Mar 11 Labour Day—No students are required at the College on this day

13 Year 8 Geography Excursion

Year 11 History Excursion

14 Year 10 Geography Excursion

15 Training camp for World Challenge

Out of Uniform Day

Last day to return immunisation forms for Years 7, 9 & 10

18 Year 11 Geography Excursion

VCE Food Tech Excursion

19 Year 10 History Excursion to Holocaust Centre

Volume 41; Number 3, 8 March, 2013

Principal’s Report

Student Reporting and Parent – Student - Teacher

interviews

As a result of the continuing dispute between the AEU and the Victorian Government, the school will not be issuing written reports at the end of term one. We apologise for the inconvenience in not forwarding a written report but parents will avail themselves of the valuable opportunity to speak face to face with the teachers of their children. However, we will be conducting an extended Parent – Student – Teacher Interview program on Wednesday 27 March. The Interview sessions will be: Session 1 12.40pm to 3.10pm Session 2 3.30pm to 5.30pm Session 3 6.20pm to 8.30pm Details of these arrangements and how to access the COMPASS booking system will be mailed to parents next week. Year 7 Camp This week our Year 7 students attended a three day residential camp at Anglesea. Thank-you to Sally Polidano for her meticulous organisation of the program, our Year 7 Co-ordinators Amy Nettelbeck and Geoff Flowers for their leadership on the camps and all teaching staff who gave of their time and energy to make such a memorable experience for the students. The weather was fantastic and allowed the students to really enjoy the wide range of camp activities with surfing lessons being the highlight for most students. School Council I am delighted to announce that the following candidates have been elected to School Council unopposed.

Important Dates

Parent representatives: Malcolm Abbott, Thian Mee Chia, Tristan Markulija, Rena Mihalopoulos, Tim Shaw DEECD representatives: Paul Booth, Lisa Bull and John Roberts Our next Council meeting will be held next Wednesday evening. At this meeting we will resolve our engagement of any Co-Opted members and elect our President. Student Safety at drop off and pick up times Parents are reminded to be especially careful when driving in the school precinct to drop off or pick up their children. Whilst the Police or by-laws officers have not yet visited, it is still very dangerous for parents to make

U-turns on George Street, and to come into the staff car parks to wait for their children. Please obey the laws of the road, and be respectful of the possible dangers to our students, staff and other vehicles.

John Handley Principal

Interschool Sports

Senior Girls Cricket—Winners (qualify for EMR Finals) Results East Doncaster SC 2 for 111 (off 20 overs) - Naomi PRICE 30no, Danielle CUSPILLI 29, Ellie DURBRIDGE 17 defeated Koonung SC all out 40 (off 13 overs) - Naomi PRICE 4-7, Stacey HAUGHTON 2-8

Senior Boys Cricket Results East Doncaster SC 10 for 70(off 18 overs) - David FOR-NITO 16, Liam Patterson 10 Defeated by Box Hill Senior Secondary College 6 for 128 - Stasi PA-PAIOANNOU 2-19

Senior Boys Volleyball Participated in the Whitehorse Division Competition (No results provided)

On 20 February the Donvale Lions Club held their Youth of the Year competition. This competition which runs each year provided students with excellent leadership skills, the opportunity to take part in an interview and public speaking contest which are both judged by a panel of community members. This year we had two year 12 students, Paige Langley (School Captain) and Krishneil Gosai (School Vice-Captain) enter the competi-tion. Paige was successful in her public speaking rounds, taking out the award for best public speaker and Krishneil was awarded the Donvale Lions Youth of the Year. The award for Donvale Lions Youth of the Year is a tes-

tament to Krishneil’s hard work both within and outside

the school community. Krishneil went through to the

Zone competition on 3 March where he performed very

well against students from across the region. We con-

gratulate Krishneil on his polished performance and

continued effort.

Lions Youth of the Year

Snowy River Program

The Snowy River Program is awesome! The first 4 weeks have flown by and we have made so many new friends that we hope to keep in touch with in the future. We don’t attend normal school classes. We have 3 main classes a day that range from 1 hour to 2 and a half. We have 1 night class from 7:30 until 8:30 and a half hour reflection class on the day’s learning. The days are very busy and time goes by in a flash. We have completed an expedition where we hiked 15km over two days and camped by a beautiful fresh water inlet, called Dock Inlet. We got to swim when we arrived at our camp site and couldn’t resist a mud fight which finished with mud everywhere. We have also built bridges across water, completed a

safe food handling advanced TAFE course, surfed with

our team, navigated around Marlo whilst taking pic-

tures of objects and exploring caves. All of this was

heaps of fun especially crawling through tiny holes

whilst exploring in the caves. We had a leadership con-

ference and met Debbie Gray who was born without

arms and with small legs. She can still write and drive

with the amazing feet she has. She calls her disability

‘difabled’ meaning different ability, not broken. We

have had classes about beliefs and values, peer skills,

problem solving, thinking and learning, role models and

completing a passport about ourselves and our learning

here.

We are just over half way through our program; this weekend we get the opportunity to see our parents for the first time in 4 weeks. We can’t wait! It’s going to be so much fun. After parent visiting weekend we are sure that the last 3 weeks of our amazing learning experi-ence are going to fly by and before we know it we will be back home and at school. Our community learning project (CLP) as an EDSC team

is called ‘Operation Elders’. We are planning to go and

visit two different retirement villages in the local com-

munity and take them out to: do different activities,

learn about their lifestyle, teach them about new tech-

nology and heaps more.

We hope to gain friendship and knowledge through this

experience and to close the gap between the genera-

tions. We hope to teach the elderly residents about our

experiences in life and to learn about their own.

The six of us are having the experience of a lifetime at

the Snowy River Leadership Camp and we know it is

something we will never forget. We have met some

amazing people and made some awesome friends who

we will treasure forever. Although we are missing our

friends and family back home we know that this oppor-

tunity only comes once and it is one that will benefit us

in the future. We have learnt so much in such a short

time, we have 3 more exiting weeks and can’t wait to

put words into action and complete our project.

Yours truly

East Doncaster Snowy River Team

Darien, Megan, Mikka, Lauren, Cameron and Sarah J

Parents & Friends held its AGM last Monday evening. It was wonderful to have 18 interested parents attend the meeting; many being new parents to the College. The 2013 committee was elected as follows: President: Kelli Hassett-Smith Vice President: Rajbans Kaur Secretary: Alison Forgione Treasurer: Aban Tengra Communications Officer: Val Galanou General Committee Members: Evie Apostoli, Antonella Bitta, Yoshie Chen, Jammy Chia, Dimi Emmanouilidis, Elise Hosking, Kerry Law, Meme Lee, Helen Li, Dragana Marjanovic, Anne Mong, Seleana Ng, Vanessa Rankin and Khing Tan If you are unable to join the committee but would still like to be involved in helping out at school events, please email your details to va-lerieg@travelmanagers.com.au to be placed on our Helpers List. HOT CROSS BUN SALES Easter will soon be upon us and P&F are excited this year to be offering fresh and very tasty hot cross buns, both fruit and choc chip from our local baker ‘Bakers Delight’ at The Pines Shopping Centre. At a cost of just $6.00 per ½ dozen we know they won’t last long! The buns will be available for collection from The John Landy Centre on Parent/Teacher interview day, Wednesday 27 March. Please see order form attached to the newsletter. The next meeting of the PFA will be held on Monday 25 March in The John Landy Centre at 7.30pm. All are welcome.

Parents & Friends

VET (Year 10, 11 & 12 students) A reminder that VET fees are due to the General Office by 13 March. Please ensure that payment is made by the due date to avoid the cut-off date for courses VCAL (Year 11 & 12 students) VCAL @ EDSC is off to a great start. The majority of stu-dents are employed and have commenced their TAFE courses. On Tuesday 19 March, the group will partici-pate in an all day atEast excursion to Mt Moreton. Year 12 Students One on one interviews have commenced to discuss and investigate course options. Parents are welcome to attend. VTAC application procedures for tertiary cours-es will be covered in college based sessions in August. EDSC Lunchtime Sessions will return to the college in May. Representatives from our main feeder universi-ties will be running general information sessions on courses and cover other relevant information. There will a VTAC Parent Information Session on Tues-day, 6 August. All Year 11 and Year 12 students will be participating in a college based Mini Careers Expo on Wednesday, 17 July. Year 11 and Year 10 Students Year 11 students can request an interview at any time during the year. On Wednesday, 22 May, a Lasting Gifts Parent Information Session will be held on career planning. Year 10 MIPs Interviews All students will be participating in a Managed Individu-al Pathways Interview to discuss future options which may include VCE/VCAL, TAFE/university course options, prerequisites and useful resources. All students will complete a web based program which is a useful career profiling tool. Year 10 Work Experience Students will complete a COMPULSORY block of work experience from 9 September to 20 September. A Parent/Student Guide and Work Experience Arrange-ment Forms have been distributed to all students. All students must complete online O H & S modules and submit appropriate certificates with their forms. The first Work Experience Form is due 13 March. See: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/safe@work/index.asp On Wednesday, 26 June all students will be partici-pating in a University Experience Day. It will be an all day excursion.

Parents and Friends

Career News

Year 9 Students Towards the end of the year, all students will be in-volved in a two day Careers & Pathways Program on 9 and 10 December. Students will participate in a variety of workshops, engage in general sessions and hear about different occupations.

Suzanna Kennedy & Cassandra Caputi Careers Advisors

Student Attendance

Student Absence Hotline All absences and lateness - Phone: 9842 2244

(dial option 1)

IT’S NOT OK TO BE AWAY! If a student is unable to attend school, parents are

asked to call before 8.30am on the day of the absence.

Any unexplained absences will be followed up with an

SMS or phone call from the school.

Shine Academy How do I raise a Resilient Child? - the 32 skills involved in building resilience Date: Wednesday 13 March at 7.30pm Presenter: Melissa Anderson, Counsellor, Pharmacist, Director of SHINE Academy for Girls and LONGFORD & FRASER for boys Location: Brighton Grammar Senior School: Robert Sanderson Hall, entrance off St Andrews St Cost: Nil. A gold coin donation to a nominated charity is warmly welcomed Bookings: 9596 8814 Email: info@shineacademy.com.au

East Doncaster Secondary

College SRC will again be

holding the World’s Great-

est Shave at school. It will

take place on Friday 15

March as part of the Free

Dress Day and activities.

We have three very brave

students shaving their heads. On the day there will be a

$2 coin donation as well as opportunities to make fur-

ther donations through the live shave auction. All dona-

tions go to the Leukaemia Foundation.

Schoolkids Bonus

A reminder for all students from years 7-9 to hand in their sports permission forms, if they haven’t done so already, to Mr Haydock ASAP.

Do you know about the Schoolkids Bonus? It is a new cash payment to help eligible families and students with the costs of primary and secondary school studies. Around 1.2 million families have already benefitted from the first wave of payments in January 2013 – have you? If you receive a family or income support payment, in-cluding Family Tax Benefit Part A, you could be eligible to receive $410 a year for each primary student and $820 a year for each secondary student, with half paid in January and half paid in July. The Schoolkids Bonus replaces the Education Tax Re-fund (ETR) and is a much simpler system. You no longer need to collect receipts and payments are made auto-matically so you don’t have to wait months to make a claim via your tax return. Unlike the ETR you can choose how you use the payment to best support your children’s education – whether it be school books, sta-tionery, uniforms, school fees, or excursions. Check your eligibility by visiting australia.gov.au/schoolkidsbonus and if you think you might have missed out on the January payment, contact Centrelink – either in person at a Centrelink-Medicare Office or by calling 132 468.

In the week following from 18-22 March the student

leaders of East Doncaster Secondary College will be

hosting a range of events for the 2013 Cultural Diversi-

ty Week. Cultural Diversity Week is a Victorian Govern-

ment initiative which runs from 16-24 March, in sup-

port of our school and broader community we will cele-

brate the diversity of our school with different music,

games and activities.

Sport Permission Forms