School+-+Weeroona+College+Bendigo

The college was formed in 1999 with the merger of White Hills Secondary College and Bendigo East Primary School. Ther primary school is still part of the college, but the decision was taken at the end of last year to no long accept new primary enrolments. The primary school will be slowly phased out over the next 5 years.
 * Weeroona College Bendigo** is a co-educational secondary college, catering for students in years 7 to 10, located in White Hills, a suburb of Bendigo.

This year the college has an enrolment of over 800 students, supported by over 100 staff. Year 10 students have the opportunity to specialise in specific areas of interest. These include various science courses, information technology courses, etc. Senior students also have the opportunity to undertake some units of their VCE at the college. Most of the students who choose to go on to achieve the VCE do so at the nearby Bendigo Senior Secondary College.

Construction began last year to rebuild the school in line with the Bendigo Education Plan. The new buildings will be completed over the course of many years. Two learning community buildings were completed at the beginning of 2010 and half the school's population moved into those buildings in Februrary.


 * Establishing Literacy Coaching member: Christine Edgar**


 * May - after days 1, 2, 3:**

After Joan's visit to Weeroona in May I have felt much better about how I can use my literacy coaching training to make a difference at my school. Joan made me realise that I have been using coaching practices all along in my roles as English DLG Leader and Literacy Leader. I was able to brainstorm some ways of achieving my goals with the English DLG and how I might demonstrate my learning in a culminating presentation at the end of the course.


 * July - after days 4 and 5:**

I have decided that my literacy focus at my school will be to continue to drive the Independent Reading program, which I implemented at the beginning of the year, by supporting English staff in conducting reading conferences with their students.
 * Focus**

There are many challenges which threaten my goal of having reading conferences embedded in our English DLG culture at Weeroona. Time is a significant factor, as we only have 3, 73 minute English sessions a week. Teachers are struggling to conference with all of their students regularly enough. This issue of time also threatens the sustainability of the program.
 * Challenges**