I'm so happy to be able to introduce myself as the new Deputy Principal of Student Wellbeing at Sacred Heart College Kyneton. I have been working at the College for six years and have been appointed to the role of Deputy Principal after several years of experience in the Wellbeing Team. One of the advantages for me in this role has been my understanding of the community and culture of the College.  I know, first hand, the amazing work our Student Wellbeing Team does in supporting each student to make connections, develop and keep relationships and build resilience -  all vital, life enriching skills. This was particularly evident last Friday. The Wellbeing Day was such a great opportunity for students and teachers to start the year building relationships and reconnecting with each other. The Wellbeing Team at Sacred Heart is an excellent group of dedicated Homeroom Teachers, Year Level Leaders, Heads of School, Learning Support Officers and School Counsellors, who are here to work with you in supporting your young people to get the most out of their time here at the College. It is an honor and a privilege to lead this team in 2024.

I have quite a bit of information to share with you this week, so please bear with me and read on.

D@SH

The Diversity @ Sacred Heart (D@SH) group will continue this year and will be led by one of our School Counsellors, Ms Melanie Potter. D@SH was created to raise awareness around issues facing young people in the diversity and inclusion space. They meet fortnightly and work towards:

• bringing student voice to college leadership teams

• publicizing community events to the student body

• investigating ways to improve safe and inclusive spaces for all young people at the college.

The initial D@SH meeting for 2024 will be held during lunchtime on 21 February in the Applied Learning Hub. After that D@SH will meet on 28 February, and will continue fortnightly from there (Day 3 of the timetable). Throughout the year, Rhani Dean-Talbett, the WayOut Health Promotion Officer from Sunbury Cobaw Community Health, will be joining Melanie in working with the D@SH group. I would strongly encourage any of our young people who have an interest in promoting and building the capacity for diversity and inclusion at Sacred Heart to bring their lunch and come along.

Changes to Social Behaviour Notifications

Earlier in the week I sent out communication about the changes we are implementing to our Social Behavior Notification systems. For those who have not seen this communication yet, the intention of the change is to streamline our communications and build the partnership between home and school to support students in developing their learning practices and engagement in College life and culture. As a result, you may notice a possible increase in the communications you receive from us. From Monday, when teachers enter information into SIMON about certain social behaviors (listed below), a notification will be generated and sent out at approximately 4:00pm on the day the teacher enters the information. Social Behaviors for which you will receive a notification may include:

• Missing equipment for class
• Low level effort or engagement in the learning activities
• Using Mobile devices in the learning environment
• Wearing the incorrect uniform to school
• Leaving the classroom without permission
• Disrupting the learning environment resulting in the teacher enacting the Exit process

We feel that these are social behaviors that will give families an opportunity to have conversations at home with a view to helping students refocus and navigate the learning and cultural environments of the school. I am also currently in the process of configuring a similar system of notifications for commendations and acknowledgements of students demonstrating positive and inclusive behaviors that reflect our College values. I am hoping to have this up and running in the next few weeks.

Uniform

Now that the school year has begun in earnest and many of our young people have grown so much over the summer holidays, it would be a timely opportunity to revisit our uniform expectations. I have included a link to the uniform page on the College website here. You will find information on the uniform guidelines, open hours for the uniform shop and instructions for the Click and Collect process on this page.

Some key points to note about uniform:

• If there is a legitimate reason for your young person to be out of uniform please provide a note for students to show their teachers or contact the Homeroom Teacher.

• PE uniform should only be worn on the days students have PE Prac, this will be indicated on the timetable with a ‘Q’ in front of the room number.

• Undershirts can be worn but they must be short sleeved white V neck shirts with no branding/logos. Undershirts must be tucked in so as not to be visible under the school shirt.

• Long sleeve undershirts should not be worn under PE polo shirts.

• Nose rings must be taken out or replaced with clear studs while at school. If necessary, Year Level Leaders will provide students with clear studs.

• Long hair should be neatly tied back off the face.

Crossing High Street

Over the last few afternoons we received calls from community members who have driven along High Street at around 3:30pm and are concerned for the safety of students who are choosing to cross away from the designated zebra crossings. Homeroom Teachers and Year Level Leaders have gone through the College's expectations for crossing High Street. Specifically, students must cross at the zebra crossings at the front of the College, or they must continue down High Street to the traffic lights. However, I would also like to ask that parents and guardians support us by reiterating these expectations at home. It is an issue of road safety and we need your help to make this clear to students. Parents may now receive an automatic notification if their child does not comply with this safety requirement.

Toilets

The toilet spaces continue to be an ongoing concern for our students. We are already finding that groups of students are again choosing to ‘hang out’ there during recess and lunch resulting in other students not wanting to use the facility. Last year, the building was subject to some vandalism and ‘trashing’ by students. It is also a space where vaping has occurred. The Student Wellbeing Team and I are working on strategies to improve this situation and we are asking for your help to do this. We would ask that you have a conversation with your young person and let the Homeroom Teachers or Year Level Leaders know if there is any information we can follow up on about students who are most often in the toilet spaces. Information can be kept anonymous, however, we would like to be specific in working with the students who are overusing this space.