Principal's message
More parents have taken the opportunity to meet with me for an informal chat and coffee. I will continue these this term and then reduce the number of sessions as demand decreases. It is interesting to hear the common themes coming out: the importance of our FLE, student voice, and the one-person policy.
☕Book for face-to-face sessions here.
🌐Book for online sessions here.
Inner East Principal Forum
This week we also had the opportunity to attend the Inner East Principal Forum. This is a chance to network with other school leaders and get important updates from the Department of Education and Regional teams. As always, taking this information and working to see how improvements can be considered in the context of TC is the work of the principal team. Next week we have a similar opportunity when we attend the Monash/Manningham Network Day.
coming up
Next week I am looking forward to going to my first TC Pool Party, meeting more parents for coffee, and leading another school tour for our potential 2027 and 2028 Entry students.
Have a great week.
Daryl Bennett
Principal
VCE attendance process - reminders
📌A reminder about the following processes to do with Attendance @TC:
Students who are completing a VCE subject must achieve an attendance requirement of 80% or over to pass the subject.
📅The final date for Unit 3 is Friday 29 May and for Unit 1 subjects it is Friday 12 June 2026.
You should be looking at your attendance on Compass regularly – look at the VCE column.
Student absence and reason for absence should be recorded via Compass on the day of absence.
Any students who miss a VCE class must provide a medical certificate to the school to have that attendance approved under DET guidelines. A valid form of medical certificate is from one of the following medical practitioners: GP, hospital, paediatrician, physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor, orthopaedic surgeon, dentist, psychologist or psychiatrist.
⚠️A reminder that students studying VCE should not be taking holidays during term time as this will severely affect their attendance and ability to complete course work and pass subjects.
The best way to improve attendance is to attend!
If you believe your student was in class but has been marked absent, please contact the relevant classroom teacher to discuss.
Should you have any queries regarding attendance, or if you would like further support from the school, please contact the relevant Community Team.
Yours sincerely,
Katrina Katz
Assistant Principal – Community and Wellbeing
PHOTO DAY
📷
PHOTO DAY 📷
School photo day is next Thursday - order now
School photo day is Thursday 5 March.
📷You can now order your MSP school photo packs through your Compass portal, via your email link or the “Community” tab.
Pool party - consent required via Compass
The Pool Party event is live on Compass and ready for parents and carers to complete consent.
✅ Consent is required in order for students to attend. 🏊♂️🌊
⏰Please note that students must arrive at TC by 9:10am to meet in Connect groups, before walking down to Aquarena.🚶♂️🌞
🚌Panorama buses will depart directly from Aquarena from 2:30pm.
📲Please read the event details for more information.
Don't miss this incredible day of fun 😄 friends 👯♀️ food 🍔🍉 and a myriad activities both in and out of the pool! 🏖️💦🎈
Please contact Ryan Griffith at RGR@tc.vic.edu.au with any questions relating to the pool party 📧
First WASHI released today
A reminder to all students and families that our updated WASHI is being released for the first time today. All students will be provided a snapshot of how they are travelling in each of their classes focusing on the following criteria:
Self-regulation
Effort and perseverance
Respect
As the new WASHI will be capturing attendance data for the reporting period (week 2 through to week 5), this means that due to the bounds of reporting, some students may be receiving a WASHI for classes that they may have changed out of during change week. Unfortunately, there is no way to remove these WASHIs. Staff have been instructed to put students as ‘Not Yet Shown’ or leave them blank.
Further to this, the in-class percentage measures the number of times a student is physically present in the classroom, for the number of classes that have run since they joined the class. If a student has joined this week and has attended three out of the three classes, their attendance will be 100% even though in real terms their attendance is only a quarter of the classes since the start of term. Please bear this in mind when looking at your WASHIs.
We thank you for your patience and support of this new system, and know that with fewer class changes in the next five-week cycle, students will only get WASHIs for their relevant classes and the attendance data will be more user-friendly.
To help understand and unpack the WASHI, the criteria descriptors have been included below.
If you have any questions about the new process, you’re encouraged to reach out to Cassidy Trousdale (Learning Director: Assessment and Reporting) via CTR@tc.vic.edu.au or your relevant classroom teacher.
Well done everyone on a great start to the year!
Cassidy Trousdale
Learning Director: Assessment and Reporting
NAPLAN - coming up in Week 7
🗓️ NAPLAN will be taking place at our school from Wednesday 11 March to Friday 13 March (Week 7). Students in notional Year 7 (Entry) and Year 9 (FLE2) will participate. The assessments cover Writing, Reading, Language Conventions and Numeracy✏️📖
While NAPLAN is a national assessment, the most valuable part for us is how the information helps us support your child’s learning. 📊The results provide teachers with useful data about individual strengths, areas for growth, and learning needs. This allows us to better target teaching, plan support, and monitor progress over time. Participation also ensures our school receives accurate information used by the Department of Education when allocating funding for student support programs.
NAPLAN is not about students all reaching the same academic standard. We focus on students doing their personal best. When students participate and put in genuine effort, the information we receive is far more meaningful and helps us tailor learning to their needs. Your encouragement and reassurance that this is simply one part of their learning journey makes a real difference.
📅Below is the testing schedule:
Wednesday 11 March
Period 1 – Entry Writing
Period 2 – Entry Reading
Period 3 – FLE2 Writing
Thursday 12 March
Period 1 – FLE2 Reading
Period 2 – FLE2 Language Conventions
Period 3 – Entry Language Conventions
Friday 13 March
Period 1 – Entry Numeracy
Period 2 – FLE2 Numeracy
Students who are absent due to illness or other reasons will be able to attend catch-up sessions in Week 8.
Parents/Carers of Entry and FLE2 students will have been sent an email about NAPLAN with additional information about the timing, importance of the test, and the withdrawal process.
Please be advised that S-Wing will be closed during the NAPLAN testing window.
If you have any questions about NAPLAN or how we use the data to support students, please follow this link NAP - For parents and carers or contact Jeremy Carr at JCAR@tc.vic.edu.au or 9850 6333.
Cassidy Trousdale
Learning Director: Assessment and Reporting
Easing into adolescence: resources for families
The Department of Education has launched an Easing into adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8).
The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school.
These include:
A guide to emotion coaching. Staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.
How to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.
Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page.
For questions about these resources, contact the Strategic Partnerships, Transitions and Student Voice team. You can email them at Secondary.School.Transition@education.vic.gov.au.
Templestowe College Parents and Carers Facebook Group
TC has a Parents and Carers Facebook Group. This is a closed group and only available to parents with current students. It's a great place to connect with other TC Parents and Carers. To join the Group you will need to provide the name/s of your child/ren attending TC.
Future Focus: seeking parents/carers working in the healthcare system to share their experiences
Hi TC students and parents, last year you may have heard about Future Focus, a program designed to help students help students learn about and make decisions on pathways and careers.
This year it’s been reworked! The new structure of the program will be a video interview format where speakers will answer pre-written questions like; “What was the university pathway you took?”, or “What does your workday look like?".
Right now, we are looking for parents in the health system who would be interested in sharing their career experiences. If this is something that interests you, please fill out this form and we will be in touch with more information.
TC News: Get involved in community events!
🟥🟩🟦🟨At TC, there are a number of community events to participate in, ranging from basketball, drawing competitions and even card games like Spit. Community events are a fantastic opportunity to get involved and support your community; there’s also the added bonus of the Community Cup 🏆 At TC, there are a number of community events to participate in, ranging from basketball, drawing competitions and even card games like Spit. Community events are a fantastic opportunity to get involved and support your community; there’s also the added bonus of the Community Cup, which is awarded to the community with the most victories. So far this term, we’ve had dodgeball, where Gold community placed first, and badminton, where Max Kong won for Red community. During both events, competitive and community spirits were high, with students and teachers cheering on the sidelines. When students and teachers were asked why they come out to community events, these were some of their responses:
💬 Maya shared that they “enjoy sporting and watching community events”
💬 Ellie comes for “the entertainment and atmosphere”
💬 Logan says they attend because “It’s good to support my friends”
To get involved, make sure to check out Teams for Duncan’s latest updates about community events. Sign up in advance to represent your community, as well as the opportunity to experience some competitive, fuelled fun🟨🟩🟦🟥
Dara Cucos
TC Journalist