enlighten the staff on how the students operate; their leadership understanding and were taken through similar tasks to cause comparison and deep reflection. One of the tasks was to recreate an image in separate groups, with rigid responsibilities and rules, enhancing considered communication to share responsibility. Our staff champions were amazing and, in the end, re-created the image with some great perfections. The overall message being to consider that people often default to focus on their own piece, unless someone is holding and reinforcing the bigger picture. A really valuable message for our BBBH champions. Thanks to our staff champions Mrs Evans, Mrs Baird and Ms Solly.