Next Week @TC

21/10/2022

• EARTH WEEK

• VCE Exams start next week

• Student Free day - TC is closed

• 2022 Grad Celebrations

• Times of the day process update

• Updated policies

• TCNEWS - Elite Dance Showcase Review

EARTH WEEK

TC begins our final Community Integrated Learning Week - EARTH WEEK next week. As always the whole school is involved with students able to participate across many different learning areas focusing on sustainability, climate action, energy and waste reduction. Some of the projects include Videos for Change, Bike n Blend, Micro-Bat Boxes, Native Bird Boxes and a Solutions Waste Project. We are exciting to welcome Lucinda Flynn who will join us and is an Energy Expert. Look out for TCNEWS for the review of all these exciting projects over the next few weeks!

VCE Exams Begin Next Week

VCE Unit 4 exams begin next week! On Wednesday we will see the Unit 4 English and EAL exam take place. There are some modifications to the way the school works through the exam season. As an example, the Portables are used for exams and there are some room changes to accommodate this. The VCE Exam timetable can be found on the VCAA website by clicking here.

Our internal Unit 2 exams do not start until the Unit 4 exams have finished.

Good luck to all of our ATAR pathway VCE Students taking their exams!

Student Free Day - Monday 31st October

On Monday the 31st October we have a Student Free Staff Professional Development Day. These are one of the 4 that schools are mandated to take by the Department of Education. TC will be closed on this day, except for those students sitting their VCE Exams (Psychology in the morning, Further Maths in the afternoon). All other areas of TC will be closed, including the General Office and IT Service Desk. All of our staff will be looking at the implementation of our exciting new School Strategic Plan ahead of 2023.

2022 Grad Celebrations

Thank you to all of those who played a part in our 2022 Grad Celebrations. We are currently working on the post production of the morning assembly and collating photos before we will make these available to everyone.

Times of the Day for 2023 Process - An Update

A quick update: We have now worked through the information gained from students, and are now talking to the bus company to see what is possible. We only wanted to release the information on this once rather than lots of little parts that could change, and are hoping to do this in the next two weeks. For more information, please refer to last weeks information, accessible below. There are no changes to TC opening hours and only a minor change to the times of classes running.

Updated Policies

Term 4 is our policy update time! We are required to let the community know which have been updated. In the past few weeks, we have updated the following policies, they can be found on Our Policies webpage and on the following links:

• Mobile Phone Policy

• Statement of Values and School Philosophy Policy

• Student Drivers Policy

• Camps and Excursions Policy

Elite Dance Showcase Review

Last Friday Night, the award-winning Elite dance team dazzled us with their dance moves to raise money for their Nationals comp next year! Held in the PAC, there were all kinds of performances. From lyrical to hip hop there was a dance for everyone. Also, if you're a fan of amazing music (Beyonce, Madonna, Lana Del Rey and Amy Winehouse) you would've definitely had a good time.

At the Nationals competition next year, held by Dance Life Unite, the elite team will verse schools all around Australia for a national title. The event is held at 'Big Top' in Luna Park, Sydney. It's a great opportunity for students to see what’s out there and experience competing against different states.

Emma Tierney runs the Elite Program every Friday afternoon with guest teacher Tonille, who teaches hip-hop. For the dancers, the group performances were already learnt by heart since they had already performed them earlier in the year at competitions and other showcases, but with the guidance of Emma and Tonille, they had only had a month to choreograph and learn their solos, duos and trios!

If you've ever wondered where the gorgeous costumes are from, the team hire them from the Edge performers school in Eltham. The school has a wide range of options in its stunning costume wardrobe. Emma also teaches at the Edge and is able to go down and choose costumes that she thinks would be a perfect fit for each routine.

For dancer Sam Boscariol, the highlight of the night was the "final bows, hearing the audience cheer and clap and hearing about how much they loved the show. Also the nice compliments from the audience members after the show."

Congrats to all students and staff involved in the fantastic performance!

My personal favourites were:
Burlesque - Group performance
Break my Soul/Vogue - Daniel
Easy to Love - Charlise
Glam - Ash & Jamie
Step Up - Group performance

By Bonnie-Mai Smith
TC Journalist

Last Weeks Annoucements

• Changes to COVID Isolating Guidelines

• 2023 Times of the Day

Changes to COVID Isolating Guidelines

The latest changes to COVID guidelines are now in place. The information below has been copied and pasted from a Department of Education release that was sent to us. Schools will no longer be reporting positive cases to the community.

“It is strongly recommended that students:

• who test positive to COVID-19 stay home and isolate for 5 days

• should not attend school after 5 days if still symptomatic

• who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school

• advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result

Where students become symptomatic at school they should:

• be collected by their parents/carers

• undergo testing for COVID-19”

2023 Times of the Day

This week we started our consultation with students over changes to the times of the day. Whilst we look at student feedback, here is some information below.

Why change?

There has been a statewide change in teachers working conditions as negotiated by the Department of Education. As part of this, teachers now have a reduced time teaching face to face in front of students. More information on this can be found through googling “VGSA2022”.

This has required a change to our structure in order to accommodate this.

What hasn’t changed?

• Our understanding that learning is does not only happen when a student is sat in a classroom. That all of the time here at TC is a learning opportunity. We will still have many other opportunities for learning, rather than just the time sat in a classroom.

• We know that we are not here to just fill students with information

• We have a bigger responsibility than just achieving exam results, study scores

• Our school opening hours

• The hours that staff are onsite

• Our finish time

• Our Teachers willingness to work, support and interact with students outside of “classroom” time

• Early finish time on Wednesday so that students can gain additional qualifications at TAFE, clubs can run onsite, students can access facilities, students have time for extra study or to access our tutors, or for some of our younger students to be able to recover from the high cognitive loads of Monday and Tuesday

• Slightly earlier finish time on Friday, recognising that the adolescent brain is done by this time in the week.

• Prioritising one program over another

• Keeping a simple 1 week timetable in which students of all ages have a consistent recess and lunchtime, and all classes have 3 periods per weeks

• Having a timetable in which all students can access all the opportunities through the school.

• We have avoided Teachers sharing classes (except in exceptional circumstances)

What has changed?

• A reduction of our 90 minute periods to 70 minutes

• An introduction of a 30 minute period 0 starting at 8:40. More on what will be available in this time to follow.

• Period 1 starting a bit later that this year. This fits in with the research around the adolescent brain.

• More clubs and activities running throughout the day. There will be greater transparency around where and when these are running.

• More opportunities for students to be able to work in small study groups

• Connect has seen a small increase in time from 25 minutes to 30 minutes. This will take place on the same days as this year.

• More opportunities for students to be able to use the resources at the school in a more self directed manner as they continue to develop their skills of independence and self regulating learning, whilst being supported by staff

• A planned increase in camps experiences available, and immersive day learning experiences

Our Next Steps

We are currently collating the feedback that we have received from students.

This feedback allows us to look at what students see as the potential problems and benefits that arise from the new timetable in order to look at what we put in place to minimise or manage risks, and enhance benefits.

We will then release the information to parents. This process will happen very quickly.

TC NEWs takes a short break at the start of this term, we look forward to bringing you more exciting articles in the Term 4 weeks to come.

Previous Week’s Annoucements

• Earth Week - Videos For Change Competition

• Term 3 Newsletter Release

• Final Dates for VCE CATCH Up Classes

• Term 4 Key Dates

• Beginning of 2023 Arrangements

EARTH WEEK - VIDEOS FOR CHANGE COMPETITION

Welcome back to Term 4 TC! 

This term our Community Integrated Learning theme is EARTH WEEK. EARTH WEEK is eek 4 (Oct 24 - 28) however there will activities happening throughout the term on this theme. 

During this term we will be running a Videos For Change competition. We are looking for impactful one-minute videos that inspire social change on the theme of EARTH. There are lots of cash prizes for individual filmmakers and teams as well as prizes for Connect groups that make videos. You don't need any fancy equipment to make the video; it's all about how you can make the biggest impact on your viewers and get the message of environmental awareness out there! 

Check out the comp website here: https://tc.videosforchange.org/

Any questions? Contact me on teams or email at RGR@tc.vic.edu.au 

Get creative and go for it! 

Term 3 Newsletter realease

Congratulations to our community for an amazing Term 3. Our newsletter is jam packed with events and activities in and outside the classroom in a true display of diversity, leadership, participation and learning! Enjoy it now: TC - Newsletter, Issue 3, 2022

Final Dates for VCE CATCH Up Classes

The final dates to make up any VCE classes missed are:

• Friday 11th November for Unit 1/2 classes

VCE catch-up sessions that are held weekly in the HUB at the following times:

• Monday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

• Tuesday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

• Thursday 3:30pm to 4:40pm

A reminder that students must achieve an attendance rate of 85% for each of their VCE classes in line with DET requirements. Any questions regarding this process please contact Katrina Katz - Assistant Principal - KKAT@tc.vic.edu.au

Term 4 key dates

• Monday 24th October – Friday 28th October – Community Integrated Learning Week – Theme of Earth Week

• Monday 31st October – Staff Professional Development Day. No classes running. Just exam students onsite

• Tuesday 1st November – Melbourne Cup Public Holiday

• Wednesday 26th October – Wednesday 16th November – Unit 4 VCE Exams Run

• Thursday 17th November – Wednesday 23rd November – Unit 2 VCE Exams Run

• Thursday 24th November – Virtual Final Assembly

• Friday 25th November – Staff Professional Practice Day. No classes running onsite

• Monday 28th November – Friday 2nd December – Head Start Week 1 (ALL STUDENTS)

• Monday 5th – Friday 9th December – Head Start Week 2 (NON-VCE STUDENTS - FLE & PRE)

• Monday 12th - Friday 16th December - Activity Week

• Tuesday 13th December – 2023 Entry Orientation Day (Non VCE Students Onsite)

• Wednesday 14th – Thursday 15th December – Staff First Aid Training taking place + Peer support training. Activities running for others onsite

• Friday 16th December - Staff PD Day (no students onsite)

• Monday 19th December – TC TLC Day 1

• Tuesday 20th December – TC TLC Day 2 (Early Finish) (Last day of the Year)

Beginning of 2023 Arrangements

Currently we have the following arrangements for the beginning of 2023:

• Friday 27th January - Staff Professional Development Day. No students on site. General Office opens after 11am

• Monday 30th January - Staff Professional Development Day. No students on site.

• Tuesday 31st January - 2023 Entry Students begin. VCE students return TBC.

• Wednesday 1st February - all students are onsite.