新金山中文学校校长信箱 (27/10/2023）Xin Jin Shan Chinese Language and Culture School Principal’s Message

年度优秀学生评选和明年学生注册交费事宜

各位老师、同学和家长：

大家好！今天跟大家讲两个重要的话题：

第一个是年度优秀学生的评选。

照惯例，每年的第四学期我校除早教、学前班之外，其它年级各个班级都将举办年度最佳学生、优秀学生和学习进步显著的学生评选（简称“优秀学生评选”），评选出的名单报学校审核并给予表彰。学校将会向被评为“年度最佳学生”的同学颁发新金山金牌，向被评为“优秀学生”的同学颁发新金山银牌，向学习进步显著的同学颁发奖状，同时会在学校官网上公布所有获奖学生的名单。

我们评选优秀学生，奖励中文学习成绩优秀、品学兼优的学生，既是表达对他们中文知识水平优秀的认可和赞赏，也希望通过评选树立榜样，激励其他学生积极进取，提高学习中文的兴趣，激发他们在中文学习的动力，目的是要促进中文学习、鼓励所有学生努力学好中文和中华文化。

优秀学生的评选工作由班主任老师根据我校“学生奖励条例”开展，原则上年度最佳学生名额比例为10%，优秀学生名额比例为15-20%，学习进步奖名额比例为15%-20%。在国际学生中文写作正式比赛中获得等级奖的学生将自动获得金、银牌，且不受名额限制（获得一等奖的学生得金牌，获得二、三等奖学生得银牌，奖励不可重叠。一个学生获多个不同等级奖的，以获得的最高等级奖计算）。

第二个重要话题是2024年学生注册交费事宜。

最近，有不少家长来询问明年孩子继续在我校学习的注册和交费事宜。我跟大家报告一下：我校2024年招生简章的具体细则正在紧张讨论之中并将很快定稿颁布。这里，我想讲一讲我们明年的学生报名、注册工作将会有得新的进一步的改善和变化：

第一，在学生注册方面有2个改进：一是增加学生号，目前我校学生注册交费时在交费凭证上需填写“校区+学生姓名”的方法，由于我校学生人数多，容易出现同一校区同名同姓的情况，这给核查学费以及学生学籍管理带来困惑。从明年起，学校将给每位学生编制“学号”（学号会由班主任通知家长），家长在转账交费时在交费凭证上需填写“学号+ 学生姓名“，这样就避免了学生同名同姓产生的学籍管理的问题。每位学生的学号可用到其在我校毕业为止。

二是家长可在去年网上填写的学生信息表中自我更正信息。家长可通过自己的电邮信箱登录进入到去年在线给自己孩子填写并上交的学生信息表，一一核查您的孩子的信息是否准确或有变化（比如，小学升入中学需更改学校名称），如有差错或变更请及时修改（请注意：此表除家长之外其他人无法进入操作。请务必认真核查），在信息检查更新后上传2024年的交费凭证，然后递交才是完成了明年的注册。

第二，学费的调整。最近，我们维多利亚州的部分中文学校的代表有机会在一起交流，其中谈到了社区语言学校在经济上面临共同的困境。归纳起来有这么几点：首先，目前社区语言学校租用的日校教室的租金、学校办公室租金和各种账单、办公用品、纸张和复印成本等均已大幅度增加。物价上涨给社区语言学校行政开销带来沉重负担和压力。

其次，政府要求社区语言学校必须按照政府制定的员工薪水级别标准给员工支付报酬、购买养老金，周六、周日工作还分别有不同的补薪。在2023年7月，包括我校在内的一些社区语言学校已经执行了政府规定的从7月1日起员工薪水上调的政策。社区语言学校的人力资源开销剧增。

再有，政府对社区语言学校的教学和行政以及校园安全的管理要求越来越严格，在很多方面几乎跟日校相同，这使得社区语言学校不得不要增加各种管理人员、聘请专业注册教师，但政府对社区语言学校的资助六年来却没有增加一分钱，这让社区语言学校在财务方面越来越捉襟见肘。因此，为维持社区语言学校的正常运作，我校将不得不在明年调整学费标准（详细请阅日后公布的2024年招生简章）。

尽管如此，学校明确重申继续提供如下优惠：1，早鸟优惠，凡是在今年12月22日之前付费的享受每学期学费的25%优惠；2，凡我校毕业的校友子女日享受每学期学费的25%优惠；3，同一家庭第三及之后的子女和本校教师子女享受每学期学费的50%优惠。

此外，在收费方面做出改进：原来每半年付费的需交两次注册费，明年改为所有我校学生无论全年付费或分上、下半年付费的均只收取一次注册费。

在退学处理方面做出改进：除了注册费不退之外，原来学费是每半年计算，就读三周之后不能退费，退还下半年学费时还需收取$20手续费。明年改为退学退费时学费以学期计算，每学期前三周可申请退费。以早鸟优惠支付学费的，退费时作放弃学费优惠处理，按全价扣除已读学费以及注册费。不收取任何手续费。

明年我们的优惠政策（包括早鸟、校友和第三子女等）将会继续照顾到每一位学生，我们的收费和退学政策（尤其是退费的计算）的实际改进体现了我们对家长的理解。我相信学费调整也将会得到大家的理解。

总而言之，无论如何，我们将继续保持给学生提供优质的中文教学，让我们一起共同努力把华人重视教育、重视文化传承的美德在澳大利亚多元文化社会中发扬光大。

有关明年学生的注册交费的具体做法我们会另发通知。好，我们周末校园见！

胡培康

校长

新金山中文学校是一所教育部认可的旨在保护儿童安全的社区语言学校，如果您对我校的有关儿童安全相关政策有任何疑问或建议，请登陆我校网站 https://xjs.vic.edu.au/child-safety/或致电98881688进行查询，也可发邮件至[email protected]

Xin Jin Shan Chinese Language and Culture School

Principal’s Message

Dear teachers, students and parents,

I would like to talk about two important topics today.

The first one is the selection of outstanding students of the year.

As usual in Term 4, all the classes expect early-learning and prep classes would select students for the awards such as Student of The Year, Outstanding Student and Best Progress Award and the students to be awarded would be approved by the school and receive relevant awards. The Student of the Year receivers would be given gold medals, the Outstanding Student receivers would be given silver medals and the Best Progress Award receivers would be presented certificates and the awarded name lists would be presented on the school’s website.

The purpose of presenting awards to well-performed students is to present our acknowledgements and appreciation for their excellent performance and hard work and encourage other students to work harder and encourage their motivation in Chinese language and culture learning.

The class teachers would conduct the selection of outstanding students based on school’s relevant policies and in general in each class 10% students could be given Student of the Year award, 15%-20% for Outstanding Student award and 15%-20% for Best Progress award. Students who have received prizes in international writing competitions could obtain gold and silver medals automatically with no quota limit (First Prize receivers would be given gold medals and Second Prize and Third Prize receivers would be given silver medals. The awards would not be duplicated. Students who are entitled to different awards would be given the highest awards).

The second important topic is 2024 enrolment.

Recently, many parents have approached us enquiring for 2024 enrolments. I would like to let you know the 2024 Admission Guide is under discussion and will be finalized soon. I would like to inform you some changes and improvements for 2024 enrolment.

First, there will be two improvements in the process of students’ registration. The first one is student number. Currently parents are expected to put “campus code + student name” in the reference when making the payment. It is very likely there will be students with same name on the same campus and it brings us great difficulty confirming students’ payments. Therefore, from 2024 enrolment, each student will be given a student number (class teachers will inform parents the student numbers of their children) and parents are expected to put “student number + student name” in the reference when making payment to avoid duplicated student information in our database and the student numbers will stay with them until they graduate from XJS.

Another improvement is that parents could revise students’ enrolment information based on the information filled online last year through their email, double checking whether certain information needs to be updated such as mainstream school names from primary school to secondary school, etc. After checking or updating all the information (no one except for students’ parents could get access to the information), parents are expected to upload 2024 payment receipt to complete 2024 enrolment process.

Second, the change of payment price. Recently, some representatives of Chinese language schools in Victoria have a conversation together and have talked about the same dilemma the community language schools are facing now: the first dilemma is the burden of increased classroom rental costs, office rental costs and bills, paper and photocopying costs which has brought great pressure in our administration costs.

The second dilemma is that community language schools are expected to pay wages and superannuation based on modern awards and there will be weekend penalty pay for staff working on weekends as well. Moreover, from 1 July 2023, some community language schools have raised the pay rate according to the government requirements. The human resources costs have increased quite a lot.

The third dilemma is that DET’s requirements on community language schools in the areas of curriculum and campus safety have raised a lot and many of them are up to the same standards of mainstream schools and community language schools have to hire more admin staff and more registered teachers to cope with DET’s expectations. However, in the last six years, the DET funding for community language schools have not changed a bit, which makes community language schools financially strapped. Therefore, to cope with the daily operation of the school, we have to raise the payment price for 2024 (please read the 2024 Admission Guide later for detail when it is available).

Nevertheless, we would keep on providing the following payment benefits: 1. early-bird discount, 25% off each term’s tuition fee by 22 Dec 2023; 2. 25% off each term’s tuition fee for children of alumnus; 3. 50% off each term’s tuition fee for the third child of a family and the children of current teachers.

We have made some improvements in the payment. The current twice-a-year registration fees would be changed into once-a-year registration fees no matter the payment is made for full year or half year.

The refund policy will also be improved. The registration fees are non-refundable as usual. However, the current policy of “the tuition fees of the semester is not refundable after the third week of the semester and $20 admin fees would be deducted” will be changed like this: tuition fees are term-based and refund can be requested within the first three weeks of each term; if paid with early-bird discount, students are no longer entitled to the discount if refund is requested, and the tuition fees for the weeks taken and registration fee would be deducted based on full prices; there will be no admin fees to be deducted.

For 2024 enrolment, the payment benefits (including early-bird, children of alumnus, teachers and the third child of a family) could apply to every single student and our improvements in payment and refund policy (especially the ways of refund calculation) present our consideration for parents. I believe they would understand these changes.

In the end, we would keep on providing high quality Chinese language learning lessons. Let’s work together to encourage the Chinese virtue of attaching importance to education and culture inheritance in Australia.

For the detail of 2024 enrolment, we will give separate notices to you soon. Let’s see you on campus on weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Hu, Principal

Xin Jin Shan Chinese Language and Culture School is a DET-accredited Child Safe community language school. If you have any concern and suggestions regarding the school’s child safe policy, please feel free to visit  https://xjs.vic.edu.au/child-safety/ or call us at 9888 1688 or email us at [email protected].